Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

Hosni Mubarak chose to give the Egyptian people a menu of unknowns in the form of presidential candidates when he restricted the election eligibility to political parties, parties that he personally approves and licenses, parties that he and his National Democratic Party have oppressed and trimmed down for years, and in the process eliminated Egyptian's right to get viable candidates.

Mubarak is and will remain the dominant candidate for the presidency not because Mubarak has been the best thing that happened to Egypt since the river Nile! Mubarak was is and will remain in power because Mubarak chooses so!

I write today about popular distortions found on opposition, government and independent Egyptian media:

Mubarak has been positive while other candidates built their campaign on attacking Mubarak's rule..
Mubarak has access to numbers and true statistics (I hope) while no other Egyptian let alone presidential candidate has ever been given believable statistics.

Could someone please tell Hosni Mubarak that he is not only embarrassing himself, but he is embarrassing all Egyptians in his elections statements.
When he goes on public record with statements like: Egypt cannot afford to go to war, Egyptians will not find food, drink and services if they go to war ..
This is defeatism to say the least, where is the dignity and pride in being an Egyptian, a country that if managed well can not only feed itself, but can feed the whole Arab world!
Where is the Army that has the lion's share of the Egyptian annual budget?
Mr. Mubarak, Egyptians can and will surprise you.
Another Elections promise is to double the salaries of government employees!!
Is Egypt going to borrow more money to cover this?
Have those employees reached their optimum number and efficiency in productivity? And even if yes, is it wise to overburden the rest of the population ? Can Egypt afford it?
What are the repercussions and how will this reflect on prices?
He will create millions of jobs..

Does any one remember the Boycott Israel Campaigns that set us all on fire not more than a couple years ago? I guess Israeli aggression is over and the Arab lands have been returned so there is no need to boycott.. Right ?

Remember the campaigns against the Racist wall of separation snaking through Palestine? All the demonstrations must have worked for I am not hearing anyone complaining about the wall anymore!

I must have been dreaming about a rising throughout the world against the war against Iraq, and later against the occupation of Iraq.. Are the Americans out of there yet? Aren't the Iraqis ruling their own land and free from Saddam Hussain?

Remember the Intifada? If not, I don't blame you, we must have been having a group dream, aint that weird ?!!

Then recently there was the rising against the abuse of the Quoraan in Guantanamo, people died in anger, were they fooled?

The Middle East is awakening to the new scent, democracy is "in the air" among other scents... I have blogged my wrist off on the importance of democracy, free speech, dignity and human rights in the Arab world, but there is another side to what's happening, and many do not want any part of it. Here's why:

Imagine there is a beauty queen living right across the street from your house, a dream come true kind of girl that recently became Miss Universe.

Miss Universe is about to make your whole neighborhood famous, you will be giving interviews to International TV channels and newspapers about your memories playing together as kids ..

Now Miss Universe needs to repaint her house to suit her new status, you see, she cannot afford to move to a higher class neighborhood, so it is decided that she will not only paint her house red white and blue, she will paint all the houses in the street with those colors to make the neighborhood suit her "new status", you like her, you like having your house re-painted, you have even been planning to refresh your house paint as soon as you can afford it, you just can't imagine living in a tri-color house, your house, you are also in for a shock when you discover that you don't even have a say about it!

Miss Universe has already deployed painters on every roof in your street merrily tri-coloring the neighborhood! Your next door neighbor started to tri-color his house long before the painters arrived, and the one next to him refused to have his house tri-colored unless he pays for it from his own pocket in full! Another neighbor is taking money to allow the painters in, another neighbor his house was taken over by a thief and will allow the tri-colors if he has a chance to win his house back, as for the rest, they cannot be bothered to even consider that something wrong is happening..

Alarabiya just broke the news of Qatar taking away the citizenship from 6000 of its citizens and expelling them, I did not tune in time to get the full story or the reasons, but I am VERY interested to know if and how and when Aljazeera Tv will handle it.

Aljazeera has been both impressing me and getting on my nerves since its day one, I always liked the spicy hot coverage and considered it an excellent source of alternative news (note that I do not consider its news fully reliable) I regard it as an institution going through puberty and in its teen years it is interesting but professionally ANNOYING.

Back to Qatar, Aljazeera handles Qatar related news and issues with white gloves while other countries are strictly handled gloves off.

Can't tell you how impressed I was when I first watched Sami Yusuf's song "Moalem", a beautiful song about the love and appreciation of prophet Mohamed (PBUH), Sami's warmth of voice, modern look, beautiful music and topic that cannot miss the heart of any Moslem ..

The modern take was much much needed in bringing closer religion amidst the younger generations, we are used to this topic being covered dramatically by ancient actors, boring music, slow talking over-acting did I say boring again? It is! But taking it into the video clip age is an accomplishment worth noting.

