Fustat/Duweiqa

Collapsing building in Alexandria kills at least 12

2008-10-08T12:40:00.009+02:00

A four-storey building collapsed in the Mustafa Kamel district in Alexandria this morning, claiming the lives of at least 11. Among the dead was a mother holding her baby tight. At least ten more were injured according to AFP. 35 people were living in the building that collapsed at 1 A:M in the morning. The rescue operation continues.

Salah Subhi, the Muslim Brotherhood MP for Alexandria was at the scene this moorning, and put the blame on the municipality.

"The building was known to need renovation work,"

Collapsed buildings are unfortunately far too common than one might have wished for. The city of Alexandria has been among the misfurtunate ones lately, on the eve of the new year, last December 35 people lost their lives in an equally tragic incident when a 12-storey building collapsed in the district of Loran. In 2005, 19 people died in another collapse in the City. It was less than three months ago, that i last had to write about it, then in the City of Mansoura , with an equally dreadful outcome, among the five victims at that time was two twins.
The building was from 1955, and a fifth floor was added in 1997 in violation of the law.

The residents had complained to the local authorities that the building was unsafe and the authorities had ordered the removal of the fifth floor and other structural changes, they added. But the orders were not implemented, they said.

New legislation was introduced in 1996 to counter the problem after a building collapsed in the upper Middle class area of Heliopolis in Cairo and took 64 lives, but little if any has changed.

UPDATE: A twelwth person has died according to newsreports.

Eissa pardoned by President Mubarak

2008-10-07T01:03:00.005+02:00

Ibrahim Eissa, the editor in Chief of al Doustor, has been pardoned today, on the 35 anniversary of the Crossing of the canal(The first day of the October War 1973). President Husni Mubarak pardoned him as part of the President´s efforts to foster freedom of the press in Egypt according to the Egyptian official news agency MENA.

While i fully appreciate the gesture from the President today, an important first step to foster freedom of the press in Egypt would be to carry out the promise given to Galal Aref, then Chairman of the Press Syndicate , on February 23rd 2004, about changing legislation, to safeguard journalists from facing the possibility of being sentenced to jail for what they write. This was later incorporated into the Presidential election platform in 2005. Today some 1685 days later, this promise has yet to be fulfilled. This is something that the President surely intends to do, prior to the ending of his fifth term in office in October 2011, or will it become part of the reforms sugested in the presidential election platform in 2011?

Here is al Doustour´s own take on the pardoning of Eissa.

Here is Ibrahim Eissa´s press conference at the Journalists syndcate in Cairo after recieving the pardon.

Fire in Ghazl al Mahalla factories

2008-10-04T20:16:00.005+02:00

According to reports, A fire broke out in three factory buildings in Egypt´s and probably the Arab World´s largest factory with some 24 000 employees. The fire began when the factory was restarted after Eid al Fitr holidays, at about 6 o Clock in the morning . The factory contains raw cotton, so the fire spread heavily. The Fire brigade fought the fire for hours and managed to control it. The material damages seems heavy, but no casualties in the workforce is reported. The news is still sketchy , and there also seems to be an attempt at hindering reporters from reaching the factories.

Karim al Beheiry points out that this is the second fire that hits the Ghazl al Mahalla company within a week(considering that the factory was closed for half of it, that should keep the responsible for fire security, sleepless at night).

The City of Mahalla is situated in the delta, the industrial heart of Egypt. The workers of the Ghazl al Mahalla company has been the focal point of labour activism since December 2006, and the call for a general strike proclaimed on facebook that gathered 64 000 names in two weeks, where made to support the workers in Mahalla on that particular day, as well as being a call to protest the increase in prices. In the following days Mahalla was the scene of riots, that took at least two lives, and led to mass arrests and police brutality. The city was totaly cordoned off from the outside world for a few days.

One might wonder when this string of fires will end.

