Global Voices: What's good for the goose is NOT good for the gander

I shamelessly lifted this from Global Voices:

by Marwa Rakha

When Marwa El Sherbini was shot dead in a German court Facebook users and the Egyptian blogosphere mourned her as the victim of the veil, the victim of racism, and the victim of her beliefs. But when a heap of bones wrapped up in a blanket named Ibrahim El Sayed Ibrahim was shipped back to Egypt from Libya - no one lifted a finger in his defense.

Ahmad El Badawy was among the first few to report the incident on his blog and on Facebook ; quoting Al Masry Al Youm Newspaper, Ahmad tells us his story:

فى شهر نوفمبر الماضى، كان الشاب ابراهيم حديث بعض الصحف الليبية.. ابراهيم اسقط عصابة دولية فى قبضة السفارة المصرية والامن الليبى.. العصابة ارسل قائدها من لندن مليون يورو.. كانت فى طريقها الى «الغسيل» أو لـ «عملية ارهابية».. الصحف التى نشرت تفاصيل «السقوط» لقبت ابراهيم بـ «الفرعون المصرى الذى اسقط عصابة دولية».. لكن ما حدث بعد ايام من النشر كان قاسيا.. حضر اليه ضابطان من رجال البحث الجنائى فى ليبيا.. عاتباه لأنه أخبر سفارة بلاده بشأن العصابة ولم يخطر الأمن الليبى.. الضابطان اقتاداه الى قسم شرطة هناك..
وحطما عظامه كاملة لمدة يومين متتاليين.. ووضعاه داخل «كيس بلاستيك» من الحجم الكبير.. وألقيا به فى مزرعة وسط مكان خال من المارة والسكان.. ظناً انه مات او سيموت.. وبعد ساعات قادت اليه «المصادفة» صاحب المزرعة ليكتشف الواقعة وينقله إلى المستشفى ليظل به اسبوعا داخل العناية المركزة.

Last November Ibrahim El Sayed Ibrahim was allover Libyan newspapers when he reported a money laundering operation to the Egyptian Embassy; he was hailed as the Egyptian hero who busted an international gang. Two Libyan officers summoned him to the station, blamed him for reporting the gang to the Egyptian embassy not to the Libyan police, broke every single bone in his body, dumped him in a field, and left him to die. Divine intervention saved him when the owner of the farm found him and took him to the hospital; he stayed in the intensive care unit for a week.

Accustomed to the failing reaction of the Egyptian system, Ahmad said

النظام المصرى الحقير ما اتحركش كالعادة عشان يرجع حق الشاب المصرى اللى ضيعته ليبيا … للأسف ده مش خبر جديد و من كتر تكراره جتتنا نحست و اتعودنا عليه

As usual, not a finger was raised to avenge the poor Egyptian

What really enraged him was the contrast between how Islamists reacted to Marwa El Sherbini's assault in Germany and Ibrahim El Sayed Ibrahim's assault in Libya

الأخوة اللى قلبوا الدنيا عشان يستغلوا موت الشهيدة مروة الشربينى شهيدة العنصرية و يخلوها شهيدة الطرحة عشان يروجوا لنفسهم و لعنصريتهم و يحولوا الموضوع من حادث فردى ارتكبه شخص عاطل عنصرى ( ما يختلفش كتير فى صفاته عن صفات العنصريين بدقون عندنا ) لجريمة بيطالبوا بمعاقبة ألمانيا كلها عليها ما فتحوش بقهم فى القصة دى بربع كلمة

The “brothers” who raised hell over Marwa's death and politicized it to serve their personal interests by turning her into a victim of her scarf; the “brothers” who used an individual incident by some racist lowlife, who is not any different from our very own bearded racists, to promote their own agendas - those same “brothers” did not open their mouths when it came to Ibrahim's story.

