Mirages, Unicorns and Exit Doors...
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Shady on Sharm El Sheikh Disaster
"I went to my kitchen, grabbed a cold bottle of water and stood there totally disconnected from the whole world, don’t know what time is it, where am I, for how long I ve been here…my mind was just in Egypt!
The only one thing that was going on mind that I wanna be in Egypt right now! No matter where I am, how much I ve, what car I’m driving…nothing worth being away from my country and people when they are in this shit!
Finally my dad called me back with the horrible news!" ¶ 12:10 AM 0 Comments
The only one thing that was going on mind that I wanna be in Egypt right now! No matter where I am, how much I ve, what car I’m driving…nothing worth being away from my country and people when they are in this shit!
Finally my dad called me back with the horrible news!" ¶ 12:10 AM 0 Comments
Friday, July 29, 2005
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/8dcaa373b87d42b60ee8c395c49f9410.htm
IRAN: Activists condemn execution of gay teens
25 Jul 2005Source: IRIN
ANKARA, 25 July (IRIN) - Human rights groups the world over havestrongly condemned the recent execution of two gay teenagers innortheastern Iran.
"It's entirely unacceptable that people are actually killed because oftheir sexuality," Kursad Kahramananoglu, head of the InternationalLesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), the oldest and onlymembership-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)organisation in the world, maintained from Istanbul.
While exact details of the case remained unclear, he vowed ifconfirmed, ILGA would pursue the matter to the highest level, includingthe United Nations, noting a rise in homophobia in the world today.
Kahramananoglu was not alone in his condemnation. "Killing teenagersfor what they do together is absolutely abhorrent," David Allison,spokesman for the London-based LGBT advocacy group Outrage said. Headded that given that Iran was such an old civilisation, it wasappalling that they should descend to such barbaric levels - especiallyagainst young people.
"To execute people simply because they are gay or have had gay sex justisn't acceptable in the 21st century," he exclaimed.
Their comments follow the public hangings of Mahmoud Asgari, 16, andAyaz Marhoni, 18, on 19 July in Mashad, provincial capital of Iran'snortheastern Khorasan province, on charges of homosexuality.
Asgari had been accused of raping a 13-year-old boy, though Outragebelieved those allegations were trumped up to undermine public sympathyfor the two youths, both of whom maintain they were unaware homosexualacts were punishable by death, an AP news report said on Sunday.
"The judiciary has trampled its own laws," Asgari's lawyer, RohollahRazez Zadeh, was quoted as saying, explaining that Iranian courts weresupposed to commute death sentences handed to children to five years injail, but the country's Supreme Court allowed the hangings to proceed.
Meanwhile on Saturday, Iran's Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi condemned the executions, reaffirming her determination to ban theexecution of minors.
"My calls for a law banning execution of under-18s have fallen on deafears so far but I will not give up the fight," the AP quoted her assaying, calling the executions a violation of Iran's obligations underthe International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Prior to the boys' executions, the teenagers were held in prison for 14months and severely beaten with 228 lashes. The length of theirdetention suggests that they committed the so-called offences more thana year earlier, when they were possibly around the age of 16, astatement by Outrage explained.
Citing Iranian human rights campaigners, Outrage claims over 4,000lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Iranian revolution of1979. In total, an estimated 100,000 Iranians have been put to deathover the last 26 years of clerical rule, including women who had sexoutside of marriage and political opponents of the Islamist government.
According to ILGA, Iran is one of at least seven countries today whichstill retain capital punishment for homosexuality. Others includeMauritania, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Thesituation with regard to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is unclear.
In the wake of the hangings, Amnesty International (AI) on Fridaycalled on Tehran to put a final stop to state executions, explaining asa state party to the International Convention on Civil and PoliticalRights (ICCPR) and the CRC, Iran had undertaken not to execute anyonefor an offence committed when they were under the age of 18.
For the past four years, the Iranian authorities have been consideringlegislation that would prohibit the use of the death penalty foroffences committed by persons under the age of 18. Under Article1210(1) of Iran's Civil Code, the ages of 15 lunar years for boys andnine lunar years for girls are set out as the age of criminalresponsibility, an AI statement said.
