'Silver' Anniversary

I was posted to Colombo 25 years ago today. Even subtracting the months I was in the US after I got out of the Marines and the weeks I spent there between contracts, I've still live longer outside the states than in. It just feels a bit weird is all.

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?

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We are

back from Holland. Doortje managed to get a few days off so we scampered off as fast as we could book tickets. It was a nice break, good food and we got to see much of the family but the weather sucked, we had just one day of rain. The rest of the time it was warm and sunny, I was disappointed to be honest.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Nabta: Older than Stonehenge
Credit: J. M. Malville (U. Colorado) & F. Wendorf (SMU) et al.

Explanation: In the Sahara Desert in Egypt lie the oldest known astronomically aligned stones in the world: Nabta. Over one thousand years before the creation of Stonehenge, local herders built a stone circle and other structures on the shoreline of a lake that has long since dried up. Over 6000 years ago, stone slabs three meters high were dragged over a kilometer to create the site. Shown above is one of the stones that remains. Little is known about the ultimate purpose of Nabta and the nature of the people who built it.

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It Is Now: 12:34:56, 07/08/09

Except in Belize, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and the United States where it is 12:34:56, 08/07/09.

Pirate Bay website banned in Netherlands

THE HAGUE — A Dutch court on Thursday temporarily banned Swedish filesharing website The Pirate Bay from operating in the Netherlands by granting an application brought by a copyright lobby group.

A judge ordered three owners of the site to "cease infringing the copyright of the members" of Stichting Brein, a trade association which represents the Dutch recording industry. It had brought an urgent application for the ban at the district court in Amsterdam.

For every day the ruling is ignored, the owners will be fined 30,000 euros (42,000 dollars) up to a maximum of three million euros, said a judgment published by the court.

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Media Matters: Fox News graphics department has shaky grasp of Mideast geography

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DutchAmsterdam.nl - Amsterdam craze: tossing Smart cars into the canals

Amsterdam, July 25, 2009 [DutchAmsterdam.nl] — Amsterdam police is deeply concerned about a new craze in which vandals toss parked cars from the Smart brand into the city’s canals.

The so-called ‘Smart tossing’ takes place mainly during the weekend, when many youths are out for a night on the town.

According to locally-published newspaper De Telegraaf police has not wanted to publicize this form of vandalism for fear of copy-cat incidents. However, police officers are paying extra attention to Amsterdam’s canals, especially during the weekends.

The Smart cars are small enough to be parked with head or tail pointing to the water.

One man who parked his Smart car that way said police woken him with the message that his car had been pushed into the canal.

“Several weeks ago the same thing happened to my companion’s Smart,” Casper de Jong said. “In both cases the Smart was declared a total-loss.”

Alongside most canals a low guard rail helps prevent cars from taking a dip, but the Smart car is small enough to be lifted and tossed.

It is not clear how many Smart cars have been vandalized this way, but an employee of Smart Center Amsterdam confirmed the company has recently been confronted with it ‘a number of times.’

Car Tipping

In recent years vandals have also targeted other small vehicles, including scootmobiles and tiny cars from the Canta brand — both used primarily by people with handicaps and limited mobility.

In an urban version of cow tipping, yobs apparently derive fun from tipping over these types of vehicles.

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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.

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BBC News: Egyptian jailed for insult poem

A civil servant in Egypt has been jailed for three years for insulting President Hosni Mubarak in a poem, according to newspaper reports.

Moneer Said Hanna's family said he wrote satirical poetry for fun, to entertain his work colleagues, and never meant to hurt anyone.

The case was largely unknown until the family asked a newspaper to publish an appeal for clemency.

The Arab Network for Human Rights says it will appeal against the sentence.

It says Mr Hanna, who worked as a civil servant in a small town in upper Egypt, was tried without being given access to a lawyer.

Under Egyptian law, insulting the president can land the offender in jail for up to three years.

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Trimming the Date Palms

Weekend Desert Trip

President Obama Speaks to the Muslim World from Cairo, Egypt

Egypt Reports 1st Swine Flu Case

Egypt's health minister has announced the country's first confirmed case of swine influenza A-H1N1.

