الثلاثاء، مارس ٢٨، ٢٠٠٦

يا كليتنا يا حبيبتنا باى باى

After 3 years of being in this faculty that all could think of is a place destroying and frustrating for any person with a talent,,i discovered that i am going to really miss it when i graduate(hopefully after 3 months). i've been trying to start any kind of activity for 3 years and all i recieved was promises and lists of instructions and signatures that i need to get.This year having two of the best women in the world teaching me "dr. Radwa Ashour and Dr. Faten Morsy" i decided that i must do somrthing before graduating.
i had enough of what most of our dear professors shower us with,,"you are pathetic","you r only breathing our oxygen","u deserve to be sent to KG to learn English",,it was too much. i can't deny that we some of the students really don't know English and most importantly don't know literature but i can't really call it their problem after being in this faculty for more than three years and they STILL know neither English nor literature.On the other hand, some students are really intersted in what we study,some even are intersted in writing(which may seem normal in any literature department), and i was shocked to discover that we r not allowed to have a magazine for our department for security reasons"asbab amneya" even after we made clear that it's just going to be a literary magazine.
So,we've tried different things but all in vain,,and at last my great professor "faten morsy" recommened that we should just hang what we want without any permissions or signatures "wely mesh 3agbo ye7'bat dema3'o fe 7eta" and that was it. it was hard at the beginning to convince my friends to take part in this,,everybody seemed very frustrated but then they all were enthusiastic about it and here it is ,our first edition,,not bad at all,,a little bit plain ,,may need some colours etc, to attract the passers-by,,
it's really confusing the mixture of feelings i have nowadays for my faculty,,i am really emotional when it comes to anything that has to do with it,,my friends,,my professors,,the books the rooms "jimmiy's passage" "mamar jimmy",,i really enjoy everything in it even the things i hated the most,,maybe it's just the fear of losing all this,,in couple of months i'll be graduated and Egypt will probably have 7 million unemployed +1 .

السبت، مارس ٢٥، ٢٠٠٦

love it

الاثنين، مارس ٢٠، ٢٠٠٦

Gaza facing humanitarian crisis

Laila El-Haddad, The Electronic Intifada, 19 March 2006

WHEAT-FLOUR STOCKS HAVE FINISHED IN THE GAZA STRIP, WITH MOST BAKERIES CLOSING SHOP AND THE UNITED NATIONS WARNING OF A LOOMING HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN THE FACE OF A NEARLY TWO-MONTH LONG ISRAELI-IMPOSED CLOSURE OF GAZA'S COMMERCIAL CROSSINGS

Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinians are now facing an unprecedented food shortage due to systematic Israeli closures that have prevented the import of wheat, among other things, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinians Territories (OCHA) said today. "The situation is extremely serious. In the next day or so all bread supplies will dry up. There is very little else around in terms of rice, which is also short in supply. Bread is the staple diet for Palestinians. It is also the food the poorest people so if that's not available people will start to go hungry," David Shearer, OCHA's head of operations, said.According to the World Bank's 2005 statistics, 65% of Gaza's Palestinians are living below the poverty line, surviving on under $2 a day and general poverty has reached upwards of 70% of the population."What we were warning before was that stocks were getting low. Today we are saying stocks are gone, and the end-point has been reached," said Shearer, adding that UNRWA, which was supposed to start emergency food distribution today, and the World Food Programme have likewise run out of emergency flour stocks. Al-Mintar Crossing is Gaza's commercial lifeline, and the only crossing through which large-scale import of wheat and other imports and exports can take place. The crossing has been shut down for nearly 50 days-in peak harvest for Palestinian produce exported to Europe-since the beginning of the year, a total of 60% of the time according to the UN, despite Israeli promises in a US-brokered November agreement not to do so. The financial losses are estimated to be US$500,000 a day.The crossing was opened sporadically for several days during the two-month long closure, but the World Food Programme says 3,594 MT of wheat flour contracted to local mills were unable to enter Gaza during this time.

