Carrying the torch through

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-k6kiTz9Vg&feature=share 

"While Scaf has the guns as well as the power of state media and de facto authority, and the Islamists have their grassroots appeal through their religiously charged rhetoric, the revolutionaries have nothing but their dogged determination and their unwavering conviction that justice will in the end prevail. As such, they are decidedly a force that cannot be ignored. The new parliament will soon have to choose on which side it will finally be."

Amira Nowaira
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/25/egypt-parliament-islamist-majority?CMP=twt_gu 

CAIRO 

(Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images) 

Egyptian protesters hold up an obelisk with the names of those killed during last year's uprising, at a huge rally in Tahrir Square on January 25, 2012, marking the first anniversary of the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak as a debate raged over whether the rally was a celebration or a second push for change.  

Mustafa el Salmawy 

And so the 25th January 2012 ~ an unerring perseverence to carry the obelisk and light up the square not unlike an Olympic torch that must not be put out before it reaches its rightful destination.

ALEXANDRIA

Extreme Islamists, having coaxed the poor with provisions and promises through their charitable work in the hope of gaining votes went a step further in an attempt to form a coalition with the army who is presently not in favour due to its betrayal of the protestors. Consequently the majority of the people marching through the city ignored the more or less cordoned areas the party  'Justice and Freedom' had engaged and proceeded in their millions to walk the length of the greater part of the city from El-Mansheya to destination point Sidi Gaber Military Headquarters.

photo by Ahmed Ali Ghoneim Fares

a giddy angle of the march. evocative of the perseverence and enthusiasm among the people celebrating and avering their stance since 25th Januray 2011

The revolution will not fail

The malice and spite of the people who try to hijack its cry for personal gain will not be tolerated for longer than need be. The hope shines through in spirits that are untainted, in attitudes that battle against adulterated compromise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RI84-OaPls&feature=share

all march with heads held high

Ta7reer flame kept alight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXEjqqmVGOc&ob=av2e

People need nourishment; FACT. But along with that fact we remain aware that 'nutriment' alone cannot fulfill their need. The children depicted starving in Africa over the past decades keep on doing so. There are reasons that go beyond food that contribute to this unbearable, evil aspect of humanity. It has been noted, not only in such decrepit conditions but even in the most prestigiously wealthy ones in the world that a child requires not only nourishment through food but very significantly through nurture. Nurture involves the stomach as does nourishment; organs of the body will gather strength and health through well-being and wholesome emotion or more tritely put through 'heart and soul'. 
Similarly, greater than physical strength is the awakening of a spirit and the resilience it bears within to remain so.

Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul." - The Koran

When spiritual growth, within or without particular religious parameters can be allowed to express itself and when tolerance is commended rather than tossed aside, the world as we know it might indeed be closer to heaven than hell.

But with spiritual decline manifesting itself in extreme reactions on both sides of religious argument, propaganda finds cause to thrive. In the age we live, we are all individually defined as either for or against religion regardless of essence and all anyone can do is hope to tap into their own personal sanctuary for  balanced thought and inner equilibrium.

"An angry man is not fit to pray." Yiddish Proverb.

"Anger is as a stone cast into a wasp's nest." Malabar Proverb

       Expression, skilled or otherwise are all part of our human propensity and it is this very need and ability that propels us forward as human beings. 

In the words of John Keats:

"The poetry of the earth is never dead."

We cannot put too high a price on any expression that finds its way into lifting the human spirit.

But for wings to sprout, dreams must be kept alive and like moonlit stars lift the darkness of night.

Should Egypt appear to stray it will somehow get back on track and it will continue to reach for the stars. The depraved economy and the currents that fight against its development and progress may well continue to present devastating scenarios and it is for this very reason that the spirit of the nation has to be kept sunlit and watered so as to survive.

Perhaps Egypt has, to its great advantage, valuable lessons in history, but these are often buried in the subconscious of a nation. When the threads of memory surface to combine with aspiration, the song only then  may begin to feel complete.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019fxjf

Reem Kelani

And for a peek into portrayal through Spanish eyes, namely Miguel Angel Sanchez's, here's the perspectively enhanced interview between eminently acclaimed journalists Alexandre Buccianti and Yossri Fouda:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLEhS0t9p00

Art itself may be said to live in spite of all attempts to stifle it and returns the favour by keeping us
alive.

photos: amiraT