In January 2005, following its consideration of Iran's second periodicreport on its implementation of the provisions of the CRC, the UnitedNations Committee on the Rights of the Child, the body of independentexperts established under this Convention to monitor states parties'compliance with the treaty, urged Iran:
"to take the necessary steps to immediately suspend the execution ofall death penalties imposed on persons for having committed a crimebefore the age of 18, to take the appropriate legal measures to convertthem to penalties in conformity with the provisions of the Conventionand to abolish the death penalty as a sentence imposed on persons forhaving committed crimes before the age of 18, as required by article 37of the Convention." ¶ 1:46 PM 0 Comments
IRAN: Activists condemn execution of gay teens
25 Jul 2005Source: IRIN
ANKARA, 25 July (IRIN) - Human rights groups the world over havestrongly condemned the recent execution of two gay teenagers innortheastern Iran.
"It's entirely unacceptable that people are actually killed because oftheir sexuality," Kursad Kahramananoglu, head of the InternationalLesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), the oldest and onlymembership-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)organisation in the world, maintained from Istanbul.
While exact details of the case remained unclear, he vowed ifconfirmed, ILGA would pursue the matter to the highest level, includingthe United Nations, noting a rise in homophobia in the world today.
Kahramananoglu was not alone in his condemnation. "Killing teenagersfor what they do together is absolutely abhorrent," David Allison,spokesman for the London-based LGBT advocacy group Outrage said. Headded that given that Iran was such an old civilisation, it wasappalling that they should descend to such barbaric levels - especiallyagainst young people.
"To execute people simply because they are gay or have had gay sex justisn't acceptable in the 21st century," he exclaimed.
Their comments follow the public hangings of Mahmoud Asgari, 16, andAyaz Marhoni, 18, on 19 July in Mashad, provincial capital of Iran'snortheastern Khorasan province, on charges of homosexuality.
Asgari had been accused of raping a 13-year-old boy, though Outragebelieved those allegations were trumped up to undermine public sympathyfor the two youths, both of whom maintain they were unaware homosexualacts were punishable by death, an AP news report said on Sunday.
"The judiciary has trampled its own laws," Asgari's lawyer, RohollahRazez Zadeh, was quoted as saying, explaining that Iranian courts weresupposed to commute death sentences handed to children to five years injail, but the country's Supreme Court allowed the hangings to proceed.
Meanwhile on Saturday, Iran's Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi condemned the executions, reaffirming her determination to ban theexecution of minors.
"My calls for a law banning execution of under-18s have fallen on deafears so far but I will not give up the fight," the AP quoted her assaying, calling the executions a violation of Iran's obligations underthe International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
Prior to the boys' executions, the teenagers were held in prison for 14months and severely beaten with 228 lashes. The length of theirdetention suggests that they committed the so-called offences more thana year earlier, when they were possibly around the age of 16, astatement by Outrage explained.
Citing Iranian human rights campaigners, Outrage claims over 4,000lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Iranian revolution of1979. In total, an estimated 100,000 Iranians have been put to deathover the last 26 years of clerical rule, including women who had sexoutside of marriage and political opponents of the Islamist government.
According to ILGA, Iran is one of at least seven countries today whichstill retain capital punishment for homosexuality. Others includeMauritania, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Thesituation with regard to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is unclear.
In the wake of the hangings, Amnesty International (AI) on Fridaycalled on Tehran to put a final stop to state executions, explaining asa state party to the International Convention on Civil and PoliticalRights (ICCPR) and the CRC, Iran had undertaken not to execute anyonefor an offence committed when they were under the age of 18.
For the past four years, the Iranian authorities have been consideringlegislation that would prohibit the use of the death penalty foroffences committed by persons under the age of 18. Under Article1210(1) of Iran's Civil Code, the ages of 15 lunar years for boys andnine lunar years for girls are set out as the age of criminalresponsibility, an AI statement said.
In January 2005, following its consideration of Iran's second periodicreport on its implementation of the provisions of the CRC, the UnitedNations Committee on the Rights of the Child, the body of independentexperts established under this Convention to monitor states parties'compliance with the treaty, urged Iran:
"to take the necessary steps to immediately suspend the execution ofall death penalties imposed on persons for having committed a crimebefore the age of 18, to take the appropriate legal measures to convertthem to penalties in conformity with the provisions of the Conventionand to abolish the death penalty as a sentence imposed on persons forhaving committed crimes before the age of 18, as required by article 37of the Convention." ¶ 1:46 PM 0 Comments
Saturday, July 23, 2005
A BAD FILM
Went today to watch Adel Imam's newest movie " Al-Sefara fee El 3emara" or in English, the "embassy in the building"... The movie is about an Egyptian living in the UAE and his return to Egypt to find that the Israeli Embassy has taken up space in the building where he was brought up and where he was planning to live...
