Sunday 14 April 2013

No rhyme or reason

Mustafa Hassan ( Photo – courtesy of his family )


'Egypt: Human rights defender Mr Hassan Mustafa sentenced to two years imprisonment'

The official accusation in the documents reads: 'accused of causing "redness on the prosecutor's cheeks" '

اتهامه بالتعدى على وكيل النيابة أحمد درويش، الذى ادعى أن
حسن تهجم عليه، مما أدى إلى احمرار خدوده
Read more:  https://www.facebook.com/notes/el-nadeem/egypt-human-rights-defender-mr-hassan-mustafa-sentenced-to-two-years-imprisonmen/10151564974389365 


 Sherif Alaa as shared via Facebook
'A story that you don't read in Western media unfortunately.
Dear non-Egyptians, and especially non-Arabic speakers. Let me share a very short story with you.

His name is Hassan Moustafa... This man in the picture was simply one of the reasons for sparking the Egyptian revolution. He was the one who managed to take a picture of the guy named "Khaled Saeed" who was beaten and tortured to death. N
o one believed the story until Hassan leaked the picture. The death of Khaled Saeed was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, trigger for the Egyptian revolution.

Hassan was sent to prison for 6 months under Mubarak's rule in 2010 accused of "attacking the police" something that never happened. He was released before the revolution and was an important organizer in Alexandria during the revolution.

After Morsi became the president hundreds of activists were killed, jailed and tortured. One day Hassan went to defend some of the arrested activists in Alexandria. He asked the prosecutor "how could you arrest these guys with no legal basis?". Hassan was sentenced 2 years in prison for "making the prosecutor blush". He is accused of causing "redness on the prosecutor's cheeks" This is the official accusation in the documents. He was arrested last January and was sentenced 2 years in prison last March.' 
 
 Sherif Alaa http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/03/12/activist-hassan-mustafa-sentenced-to-2-years/


'The court decided on Saturday, to postpone the appeal session for the verdict imprisoning the marketing manager to May 4.' http://allafrica.com/stories/201304140107.html

Faltering rhythm 
 Egypt today 

Like the sting of a mosquito that won't stay away  
The Mubarak posse flounce, hover and sway
The army's spoked heels dig in so deep 
Ordained to sow in order to reap

An MB ensnaring the already weak
Endured by those who dare not speak

Chastising retorts flying to and fro
Arrogant sneers just grow and grow
A land rife with abuse, control and greed
Confused morals, dismissed conscience
Oppression in creed



 
Confined in course
In condemned man's garb
A proud nation sits 
Continuing to bleed
Anticipating
To be duly quashed 
Or mercifully freed




Pics from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anonymous-ART-of-Revolution/362231420471759?fref=ts

Saturday 6 April 2013

Sleepless In Dismissal

(title inspired by the embedded you tube link below)
As a nation we may well feel like we are

Anonymous ART of Revolution

and yet ...
Unless we 'go it' we might as well consider all who perished in the name of the revolution to be forgotten.

Anonymous ART of Revolution

The revolution awakened the proverbial lotus eaters and there is no sedative powerful enough to revert the awakening and yet the lotus flowers and fruits continue to present themselves in different, glorified hues~ Army/ MB/ more Army, more MB.  Depending on how the wind blows, both cling on~ tooth and nail. A modern-day Greek tragedy enfolds daily for President Morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood as it did for Mubarak and the ruling Military personnel not so long ago. 
But catharsis is no where in sight.

Can we really find ourselves secure in a land where the army and the police serve the people rather than rule them?  
Is to abide by the MB and their more often than not unsavoury ideas of reform our only other option?  
Faces Divided*
Can the MB ever be fully integrated into a multi-ethnic society? How much do we as a people truly value our ethinicities?
Our daily rhetoric of hurling abuse one way or another continues to keep us all on a loop and in dire turmoil. 

But expression and reaction is all Egypt has if it is to burrow its way through dictatorship into some kind of democracy. Despite a growing apathy it appears to be in it for the long haul. 
Hapless and helpless, we attempt to hold onto perspective.

Anonymous ART of Revolution


Blindfolds to past and future are meted out by those taking control, but there can be no blocking out the train wreck of debilitating economy.

There is no quick fix. With former regime creeping back steadily, there is a sense of dread; betrayal of those who perished in the name of the revolution accompanied by the ever hollow 'i told you so' lashed out by a considerable number who never felt the fine spirit stir in their soul in the first place. And yet, handing complete control to present regime appears similarly inexpedient with backstage cues churning more and more restlessness in a setting so gnawed and severely compromised.
"Why Khairat El-Shater is the most important figure in the Muslim Brotherhood for more than five decades
Muslim Brotherhood

Khairat El-Shater
His profile, which combines wealth with power never existed before in the Brotherhood’s history and as one insider put it: seems fitting the Gamal Mubarak era."
"Speaking in a slightly high-pitched voice, El-Shater claimed that Brotherhood has a “comprehensive” vision to rebuild Egypt and achieve its “renaissance” on the “basis of an Islamic frame of reference” but right now, the focus was on “the security vacuum and saving the economy”." Read more: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/37993/Egypt/Politics-/Meet-the-Brotherhood%E2%80%99s-enforcer-Khairat-ElShater.aspx
The fear is that given too much rope, 'behind the scenes' policies of either of those controling regimes will make the struggle towards democracy increasingly complex, remote, unachievable.  

Anonymous ART of Revolution

Distancing ourselves and refuting every beckoning lotus bloom is a people's way of continuing to adamantly say a bold 'NO' until dawn can deliver the promise of daylight.

*Here Noha Fikry hums the 'Mr.Sandman' tune and delivers a message with an assured clarity, both in Arabic and in English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSiVFvtGy-E
Mr. Morsy
Badee3


There is no need for abuse, no need for violence, no need for debate. With hardship at every corner and multiplying, the struggle is dead in its tracks. Perhaps the two major parties are locked in battle but can either of them really deliver what Egypt has been fighting for?
EGYPT continues to say NO


 
*with thanks to Noha Fikry
*'Faces Divided'posted on Facebook, artist unknown.