The Other Side of Me

Whoever says that there's no need to protest again tomorrow, please remember this: Fathy Soroor and Safwat El Sherif are still free and living as they please. Zakareya Azmy still has his job. Media people haven't all changed, and changing faces is not the aim. The main aim is changing their strategies. The referendum was only a joke; we voted on some "amendments" and then the constitutional decree had many unacceptable articles that we were not allowed to decide if we want. If this referendum was a real one, then we were supposed to vote on the whole constitution and not only some articles that the army chooses to stop us from objecting. If this ugly constitution will be changed before we vote for a new president, which is not a must. It will still be there for at least eight months during which the army can be as a dictator as Mubarak if they wish. The new protests' law is just a start that can lead to a series of oppression laws. If you think that these pr...

Black Wednesday, The Camel Battle February 2nd, 2011 Today was a black day, full of blood, full of loss. Today was one bad bad day for the revolutionaries Today, Egypt went back to the time when people fought on the backs of horses, using swords and arrows. Today was a disgrace. It all started because of Mubarak's speech. The speech that made many people "forgive" him. I went to Tahrir today, after I spent a night full of regret for falling for rumors and not going yesterday. I'll start from the very beginning so I don't forget anything. The day has started with thousands still protesting in the squares of Egypt. Of course the numbers looked very few after yesterday's millions. There were news about pro-Mubarak demonstrations (very few numbers) all over the country and are getting close to the pro-democracy sit-ins. Of course, state TV showed these demonstrators and said that these are the real Egyptians who love their president. I was really hopin...

As someone who voted no, and believed that no would've made things easier, because it would've given us more degrees of freedom when it comes to accepting or refusing the plans the army has for us. As a no voter, I can't say I'm happy with the results, but I also don't feel that It's the end of the world, or the revolution. I know the yes voters, or most of them want the best for Egypt, and so do the no voters. I simply know that Egypt is in safe hands. I totally accept the majority's choice, and am ready to unite with them and work for the next phase of the revolution.   After we knew the results, and this part of the life of Egypt is over, now It's time to reunite and work together very hard for the next step. I don't support the idea of voting no because the MB scare me, but I still don't want them in power. And I totally believe that if we just sit and watch, MB will gain many seats in the parliament. Not because Egyptians are bad, or are not...

After we've voted, or at least most of us did. After we've all enjoyed our first step towards democracy. After we all knew how good it feels to be one of the many decision makers in this country. After we all understood that one vote makes a difference. It's now time to list all the lessons we've learnt and make sure that we make use of them in the next elections.Here are my thoughts: 1. First step towards democracy is to accept different opinions. 2. We shouldn't be fanatic, this isn't a fight. We all want the best for Egypt but are taking different routes. We should never accuse anyone of anything because of one's choice, and I'm talking about people and not parties. 3. One day is not enough for 45 million eligible voters. It should be done in two days in order for everyone to be able to vote. 4. Judges must use more help from civilian monitors 5. Ink is not an enough proof that one won't vote more than once. Welcome to the 21st century, pleas...

 This isn't my first time to vote. When I voted last time, it was only me and my mum in the station. There were some ladies inside asking us to vote for the NDPian; we had to shoo them away, we told them it was none of their business. It was a complicated procedure, I had to show them my voting card, then find my name in their long long lists, then finally voted. Today, it was totally different, today was just like Sham El Neseem. I went to vote with my revolutionary parents and grandmother. The school where we voted is in the street we live in, but we still went out at 7:30 for two reasons. First, because my mum expected the station to be full of people so we went early to avoid standing in queues for many hours. The second reason is that I wanted to monitor everything happening before the voting starts; how organized it is, who is guarding, when will the voting start and so on. We reached the school a little before 7:40 and weren't the only ones there. The school was protec...