The film is a bad comedy...all the comedy is based on the main character's uncontrollable lust for any and every woman...The film is also bad in terms of its attempt at sending a message to the government about the speeding normalisation with Israel, there is its very exaggerated and uses a series of events that do not come across in the one bit realistic...
You should still go and watch it to experience how a strong message (regardless of if you agree with it or not) can be distorted by amateurish artistic expression...
Was starting to think again that the Egyptian film industry was improving after I watched "Malaky Iskenderia" or "Prive Alex"...now I am having my doubts again...its the industry of lets satsify the masses... ¶ 12:31 AM 2 Comments
The film is a bad comedy...all the comedy is based on the main character's uncontrollable lust for any and every woman...The film is also bad in terms of its attempt at sending a message to the government about the speeding normalisation with Israel, there is its very exaggerated and uses a series of events that do not come across in the one bit realistic...
You should still go and watch it to experience how a strong message (regardless of if you agree with it or not) can be distorted by amateurish artistic expression...
Was starting to think again that the Egyptian film industry was improving after I watched "Malaky Iskenderia" or "Prive Alex"...now I am having my doubts again...its the industry of lets satsify the masses... ¶ 12:31 AM 2 Comments
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Sad but true about Kuwait...
When I was 13, was at home and heard a Kuwaiti woman beating up her Srilankan maid in the balcony...the screams were horrific but I couldnt do anything about it...Really dont know why...
It saddened me to read this and remember some of my worst moments ever...feeling quite bad...can hear the girl's screams in my ears now...
Need to clarify that not all Kuwaitis are like that...a lot of them are amazing and very nice people
Gulf region's newest pipeline: human trafficking
The US named four Gulf allies as among the worst at combating human trafficking.
By Jamie Etheridge Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
KUWAIT CITY – When Judy left her home on the southern coast of the Philippines this spring, it was her first trip abroad and her first time on an airplane. She was excited, nervous, and sad all at once.
Like many young Filipina women before her, awaiting her in Kuwait was the promise of a good job and enough money to support her family and save for school. She was to become a nanny and tutor to a young boy.
But on her first day working for the Kuwaiti family for whom she had been hired by a recruiting office in Mindanao, Philippines, her excitement quickly turned to fear.
Her new 'Mama' - what Asian maids in the Gulf call their female sponsors - told her, " 'I don't like you, you are ugly,' " says Judy, who didn't give her last name, in an interview at the Philippine labor attache's office in Kuwait. "I didn't understand what was going on. I just wanted to cry."
Work began at 5 a.m. and ended at midnight. "I washed clothes, cleaned the floors, scrubbed toilets and sinks and bathrooms. And just kept doing that over and over again," she says. "All this and no food, no rest."
One day she waited until her sponsor was out, then packed a bag, and escaped to the Philippine Embassy joining hundreds of other Filipina women who have run away from their Kuwaiti employers to seek sanctuary at the Overseas' Workers' Administration at the embassy.
Unable to leave until her sponsor pays her back wages because she cannot afford to buy a plane ticket home, Judy and the other women spend their days sitting in the embassy, unable to get another job and unable to go home.
Thousands of men, women, and children, most of them from Asia, will be trafficked to the Gulf this year to live as what the US State Department calls "modern day slaves." Most won't know until they get here what lies in store for them and hundreds will, like Judy, flee their employers, suffer physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse, and go home empty-handed.
The trafficking trap
In June the US State Department listed Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) among 14 countries that do little or nothing to stop human trafficking. Washington lowered all four to its Tier 3 category, which could eventually lead to economic sanctions if these countries do not act to stem the flow of trafficking across their borders.
The State Department says that 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children worldwide are victims of trafficking - the recruitment, transportation, or harboring of people by means of threat, force, coercion, fraud, or deception for the purpose of exploitation and forced labor.
There are no raw numbers on how many of these trafficked persons - who can end up being maids, factory workers, camel jockeys, or prostitutes - come to the Middle East. But the Gulf boasts one of the highest populations of expatriate labor forces in the world, with more than 10 million. In Kuwait, there is an average of one maid for every two Kuwaitis and in the UAE, 1.6 million people, or 80 percent of the total population, are expatriate workers.
