Egypt Vs. Algeria - What a mess!

Participating in FIFA Wold Cup 2010 was a dream that every Egyptian had. "Algeria is our gateway to South Africa" they said, and everyone really believed that we're going to FIFA World Cup 2010, but this beautiful dream turned into an ugly nightmare.

But didn't we really know or at least expect that this would happen? Aside from our joint history in football, which I won't go through, let's take it slowly and go through the events from the first match in Algeria on June 7th until today.

On the 7th of June 2009 our players had one of their worst times ever in Algeria. They couldn't sleep all night, the night before the game, because of Algerians driving their cars and blowing their horns around the Hotel in which the Egyptian National team is staying. They beat them up during the match as usual, the bus that transported the Egyptian National team from the airpot to the Hotel was destroyed, and when the match was over the bus that was taking them back to the airport had to take an off road shortcut to safely transport them to the airport without injuries. Let's not forget also that Algerian hackers that hacked into the ِEgyptian Football Federation's website and put the Star of David instead of the Federation's logo. They cursed us and cursed our religion - which is the religion that most of them follow. And at this moment it was clear for everyone that to the Algerians it wasn't just a football match. 

Let's go now to the 14th of November, Cairo - Egypt. A small group of Egyptian supporters waited for the Algerian National team's bus and they threw stones at it which is understandable as a reaction of some people who see it as revenge for our National team or something, which is also something that I'm personally against. But when the Algerian supporters started their sabotage acts and started breaking and destroying anything they can here in Cairo, it was another sign that it is not just football, it's something else, and they have other motives and reasons. But still they were protected by the Egyptian Police which would have never happened in Algeria if Egyptian supporters went around destroying stuff in Algeria. Actually, Egyptians living in Algeria have been going through hell since the Egyptian National team won by 2-0, which meant that they still had one more match to qualify either Egypt or Algeria, after they thought that there's no chance for the Egyptian team. Egypt Air has been attacked with millions of dollars worth of damage, they besieged Orascom and attacked it causing damage estimated by 5 million dollars, in addition to the Algerian IRS calling Orascom Telecom for 596.6 million dollars as taxes only after Naguib Swiris announced that the damage caused was estimated by 5 million dollars. And then when Egyptians working in Orascom Algeria felt unsafe and wanted to return home, the Algerian Government refused and forced them to stay so that it wouldn't "SEEM" that Egyptians are unsafe in Algeria. Come on, the whole world has seen what's been happening. How can they even try to deny it?! And the final match was decided to be 4 days after, on the 18th of November in Sudan.

Two days prior to the match Algerians arrived in Sudan and started buying tickets from the Sudanese for 10 times their prices, besides buying nearly all the knives in the Sudanese markets. The knife that's supposed to cost 5 pounds was sold for 30, and those that cost 10 pounds were sold for 50. But let's pause here for a second, why would anyone need to buy a knife for a football match? If it's just football as they and their Foreign Minister claimed, what were the knives for? Aside from that, why didn't the Sudanese warn us and tell us what was going on? Oh, was it because the Algerians were giving them money to carry their flags, to the bus drivers so that they'd leave the Egyptian Supporters buses in streets loaded with Algerians with weapons and maybe even to the Police forces to run and leave the Egyptian supporters "Actors & artists" without any protection? Can u imagine that the Algerian Government sent more than 10,000 bullies, x-cons and newly released criminals to wait for the supporters outside the stadium? It was an ambush organized and done by more than 30,000 people. Do you still call it a football match? well, I say this is something else, something big, something that will have extreme consequences and reactions. And the Egyptian Government must take real action, even if it gets to cutting all relations with Algeria and freezing all Egyptian investments in Algeria, which exceed 5 billion dollars. And today the Arab Contractors froze their investment plans in Algeria, as the Egyptian Ministry of Trade & Industry also froze their project with Algeria where they're supposed to found an industrial zone in Algeria. That's not it, we should take more action about it, and let's all vote against Algeria on www.ipetitions.com  hoping they'd be disqualified by the FIFA. 

The Obama Day in Cairo!

The 4th of June was a historic day in Egypt, it started calmly & quietly. The streets were empty & clean. It took only a few minutes to reach Cairo University, where we waited for President Obama to arrive, & on the way there, you can see no one but Police, Secret Service & the presidential Guards in the streets. The speech started at approximately 13:10. The speech was great & had a positive impact on many people. He covered all issues that needed to be addressed, & on top of all "Democracy"! But let's take it gradually,starting by the Israel Palestine issue to Democracy. I support establishing two separate, independent nations on shared grounds, & i like what he said & tried to address, but how can u establish a nation in 45 months, or even less. This nation that has been dissolved over the years with too much talk & no direct actions. President Obama said some great words, but he hasn't mentioned what kind of action will be taken towards that goal? How can we establish an independent Palestinian nation without Israeli efforts & with Hamas destroying every hope Palestinians dream of? President Obama mentioned the word "Patience" strategically in his speech, & of course we all know that patience is the key, & i really hope it is not the traditional use of the word to keep the world quiet while nothing actually happens. I really hope not.