According to the Ministry of Economy, Palestinians in Gaza consume around 350 tons of flour per day, but all flour mills have shut down due to the depletion of wheat stocks, and bakeries are working through their last bags of stored flour. As word of the shortage spread, long lines formed well through the night in front of the few bakeries still open for business, with panic-stricken residents flocking to buy bread and flour for their families under the roars of Israeli war planes circling Gaza's skies. Bakery-owners were rationing out two bags of bread per family that they had baked with what little supplies they had left in storage, and in some instances, fights broke out between desperate customers.

"My husband waited for 3 hours to buy a bag of flour so we can bake at home, and all the bakeries have closed in our town, we don't know what we will do in a few days" said 50-year-old Um Ramadan, of her 8 member-family.Bread is the staple food for 1.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, which requires 450 metric tonnes of wheat each day to maintain bread supplies, according to the World Food Programme. The UN says the usual 30-60 day wheat stock has been exhausted, and other basic food commodities, such as dairy products and fruit, are in extremely short supply. Rice and sugar are selling at more than twice their normal price and are also very difficult to find in stores, while prices of locally-grow vegetables marked for export, such as tomatoes and green peppers, have plummeted. Desperate farmers disposed of several tones of rotting vegetables earlier in the week, while others attempted to sell their harvest on donkey carts throughout the city in bulk, with 20 kilograms of tomatoes going for 5 shekels (a little more than a dollar).Israeli Prime Ministerial advisor Dov Weisglass recently described the Israeli sanctions policy in the wake of the democratic Hamas victory as one in which Palestinians would be put on a diet but not starved to death. "It's like an appointment with a dietician. The Palestinians will get a lot thinner, but won't die," Weisglass was reported as saying.

The United Nations has condemned the closure, noting that 40% of children in the Gaza Strip suffer from malnutrition and that under the fourth Geneva Convention, Israel, as an occupying power, is responsible for the welfare of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. A UN official said, on the condition of anonymity, that the closure was very obviously political in nature, since it had become clear that there were no direct security threats to Israel on the crossing.Israel authorities say the crossing has been closed due to "security threats", specifically, fears that tunnels had been built under the crossing. The most recent closure coincided with the Israeli siege of the Palestinian-controlled Jericho prison, in which PFLP leader Ahmed Saadat-in jail for four years without standing trial- and five others were taken into Israeli custody. At the request of the Israeli army, Palestinian security services dug four trenches, totaling more than 1.5 kilometres in length around the crossing, but no tunnels were ever found, Israeli and PA sources say.Israeli spokespersons say they offered the PA an alternative crossing at Kerem Shalom, a still-not-functional terminal located on the south-eastern tip of the Gaza Strip, but that the PA refused. Palestinians have so far rejected this option, citing reasons both political and practical in nature. The alternative crossing is being imposed upon the Palestinians as a substitute where it was supposed to function alongside al-Mintar (Karni), say PA officials, adding that in any case, it is not equipped to handle large amounts of imports and exports. According to the UN, the crossing has only a fraction of the capacity of al-Mintar, and in particular does not have the facilities to handle the approximately 450 MT of wheat needed in Gaza."Only 4-8 trucks would be allowed out per day, and at most this can be pushed to 30 with the proper infrastructure, which is likewise insufficient. It's also very obvious that the al-Mintar closure is a political decision as there are no direct security threats," said a senior PA civil servant who is overseeing the implementation of the access and movement agreement from the Palestinian side."The Agreement talked about Kerem Shalom being a redundant border, open at the same time as Karni, not a substitute border," said the official, adding that Palestinian control over the Rafah Crossing as brokered by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is "an illusion".The US-brokered Agreement on Movement and Access forbids the PA from importing goods through the Rafah Crossing, with Israel insisting that all goods must be subject to Israeli oversight and control, as they would in the Kerem Shalom Crossing. Limited amounts of supplies have nonetheless been transported through Rafah, which likewise lacks the technical capabilities for large-scale shipments enough for over one million Palestinians. A PA source formerly involved in the negotiations over the crossing said Palestinians want full sovereignty over Rafah for both goods and people, but attempts to institute this unilaterally have failed because Egypt has been succumbing to Israeli pressure to prevent this from happening, and EU monitors have threatened to leave their posts, which would annull the agreement and shut down the crossing, and possibly result in a Jericho-type Israeli siege. Further, the source added, even if they pass through Rafah, goods will still have to be re-routed to Kerem Shalom for Israeli inspection, a roundabout and slow process that would be costly and highly inefficient. Israel also attached to the Agreement a series of "security protocols" which render Palestinian control over the Crossing moot.In a press conference held today at the Rafah Crossing, President Mahmud Abbas told reporters that the PA will meet with Israeli, Egyptian, and American delegates in a mammoth session to be hosted by the Americans in their Tel Aviv embassy this afternoon in order to try and resolve the humanitarian crisis. The meeting will attempt to resolve "all outstanding issues relating to security protocols and imports" Abbas said. "The meeting will have to do with all issues related to Rafah, and imports and exports. We realize there is a serious problem now in Gaza in regards to food shortages, and that will also be examined today, and we hope to find a solution to it. We will also take a serious look at security protocols, so this border can be opened continuously," Abbas told reporters.Last week, James Wolfensohn, the Middle East special envoy to the Quartet, said the Palestinian Authority faces "financial collapse", adding that a reduction in financial support by the US, EU, UN and Russia could trigger a sharp rise in unemployment and send personal incomes plummeting.