Washington accuses the Arab Gulf states of failing to "comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and not making significant efforts to do so." The US lambastes Kuwait and its neighbors for failing to "take significant steps to address trafficking, particularly efforts to prosecute trafficking crimes and protect victims."
The thousands of Bangladeshi, Filipino, Indonesian, Sri Lankan, and other Asian women and men who seek sanctuary at their embassies across the region each week see little improvement in their conditions.
Earlier this year a Kuwaiti sponsor brought more than 1,000 Pakistani laborers under false pretenses. According to the Pakistani Embassy in Kuwait, the men paid the recruiter several thousand rupees only to arrive in Kuwait and find no job, no place to live, no work or residence visas, and no chance of earning back the money they spent to get here.
Recruiting scams are all too common. Trafficking victims say nationals from their home countries, as well as embassy officials and local citizens, often conspire to "recruit" hundreds of laborers, in exchange for a fee. Too often, such recruits find themselves homeless, jobless, and seeking sanctuary in their embassies or being arrested and deported.
'Modern day slaves'
Marie, another young Filipina interviewed for this story, can barely hold back the tears as she tells her story. "I dreamed I wanted to go abroad to support my family ... and when I came to Kuwait I thought my dream came true but when I reached my employer they were at first nice but then they kicked me and hit me," she says.
Like Judy, Marie eventually ran away. "I had a chance to escape and I went to the police station and an officer took me to the hospital." With the help of Philippine counselors, she filed a case against her sponsor for mistreatment and a court awarded her 500 Kuwait dinars ($1,712). But she has yet to receive the money.
In neighboring Saudi Arabia, a nongovernmental human rights watchdog, the National Human Rights Association, says that it has received about 2,000 complaints of abuse since it was established last year.
The State Department, in its annual trafficking report, says, "Saudi Arabia is a destination for men and women from South and East Asia and East Africa trafficked for the purpose of labor exploitation, and for children from Yemen, Afghanistan, and Africa trafficking for forced begging."
A spokesman for the Saudi Foreign Minister denounced the US report. "We are surprised by the contents of the report, and we disagree with most of what has been mentioned," Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Saud al-Kabeer told Reuters. "The rules and regulations of Saudi Arabia prohibit exploitation and trafficking of people. Our religion also does not accept this," he said.
The fight against trafficking
In the trafficking report, the US outlines specifically what measures it expects countries identified as the worst offenders to undertake in order to improve the situation. Speaking via videoconferencing at the US Embassy in Kuwait on June 22, James Miller, senior adviser to the secretary of State and director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, called on the government to combat its problems with "modern day slavery" by raising public awareness, improving labor laws to protect victims, and prosecuting offenders.
As most locals will acknowledge, the lifestyle of Gulfies (nationals from any of the Arab Gulf states) is built on a foundation of foreign labor. Most citizens' households - including high-ranking government officials, human rights advocates, as well as labor activists - have at least one and often several servants including a driver, cook, and maid.
Some young women who are brought here to be trapped into domestic servitude and often abused see no way out of their situation other than suicide. Instances of young Asian maids killing themselves by hanging or jumping off high buildings are a regular occurrence.
But for those able to escape, like 18-year-old Sittie Leng, there is hope they'll eventually return home.
Ms. Leng flips her long hair across her shoulders. "Household chores are not meant for me," she says.
After signing a contract in Mindanao and arriving in Kuwait, she switched employers three times in four months. In the last house, she was made a babysitter and that suited her better. But after one month, she grew worried when she saw her employers beating the three maids.
"Shouting, hitting, beating, kicking, using the wood to hit. I was scared that maybe they would hit me next. The maids had black marks all over their bodies. Our employer is like a devil and that house is like a hell - a hell house."
The four of them eventually fled together. Now Leng thinks only of going home. "I want to study nursing," she says.
When asked what she'll tell other Filipinas who think of coming to the Gulf to work, she laughs and shakes her head: "Beware," she says. ¶ 5:49 PM 6 Comments
When I was 13, was at home and heard a Kuwaiti woman beating up her Srilankan maid in the balcony...the screams were horrific but I couldnt do anything about it...Really dont know why...
It saddened me to read this and remember some of my worst moments ever...feeling quite bad...can hear the girl's screams in my ears now...
Need to clarify that not all Kuwaitis are like that...a lot of them are amazing and very nice people
Gulf region's newest pipeline: human trafficking
The US named four Gulf allies as among the worst at combating human trafficking.