¨There is no such thing as a handicap¨

2008-10-04T10:18:00.006+02:00

Heba Said , one of Egypt´s Paralympics gold medalists, and a Zagazig native is being profiled by Michael Slackman and Mona al Naggar in today´s New York Times. At the time i wrote about the early medalists in the Paralympics in Beijing,medals continued to come like magnets all through the games , and the final toll was 12 medals, four golds, four silver and four bronze medals, making Egypt the 29th in the overall standings of the games.

They returned to a heroes welcome, or so it would seem when recievied by the first Lady and Gamal Mubarak. In the long run, maybe their success will have an impact, but there are still very much to wish for, in terms of people´s attitudes, heroine or no heroine, she still has to live her daily life fighting ignorance and prejudice.

HEBA SAID AHMED pulled her car up to the curb. “No parking here,” a police officer shouted. “But it’s a handicap car,” she said softly, motioning to her wheelchair in the back seat. The officer insisted that she park down the block.

A few minutes later, she had made it from her car, hauled herself on crutches down a flight of steps into a largely empty park when a man tried to stop her. “Members only today,” he said, not even asking if she was a member. She was not, but, exasperated, she said, “I am Heba Said, champion for Egypt.”

The man had no idea what she was talking about, and kept telling her to leave.

She was not raised within the family as any other child, so the first reality check, came in school, were she was told by her teacher that if she couldn´t stand up, this was no place for her. She was placed in a class room on the fifth floor for the first four years, when her father first pleaded with the headmaster to let her be in a first floor classroom, when pleading to common sense ended in vain, he used to carry her to class every day.

and still she says:

“I think there has to be a bit of struggle in your life,” she said. “It strengthens you. It builds character.”

She was always encouraged to do well in school and graduated from Zagazig University with a degree in psychology, it was in her teens that she began with sports and soon the medals started coming, and they´ve never stopped since.

She´s most likely to end her sporting career, while she´s on top, being a double paralympics gold medalists and search for other challenges in life, like having a family, and bring her children up to become champions.

What really lingers on in my mind in reading about Heba is this simple sentence, that tells more about us and the restraints, limits and prejudice that exists, Heba is way ahead of us, and she´s a true role model for all of us.

“THERE is no such thing as a handicap,” she said. “A handicap is in your thinking, or in your heart.”

Strings attached to Muhammed Refaát´s release

2008-10-03T13:16:00.003+02:00

It seems that the Egyptian blogger Muhammed Refaát has been , or about to be released, subject to conditions from State Security that would restrict him from ever updating his blog or his facebook account. Taking his story to the media or to Human Rights organizations, this according to al Doustor( the fact that he talks with al Doustor would of course disqualify him from following the terms).

He has been in prison since July 21 st, though ordered released by the state security on August 17th, but he was not released, instead an order was issued for him to be held under the ever so flexible Emergency Law.

It´s of course absurd that State Security could even contemplate setting preconditions for his release, but then again this is the Kafkaesque state of Egypt 2008.

More on this later.

al Jazeera English Cairo Special

2008-10-03T09:21:00.006+02:00

(Via the Arabist)

During the last forthnight al Jazeera English inside story has been airing three instalments about Egypt focusing on Ramadan, Youth and Political reform.

The first installment focuses on the food banquets for the poor during Ramadan.

Ramadan

Part II of the first installment can be found here

Youth

Part II of the second installment can be found here

Political Reform

Part II of the third installment can be found here

Al Beit beitak ?

2008-10-02T00:06:00.007+02:00

In the aftermath of Duweiqa, that cost 107 people their lives, the BBC offers us a glimpse at the same problem from another angle, were we get to follow two youngish couples, Hazem and Shaimaa and Ashraf and Rabab on their make or break day when they will compete against each other for the key to their future.

A serious social problem that changes society forever makes a good TV-game show?

This is Doqou el- Mazaher(Start the Bridal Music), the new show of Mahmoud Saad, famous TV-personality from al Beit Beitak. In a way it´s reality-TV, comming to Egypt, but the problem is that one of the couples will walk away with the keys to married life, a family and soon children , in short the Egyptian fairytale beginning of.... And they lived happily ever after...

