Free Mohamed Radwan: Demo in front of the Syrian Embassy in Cairo

I considered darting to Syria this week to cover the uprising in Dar'aa and the rest of the country, and I happened to meet a young man from Dar'aa itself who told me that journalists weren't allowed in. A France 24 crew, he tells me, was intercepted on the way to the border city, had their material confiscated, and sent home. So I decided against going.

That is to say: if it weren't Mohamed Radwan who got arbitrarily arrested by the Syrian security forces, it could've been me. And this is part of the reason why I'll be joining the protest today in front of the Syrian Embassy in Cairo: because tyrants make no distinction. And if not me, then you. And I know that, the day something happens to me, I want to know I can count on someone out there to demand my release.

More importantly though, we're demonstrating because Mohamed has been arrested - kidnapped is more accurate - simply because, present in Damascus last friday, he tweeted and took photos of the clashes at the Umayyad mosque. He abruptly went incommunicado, and we found out the next day he was detained. And was being charged for - wait for it - spying for Israel.

As a citizen journalist, Mohamed is being held in prison for his freedom of speech. He was probably subjected to torture, in order to extract false confessions.

Mohamed is an absolutely delightful chap, a regular of the #CairoTweetups when he's not away, working in Syria. I've also got to hang out with Mohamed during the protests in Cairo, where he was a regular of Tarek Shalaby's Freedom Motel. I met his parents; wonderful and lovely people. Mohamed would, by the way, bring us sandwiches to Tahrir that his mom had made for us.

Mohamed must be released NOW. Demonstrate in front of the Syrian embassy in your capital. Email your local representatives. See the page established in his support and spread the news.

Join us in front of the Syrian embassy, today at 1 pm.
For Mohamed.
And if not for him, then for yourself.

On Cairo's newsstands this month

1) The world's laziest magazine cover designer...



... Works for Egypt Today!
For the special issue about such a visually-rich revolution, which produced thousands of impressive and inspiring photographs, s/he decided to go with... a blank cover.
Hummm... Did they get fired yet?



2) Conversely, a concentrate of talent can be found in Tok-tok, which may be the first local comic magazine (is it?) Well whether it is or not, it's brilliant. From the parking beggar - the menadi - to boob jobs, all topics seem to be fair game. The humour is solid, and the drawings are excellent. I recommend!

Meet me in Beirut!

I will be guest-lecturing at the American University in Beirut, speaking to the wonderful students* of the multimedia/online journalism class, at 5:30 PM On Tuesday 22 March 2011. Room 103 in the REP Building, by the Medical Gate. (I do not know what a Medical Gate is.)

And on Thursday 24 March 2011 as of 3:00 PM, I will be on the panel on Social Media and Citizenship at the ArabNet Conference at the Habtoor Hotel, in Sin-El-Fil.

Do drop by and say hello!

*since they were probably given my blog's address..

More photos: inside the Egyptian Constitutional Reforms Referendum

Voting!

Man voting. No curtain. If I zoom in I can probably see his vote..

Poll station worker

Tarek, mute-and-deaf voter - with a voice

Counting in a polling station, a few minutes to midnight

Egyptian Electoral reforms referendum: A political success, a procedural disaster

"I did vote once before. In 1981. Believe it or not, it was Mubarak..." says Hajj Youssef. He was happy. He knew what he was doing, too. He had made up his mind and he was well convinced of his choice. I was charmed.


I voted, and stayed around a little longer in a small polling station in Dokki, took a few photos. The station was supervised by a very young prosecutor - wakeel niyaba - who authorized press presence.

In comparison to the voting processes I had the chance to observe with the Carter Center, including the self-determination referendum of South-Sudan, this referendum was a procedural disaster. 4 out of every 5 ballots were not stamped. People did not vote behind curtains; they would even show their signed ballots to the poll station workers. Inking was borderline optional; I could've not inked my finger had I chosen so. Each ballot box was raided by about 4 or 5 people simultaneously.
And I saw a guy be allowed to vote with a laminated photocopy of his national ID..

During counting, observers present were seated at the end of the room - and could not see the ballots being counted, which beats the purpose of their late-night observation since they cannot tell how the ballots were marked.

And that's just in the polling stations I observed. In others, there were ones where judges were not there for several hours. Reports of thugs attacking people (most famously Mohamed Elbaradei) were not uncommon.

And in one station in Bab-el-Khalk (Cairo), lawyer activist Ragia Omran, who was accredited to observe the referendum, was asked by the army to leave the polling station - and she got into an argument with an army officer who simply decided to arrest her and her sister. They were released after midnight.

Despite everything, people were happy. So many had turned out, for their very first electoral experience! Everyone engaged in conversations about the referendum - all the way into the queue at the polling station.
As I walked out after voting, a man from the building across asks whether I had voted, and what. I tell him I voted no. "Good man!", he says. "You know, around here, we all voted no - we won't be fooled easily, ha!"