Then comes democracy & freedom, which is one of the parts I enjoyed, specially when he mentioned governments that steal from their people, that are unjust & oppressing to their people. Which is the case in nearly all the Arab World. The speech is so positive from many different views & angles, but it doesn't give that much comfort. President Obama has a good will which he showed the world, but good intentions don't create nations & free people on their own. They need action, & we are waiting for the actions that follow that great speech of his, to make the world believe again that there's hope for Palestinians to have their independent nation & there's hope that freedom & democracy would be spread in the Arab World, & not being viewed as monsters & terrorists by other nations, there's hope that people could live together in peace as God said in the his Holly Quran.  

May god help everyone that seeks peace & justice in this World! May God give us the strength & ability to believe & take the right action. 

Banning Porn Websites in Egypt

This is how it starts. An Egyptian court announced on Tuesday, 13th May officially banning porn websites in Egypt. Where do u think this is going to lead us? Do u think that's where it ends?

Hell no, this is just the beginning. There will be other banned websites & believe me when i tell u that even some blogs will be banned. 

A couple of months ago there was an unsuccessful campaign to ban some political website & blogs, where the ministry of Communications interfered & stated that there will be no laws to ban websites as it is a way of seizing freedom of press. But now they came up with a new plan, first ban porn websites with the most convincing excuse ever used in an Arab society: (Haram), it is against religion. Unfortunately, this excuse works just fine in this world. Then comes the big move - banning some political websites & blogs - which will be very soon & then we can kiss internet freedom good bye in all the region. But i guess this problem will always remain & every time we find a way of expressing our opinions, telling the truth about things & try to spread awareness our governments will try to oppress us & seize more freedoms to ensure they r ruling an ignorant population.

Bloggers of the world meet @ AUC

On Friday & Saturday the 15th & the 16th of May, the American University in Cairo witnessed an amazing event. At last bloggers from several different countries of the world met in the International Summit for Online Journalism, organized by Kamal Al Adham Center & moderated by the famous Yosri Fouda & took place at the AUC's new campus. 

The summit's agenda was very interesting where we discussed a few major issues, which included Drawing the line between Journalism & Blogging, Evading censorship & internet freedom. Which i believe r the most important issues & their sessions were so beneficial. During the summit bloggers & journalists had the chance to express different opinions & discuss them face to face for the first time & with people from different areas of the world & with diverse concepts & different backgrounds & educations. I personally believe the summit was a great success, specially that in my belief our objectives as bloggers & journalists were fulfilled. As we bloggers were able to prove to journalists that bloggers r credible sources of information & news, & writing with no restrictions & laws doesn't make us not credible enough or unethical. While actually in reality, a large portion of journalists in well known institutes, newspapers or magazines know nothing about ethics of press & use their jobs to blackmail people, & as one of the bloggers said; "a journalist should check the news he gets from anyone not just bloggers,"

The summit was a great experience, & i was very happy to have all these bloggers at the same place at the same time to discuss major issues & share experiences & different points of view & feel for the first time that bloggers have a very strong role in building up public opinion, & let's hope from god that we could some day make major changes & force governments to hear us & care more about their people; spread peace & always be able to show people the truth.

May god give us the patience, strength, wiseness & ability to make this world a better place.

El Monkez,

Great Timing!

19 People were kidnapped on Friday the 13th of September & no one heard anything about it before the 21st. That was the wife of the Travel Agency owner. Despite all that it was out through the media on the 22nd only.

Egyptian media say: "the kidnapped were 15 people, 5 Germans, 5Italians, 1Romanian and 4 Egyptians. They were kidnapped when they were on a desert safari tour south os Aswan neer the Egyptian - Sudanese boarders...." & the kidnapers ask for 15 mill $ randsome, which is a mill for each hostage, Yeah right! In your dreams.
While at the same time Isaraeli media claim that there were 2 Israeli citizens with the kidnapped group and turned the whole matter to an Israeli issue. NO WONDER!

The real problem we're facing now is that this is not the first time this happens, but actually the third time. Which comes at a very bad timing, as we are in a very serious & bad situation Politically & Economically from all perspectives. Different media broadcasting different news about the incident, & all blaming the Egyptian Government & ofcourse the Egyptian people for what happened. But who else is there to blame if not us, & what's going to happen next?
Till when will we keep on going through similar problems & incidents? To tell you the truth i feel this is never going to end. Specially in a country like Egypt (Our beloved country) we will always face these problems & much worse problems, since no one cares. Not the people & certainly not the government.