The other couple will go back, not to their home, but to their parents constant nagging about why your fiancé is not doing so and so ,and their engagement is more likely to break up, than not.

On the other hand you have couples who never gets the chance to go on a TV-show, they live the reality day in day out, and it´s not bright.

What is needed is a sustainable plan that offers affordable housing in high numbers over 20 years , something that has been a scarcity since the late sixties. The problem should be solved by the government and private business in concert, not apartments thrown at people, desperate for an adult life and a family until network ratings, or another idea comes along, and closes down the show. TV´s role in society is not to do charity in the first place, TV should be about education and information and of course entertainment, but to dwell on others missery is not good television, some might argue that this is the ultimate infotainment, but trust me, the only ones who are not aware of the harsh reality on the ground in Egypt, are those who chose to look away, and they are not the ones who need an apartment, blinded by their lifestyle they already live in gated communities, like Qatemiyya Hights and set their eyes firmly on what to wear in Marina next summer.

al Beit beitak? Hard luck, don´t think so!

You can view the clip that goes with the article above, new policy from the BBC dosent alow me to embed the clip, so here is the link.

Happy Aid al Fitr and Rosh Hashannah 5769

2008-10-01T08:01:00.010+02:00

I would like to wish a happy Eid al Fitr to my Muslim readers and Happy Rosh Hashannah, the Jewish new year to my Jewish readers, today it´s 2nd Tishri 5679.

Kol sanna wa antum tayyibin and Shana Tova Umetukah (A good and sweet year).

Kahk al Aid
There is something that´s practically obligatory on all tables in Egypt on Eid al Fitr, that is Kahk. This tradition of eating Kahk on Eid al Fitr goes back about 1000 years, during the Fatimid Dynasty in Egypt, according to legend the ruler al Aziz(975-996) used to distribute Kahk to the people of the newly established city of al Qahirah(Cairo), it was also about that time that al Azhar was created as a religious institution by the Fatimids.

I would like to send 1 Kg of virtual Kahk al Aid to Sheikh Youssef al qaradawi, the highly popular and influential religious scholar, whom himself was educated at the very same institution some 980 years later, if he were to take a walk down the Memory Lane of his formative al Azhar years he would find himself passing by al Kahkeen alley, were the Kahk makers used to create their culinary masterpieces in what seems to have been a cultural high point in the City´s history, when the City was governed by the Fatimids , whom ruled over a population, most of whom belonged to another Muslim Law school. Tolerance seem to have been the name of the game, for most of the Fatimid years(al Hakim´s rule differs sharply from that pattern).

Qaradawi has been acting rather cranky and grumpy, as of late and perhaps he needs the Kahk to recover from the feverish statements he gave during the latter part of Ramadan, he obviously had some Basbousa or Konafa that made it possible to see things in a slightly different light, but in my view the issue was totally uncalled for from the outset, just because it´s fashionable with that kind of rhetoric at this particular point in time, be it from so called statesmen or religious scholar, it dosent make it right.

Happy Aíd!

This will be cross-posted at Diwan of Democracy.

UPDATE: The BBC has some nice photos from around the Globe on Aíd celebrations and Global Voices on celebrations in Moscow among other places, the piece shows the good, bad and the ugly among attitudes and prejudices towards the Muslim minority in Russia, but is interesting, it´s written by Veronica Khokhlova, and is one of many articles on the celebrations by GV. just learned that Áid al Fitr is called Uraza Bayram, so Happy Uraza Bayram to all Muslims in Russia!

Ibrahim Eissa´s sentence reduced to two months

2008-09-28T12:17:00.009+02:00

The Bulaq Abu al-Ella Misdemeanor Appeals Court issued a two months prison sentence to al Doustor´s editor in Chief , Ibrahim Eissa today. The verdict was an appeal of a six months prison sentence from March 26th 2008, and concerns articles published in August 2007 on the health of President Hosni Mubarak. He was brought to trial on charges of spreading false information, damaging public interest national stability. He could have been sentenced to a maximum of three years. Eissa was not in court today.

