Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

South Korea extends military service timing

Egypt

We have been enslaved—not just for the past three decades of Mubarak’s rule, or since the 1952 military coup but—for five thousand years with the start of the Egyptian civilization.

Amid all the ongoing talk about political reform and the post-Mubarak scenarios, I can’t help but thinking we haven’t waited that long, that long, that long, just to end up with liberal democracy and people we can at best elect every five years.

This nation deserves no less than a republic, run by direct democracy.

Good Ol’ Saad

Saad Eddin Ibrahim, my former university professor and the “dissident” I dislike the most, has declared his support for Gamal Mubarak’s presidential candidacy.

I recall it was in 2002, when I worked for the Cairo Times, at the same time when Jimmi had started already to create some political buzz with his repeated public appearances with daddy at NDP and govt events. Saad was just fresh out of jail. Issandr went to interview him in his home, and when he came back to the office, he told me in shock that following the interview, he was chatting with Saad and the latter told him he would not mind seeing Gamal Mubarak as a successor to his dad and that the young Mubarak is someone he (Saad) can work with.

This was not part of the interview published then. And in all cases the Mubaraks were still a taboo then for both the private and state media. So that chat wasn’t published.

To cut a long story short, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, even at the height of his so called “conflict with the regime” is an opportunist, and has always been an opportunist, unrepentant normalizer with Israel, and an American lackey who embraced wholeheartedly the Bush doctrine. His latest public move to declare his support for Gamal Mubarak’s nomination should not come as a surprise.

Helwan military tribunal updates: Verdict expected tomorrow غدا: الحكم على عمال 99 الحربي المحالين للقضاء العسكري

A military court is expected to issue its verdict tomorrow in the case of the eight Helwan workers.

Idiocy, Racism, Fox

Chile no stranger to tragedy

Egypt must not try factory workers before a military court

The London-based rights watchdog denounces the military prosecution of Helwan workers…

Amnesty international has condemned the trial before an Egyptian military court of eight factory workers, all civilians, detained after taking part in a protest against poor safety conditions at the factory, following an explosion which killed one of their fellow workers.
The trial of the eight workers from Helwan Factory for Engineering Industries (Military Factory No. 99) resumes at the military court in Nasr City, in the east of Cairo on Saturday.

Torture in Saudi Arabia

مؤتمر صحفي لمحاميي وعائلات عمال مصنع ٩٩ الحربي المحالين للمحاكمة العسكرية

Tomorrow Saturday 9:30pm, there will be a press conference held by the families and defense lawyers of the Helwan workers who are facing military tribunal for protesting lax industrial safety measures at their factory.

The event will be held at the Center for Socialist Studies, 7 Murad Street, Giza.

Floods erode Pakistan cotton income