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011: the million man march day A new month and a new hope; if anyone hasn't considered this to be a revolution yet, then they did today. Because simply, today was the day of the million revolutionaries. Not just one million; Tahrir had at least two millions, Alexandria had more than a million, and all other cities had huge protests. Very huge ones. Egypt was full of hope, full of life, full of power today. Egypt had a festival for freedom today. More than a million, from all walks of life, were together in one place today, and no one was pick-pocketed , no one was sexually harassed, no fights were started. It was totally peaceful, filled with resilience, optimism, smiles, and even jokes. This isn't ending in any way before the regime and its head falls, today made everybody sure of this. Our revolution will go on until it wins. CNN described our revolution as unprecedented and epic, and in Tahrir, they put up a stage today, singers sang songs about Egy...

I don't see a reason to be worried about the people's divisions between voting yes or no in the referendum, if anything, I see this as every healthy division. Most of the people, and I'm talking about people and not parties, are practicing the very first step towards democracy. Real democracy doesn't have a winning of 99% in any elections or referendums. The whole country can never agree on a person or on all articles of a constitution. Most of us agreed on revolting for a better life, for dignity, for our money that the regime and its gang stole. But even then, the whole country didn't agree on revolting. The thing is that most of us can agree on the headlines; most of us will agree that we want the best for Egypt. But when it comes to details it won't be easy to have most of the country agree on one thing, because even though we all want the best for Egypt, not everyone would see one path as the best to reach a better future. This is the best part of democ...

Today, the minister of the interior disbanded the state security, stopped all its activity, and permanently closed all its offices. But..... He also said that they're making a new department; the national security. The national security's job would be to secure the country and fight "terrorism". I'm trying to be happy, but I'm worried because: This might only be a change of names. No one told us the definition of "terrorism". National security is still a part of the interior ministry. No one said what will happen to the officers that used to work for the state security, will they be part of the national security? No one talked about the prosecution of every single officer who did any illegal thing before and after January 25th. No one explained in detail what the role of national security will be. We were not given any proof that national security will not turn into another state security, like judicial monitoring. I'm not being pessimist...

I almost made up my mind about this, and I've decided to vote no, but now I'm I starting to see different opinions and I'm reconsidering. I'm reading different opinions as I write this, and I'm going to state all the reasons why to vote yes or no. When I finish this post, I'm going to decide which to choose. if you haven't yet read the amendments, do so here . If you want to do more, you can read the whole constitution here Here are the reasons to vote yes: So the army leaves soon. The longer the army stays, the longer we have military rule, the longer we wait for democracy. Even if we have a presidential committee, one member is going to be from the military and the head might also be from the military. Voting no wouldn't mean that there will be a new constitution. It will only mean that the amendments are not accepted, and we're back to square one. What would the next step be? nobody can claim to know. We'll have to wait for the army to hav...

I had a wedding yesterday that I had to go to. I didn't want to go for many reasons that many would find very silly, but I went anyway. The wedding started at around 8:00, and two hours later, there was no sign of it ending any time soon. At 11:00, no one at all left, and nobody seemed to be thinking of the curfew. My family and I decided to leave then to be able to reach home before the curfew. Our hosts got mad at us for wanting to leave and forced us, literally, to stay for dinner. When we left at 11:20, 40 minutes before the curfew, we were the first to leave. When we told our hosts that we're leaving because of the curfew they looked at us as if we're coming from a different planet. Conclusion: everyone defied the curfew for a wedding!! I can understand, and support, those who defied the curfew to protest, or for an emergency, but defying it for a wedding? This doesn't make any sense. The only reason everyone is not even noticing this curfew is indiscipline. Bec...

Monday, January  31st, 2011 And the protests continue, and are bigger than any other day, in Tahrir square and all squares across Egypt that will liberate us soon. They’re not only protesting, but also cleaning the streets, how civilized, the scene makes me feel so proud to be an Egyptian. It doesn’t feel right to stay at home, especially after I went to the Rage Friday protest. But since I live in Heliopolis, and near Mubarak’s residence, I’m not sure if I can go anywhere. Protesters are planning million man marches in Cairo, Alexandria and all other cities that have enough population to bring one million to the streets. I plan to go tomorrow, hope it’s possible. And again, no internet, no SMSs, but the armed forces keep sending us SMSs. They ask people not to defy the curfew, tell them not to worry, that they’ll never turn brutal. I really hope so; I have to say these SMSs are giving me a lot of hope. Mubarak told Shafiq to start a dialogue with the opposition. I don’t know wh...