By Jamie Etheridge Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
KUWAIT CITY – When Judy left her home on the southern coast of the Philippines this spring, it was her first trip abroad and her first time on an airplane. She was excited, nervous, and sad all at once.
Like many young Filipina women before her, awaiting her in Kuwait was the promise of a good job and enough money to support her family and save for school. She was to become a nanny and tutor to a young boy.
But on her first day working for the Kuwaiti family for whom she had been hired by a recruiting office in Mindanao, Philippines, her excitement quickly turned to fear.
Her new 'Mama' - what Asian maids in the Gulf call their female sponsors - told her, " 'I don't like you, you are ugly,' " says Judy, who didn't give her last name, in an interview at the Philippine labor attache's office in Kuwait. "I didn't understand what was going on. I just wanted to cry."
Work began at 5 a.m. and ended at midnight. "I washed clothes, cleaned the floors, scrubbed toilets and sinks and bathrooms. And just kept doing that over and over again," she says. "All this and no food, no rest."
One day she waited until her sponsor was out, then packed a bag, and escaped to the Philippine Embassy joining hundreds of other Filipina women who have run away from their Kuwaiti employers to seek sanctuary at the Overseas' Workers' Administration at the embassy.
Unable to leave until her sponsor pays her back wages because she cannot afford to buy a plane ticket home, Judy and the other women spend their days sitting in the embassy, unable to get another job and unable to go home.
Thousands of men, women, and children, most of them from Asia, will be trafficked to the Gulf this year to live as what the US State Department calls "modern day slaves." Most won't know until they get here what lies in store for them and hundreds will, like Judy, flee their employers, suffer physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse, and go home empty-handed.
The trafficking trap
In June the US State Department listed Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) among 14 countries that do little or nothing to stop human trafficking. Washington lowered all four to its Tier 3 category, which could eventually lead to economic sanctions if these countries do not act to stem the flow of trafficking across their borders.
The State Department says that 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children worldwide are victims of trafficking - the recruitment, transportation, or harboring of people by means of threat, force, coercion, fraud, or deception for the purpose of exploitation and forced labor.
There are no raw numbers on how many of these trafficked persons - who can end up being maids, factory workers, camel jockeys, or prostitutes - come to the Middle East. But the Gulf boasts one of the highest populations of expatriate labor forces in the world, with more than 10 million. In Kuwait, there is an average of one maid for every two Kuwaitis and in the UAE, 1.6 million people, or 80 percent of the total population, are expatriate workers.
Washington accuses the Arab Gulf states of failing to "comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and not making significant efforts to do so." The US lambastes Kuwait and its neighbors for failing to "take significant steps to address trafficking, particularly efforts to prosecute trafficking crimes and protect victims."
The thousands of Bangladeshi, Filipino, Indonesian, Sri Lankan, and other Asian women and men who seek sanctuary at their embassies across the region each week see little improvement in their conditions.
Earlier this year a Kuwaiti sponsor brought more than 1,000 Pakistani laborers under false pretenses. According to the Pakistani Embassy in Kuwait, the men paid the recruiter several thousand rupees only to arrive in Kuwait and find no job, no place to live, no work or residence visas, and no chance of earning back the money they spent to get here.
Recruiting scams are all too common. Trafficking victims say nationals from their home countries, as well as embassy officials and local citizens, often conspire to "recruit" hundreds of laborers, in exchange for a fee. Too often, such recruits find themselves homeless, jobless, and seeking sanctuary in their embassies or being arrested and deported.
'Modern day slaves'
Marie, another young Filipina interviewed for this story, can barely hold back the tears as she tells her story. "I dreamed I wanted to go abroad to support my family ... and when I came to Kuwait I thought my dream came true but when I reached my employer they were at first nice but then they kicked me and hit me," she says.
Like Judy, Marie eventually ran away. "I had a chance to escape and I went to the police station and an officer took me to the hospital." With the help of Philippine counselors, she filed a case against her sponsor for mistreatment and a court awarded her 500 Kuwait dinars ($1,712). But she has yet to receive the money.
In neighboring Saudi Arabia, a nongovernmental human rights watchdog, the National Human Rights Association, says that it has received about 2,000 complaints of abuse since it was established last year.
The State Department, in its annual trafficking report, says, "Saudi Arabia is a destination for men and women from South and East Asia and East Africa trafficked for the purpose of labor exploitation, and for children from Yemen, Afghanistan, and Africa trafficking for forced begging."
