A year ago (tribute to Khaled Said)

A year ago, I was on a visit to my hometown, Alexandria, catching up with my all time friends over a coffee on the corniche. It was almost midnight, with the heavy breeze of the humid weather of Alexandria. Things were going really fine and fun until I was asked whether I've heard/read the news about Khaled Said or not; a young businessman that used to live in Cleopatra, a place very close to the coffee-shop where we were having our coffee. My answer was unfortunately no!

This is how it all started, my friend handed me his smartphone showing me the two photos of Khaled, before and after death. I was heart broken that night, I didn't really see that those two photos can change the face of Egypt in six months. Thanks to a stubborn regime that couldn't admit its brutality and excessive use of force that lead to the death of Khaled.

I went on trying to know more about Khaled, reading more about the autopsy report, watching his neighbors testimony, talk shows discussing the case. The news were all over the media, people were divided upon the press releases issues by the government stating that Khaled was a drug dealer and he died suffocating of a drugs pack that he swallowed during his arrest. Some where convinced with the story, some were not. My position at the time was it does not make any difference. Khaled was a human being at the end of day, needed to be treated in a better way.

One reasonable source was found online, "Kolena Khaled Said" Facebook page (We are all Khaled Said), more news about the case was posted regularly. At a time when I couldn't "Like" ElBaradei's page (worried about what might be turn out if State Security Agency was tracking the members of the page), I found it much easier to register to Khaled's page (which had no direct threat to our president at the time). The page was later on a direct reason for mobilizing people on January 25th, 2011.

I can't really remember the dates, but a week or two afterwards, it was announced on "Khaled Said's Facebook page" that there will be a silent stand on Alexandria's corniche. Multiple news were circulating at the time, whether the stand will be at 5pm, or it will start just after Friday's prayer in Sidi Gaber mosque. Dr Mohamed ElBaradei announced that he'll be joining the people in the stand, so did Ayman Nour, Hamdein Sabahy, George Ishak, and a lot of other public figures.

I decided along with my brother to join the protests, not knowing what could happen, the usual warnings from family and friends. I can still remember the discussion with my mom about how should it be safe, its just a silent stand for heaven's sake. Although, I can feel mom really wanting us to be there, she was doing her best not to let us go. It was the first time for me to protest since I graduated from college, I was also kind of worried. I headed to Sidi Gaber mosque along with my brother, the whole area was packed with big police trucks that usually commutes prisoners or policemen. We parked far away, decided to walk towards the mosque, this is when I found that a protest is taking place (not a silent stand), a cordon of policemen preventing people from joining the protest. Standing clueless with my brother behind the cordon, not to know what shall we do. We were not used to confront policemen, so we kept standing and watching the protest. It was this loud man, who came specifically from Hurghada who changed the scene. Prevented from entering the protest, he started shouting, saying how he spent the money and time to come and join such a protest after 12 hours of travelling. A group of typical Egyptian ladies/moms started clapping for him, embarrassed doing nothing, my brother and I started clapping too. Until the police officer let the man get in.

In a very intimidating way, the police officer approached me and asked me "Would you like to join too??", i can hear him threatening in a way, but again, embarrassed by the courageous act of the women next to me, my only response was "YES!". The police officer let us in, then closed to cordon again! Happy I joined the protest, I starting chanting with the people about how fake the autopsy report was, how violent the police was, how corrupt the Interiors Minister (Habib El-Adly) was, etc...

Ten minutes later, people started chanting against former president Mubarak, this is when I "found" my mouth was shut, I couldn't even join them saying "Down to Mubarak". That's how it was a year ago. I had to leave afterwards worrying about what can happen to me & my brother. I joined the silent stand later on @5pm close to where Khaled used live, really touched by the huge number of people participating, dressed in black and crying Khaled Said's blood (June 25th, 2010).

On the contrary, this year and in the memory of Khaled Said, I returned to Alexandria again on June 6th, to attend the launch of Masr AlHureyya party, and participate in Khaled Said's stand. I had to pleasure to give my condolences to his mom personally this time. There were no police trucks, no one to prevent us from getting to the stand, no one to threaten us and above all, NO FEAR!

Thanks Khaled Said, and thanks to Jan25 Revolution.

I'm joining a party: "Masr AlHureyya"

Masr AlHureyya ("Freedom Egypt"- حزب مصر الحرية)

I've been party shopping for a while, at the beginning I thought it will be much better to be an "active independent". I tried (and still working on) political awareness NGOs (Tawasol & Gessoor), in the sense of making people ready for participation in free and fair elections. The idea was a mutual activity, where I an get more politically aware, I can get more people to understand what are we heading to. A bidirectional approach, where you can hear people demands and at the same time pass the 'knowledge' you acquired.

Overtime, I realized that although this is the 'best case scenario' for me, but its kind of a luxury at such a sensitive transitional period. Having the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) insisting on the 6 months period for parliamentary elections, you have to put your hands in dirt.

Shopping for parties was not that easy either, with many parties launching their activities and recruiting their forming members, it was hard to choose a party that really represents me. I have been to meetings with 4 different parties with a liberal or 'main stream' backgrounds, but none of them was really what I thought of as an environment for me to work in. Until I found Masr AlHureyya founding members, it was at a time before they 'officially' launched the party. Getting to know how they work together was the main reason for me to decide to join. Here are some of the insights I had:

1. Internal Democracy

Every decision is done using a clear democratic process of voting.

2. Equality

Although the team has Dr Amr Hamzawy, a respected public figure, yet everyone is equal in weight. Women & men are equally represented.

3. Diversity

The group is quite diverse in terms of experience, not polluted with politicians of the old 'era'. You can always spot someone 'exactly' like you.

4. Decentralization

The party is committed to decentralize their operations, equal weights between all governorates.