This story, as well as a number of other court cases featuring Ibrahim Eissa and virtually every other high profile editor of the free and opposition press, the Creme de´la creme of Egyptian journalism if you like.This has been like a real life Ramadan-tv series for the last year or so.

On February 23rd 2004, President Mubarak gave a promise of changing legislation, to safeguard journalists from facing the possibility of being sentenced to jail for what they write. This was later incorporated into the Presidential election platform in 2005. Today some 1675 days later, this promise is yet to be fulfilled.

National theater fire photos

2008-09-28T10:49:00.004+02:00

Just before iftar yesterday, the National Theather (al Masrah al Qaumi) was hit by fire, due to a circuit problem. The National Theater is situated in Ataba, downtown Cairo and was originally inaugurated in 1935. It had just recently been renovated. There were no activities in the building at the time. The main hall was destroyed and three firefighters were hospitalized after taking part in the rescue operation.

Here are some pictures that i want to share, it´s one from Muhammed Ghafari´s flickr account and a whole photostream that caught my eye wia Ahmed Abd al Fattah , It can be found here, and viewed preferebly as a slideshow(51 photos).

More later.

Umm ad Dunya

2008-09-21T22:50:00.003+02:00

The Picture is Nasa´s image of the day the 21st of September 2008.

Jailhouse Donkey

2008-09-20T12:11:00.004+02:00

It´s not everyday you find a news item with a soundtrack, but that happened yesterday when a Delta judge decided to put a donkey in jail for a day for stealing corn on the cob from a local research institute, the donkey was caught almost readheanded with the stolen cob at a police checkpoint set up only for that purpose. The owner of the donkey got a 50 E.P fine (9 USD).

One can only congratulate the local police for their effective method of work in this matter, perhaps this could be a model for preemtive police work for the whole nation. Minister of Interior, Habib al Adly will surely be proud of you.

You also have to commend the donkey on the good taste, i wonder if he´s fed grilled Corn on Cob on a regular basis, if that´s the case i would like to be in his shoes. Then the donkey is better of than most of the 40 percent of the Egyptian people living below or slightly over the margin of poverty( 2 USD/day - UN definition).

As for the Judge, you might wonder if that´s not the real ass in this story, at least if the real reason behind this odd story is not to help the poor farmer and reduce his fine, while ¨jailing¨ his animal for a symbolic period.

The soundtrack, well there is only one song to go with this story, behabak ya Houmar with Saad al Sagheer from the film Aleyya al Tarab bl talatha. I´ve always thought that the donkey looked kind of lost and Sad , but who could blame him, sentenced to be in the midst of Saad and Dina.

Enjoy the clip.

First International Day of Democrracy

2008-09-15T14:05:00.005+02:00

Today marks the first UN International day of Democray, the decision was taken on Nov 8th 2007. It´s about time i would say.... Better late than never! I´m celebrating!

Happy Nayrouz - Coptic new year 1725

2008-09-12T15:48:00.003+02:00

Yesterday September 11th was the Coptic new year - Nayrouz and the first day of the month of Tout, the coptic calender has 13 months, 12 of them are 30 days each and the last being five or six days long, dependinding on if it´s a leap year or not.

I would like to wish my Coptic readers(a late) happy Nayrouz 1725!

Egypt Rocks & Rules at Paralympics Powerlifting

2008-09-11T14:56:00.009+02:00

Medals seems to be like magnets to the Egyptian Powerlifting team in the current paralympics in Beijing. Egypt just collected it´s second gold in the men´s 56 Kg category by Sherif Osman, who broke the world record three times along the way to the Podium, settling for an end result of 202.5 Kg. This was an early birthday gift, Sherif´s 26th birthday is on Monday. You can find more photos on a jubilant gold medalist here.

This was the second gold after Fatma Omar´s gold yesterday,her third consecutive paralympics GOLD, after having won in Sydney in 2000 and in Athens four years later.