This is really disappointing & depressing, not only because of what we will go through, but also because of what's happening to the tourists. Can you imagine yourself in a foreign country & you get kidnapped by freaki people that you don't understand what they'r sayin or why they kidnapped you or even what's going to happen to you. Oh shit! They must feel horrible.

Where to go Egypt!

We're Going Down

Egypt these days is going through hell of a time! El Douweika accident, stock exchande markets drop, and inflation rates increase. What the hell is going on? Where are we taking our country & ourselves?
Whenever we start talking about what's going on in the country these days, eveyone starts saying "there taking us no where..." "how are we supposed to deal with them?"
Who the fuck are they? & who are them? We need to stop referring to hidden reasons & people as they & them, we need to start working on identifying our enimies - i prefer calling them competitors - & then start working on a strategy that would place us on solid grounds & give us the ability to face any upcoming dangers or threats. We always keep saying that it has to be an external danger or threat, while the internal dangers are much more serious. Internal threats such as ignorance, poverty, rudeness, vulgary & so much more. & when i mention ignorance, i don't mean people who don't get a chance to be educated. Unfortunately, i mean university graduates & Masters & PHD aquirers that have no idea about anything that's happening in the world. We get educated in order to have a certain role in life, which ofcourse is not weining & complaining. We get educated to be able to stand up for ourselves & make a diference in this world that we're living in. & when i mention poverty, i mean acts of poverty the are exerted by people who are well fed & even have good incomes just for being greedy. Then we come to rudenes & vulgary which are the main characteristics of the Egyptian people.
If you ask me where we're going or heading, i'll simply say we're going down, & there's no way in hell that we'd save our country from going down unless we start working on improving our personal problems. "IN MY DREAMS" Right!
Then

What a Waste?

How many times in your life have you been deceived by the truth of people? How many times have you classified some one as a trustworthy & a respectable person & he/she turns up to be a double-faced liar? .... I guess that happens a lot. But what if there's a person that you've known all your life as a good friend of yours, that never lets out your secrets, & never mentions you in a bad way when you're not around. Then, you realize that this asshole you've known all your life, is a double-faced liar, with no true feelings of friendship, & no respect to people's secrets, & uses everything he/she knows for his/her personal benefits.

I guess this situation happened & still happens to thousands of people everyday,specially in country that's full of hatred & despise like Egypt. Have you ever thought of the cause of this problem? & how can we get rid of it?

This problem will always exist, because kids are being raised in the wrong way, & in a very unhealthy atmosphere. They're growing to see everyone around them doing the wrong things & asking them not to do it. The simplest example is smoking. You see the father or the mother telling their child you should not smoke, it is very unhealthy for you, while the father/mother themselves are smoking in front of the kid all the time. How can you be convincing & honest if you're doing the total opposite of what you're saying. & then when the child asks the father/mother then why do you smoke? The answer is always "it's a bad habit."
What the hell is that, the first thing we teach our children is how to manipulate themselves before even manipulating other people. Now that was the easiest & fastest example. Let's see another way that teaches our kids - the country's Future - lying & deceiving people.
When the telephone wrings & the father/mother knows it's someone he/she doesn't want to talk to, so he/she runs to the child & say, if it's "....." say that i', sleeping. How could they ask the kid to lie for them instead of teaching them to tell the truth always & be brave.

No wonder this is where we stand compared to other countries. People keep complaining about the government & other people who are stealing & breaking the law without being punished, & blame everything on the government.
Look closely people, who is the government? They are Egyptian citizens, who were raised & educated in Egypt. & if there is some blame for the government by 80% then the people are to blame by 2000%. People keep saying what can we do?

Well, I'll let you on the truth. The Egyptian people are wieners, the enjoy wien & complain on anything.
There is one thing i believe in, when a human being doesn't want to be ignorent & stupid, he trys his best to improve himself. Not stay as he is & start complaining, not lying & deceiving in order to make himself feel better about himself.

The Egyptian people were such great people long ago, what a waste! Some people believe that the world will be saved one day by the Egyptian people, & others are proud thet Egypt was mentioned 5 times in the Holly Quran, but they don't know that the Egypt that God almighty mentioned in his Holly Quran is not the Egypt we live in now. It's another Egypt, where the people hate each other, hate their country & may even hate themselves.
The Egypt mentioned in the Holly Quran, was successful, strong, full of good, loyal hard-working people. I really wish for a better Egypt before it all goes up in smoke.

What a waste!

The Critic.