5. Transparency

There is no "new" member and "old" members kind of thing, everyone knows what's happening, fund raising is quite transparent too. A ceiling of EGP200,000 (Less than $40k) is set to donors.

Wish us luck!

Masr AlHureyya's Website: http://masralhureyya.org/

Masr AlHureyya's Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/MasrAlHureyya

Challenges Threats to "Egypt, the Democracy"

Three months have passed since Egyptians made history and ousted Hosny Mubarak on February 11th. With all the excitement one had have on this unforgettable night, all the energy everyone has seen in being responsible (cleaning streets, organizing traffic, brainstorming ideas for Future Egypt, etc..), basically enjoying the honeymoon. Now, and after almost a 100 days, the honeymoon is over. One may think, the revolution is going on track, the results are awesome, what has been achieved so far no one would've dreamed of a 100 days ago, specifically on the night of January 24th. However this does not really mean that the road is full of roses, or that we can definitely see light at the end of the tunnel. There are challenges threats to the pace of the restoring the country and completing a successful revolution which should lead to "Egypt, the Democracy".

I can identify 4 challenges threats listed below:

1. Security:

No one can deny that Police [brutality] was one of the main triggers for the revolution and I also believe that the disappearance of Police on January 28th (and a 'somehow' neutral army) were one of the main factors that lead to the success of the uprising in only 18 days (one can see what's happening in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain & Syria). However, the lack of honest mannish police officers at the moment, is a major threat to the stability of the country. Under the leadership of a decent Interiors minister, one thought it will be easy to resolve the situation of mistrust between people and police, however both parties (people and police) are not helping. Police officers are suffering from the "denial" syndrome and people still angry at them (whether because of the brutality pre Jan25th or the disappearance post Jan25). I urge the Interiors Minister, Prime Minister, and Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) to start working hard on both ends to get this situation resolved.

2. Unity

An awesome picture of unity was seen during the 18 days of the revolution which reached its peak on the night of February 11th, when an announcement has been made that Mubarak has "given" the management of the country to the SCAF, a peaceful transition that most people accepted it. However 3 weeks later, and after a clash that happened between some Muslims and some Christians in poor neighborhood in Cairo which lead to the burning of the church there, the sectarian dimension started to rise as a divider.

Shortly and during the discussions ahead of the referendum of the constitution that was called by the SCAF and took place on March 19th, the Muslim Brotherhood decided to disagree with all other activists (groups/people) and asked its members and the people to vote "Yes" when others asked people to vote "No". The rise of using religious speech in influencing voters decision became a major concern among politicians and activists.

Moreover, the rise of extremist religious groups (Salafis) and a worried percentage of Christian Copts living in Egypt begun to make the headlines of newspapers. This was crowned by Imbaba's events that resulted in the burning of another church, some relate these events to the lack of security forces, others might relate it some extremist religious views between Muslims & Christians.

My advice for everyone here, politicians, activists, religious figures and people, is to look for what's common in between them not what's different. They made history all together during the 18-day revolution because there was a "common" demand - the ouster of a dictator- now its more important to look for what's common. Get United! At least until we have a constitution that can accomodate everyone, then start putting what's specific interest as a priority.

3. Vague Political Roadmap

With the lack of a clear vision for how the coming year will pass, lots of differentiators and uncertainty might occur. Whether it is politicians, activists, or political groups and parties, none has a clear road nor a transparent vision for how will the transition continue till it reaches a stable democratic state. Its clear it all revolves around three dimensions; constitution (and its forming committee), presidential elections (and the authorities of a president), parliament elections (and the format of the elections process).

Among those three dimensions, only one is partly known, which is the parliamentary elections "timing". I urge SCAF to clear up the way and vision of the transition period.

4. Economy

No one would prefer a poor democracy, whether we like it or not, the Economy as a whole was growing at a relatively good pace throughout the past 5 years (4%-7% GDP growth). As a result of all the above factors, we are facing a severe slowdown in the economy, numbers really vary nowadays. Unemployment is definitely increasing steadily since the revolution started, it is the responsibility of everyone to keep an eye on this very important factor for the transition to end without a collapse. Different reports are talking about how critical pace of consumption of our national reserves of food, foreign currency, etc... It has to be highlighted clearly from the government. Also, the SCAF & the government has to send a clear message to all business men and investors that no one will touch their investments as long as they're not violating any laws. This is also the time for our democratic friends and allies to proof to the world that democracy is better to the welfare of a country. DFI is quite a help to the economy at the moment.

Lets all pray for Egypt.

Unemployment...

"Good-paying jobs don’t come from bailouts. They come from start-ups. And where do start-ups come from? They come from smart, creative, inspired risk-takers. How do we get more of those? There are only two ways: grow more by improving our schools or import more by recruiting talented immigrants. Surely, we need to do both, and we need to start by breaking the deadlock in Congress over immigration, so we can develop a much more strategic approach to attracting more of the world’s creative risk-takers" Thomas Friedman, NYTimes, more...

CPI - Corruption Perceptions Index 2009

According to a new report by Transparency International, it was found that the top 12 least corrupt nations are: New Zealand, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Norway, Hong Kong, Luxembourg.

The 12 most corrupt countries are: Somalia, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan, Iraq, Chad, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Haiti, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea.

What quite interesting - at least for me - is that Egypt holds position number 111 out of 180 surveyed countries.
Whole list can be found here
Ironically, Algeria shares the same position with Egypt with a score of 2.8 out of 10.
Algeria and Egypt are having a very tough game today, where one of them will be qualified to the World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Relations between both nations has deteriorated dramatically during the past few days because of this fact. To the extent that Algerians horrified Egyptians living in Algeria, burned some of the shops and Egyptian investments there.
Lets hope things pass peacefully, and then they can work on the corruption issue!!!