I´m not going to say in which category she won, because as a gentlemen i´ve been taught not to ask a women´s weight, but i´m thrilled for her, it´s extra special when a women wins, because it signals that we as a nation should take women sports seriously and it creates role models for girls who sees that it´s possible to sport and win medals.

i´m actually very pleased to hear about another female participant in the powerlifting still waiting for her hour of glory(tomorrow hopefully), Rania Alaa Eldin Morshedi has a five-year old son , but still continues to compete on international level. This is something unusual for women in sports in Egypt, they usualy drop their career as soon as they graduated and got married, in my view they give up their career before having reached their peak, and in fact some times not being able to collect the fruit of their hard labour for years and years.

In total this was the fifth medal in powerlifting, two golds, one silver and two bronze! We also won a bronze medal in the Men's Javelin Throw, you can see who the rest of the medalists are here.

I´m quite sure this means that neither President Mubarak, nor the Muslim Brotherhood will call for an investigation as to the bad results this time around, though one should learn from success, just as much as take leasons from the mistakes.

1000 Mabrouk to all the medalists and the whole Egyptian team at the Paralympics!

Living in Washington?

2008-09-10T17:39:00.007+02:00

If i was living in Washington, this is what i would be doing today!

The Project on Middle East Democracy(POMED) is hosting an event with the headline - Egypt Today: The State of Human Rights and Rule of Law

It´s a panel made out of Michele Dunne - Editor of Arab Reform Bulletin, at Carnegie Endovment, Neil Hicks from Human Rights first, Marc Lynch(A.K.A Abu Aardvark) and Ambassador Nicholas Veliotes, among other things a former Ambassodor to Egypt.The whole event is moderated by Stephen McInerney, Director of Advocacy, Project on Middle East Democracy.

For me , the star without a shadow of a doubt is Michele Dunne, her knowledge of Egypt is profound,on a level few western scholars can compete with. Marc Lynch, for me is more of a specialist on Islamic political movements than Human Rights and Rule of Law, being a very able blogger, he has found a niche for himself in describing blogging in a political context and perhaps especially so when writing about the Ikhwhan bloggers. In terms of Egypt his field has been Ikhwan,modernity and democratization. He´s been focusing more on Iraq lately, the Awakenings and other Sunni political movements, correct me if i am wrong. To end my presentation of Abu Aardwark, i must say that i miss the times when he used to spend plenty of time disecting the relationship between popdivas, the Arabic pop equivalent of the three Tenors, except for the fact that hate each other, or so goes the myth - Nancy, Haife and Ruby used to be the hottest topic over at Abu Aardvark, nowadays, one has to make due with the occasional hip-hop lyric namedropping.... please ya Marc, write about the Divas once in a while...

To set you in the right frame of mood for this serious topic, after me losing my way, humming ¨Ana Haifa ana¨ you should read Michele Dunne´s newly penned piece in the American Interest - A Post-Pharaonic Egypt You could also read something from the other aisle of Think tank Washington, Jeffrey Azarwa from the American Enterprize Institute and judge for yourself, his piece is called - The Autumn of Mubarak , the article was just published in the Weekly Standard. Least but not last i throw in an article by Scott Carpenter on the highly politisized queston on the future of U.S Aid to Egypt, the Military part of it was something current U.S Ambassador Margaret Scobey to Egypt commented on only yesterday.

It begins at 14:00 eastern time(in about an hour) - i´m sure there will be a transcript as well.

UPDATE: Here is Marc Lynch´s part of the opening discussion, focusing on describing the political scene in Egypt.

UPDATE II: Here is a link to the full discussion, unfortunately Neil Hicks couldn´t take part in it.

Fustat/Duweiqa

2008-09-10T14:40:00.005+02:00

I´m temporarily changing the name of this blog to Fustat/Duweiqa as a tribute and a symbolic act of solidarity and respect with the victims, families and the people of Duweiqa and the whole area of Manshiyyet Nasser, when they enter a period of mourning and at the same time have to face a life, so dramatically different from what they had only four short days ago.