Ahmad elaborates on his point saying

أخواننا الاسلاميين و القومجية لغرض فى نفس يعقوب اعتبروا اللى حصل ده حرب ألمانية على الاسلام و على قيمنا و اذلال للمصريين
دلوقتى لما جريمة تعذيب بشعة تحصل عن طريق رجال الأمن الليبى - اللى هما ممثلين الدولة - و فى مكان احتجاز تابع للدولة و لمدة طويلة و يبقى القصد منها الانتقام و القتل و لما الراجل يرجع مصر كومة لحم مفروم و غالبا حيعيش حياته كلها عاجز و بسبب ايييه ؟ لما كل ده يحصل … هل حتخرج مظاهرات اسلامية بالألوف بتطالب بمعاقبة ليبيا زى ما خرجت مظاهرات بتطالب بمعاقبة ألمانيا ؟
هل حد حيطالب بالاعدام للضباط اللى عذبوا ابراهيم أو حتى حد حيطالب بتسليمه لمصر زى ما طالبنا بتسليم المجرم الألمانى ؟
هل حد من قطيع المليون واحد اللى عملوا جروبات لشهيدة الحجاب حيسمع أصلا عن الموضوع ده ؟
هل حد حيفتح بقه عن الماضى و الحاضر العنصرى ضد المصريين و ضد الأقليات فى الدول العربية ؟
عرفتوا فين الازدواجية ولا لسة ؟
عرفتوا مين اللى بيكيل يميت مكيال و بيتهم غيره بكدة عشان يبرأ نفسه ؟

The “brothers” and the “nationalists” promoted Marwa's assault as Germany's war on Islam and an insult to the Egyptians. But now when an Egyptian simpleton is tortured by the hands of a Libyan officer - a government representative - in an official police station for a prolonged period of time with the intention of torture and homicide, and when the guy is shipped back in a pile to spend the rest of his life incapacitated - when all of that happens, will we see thousands of Islamists demonstrating in his defense? Will any one demand that the Libyan officers be hanged the same way they called for the hanging of the German racist? Will anyone create a facebook group for him? Will anyone dare talk about cases of discrimination against Egyptians in Arab countries?
Do you now know the meaning of hypocrisy and double standards? Do you now know what's good for the goose is not good for the gander?

Link

FP - The List: The Middle East's Most Powerful Spooks

In a region known for cutthroat espionage, these five intelligence chiefs have leveraged their skills and connections to gain influence far above their pay grades.

Position: Director of Egypt's General Intelligence Service

Career: The archetypical Arab intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman has risen from anonymous government apparatchik to serious candidate for the Egyptian presidency in less than a decade. Dubbed "one of the world's most powerful spy chiefs" by London's Daily Telegraph, Suleiman was born in 1935 in a poverty-stricken fundamentalist stronghold in southern Egypt. Choosing the military as his profession, he excelled academically, collecting degrees in Egypt and abroad and earning a transfer to military intelligence. His selection as director of Egypt's intelligence service in 1993 came just as the regime was reeling from extremist attacks against tourist sites and other critical infrastructure.

In 1995, he famously insisted that President Hosni Mubarak's armored Mercedes be flown to Ethiopia for a state visit; The car saved the Egyptian leader's life during an assassination attempt the next day. In response to the attack, Suleiman helped dismantle Mubarak's Islamist opponents, a campaign that earned him a reputation for ruthlessness. Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Suleiman's experience with combating Islamist terrorists has made him a favorite of Western intelligence services hungry for insights into al Qaeda and affiliated organizations.

Influence: More than from any other single factor, Suleiman's influence stems from his unswerving loyalty to Mubarak. Of Suleiman's allegiance, a former senior Israeli intelligence officer told Haaretz, "His primary task, perhaps his only one, is to defend the regime and protect the life of the president." In a sign of presidential gratitude, Egypt's secret warrior has also recently served as its diplomatic face, traveling throughout the region as Mubarak's personal emissary. This charge includes working as a mediator during ongoing Israeli and Palestinian negotiations and as Cairo's interlocutor to dozens of Palestinian groups, including Hamas. Whether this unofficial promotion is a trial run for a Suleiman presidency remains to be seen.

Link

Trimming the Date Palms

Weekend Desert Trip

Sakkara

Andy In Egypt

Our nephew Andy is visiting from the states and of course we have to visit the pyramids.

Air Filter

The Embassy has provided us with a number of Bionaire air filter/ionisers about a month ago. I picked one up to shift it the other day and the air outlet was filthy, which I found surprising as it's suppose to suck in the dirty air and spit it out clean so I took it apart and it was caked with dust. I had to get a shot of it and above you can see the left half that I cleaned (sort of) and the right side that I didn't. I hate to think of what our lungs will look like after 4 years.

Our House

We've had a few request for pictures of our house but between the internet not working and computer problems it hasn't happened yet. But to start off with we have this picture of the entrance hall that we can post, we'll try and do more soon.

The bench, picture and lamps are things we've (i.e. Doortje) bought here, and if the walls look a bit orangey in the picture there's a reason for that, it is. We didn't ask for this colour nor anything remotely close to it but this is the best they could do. 'That's Egypt' as our landlady is fond of saying.