السبت، مارس ١٨، ٢٠٠٦

"الحب في المنفى" بين الواقع و الخيال:


بالرغم من أنى من مواليد عام 1985 ولم أشهد أحداث مذبحتي صبرا و شاتيلا و اجتياح إسرائيل لبيروت إلا أنه من قراءتي ل "الحب في المنفى" فقد شعرت أنى معاصرة لكل هذه الأحداث أشعر بها كأنها حدثت فقط بالأمس.

لقد نجح بهاء طاهر بأسلوبه و أحاسيسه أن يجعلني أعيش الأحداث و أتألم بشدة, ولكن الألم الأكبر هو عندما أقرا كلمات رالف و هو يتحدث عن أن العرب لن يتركوا هذه الأحداث تمر ببساطة و سيدفع مرتكبوها الثمن ! عندما أثرت كلمات رالف في و شعرت بالقوة ثم عدت إلى عام 2006 بعد مرور أكثر من عشرين عاما على هذه الأحداث الفاجعة و أبحث عن هذا الثمن الذي دفعه المجرمون!!!

من الأشياء التي أثارت حيرتي عند قراءة " الحب في المنفى " الإجابة عن هذا السؤال: هل هذه الرواية سيرة ذاتية لبهاء طاهر؟ هل هو الراوي الذي يعمل كمستشاراً في بلد أوروبية علما بأن بهاء طاهر سافر إلى جنيف ليعمل في الأمم المتحدة منذ عام 1981 و حتى 1995؟ أم هو إبراهيم؟أم هو مزيج من الشخصيتين؟ ؟ظللت أتسائل ما هو الحقيقي في هذه الرواية و ما هو الخيالي حتى قرأت كلمات بهاء طاهر الختامية التي قال فبها أن هذه رواية أساسها الخيال ولكن هناك مع ذلك أشياء حقيقية مثل قصة تعذيب بيدرو و مصرع شقيقه فريدي في شيلى, شهادة الممرضة النرويجية عما حدث في عين الحلوة و المقال المنسوب إلى برنار ثم شهادة الصحفي الأمريكي رالف, و أخيراً و ليس آخرا, كما قال الكاتب نفسه...
"هذا, و دم الشهداء"
بالرغم من عظمة الروائي "بهاء طاهر" و قدرته على خلق رواية مليئة بالمشاعر الحقيقية التي تمس قلوب القارئ بشكل خاص جدا و فريد إلا أن الأشياء الأكثر مرارة من قصة الحب المؤثرة هي الأحداث الواقعية التي كانت أقسى كثيرا من خيال الروائي
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الثلاثاء، مارس ١٤، ٢٠٠٦