A spokesman for the Saudi Foreign Minister denounced the US report. "We are surprised by the contents of the report, and we disagree with most of what has been mentioned," Prince Turki bin Mohammed bin Saud al-Kabeer told Reuters. "The rules and regulations of Saudi Arabia prohibit exploitation and trafficking of people. Our religion also does not accept this," he said.
The fight against trafficking
In the trafficking report, the US outlines specifically what measures it expects countries identified as the worst offenders to undertake in order to improve the situation. Speaking via videoconferencing at the US Embassy in Kuwait on June 22, James Miller, senior adviser to the secretary of State and director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, called on the government to combat its problems with "modern day slavery" by raising public awareness, improving labor laws to protect victims, and prosecuting offenders.
As most locals will acknowledge, the lifestyle of Gulfies (nationals from any of the Arab Gulf states) is built on a foundation of foreign labor. Most citizens' households - including high-ranking government officials, human rights advocates, as well as labor activists - have at least one and often several servants including a driver, cook, and maid.
Some young women who are brought here to be trapped into domestic servitude and often abused see no way out of their situation other than suicide. Instances of young Asian maids killing themselves by hanging or jumping off high buildings are a regular occurrence.
But for those able to escape, like 18-year-old Sittie Leng, there is hope they'll eventually return home.
Ms. Leng flips her long hair across her shoulders. "Household chores are not meant for me," she says.
After signing a contract in Mindanao and arriving in Kuwait, she switched employers three times in four months. In the last house, she was made a babysitter and that suited her better. But after one month, she grew worried when she saw her employers beating the three maids.
"Shouting, hitting, beating, kicking, using the wood to hit. I was scared that maybe they would hit me next. The maids had black marks all over their bodies. Our employer is like a devil and that house is like a hell - a hell house."
The four of them eventually fled together. Now Leng thinks only of going home. "I want to study nursing," she says.
When asked what she'll tell other Filipinas who think of coming to the Gulf to work, she laughs and shakes her head: "Beware," she says. ¶ 5:49 PM 6 Comments
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Read a posting made by Kyle about his recent visit to Garbage City and it struck me that my favourite places in Egypt and Cairo are not usually the most beautiful or picturesque...and even those of them that are, I dont like for that but for some other thing...
Some of those places tingle something inside of me about my identity and my worldview...
Garbage City...as Jen was saying, the most powerful place in Egypt...I took Jen there, only a few days into her Egyptian experience...Garbage City throws at your face loads of things...political corruption; poverty; religious discrimination; religious dialogue and co-existence; religion being the core of Egyptian life; even fear...
Its just a Garbage City but then it gives you a different but yet similar perspective of the Egyptian reality...
Other places that tingle something inside of me...Coptic Cairo; Fishawy (Coffee Shop in Khan Khalili); Sultan Hassan Mosque (next to the Citadel); Trianon in Midan Raml in Alexandria; Abdel Aziz Street in Abdeen; Ballah (my family's summer house next to the Mediterranean); Hard Rock Cafe in Sharm Sheikh and so many more...
Egypt just does it for me... ¶ 2:47 AM 11 Comments
Some of those places tingle something inside of me about my identity and my worldview...
Garbage City...as Jen was saying, the most powerful place in Egypt...I took Jen there, only a few days into her Egyptian experience...Garbage City throws at your face loads of things...political corruption; poverty; religious discrimination; religious dialogue and co-existence; religion being the core of Egyptian life; even fear...
Its just a Garbage City but then it gives you a different but yet similar perspective of the Egyptian reality...
Other places that tingle something inside of me...Coptic Cairo; Fishawy (Coffee Shop in Khan Khalili); Sultan Hassan Mosque (next to the Citadel); Trianon in Midan Raml in Alexandria; Abdel Aziz Street in Abdeen; Ballah (my family's summer house next to the Mediterranean); Hard Rock Cafe in Sharm Sheikh and so many more...
Egypt just does it for me... ¶ 2:47 AM 11 Comments
Friday, July 15, 2005
Egypt for UBS!!
Not many people have seen me in the last few days...I was busy writing the UBS Excellence Award application for AIESEC Egypt...
Its such small things that make you feel happy about what is it that you are doing with your life...
Statistics are out:
AIESEC Egypt:
#3 on combined growth
#12 on XDAQ index, best ever for Egypt was #16 4 years ago...
#25 in exchange numbers globally
#1 in the African growth network (including Tunisia)
Such numbers make me feel good...make me feel that I have tried hard and that I have achieved something...