And the internet is down again, I'll try and post this whenever.

The Forecastfox Bar on Firefox

It was 39 degrees 24 hours ago and then it was 29 2 hours ago and now it's 19. I've put my fleece back on. But I had to post this screen shot, it's been a long time since I've had "Blowing Dust" in my weather forecast.

The November Desert Trip

This is a short clip from the desert trip I made last November of Peter Gaballa getting us unstuck in the Sahara while someone is having a go at him on the radio. The 'hissing' sound you hear that cancels out most of the other audio is Peter letting air out of his tires, he has a system set up to inflate and deflate his tires on the move from the cab of his truck. Pretty nifty.

You can see a few more pictures from this trip at our Picasa page.

AFP: Make bread not war, Egypt president tells army

CAIRO (AFP) — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has mobilised the army's ovens to deal with the country's massive bread shortages amid rising social unrest, official media reported on Monday.

Mubarak has told the army and the interior ministry, which control bakeries usually used to make bread for the troops, to increase their production in order to "put an end to the bread crisis," Al-Ahram daily said.

Egypt is in the grip of a serious bread crisis brought on by a combination of the rising cost of wheat on world markets and sky-rocketing inflation.

Four people have been killed in fights that broke out in bread queues in recent weeks, a security official told AFP.

Mubarak said that the phenomenon of bread queues "must disappear."

While most bread in Egypt is subsidised, the price of non-subsidised bread has risen by more than 26 percent over the last year.

"Where's the problem?" the official MENA news agency quoted Mubarak as asking. "If it's the production, then it should be increased. If it's the distribution, then new distribution points should be opened."

Twenty percent of Egypt's population of 78 million lives under the poverty line of two dollars a day, with another 20 percent hovering just above. Around four percent of Egyptians live in extreme poverty, the World Bank said.

At least 70 people were killed when bread riots erupted in 1977 after the government tried to reduce subsidies on the staple, of which Egyptians are the world's biggest consumers.

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It's Raining!

This is the 3rd time we've any rain to speak of at the house, we even had thunder. And while it was just two thunderclaps this is only the second time we've had thunder in the last six months. The picture is the view of our garden from the computer room.

We're Back

6 months, 2 weeks and 5 days later we have ADSL again. Bout damn time.

Update: Keep scrolling down as we're back dating some entries from before we got ADSL.

Spring Has Sprung

The mango trees are starting to bloom and today Doortje found and rescued this baby chameleon from first the dogs who thought it would be good fun to play with it, then the gardener who needed the trowel she left so we had a general idea where in the garden it was last, and seeing the chameleon he scooped it up and was about to fling it over the wall when Door stopped him, and of course me who almost stepped on it. Then after all that drama a hawk dove out of the sky and snagged it for lunch, Door couldn't believe it.

Guest House

Doortjes sister is coming to visit next week so we set up the guest house today. We spare no expense, that's a 4 person tent!

Desert Driving Course

Doortje and I did a desert driving course together, it was good fun and we both learned quite a lot. One part of the course was going up this dune and learning to come back down safely, which was the undercurrent of the whole course. So what we did was get a good running start and plow into the dune and see how far we could climb before gravity and inertia over took. In the picture on the left I'm in the Land Cruiser to the right, I think I made it the furthers up the dune but Door said someone climbed high later in the day. But the tricky bit is coming back down, safely of course. And if the dune doesn't look very steep in the left picture have a look at the one on the right, Doortje snapped that one before we started back down.

While we were practising getting down the dunes this bunch of Americans out for a weekend camping trip stopped to say hello. That's Turbo with me and the dogs, a friend of Peter Gaballa (below) who is our instructor and guide on my other (and next) desert trip.

INA

Not something we expected to see in down town Cairo. INA is the Croatian national petrol company.

Our Temporary House, And The Road To It

This is the house we are living in until our other house is built. It's nice enough, has a huge water leak and when it rains the water runs off the balcony and into the house and down the stairs. And the road to the house leaves a little to be desired, so yes, we are looking forward to moving into the other place as soon as possible.

Update: This is also the road I ride my bike on to get exercise to stay nice and healthy. You'd be amazed at how long I'm able to hold my breath while pedaling so I don't have to breath in the diesel fumes and dust the trucks kick up, not to mention the stench from the open sewer running next to the road. Yes indeed, nice and healthy.