Abdo Abdel Shafy, an elderly buffet worker in a company, tells me it's his first time to vote - "It's the first time I've felt I had a voice! I voted yes, because I want stability, But if the next president doesn't do what we ask of him, well, Tahrir square is right down the road from here!", he warns, laughingly.

My absolute highlight of the day were Tamer and Sameh - two deaf-and-mute young men whom I chatted with. They were very patient with my ignorance of sign language, and explained to me they were very happy to vote (they voted yes), and that the station they voted at was very crowded - but an officer, seeing they were disabled, took them to the front of the line.

Whether the result is yes or no, there will little condemnation of the results. I expect no serious challenge of whatever announcement is made - partly because the vote isn't very significant, but also because we have no standards to compare the management of the vote with.

But I keep positive. This referendum is a bit of our first experiment with democracy - I'm glad it was a simply yes/no referendum. We'll keep the more complex votes for later.

It can only get better from here.

Tarek, Voter, Deaf-and-Mute - with a Voice

Today, his vote was his voice.
He voted yes. I disagree with his choice - but I wanted to hug him!
Few things are as wonderful as people taking their own future in charge.
Respect!

Brokeback Mubarak (and Gaddafi)

The latest photo on sale on Tahrir square today!

I wondered for a second whether the vendor knew what the inspiration for the picture was...

World Bank "Arab Voices" conference and the Expat expert dilemma ** UPDATED

UPDATE: The World Bank's media office responds. Article has been edited accordingly.


I like the World Bank, really. It's a mammoth of an institution - especially the headquarters - but has many brilliant minds on its payroll who do solid policy and academic research.

But things like that piss me off. I got an email about this conference next week - the email seemingly had more information than the website, including the participants, so I'm pasting a segment:

Arab Voices and Views

Conference on the Opportunities and Challenges in the New Era

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2011 - Unprecedented change is taking place in the Middle East and North Africa. The World Bank is convening Arab experts, social media representatives, activists, and academics on Monday March 21 to dialogue on what this change means for the region. World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick will be making opening remarks at the conference.

This group of fresh voices and thought leaders will discuss Middle East and North Africa developments from the point of view of participation, accountability and transparency and consider what these changes and opportunities might hold for positive transformation.

(...)

When: Monday March 21, 9:00 am - 1:00 pm (Registration begins at 8:30 am)

Where: World Bank Headquarters: Preston Auditorium, 1818 H Street, NW, Washington DC, 20433

Virtual venue is available on www.worldbank.org (English, Arabic)

Who: World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick will be opening the conference.

Among the participants are:

Mona Eltahawy (award-winning columnist, an international public speaker on Arab/Muslim issues)

Nasser Saidi (Chief Economist at the Dubai International Financial Centre Authority and Executive Director of the Hawkamah-Institute for Corporate Governance)

Riz Khan (host of interview shows on Al Jazeera English)

-------------

From the above, this is what I read: "We're having a conference where we discuss the "unprecedented change is taking place in the Middle East and North Africa" but we're relying on people who watched said change on television from the US and from Dubai. We can't fucking be bothered to get people who witnessed, lived the revolutions in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen."

Some - not all - of the speakers are excellent people. But they, still, were not part of these revolution. They've observed them from afar.


UPDATE/EDITS -------------------------


Mr. Hafed Al-Ghwell from the World Bank responds to this post (see in the post Comments) and tells us that the following people are also invited. Which is excellent, but the main criticism holds: none but one were there. For instance:

Mona El Tahawy: Journalist. Based in NYC.
Samer Shehata: Georgetown Uni. Based in DC.
May El Dabbagh: Dubai School of Government. Based in Dubai.
Moncef Cheikhrouhou: HEC. Based in Paris.
Hisham Melhem: Al-Arabiya DC office. Based in DC.
Ehaad Abdou: Brookings Institute. Based in DC.

The saving grace is Jackie Kameel, from Nahdet El Mahrousa. Based in Cairo.


Now several of those people I have met and have great respect for. And most are doing a great job at what they do.

In light of the added information it seems the problem isn't only the World Bank's. I'm sure they feel they've selected a great panel - and they did, but not for the topic at hand..

But seemingly, nearly all 'Arabs' on their Rolodex are expatriates.

Off the top of my head I can think of a dozen wonderful speakers based in Tunis, Cairo, Manama. Who would be, not only by their steadfast presence and participation to the revolutionary convulsions of their nations, but also by their professional expertise and knowledge, a hundred time more relevant than many of their panelists.

Is being an expatriate a sign of quality? Do Arab writers and experts need to be in London, DC, Dubai in order for their expertise to be recognized?