Another Islamic Superstar is in the making, he is ready to join Amr Khaled and Moez Masoud and others in the hall of fame of those that have touched the lives of both teenagers and older generations through modernization in presenting Islam, note well: Not modernizing Islam itself, there is a difference!

Back to Sami, a LOT is riding on this guy, that is why I have to be totally frank here, after the "Moalem" song I saw another two, they where pathetic repetitions of his first song, the last of which was about "Mothers".

Sami, unless you intend to be another one song star, you seriously need to re-invent yourself, a religious song needs not be so sad and morbid, people don't like that, you need to get yourself a good writer and composer, repeating the same music over and over is plain boring, you are competing for air time and the attention of audience used to striptease, so take your mission seriously and rise up to the challenge.

For non-Arabic readers, these are the lyrics of an Arabic song called the "Arab Dream" which is about a dream for peace, unity, optimism, positive attitude, and hope. I find it very appropriate to post here as it is one of the very few "large group" productions in the Arab world, sung by many artists from all around the Arab world, done in the "We are the World" style, the effort is very befitting the meaning in the song itself, I am very touched every time it plays, as it reminds me of the older generations' dream for unity of the Arab world, and at times when Iraqis and Palestinian children were being bombed by people that have no right to be in their land or skies, it provokes a deeper meaning inside all of us, one of anger, helplessne

I find it hilarious and bordering on the obscenely ridiculous
Simon Says Have elections (Saudi Holds Baladeya Elections)
Simon Says Make Good with Israel (Mubarak receives Sharone)
Simon Says Hold your nose
Simon Says Pay up (Gathafi pays)
Simon Says Look Busy (Iraq elects interim government)
Simon Says Stand on one Foot
Simon Says Stop Killing your own people (Sudan)
Simon Says I need a foot rest (Qatar pays for US air base)
Simon Says I need Toilet paper, many offer their hands..
Simon Says No Intifada .. No Intifada it is

Simon has been saying a lot lately, and the "or else" is too obvious, so like programmed robots, our Arab Governments are not even questioning anymore, our leader's noses are buried too deep down there to see, their view is not changing much lately, and they seldom come up for air !
I wish I was a cartoonist to paint this picture !

That was the hilarious part, as for the ridiculous, Simon is ordering basic things, legitimate rights we all crave, yet to all of us the image is so obscene and humiliating, it carries the same helpless feeling as watching your father being slapped on the face!

Want my $0.02, as soon as Simon looses interest or breath and stops "Saying", every thing will revert to "same old ..

- President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, my last question, are you thinking of continuing to rule Egypt? Would you like to remain ruling?

- I want to tell you something about ruling Egypt, ruling Egypt is not a trip, not an easy matter, ruling Egypt is a very difficult matter, you have limited resources, you have a huge population, you have many demands by the people, all this makes me exert a tremendous effort, and I have established relationships with other countries, so they can help in any needed matter, as much as we can, like employing our people and other things to get resources for our people, the ruling of Egypt is not an easy matter, AND GETTING OUT OF IT IS NOT EASY, if it was up to me I wish I can rest, since my day of graduation as a junior officer to this day I have been in non-stop intensive labor, I was surprised to become vice president, when Anwar (Sadat) passed away, and we cannot leave the country, I had to take on the responsibility (presidency), and the responsibility is difficult, very difficult, also the president of Egypt is not a citizen that can go out and have fun in the streets, forget it, I don't know the roads now, yes I get driven every where, but I don't know where ..

Turns out someone has moved in and thrown your family into the street.

How helpless would you feel seeing your children becoming homeless overnight?

No prospects for education, no childhood to live, no future to look forward to!

You also lost your job! Yes, the people that took your house also took over your work place, hired their relatives and if you are lucky, they will hire you for scraps.

And to add insult to injury, the only person that can set things right is a Bully, an unchallenged power, but guess what? The Bully takes the side of the settlers (occupiers).

Martin Luther King Jr.

For all the non-Arab readers let me give you yet another Arab perspective:The way I see it whenever news of another kidnapping airs, what's being hijacked is Islam itself.

Islam the beautiful peaceful religion, is abused, misrepresented and scarred with every word those idiots utter, with every banner hanged behind them on a wall as if to give them a justification or an excuse! If they were so courageous, what are they doing capturing civilians?

Their enemy is clearly the US army! And even if they capture soldiers, Islam is very clear about how to treat them, preserving their dignity and life long before the Geneva conventions and Abu Gharib trials.

I am not saying that I am against the resistance, my position is that the US is an occupation force no matter what it choses to call itself, in black and white resistance is justified.