In remarks carried by state news media Tuesday, Health Minister Hatem el-Gabali said a 12-year-old American girl showing flu symptoms arrived in Cairo Monday on a flight from Europe. The minister said she tested positive for the virus and is being treated. He said she is in good condition.

The girl's family is of Egyptian origin, and she was traveling to Egypt with her mother to spend her summer holiday there. Her mother has not tested positive for the disease.

The case marks the first confirmed case of swine flu on the African continent.

When the global swine flu outbreak began, Egyptian authorities ordered the slaughter of all 300,000 or more pigs in the country, a decision that sparked riots in the mainly Christian community where pigs are raised. The United Nations condemned the pig cull as an overreaction, since this outbreak of swine flu has been spread by humans far more than by pigs.

Egypt has been hit hard by a different flu strain in recent years. The H5N1 bird flu virus has killed 27 people in Egypt since 2006, when the disease first arrived in the country. It also has devastated Egypt's domestic poultry industry.

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Jinx

He wants to go out on the balcony. But it's 39C and way to hot for the fur ball.

Babylon & Beyond: Obama speech great news for Cairo University

Over the last couple of weeks, Cairo University has been at the center of the Middle East’s attention. The university, which will be hosting President Obama’s anticipated June 4 speech, is undergoing major renovations.

The Egyptian government is installing a first-class press and media center near the main hall, where Obama will make his address. The main hall itself is getting a new Egyptian flag – instead of the old torn one –along with air conditioning, lighting and sound systems. Campus roads are being refurbished and swept, and the university’s famous dome is being polished by hand.

Many areas around the university campus also are having renovations. A number of neighboring streets will be covered in flowers when Obama arrives, a scene that didn’t even occur when Cairo University celebrated its centennial last year.

Cairo University has been a main pillar in Egyptian higher education for generations. But until it was chosen as a venue for the speech, the university had looked pretty much the same for the last 30 years.

It was thought that Al-Azhar Mosque was a main contender as the site for Obama’s speech. Now Azhar officials are looking at Cairo University with envy. Their mosque missed out on a great redecoration opportunity.

Watching how Cairo University and its surroundings are being transformed in a fortnight to one of the tidiest and most beautiful spots in the country may make Egyptians hope the U.S. president visits more often.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Cairo University. Credit: Reuters

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First Day of Summer

Doortje and I have declared today as the First Day of Summer here in Cairo as it's the first day we've swam in our pool. And it was nice though it's not that hot today, just around 34C/93F.

NRC: Netherlands to close prisons for lack of criminals

The Dutch justice ministry has announced it will close eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system. A decline in crime has left many cells empty.

During the 1990s the Netherlands faced a shortage of prison cells, but a decline in crime has since led to overcapacity in the prison system. The country now has capacity for 14,000 prisoners but only 12,000 detainees.

Deputy justice minister Nebahat Albayrak announced on Tuesday that eight prisons will be closed, resulting in the loss of 1,200 jobs. Natural redundancy and other measures should prevent any forced lay-offs, the minister said.

The overcapacity is a result of the declining crime rate, which the ministry's research department expects to continue for some time.

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StrategyPage.com: Egypt Legalizes Corruption

The Egyptian parliament passed a law allowing the president to buy military equipment and weapons for the next three years, without making details of the deals public, or even reporting them to parliament. The justification for this was the need for secrecy while making certain types of purchases. Exactly what types of purchases the government was considering was not revealed. It's a secret.

Now there are two types of military purchases that would be made easier because of this new law. The most obvious ones are corrupt purchases, with lots of payoffs and exorbitant prices. This, however, is risky, as the law expires in three years, and Egypt is already pretty corrupt. Government officials don't need a special law to help them steal. They do very well without it.

The other type of military purchase that would benefit from this law would be those items needed to build a nuclear weapon. Were such a project to be made public knowledge, the international community would go nuts and, worse for Egypt, much foreign aid would be halted.

Can you think of any other reason for a secrecy law like this?

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Andy's Egypt Pictures

Andy has his pictures from his Egypt visit on Picasa.

We're Back

We are back from Holland.

Doortjes Mom

More pictures here.

Doortje at the Embassy