Ramy Essam, the "Revolution Singer": "Music has this effect on you - it can soothe you, and it can also fire you up"

Ramy Essam is a delightful 23 year old, whom I first met on February 3rd, the day following the thugs-and-horseback-riders attack we now refer to as "the day of the camels". He's a big guy, and generally tucks long hair underneath a knitted hat; that day, he also had a large bandage around his head and one on his upper lip, which failed to conceal his large, seemingly always amused smile.

On the afternoon of Wednesday 9 March, Ramy was in Tahrir, where he and others were attacked by the army and a number of armed thugs, and was "arrested" and dragged him to the Egyptian Museum. There, he was tortured. By the army, yes. By his own testimony, which I include at the bottom of this post, he was beaten with sticks, bars, hoses, and electrocuted - first by one, then with several tasers at a time. He was later released.


I last spoke to Ramy Essam two days before his beating. "I'm finalizing my album with songs from the Revolution, and you're the first journalist I'm revealing this to: the album's name will be "Al Midaan". "The Square".

A Mansoura native, he first demonstrated there for the first few days, then came to Cairo on January 30th, "where it became obvious that it was the heart of the revolution, and where I felt I could give more".
"And I wasn't even going to bring my guitar - I told my buddy "where would I put it, if I'll be sleeping in the square? I was scared for my guitar - I love it as I would my own child!"

He didn't get much sleep though. "At first I was singing, on the sidewalk, and people were gathering. Then those two kids came along, with a mic and a speaker, and shoved that in front of my face. The next day, a stage was put up - and I was there".

"I was writing songs on the spot. On the square, I wrote. When something would happen to us, I wrote. At one point I selected the most important chants - يسقط يسقط حسني مبارك (down down with Hosni Mubarak), إرحل إرحل (Leave, Leave) and الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام (The People demand the fall of the regime) - and put those in music. People were starting to get tired of the repetitiveness, and I figured people would like the music. Music has this effect on you - it can soothe you, and it can also fire you up".

The man sang tirelessly. On February 2nd, the 'day of the Camels', he was injured in the head and in the face - the next day he was still singing, with an awkward bandage on his upper lip.

"I never stopped singing. I don't know where I found the strength, but I kept going on, from this stage to the next, to the street, and back".

He was dubbed "The singer of the revolution" - which both amuses, and embarrasses him a little.

"It's only after the revolution that I realized that - there were vids and songs on Youtube, on television. I don't know why I was given this nickname - I guess because I was there from the beginning, I was the first to sing against the government, unlike some other singers who belatedly decided to support the movement, but failed to earn people's love. And perhaps also because I was at the front-lines where there was a battle, with everyone else, without thinking twice."

"The album I'm working on will contain songs from Tahrir square, and I'm calling it Al Midaan - (the Square), because I would really like for people who weren't there to get a feel of what it was like on the ground."

"And now I'm hoping I'll go back to being an artist, and hopefully helping raise of standards of Egyptian songwriting.
And I'm going to keep speaking up".

I tell him I want a signed copy of the CD when it's out. He laughs and promises me he'll send me one.

----------------
Rami's testimony of the events on Wednesday. The translation is from Atr-Al-Nada's blog.

“My name is Rami Essam, I´m 23 years old. I was in Tahrir Square with the rest of the people on Wednesday, March 9th , 2011. At approximately 5:30 pm we were surprisingly attacked by the military and a large group of civilians armed with sticks, batons and bricks. Together they destroyed the tents, tore the banners, beat everybody who was in the middle of the square and started arresting people. A group of soldiers dragged me towards the museum´s building and handed me to army officers who tied my hands and legs up and started kicking me all over my body and face. Then they started hitting me on my back and legs with sticks, metal bars, wires, and hoses. After that they brought the electric taser that was used in demonstrations before and used it on various parts of my body, then they started using more than one taser at the same time. The officers insulted me and stomped with their feet, jumped over my back and face, and threw shoes in my face. Then they cut my hair (it was long) and put my face in the dirt before burying my body neck down.



[First photo I lifted from Facebook. The second one is mine, From February 3rd.]

Still Fighting in Cairo - Foreign Policy Magazine

My article for Foreign Policy Magazine is out:

CAIRO — While the world turns its attention to the riveting drama in Libya, where revolutionaries are seeking to oust the dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi, the revolution next door in Egypt is entering a new phase -- one that is just as exhilarating and consequential as the protests that drove President Hosni Mubarak from power in just 18 incredible days.

In fact, the revolution may be gaining momentum. The Egyptian people endured Mubarak's reign for 30 years, but 33 days of Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq was all it took for them to threaten to take to the streets en masse to demand his ouster. Shafiq, who was appointed by Mubarak during the early days of the revolution in a blatant bid to seem reasonable without conceding much power, was widely seen, along with much of his cabinet, as a relic of the pre-revolutionary era and the man who had overseen -- or at least failed to stop -- some of the most violent attacks against peaceful demonstrators in Tahrir Square.