Most importantly, wasnt just me but it was each and every active member of AIESEC Egypt but then one special person needs to mentioned...someone who has been the machine that never stops...though would need oiling from time to time ;)...That special guy in Chris Gassman...
Other people who have helped me have a great year...Tom and Aly...my other MC brothers...
Egypt for UBS!! I am proud to be in AIESEC Egypt!! ¶ 11:12 AM 2 Comments
Its such small things that make you feel happy about what is it that you are doing with your life...
Statistics are out:
AIESEC Egypt:
#3 on combined growth
#12 on XDAQ index, best ever for Egypt was #16 4 years ago...
#25 in exchange numbers globally
#1 in the African growth network (including Tunisia)
Such numbers make me feel good...make me feel that I have tried hard and that I have achieved something...
Most importantly, wasnt just me but it was each and every active member of AIESEC Egypt but then one special person needs to mentioned...someone who has been the machine that never stops...though would need oiling from time to time ;)...That special guy in Chris Gassman...
Other people who have helped me have a great year...Tom and Aly...my other MC brothers...
Egypt for UBS!! I am proud to be in AIESEC Egypt!! ¶ 11:12 AM 2 Comments
Sarah Munshi Reflecting...
"How is it that I cannot enjoy the beauty of the khutab on a Friday afternoon, of the passionate preacher voicing his sermon, or enjoy the gold Arabic calligraphy around the mosque, or the delicate detail paintings or the massive pillars which hold the building up.. why am I not able to enjoy the building that came from a women, who gave birth to a man, that could build the mosque…"
This is just a paragraph of Sarah Munshi's reflective postings...Sarah is a Muslim American trainee in Egypt...She reflects on the different Islam that she has discovered in this particular posting...
¶ 11:08 AM 0 Comments
Thursday, July 14, 2005
A Letter to the British People From a Daughter of Iraq
Was forwarded to me...
A Letter to the British People From a Daughter of Iraq
Iman al-Saadun
Friday, 8 July 2005
I’m sending this letter to the British people and in particular tothe residents of London. For a period of hours, you have livedthrough moments of desperate anxiety and horror. In those hours youlost a member of your family or a friend, and we wish to tell you intotal honesty that we too grieve when human lives pass away. I cannottell you how much we hurt when we see desperation and pain on theface of another person. For we have lived through this situation –and continue to live through it every day – since your country andthe United States formed an alliance and laid plans to attack Iraq.The Prime Minister of your country, Tony Blair, said that those whocarried out the explosions did so in the name of Islam. The Secretaryof State of the United States, Condaleezza Rice, described thebombings as an act of barbarism. The United Nations Security Councilmet and unanimously condemned the event.I would like to ask you, the free British people, to allow me toinquire: in whose name was our country blockaded for 12 years? Inwhose name were our cities bombed using internationally prohibitedweapons? In whose name did the British army kill Iraqis and torturethem? Was that in your name? Or in the name of religion? Or humanity?Or freedom? Or democracy?What do you call the killing of more than two million children? Whatdo you call the pollution of the soil and the water with depleteduranium and other lethal substances?What do you call what happened in the prisons in Iraq – in AbuGhraib, Camp Bucca and the many other prison camps? What do you callthe torture of men, women, and children? What do you call tying bombsto the bodies of prisoners and blowing them apart? What do you callthe refinement of methods of torture for use on Iraqi prisoners –such as pulling off limbs, gouging out eyes, putting out cigaretteson their skin, and using cigarette lighters to set fire to the hairon their heads? Does the word “barbaric” adequately describe thebehavior of your troops in Iraq?May we ask why the Security Council did not condemn the massacre inal-Amiriyah and what happened in al-Fallujah, Tal‘afar, Sadr City,and an-Najaf? Why does the world watch as our people are killed andtortured and not condemn the crimes being committed against us? Areyou human beings and we something less? Do you think that only youcan feel pain and we can’t? In fact it is we who are most aware ofhow intense is the pain of the mother who has lost her child, or thefather who has lost his family. We know very well how painful it isto lose those you love.You don’t know our martyrs, but we know them. You don’t rememberthem, but we remember them. You don’t cry over them, but we cry overthem.Have you heard the name of the little girl Hannan Salih Matrud? Or ofthe boy Ahmad Jabir Karim? Or Sa‘id Shabram?Yes, our dead have names too. They have faces and stories andmemories. There was a time when they were among us, laughing andplaying. They had dreams, just as you have. They had a tomorrowawaiting them. But today they sleep among us with no tomorrow onwhich to wake.We don’t hate the British people or the peoples of the world. Thiswar was imposed upon us, but we are now fighting it in defense of ourselves. Because we want to live in our homeland – the free land ofIraq – and to live as we want to live, not as your government or theAmerican government wish.Let the families of those killed know that responsibility for theThursday morning London bombings lies with Tony Blair and hispolicies. ---------------------------------Stop your war against our people!Stop the daily killing that your troops commit!End your occupation of our homeland! ¶ 10:55 AM 10 Comments