These last days, i have felt completely numnb, angry, frustrated , all shades of feelings, but most of all the fact that flashes through my mind constantly, that a life is the cheapest commodity in this country it´s totally without value, and exchangeble. The assembly line in Charlie Chaplin´s 1936 classic, Modern Times has been in my head during the last days, letting people work until they can´t anymore and then just throw them away. In the case of Duweiqa, life is as harsh as it gets, but nobody pays attention, until it´s to late, our Prime Minister seemed to somewhat pride himself and his governments´s achievements last February, when he stated in Parliament:

that the new law regulates slums and said that, while slums all over the world are made of tin shanties, in Egypt they are made of reinforced concrete

The have´s in our country plays Russian roulette with the have not´s every single day, and the only time the life of ordinary, but economically less fortunate Egyptians are valued is if they die in some kind of catasthrope that catches the media eye, if Mufti Ali Gouma deems your death important enough to be a martyr, then your life has a prize tag - (5000 E.P).

On Monday night some people tried to organize a vigil for the victims of Duweiqa at Talat Harb in downtown Cairo, they were not alowed to express the most hounorable , and decent feeling of solidarity, compassion and common sorrow. That incident made me write this. The victims of Duweiqa deserves to be remembered, the survivors and the people deserveres better living conditions, unfortunately after the 40 days mourning period is over, the public eye will move elsewhere and most likely the daily life of those who most need our support and respect, will continue as it did prior to last Saturday until it happens again, the promises given, most likely broken and the lives lost in vain, only left in the loving memories of their families.

Lastly i would like to follow the example of my fellow bloggers Marwa Rahkka and Zeinobia and ask for people to help in whatever way they can, this is through a facebook group created by Zed Magazine, but any way and any help and prayers is more than good enough.

Mahalla trial resumes today

2008-09-10T02:52:00.006+02:00

The trial involving the remaining 49 defendants from the April 6th strike resumes today. It was originally reffered by the Public Prosecutor to the State Security Court in Tanta on June 6th and the trial began on Aug 9th, when the defence managed to postpone the trial in order to be able to read the prosecution material. They didn´t manage to get the defendants out on bail though.

I´m much too tired to write anything half decent right now, crawing for bed, but i want to give you some reading material about the trial and then i will follow events more thouroghly as they develop.

Amnesty International issued a statement just prior to the second session was about to begin on Sept 6th, were the charges are stated, and includes:

Assembly of more than five people with the aim of disturbing public order and security; deliberate destruction of public and private property; ransacking and theft; violent resistance and assault on police officers during the exercise of their duties; and illegal possession of firearms.

If convicted they face up to 15 years’ imprisonment.

AI calls upon the proper authourities to end the processs in the Supreme State Security Court, which is a emergency court, without the normal legal safeguards for the defendants. AI calls on the authourities to hold the trial in a normal court of law that offers the defendants the opportunity of a fair trial.

Amnesty International is urging the Egyptian authorities to:

* rescind the decision to refer the defendants to the emergency court and order a retrial before an ordinary court and ensure they receive a fair trial.
* release immediately and unconditionally those protestors found not to have used violence; the others must be given a fair trial in accordance with Egypt’s obligations under international human rights law and standards.
* open a full, independent and impartial investigation into the killings of the three people in Mahalla. In particular the investigation should focus on the circumstances in which police used lethal fire and ensure that any officers or other officials responsible for using or ordering excessive force should be brought to justice.

Arabawy gives us an eyewittness account from the first court session in Tanta on Aug 9th here

Sarah Carr gives us an equally important account from the opening of the second session on Sep 6th here.

Sorry for the poor quality of blogging, but it´s more important that you have the tools, than me packaging it neatly right now.

You can also use the fustat search and look for the words April 6th, General Strike Mahalla and Burg al Arab and you will find more material.

