عزيزي المواطن الشريف

What’s Going on in Egypt?

The army, as expected, are being motherfuckers.

Some of us have been telling people that the army leadership is no good since March, but it took a while for the rest of the people to catch up to that, since they initially trusted the army. As their awareness increased, things escalated, and in November, the army attacked a small group of injured protesters who were sitting-in in Tahrir, their attack prompted everyone to go support them, leading to a 5 day long battle between us and the security forces.

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علشان المم

The Military Dictionary – المعجم العسكري

منذ خلع الرئيس مبارك و نحن نعاني من مشاكل لغوية. فعندما أعلن البيان الثالث للمجلس العسكري بكل وضوح ان مبارك هو الذي كلفه بإدارة شئون البلاد – سمع الشعب رسالة اخرى تماماً – و هي ان سلطة المجلس العسكري تنبع من الثورة و انه كُلِف من طرف الشعب و بهدف إستكمال الثورة، و انه ساعد في خلع مبارك في سبيل الثورة و الإرادة الشعبية و الشرعية الثورية.

إستندنا في ذلك الي التصريحات العسكرية التي أكدت ان الجيش المصري وقف مع الثورة، و بأن الجيش المصري وعد بأن لا يستخدم العنف ضد اهل وطنه، و انه قد قدر شجاعة الشعب المصري و قد إحترم حجم طموحاته و تضامن مع الشعب و تبنى احلامه.

شتان بين ما يقال و ما نسمع.

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The Doomsday Hijab

Several years ago I was sitting in a restaurant downtown. There were no prophetic utterances of ‘revolution’ or but my friend was expressing fears regarding Islamist control of Egypt.

‘What, exactly, are you worried about?’ I would ask.

The Hijab.

Alcohol was a second issue.

My counter at the time was that if the government / leadership was actually honest, then the amount of good they could accomplish would by far exceed what I considered the mild inconveniences involved.

If the Brotherhood would swoop in, I argued, run a non-corrupt, honest government, and actually channel the country’s resources to create better standards of living for millions now deprived of it several stages down along Maslow’s Pyramid – then who the hell am I to complain if I can’t have a drink?

But, of course, that’s simplistic.

It’s just as easy to fear for freedom of expression in the arts, in literature, in ways that could, to many of us, stifle our minds – an immediate threat to our creativity.

Any threat to thought is oppression.

The smartest thing the Muslim Brotherhood should do right now – and which would go some way to restoring their credibility to the revolutionaries who have so often felt at best ‘abandoned’ by them – would be to push for an immediate civilian retrial of all Military Trial victims, and a complete cessation on the use of Military Trials against civilians.

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The Military Dialogue

I went to the nearby election committee today, but not to vote.

I went and I saw the long queues of voters, people whose right to vote, whose freedom to vote has been paid for by the blood of those who can no longer share in the experience.

I saw the posters of candidates, and it occurred to me – that I had never seen most of them in Tahrir. They are not leaders, they are vultures, preying on our dead.

I wanted to take some photos and wanted to shoot some video as outlined in an idea I explained in this video on YouTube.

Instead I got into a 2-3 hour conversation with a lieutenant colonel from the army.

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Boycotting the Elections

“Alas,” said the mouse, “the whole world is growing smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must run into.”

“You only need to change your direction,” said the cat, and ate it up.
The Cat & the Mouse – Franz Kafka

We all know WHY the elections are ridiculous –

• We have fresh blood on the streets – everybody’s been busy in battle.
• Nobody has had time to study the process OR the candidates.
• Even university graduates don’t understand the process.
• Treason law has been issued, but far too late to be used this time.
• They are a logistical DISASTER as outlined by @Egyptocracy in this document here – http://bit.ly/uwHnpb
• Emergency Law is still active. That simply means the ruling authority in the country itself doesn’t believe conditions are ‘appropriate’.
• Etc.

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