A Letter to the British People From a Daughter of Iraq
Iman al-Saadun
Friday, 8 July 2005
I’m sending this letter to the British people and in particular tothe residents of London. For a period of hours, you have livedthrough moments of desperate anxiety and horror. In those hours youlost a member of your family or a friend, and we wish to tell you intotal honesty that we too grieve when human lives pass away. I cannottell you how much we hurt when we see desperation and pain on theface of another person. For we have lived through this situation –and continue to live through it every day – since your country andthe United States formed an alliance and laid plans to attack Iraq.The Prime Minister of your country, Tony Blair, said that those whocarried out the explosions did so in the name of Islam. The Secretaryof State of the United States, Condaleezza Rice, described thebombings as an act of barbarism. The United Nations Security Councilmet and unanimously condemned the event.I would like to ask you, the free British people, to allow me toinquire: in whose name was our country blockaded for 12 years? Inwhose name were our cities bombed using internationally prohibitedweapons? In whose name did the British army kill Iraqis and torturethem? Was that in your name? Or in the name of religion? Or humanity?Or freedom? Or democracy?What do you call the killing of more than two million children? Whatdo you call the pollution of the soil and the water with depleteduranium and other lethal substances?What do you call what happened in the prisons in Iraq – in AbuGhraib, Camp Bucca and the many other prison camps? What do you callthe torture of men, women, and children? What do you call tying bombsto the bodies of prisoners and blowing them apart? What do you callthe refinement of methods of torture for use on Iraqi prisoners –such as pulling off limbs, gouging out eyes, putting out cigaretteson their skin, and using cigarette lighters to set fire to the hairon their heads? Does the word “barbaric” adequately describe thebehavior of your troops in Iraq?May we ask why the Security Council did not condemn the massacre inal-Amiriyah and what happened in al-Fallujah, Tal‘afar, Sadr City,and an-Najaf? Why does the world watch as our people are killed andtortured and not condemn the crimes being committed against us? Areyou human beings and we something less? Do you think that only youcan feel pain and we can’t? In fact it is we who are most aware ofhow intense is the pain of the mother who has lost her child, or thefather who has lost his family. We know very well how painful it isto lose those you love.You don’t know our martyrs, but we know them. You don’t rememberthem, but we remember them. You don’t cry over them, but we cry overthem.Have you heard the name of the little girl Hannan Salih Matrud? Or ofthe boy Ahmad Jabir Karim? Or Sa‘id Shabram?Yes, our dead have names too. They have faces and stories andmemories. There was a time when they were among us, laughing andplaying. They had dreams, just as you have. They had a tomorrowawaiting them. But today they sleep among us with no tomorrow onwhich to wake.We don’t hate the British people or the peoples of the world. Thiswar was imposed upon us, but we are now fighting it in defense of ourselves. Because we want to live in our homeland – the free land ofIraq – and to live as we want to live, not as your government or theAmerican government wish.Let the families of those killed know that responsibility for theThursday morning London bombings lies with Tony Blair and hispolicies. ---------------------------------Stop your war against our people!Stop the daily killing that your troops commit!End your occupation of our homeland! ¶ 10:55 AM 10 Comments
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Lost it all...
I was brought up to love this country and its people because I come from a family that is ultimately proud of their Egyptian passports to the extent that they rejected offers of getting other passports...
One day out to the Ministry of Youth and Sports so that I can get an official letter so that I can get a travel permit to be able to travel to IC in India...
Outcome: Now I can not wait till I leave this country forever... ¶ 3:56 PM 2 Comments
One day out to the Ministry of Youth and Sports so that I can get an official letter so that I can get a travel permit to be able to travel to IC in India...
Outcome: Now I can not wait till I leave this country forever... ¶ 3:56 PM 2 Comments