15 years prison sentence for ringleader in "thanawiya amma" case, 7 years for torturing a man to death

2008-09-08T16:08:00.006+02:00

The verdict in the ¨Thanawyya amma¨ case in Minya vas issued today. The head of Minya's Examinations Committee,Ezzat Khalil Mansour got a 15 year prison sentence and he also loses his work.

I am in no way inclined to think that this is something that authourities should look lightly upon, but bare in mind that a case were a man was tortured to death inside the police precinct, by the very people who is supposed to uphold the law, and defend the public, rendered a seven years prison term for the policemen involved. That the case that all off us are all to familiar with, the Imad al Kabir torture case rendered three years in prison , not to speak about the sentences in al Salam Boccacio 98 case, still fresh on our minds and still staining the reputation of the judicial system.

With this in mind i can´t say that this is a fair sentence. Killing someone gives you seven years, being involved in 1000 people´s death, and you are acquitted, so forgive for thinking that 15 years seems a bit too much....

Rockslide in Manshiyyet Nasser claims at least 103 lives

2008-09-06T13:01:00.029+02:00

A rockslide in the shanty town of Manshiyyet Nasser at the foot of the Muqattam Hills, Cairo has taken at least 18 lives,and at least 22 injured. The death toll is expected to rise sharply.

UPDATE: At least 20 dead according to the BBC. Footage from the BBC Arabic can be found here.

UPDATE II: 1:00 PM Sep 7th - 31 bodies has been confirmed dead after being pulled from under the rubble according to Egyptian authorities and 46 people has been treated in hospitals so far.

UPDATE III: 48 hours after the rockslide the death toll has risen to 38 and 57 wounded according to Health Ministry figures released on Monday morning. Meanwhile this AFP news wire put the number of recovered bodies at 43, quoting an unnamed security official.

UPATE IV: By midday Monday(51 hours after the rocklside), a security official talking to the Associated Press claimed the number of recovered bodies to be 47, the number of injured is at 57. The BBC have the same number of recovered bodies. It seems the equipmment is finally in place, meaning that the work on recovering bodies is moving faster, which means that the death toll will probably climb faster all through Monday. I am not going to be able to blog more, until tonight, when i will try to update and also put this in perspective, but what is clear alraedy is that this is the worst disaster that the area of Manshiyyet Nasr has lived through since the 70´s , although the community has been tested time and time again.

UPDATE V: 16:45 - Reuters puts the death toll at 51.

UPDATE VI: 22:00 Tuesday September 9th(85 hours after the Rockslide)- According to Dr Adel Azouz, in charge of Cairo´s Emergency services, 54 bodies have now been recovered. 64 are counted as wounded, as well as 13 of the emergency workers that has been involved in the rescue effort.

During a tour of the area yesterday(Tuesday) by members of parliament and The Governor of Cairo, Abdel Azim Wazir , the Governor promised 2000 houses for those affected by the rockslide, the houses will be given to the families on Friday and a vision of 10 000 units more to help improve the communities was introduced, but this seems to part of the Suzanne Mubarak project in Manshiyyet Nasser. Some of the young men of Duweiqa greeted the V.I.P´s with rocks.

UPDATE VII: Abdel Rahman Hussein of Daily News Egypt puts the recovered bodies at 57, and injured at 70. Appearently the police dispearsed people organizing a vigil for the victims at Talat Harb on Monday night, sometimes you just dont have the right words to express what you feel, this could easily count as one of those rare moments...

UPDATE VIII: Muhammed Sultan, head of the Emergewncy services at the Ministry of Health states that the number of recovered bodies has reached 62.

UPDATE IX: Thursday September 11th - Egyptian authorities comfirm that 72 bodies have been removed from underneath the rubble. This makes it the worst catastrophe in terms of lost lives in the Manshiyyet Nasser area,in 1993, 70 people lost their lives in a similar way, in the nearby neighbourhood of the garbage collectors, Zabaleen.