Shafiq has been replaced by Essam Sharaf, a former minister of transportation and member of the National Democratic Party's Policies Committee -- Mubarak's Politburo, if you will. Sharaf has nevertheless acquired the reputation of being an honest civil servant, having resigned from his ministerial post in 2005 to protest the government's handling of a major train crash. He also earned points with the revolutionaries, having himself led a small protest at Cairo University a few days before Mubarak stepped down.

Shafiq's sacking came just hours after a historic TV interview that saw the prime minister sourly criticized and altogether humiliated by the other panelists, and not long before a massive protest had been scheduled to call for his removal along with several members of his cabinet, as well as the dissolution of the state security apparatus -- known for spying on, detaining, and torturing Egyptian citizens at will -- and the release of political prisoners.

With Shafiq's metaphorical scalp still fresh, the protest went ahead as planned, and Prime Minister Sharaf himself took the podium immediately after the Friday midday prayer. Flanked, surprisingly, by Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed El-Beltagy (who occasionally grabbed the mic to shout a slogan or two), Sharaf was deferential. He saluted the revolution's "martyrs" and pledged allegiance to the crowds: "I get my legitimacy from you," he said. "I will do my best to meet the revolutionary demands and the day I fail I won't be here."

Standing below hastily printed banners showing his smiling face, Sharaf was met with a roar of approval. It was, effectively, the first time the Egyptian street celebrated a political appointment rather than an ousting.

...............

Read the rest of the piece here and come back for comments!


__

"Post revolution, Egyptian women look to new gender roles", and photos: "Women of Tahrir"

For International Women's Day, I wrote the following article, which was published by on the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. I am also uploading a few photos [below] of women in the revolution - with my love, respect, and gratitude.

It’s the height of the Egyptian revolution, and two women sitting in a tent on Tahrir Square laugh as I approach them with my notebook.
“Sorry, we’d rather not be interviewed,” one says to me. “Our husbands don’t know we’re here.”

That didn’t stop them being part of the events that would reshape their country. Nor did it stop thousands of other women from all sections of Egyptian society.

The Egyptian revolution was liberating and groundbreaking in many ways.
It saw a nation free itself from the shackles of dictatorship and brave the might of armed police, soldiers, and thugs in a true revolution involving all people, for it transcended boundaries of social class, age, religion, and most importantly, gender...

Read the rest of the article on the IWPR website, and come back for comments!

Khadija, 19, was helping guard the gate by AbdelMoneim Riyad square. (she's one of my interviewees here)

On their forehead: "Masreya" - "Egyptian"

Women of all ages were there. Wednesday 2 February, aka the day of the Camels, one of the most violent days we had on the square.

This isn't sadness or anger - it's disappointment. 2 February, after the first wave of thug attacks.

Women's protest. 1 February 2011

Doctors signing each other's coats, 11 February 2011

Niqabi woman's placard: "Egypt is for all, Muslims and Christians". 31 January

No translation necessary! 31 January 2011

Girls posing on a tank - 12 February 2011.

The Minister's wing in the State Security building and other videos

A couple of videos from yesterday's 'visit' to the State Security building. I'm only embedding one - the other two links are at the bottom.

Will also be uploading more photos soon!

1. A visit inside the Minister's wing in the State Security building




2. Scuffle with the army by State Security main gate

3. Protestor asking about his brother; General Roweiny yelling at the crowd

Folder found at State Security labelled "Bombing of the Saints' Church in Alexandria" #AmnDawla

Yes, I'm aware that any potential documents implicating the State Security in the bombing would have already been burned, and it might even be an investigation file. Nevertheless, a very interesting document to stumble upon...

State Security file archive. Each file is for one person. Feels like East Germany.. #AmnDawla

People who play nice with State Security

Some of the people who visit - and left their card with - the State Security HQ, including

Mohamed Nosseir, CEO of Vodafone Egypt
Salah El Ghazali Harb, whose brother is Osama El Ghazali Harb, president of the Democratic Front Party (Hezb El Gabha)
Mohamed Salmawy, Editor in Chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo
Moataz El Shazli, Ahram Journalist in the "Political Organizations division" (writes on political parties i guess?)

On international official neutrality towards Middle-Eastern Revolutions

Two quotes sum it up better than I ever would -

1. From the brilliant Bosnian film "No Man's Land" (Danis Tanovic, 2001) - when the journalist was berating the UN officer:

"Neutrality does not exist in the face of murder. Doing nothing to stop it is, in fact, choosing. It is not being neutral."

2. And for the more erudite among you, a quote from Elie Wiesel:

"We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe."

That, and if you can only think in realpolitik terms - know that people remember those who stood by their side, and those who didn't.

PS - I haven't blogged since the Revolution and I apologize - I've been writing compulsively for the press. I'll post some links - and a long blog post. Promise!