If there's one reason why our revolution succeeded in bringing down the regime and its head, it's that we were united. We have never given them the chance to divide us, this has been the case since the beginning of 2011. When the church was bombed on New Year's Eve and Christians knew very well that their Muslim friends, neighbors and colleagues have nothing to do with it. When Muslims celebrated Christmas with Christians and protected churches while they prayed. When both Muslims and Christians prayed in Tahrir, and all squares in Egypt, while their brothers and sisters protected their backs. I know that most of the people who will read these words will be against divisions and fighting together. Most of the people who read this will already be united and have no sectarian problems of their own. The big problem is with people with less education. These people are very easy to brainwash, and that's what the state is security is playing at. Here, comes are role, because...

If you don't know the story then please read this first: In Atfih, a town in Helwan, there was a love relationship between a Muslim lady and a Christian man. This relationship has ended seven months ago . For some reason this week, after revolutionaries were able to get into the state security premises , the family of the Muslim lady remembered that her father did not take revenge. Yes, they remembered this seven months after the relationship has ended . So a fight started between the lady's father, a relative and a friend, all Muslims. The fight grown and it involved gunfire which resulted in the death of the father and his relative, and the friend was injured. After the funeral, some angry Muslims, and don't ask me why they're angry, went to the church and protested in front of it. Some of them got even angrier, and again don't ask me why, and set the church on fire. Things got even worse when the church was completely destroyed and some Christian homes were set...

Sunday, 30th, January, 2011 I’ve spent the safest night of my life yesterday; our neighbors did an amazing job, a lot better than the police. We heard gunfire three times in our street; looters came three times and were shooed by shooting into the air. It was scary to hear gunfire every thirty minutes in the neighboring streets, and of course to hear it right below our window, but you get used to it. The military has finally brought more soldiers to the streets last night and they helped the people’s committees to protect their neighborhoods.  All the thugs that were arrested yesterday will be prosecuted in military courts and of course most of them were police without uniforms. There were many protests in solidarity with us today all around the world. Here in Egypt, demonstrations continued in Tahrir square, where many spent the night, in front of Qa’ed Ibrahim Mosque in Alexandria, (Qa’ed Ibrahim is Ibrahim Pasha , son of Mohamed Ali Pasha). There were other demonstrations in ...

Saturday, 29th of January, 2011 What I have seen. I was on the streets of Cairo at 7:30 am today trying to make my way from Mohandeseen to Heliopolis through the ring road! I passed by Habib El Adly’s residence in Mohandeseen, there is always at least two police cars there, but today there was not even one policeman by his house. Neither were they guarding the banks, or any other thing.  I have only seen five policemen on my way, they were all guarding Police buildings. The police has completely disappeared from the streets of Cairo! The ring road had burned tires, burned cars, a burned bus, even part of the fence was burned.  Carrefour was broken into, looters are stealing everything they could find there as we passed by it. A bus had stopped there to let looters go in and steal whatever they can.  It was later vandalized and burned. Military cars and tanks were waiting by el Nasb El Teskary in Nasr City. The Nasr City police department is CLOSED, yes closed. Policemen ...

Egypt revolted against dictatorship, yet some of us still have a dictator within them. I find this normal after 30 years of oppression and getting used that whoever can force their point of view on others should do. When we were all victims of oppression from the ruler, everyone wanted to feel superior and oppress someone else. This has happened because some of us were brought up this way, seeing that dictatorship is the way to solve everything and because others felt that they have to treat someone in the same way they were treated in order to be able to accept the oppression they're living under. This has happened between all different types of people in all situations. Starting from the government on people, to bosses on employees, to heads of schools and universities on students and staff, to parents on their sons and daughters no matter how old they are, to males on females, simply anyone who felt stronger than someone would treat them with hatred, superiority and injustice. ...