UPDATE X: Saturday, September 13th - A week after the Rockslide in Duweiqa, 82 bodies have been recovered from underneath the rubble. according to a security official, speaking to the Agence France Presse(AFP). The rescue effort is likely to continue for at least another week according to the same source.

UPDATE XI: Saturday 20th - Two weeks after the rockslide in Duweiqa, 103 bodies have been recovered from underneath the rubble. The rescue effort continues. No one has been found alive from start of the rescue effort.

Rockslide

At approximately 9 AM local time on Saturday September 6th, a rockslide with eight rocks fell on houses in the area, reducing a six-storey house to rubble, in total approximately 35 houses are destroyed and under the rocks, some of them 30 m high and weighing between 60-70 tonnes.

The Civil Defence, police with sniffer dogs and people from one the leading construction companies Osman Ahmed Osman Construction are at the sight, but people are callinhg for more to be done and for a quicker response and the involvement of the Army in the rescue efforts. Most of the rescue efforts until now has been done by hand and by the relatives and neigbours themselves according to newsreports. Eyewitness claim that screams and mobile phones could be heard from people under the rubble.

The initial figures of dead and injured are expected to rise sharply. According to some estimates as many as 350-500 could still be under the rubble, if the death tool goes that high, then this could be the second largest accident in recent history, only topped by the Salam Boccacio 98 disaster in February 2006, claiming over 1000 lives. A train disaster in February 2002 claimed 361 lives.

Ramadan Kareem

2008-09-01T15:23:00.006+02:00

I would like to wish my readers from Matruh to Baris, and from Palestine, Texas to Cairo, Georgia(and of course readers all over the world) a happy Ramadan!

A special greeting goes to the good people of Kota Bharu, Kelantan, and to the special one of course - Ramadan Mubarak!

Here´s a cute cartoon about Ramadan!

This will be cross posted on Diwan of Democracy.

Regular posting on Fustat to be resumed shortly

2008-08-06T15:08:00.004+03:00

I´ve been having problems with my internet-connection for the last six days, denying me the possibility to blog. It´s just been solved it seems, so hopefully regular posting will resume shortly!

14 activists from 6 April Youth released

2008-07-30T13:56:00.005+03:00

The 14 members of 6 April Youth that were arrested at Sidi Bishr beach, Alexandria on Revolution day the 23rd of July, then given a 15 day-term pending investigation, before being ordered released twice are currently being released.

After a rather gloomy message from the Arabic network for Human Rights Information this morning, there are finally what seems to be news about their release, that is happening right now. The two from Alexandria are already released, and the rest are still being taken to their respective governates by the authorities.

More official confirmation later, as it becomes available .

Mabrouk ya Shabab!

Alexandria Appeals Court orders release of 6 April Youth

2008-07-28T04:37:00.008+03:00

An Appeals Court in Alexandria has ordered the release of 14 activists from Shabab 6 April ,that was arrested on the 23rd of July.

It´s still too early to celebrate though, in the past, many a times, release orders have been issued, and then ignored, opting instead to apply the emergency law, like with Muhammed Marei, or walking the extra mile... to hikestep(military court), as in the case with Khairat al Shater and Hassan Malek.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International issued an urgent action yesterday on the arrested, but focusing mainly on Muhammed Taher and Ahmed Afifi, whose whereabout are not known at the moment. AI believes that there could be a risk of them facing torture, or ill-treatment.

UPDATE: The prosececution appealed the order on the release, and then the appeals court refuted the prosecution´s request, and issued a second decision on the release of the 14 activists.

The inns and outs of the Egyptian legal procedure is really great material for a monthy python film, if only the reality didn´t make a better script than any fiction, and as long as you´re not caught in the middle of it...

When words are not enough

2008-07-28T03:10:00.006+03:00

Also al Jazeera english inside story show dealt with the al Salam Boccaicio 98 aqquital yesterday, in a discussion between Ghada Shabandar, Shayfeen.com and Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, International lawyer Reda Thabit and Professor Robert Springborg(whom might turn up again in a coming blogpost of mine), SOAS, London.

Part I here , and Part II here.