AVEX 2006



Only my luck directed me to be part of this event, when one of my friends called me saying that he registered my name in "promoters" the organizing company to this huge event which i didn't know what it was then. I didn't really care as i usually don't like working as an usher, But 2 dayes later i recieved a call from the company asking me to come to and interview so i thought why not,,till then i didn't know any details about the job, i went to see many young ppl gathering around papers they all seem v experienced and have an idea about what that was,,anyway i found couple of friends who i know which really helped me to be more acquainted with the system,,when i entered the interview room i saw that the lady that's going to interview is not only couple of years older than me but also doesn't know much more than i do,,she told me that Avex is an airshow and aeroplanes exhibition in sharm (which i already knew) and then she asked me what committee do i like to join i askedwhat the committees were,and she said events,vip,registration etc,,,and i had no idea what she was talking about so i asked her to elaborate what each committee is supposed to be doing,and i explained that i am not fond of VIPS and i try to avoid them as much as i can hehe ,and her reply was "we'll give u a call",,and i said to my slef great then i am staying in cairo the next month,,,and to my surprise a week later i recieve a call from promoters that says that i am accepted in the "VIP" committee and that i'll travel to sharm from 9 daysstarting from the 3rd of march and that they'll give me a call to tell me the details of my work,,And Of course they called me 2 days b4 the day of traveling and said i had a meeting that starts at 4 which actually started at 5:30,As i was very frustrated and thought this company is not professional everybody was laughing at me and saying" enty lesa shofty 7aga"
2 days later i was on the bus heading to sharm sitting next to a girl who i knew by coincidence that she is one of my friend's friend and she was the first good thing that i meet in this trip,,she was so friendly and sweet to me and introduced me too all other ushers whom i knew none of and she even offered to be my roommate thoough she can be with anyone form her friends. we arrived at sharm we had no work to do ,the weather was lovely ,,we were staying at the sheraton and the rooms were amazing,,so my first mission in this business trip was to go swim and get a tan,,for three days i had no work whatsoever and my mission was accomplished,,then there was the hard days,,,the vips that r coming to attend the show and the exhibition who r personally invited by the minister of aviation who i didn't know his name ,,,and my committee's job was to recieve these very important bastards and make a kit of their invitations etc, it seemd so easy till i found out how not organized was everything ,,ppl not showing up,,others showing up instead,,ppl staying in rooms not booked by their names,,vips fighting over giveaways like pens and notebooks hahahahhahy,,and that was hilarius,,
The first day of the show "el rayes" was suppose to go attend and of course no body was allowed to see the show so ppl had to cancel their exhibition and so the first day was ruined BUT mr. president changed his mind and decided that he's not coming when it was too late for others to come,As for the senond day of the show he did the same thing but this time he came when other normal citizins were in the airport so the police had to lock them in rooms so that the president can watch the show safley. the exhibitors were so angry 2 days were ruined and of course they were not angry at Mubarak but at the ushers who to them are the cause of all the problems. these two days were very tiring as we worked from 9 in the morning till 1 am with no food break as i later knew it was not allowed to eat.
By that time all the ushers were so angry coz they hardly sleep or eat but work as donkies doing nothing very important,,in some other committiees ushers had to wait for like 6 hrs in room till anybody needed anything,,Everybody was so frustrated and i started to tell them joking that we should do a strike whe should not work the coming day so that they improve our working conditions and maybe our pay"which is 100/day" and everybody was so excited,,,but then we started to think about the heads of our committees who r very active,smart and they bare all the shit that happens and thought they'll face great problems with the manager of the company "Ashraf Haridy" who thought that he owned every employee in this company.there were no working hours no lunch break no water break no cigarette break NO BREAK,,,so we decided to tal to our heads who also were very tierd and things improved the dayes after this as the work was less.
On the other hand working in Avex gave the opportunity to see a fantastic airshow, deal with the country's VIPs and making sure that they r the most stupid persons i will ever meet in my life,,and to discover that here in this country even if things were not organized it'll eventually work but a lot harder,,but who cares as long as nobody speakes up!
i had a great expeirence out there ,,and i met very nice people really who made this trip worthy!
i only wish that things would improve in coming years....
thank u my friends