Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

it seems it is my family's fate to loose its laptops in the fight for freedom and democracy.

yes I went to the kefaia mozahra today and lost my laptops, my pda, my usb key and my flash memory card, we're talking 12000LE worth of equipment and tons of data here.

I almost lost my life too but that you expect when you go to a protest, but my poor nibbler :-(

today me and my mother where attacked by tens of hired thugs from the NDP sham demonstration.

the police where there, they saw everything and they did not interfere, they kept asking for my ID while I was being kicked, they tried to arrest me and tried to confiscate my camera.

but let me start with the rage

more photos

if you know these people stop dealing with them now, beware don't get related to them, done talk to them, I encourage you to spit on them, to kick their balls, to shout obscenities.

oh and while we're at it would anonymous visitors please volunteer with some شتايم here, I'm not allowed because I intend to go to court and I don't need a libel case to deal with when I'm trying to prove the officers in these photos (note I did not say the fucking officers or anything of the like, don't misquote me) neglected their duty and did not protect me.

I was scared very scared but I'm glad I showed some bravery they attacked my mom first and I actually managed to protect her (other females where not as lucky, the fucking bastard harrased many).

they cracked some bone in the feet (yet to be confirmed, going to get an X ray soon) , they broke our glasses, I can hardly see.

but I don't feel violated, after we got cornered (we gopt the police to thank for that), after it became obvious the police was not about to help (they tried to interogate me while I was ducking blows and kicking back, its hard to describe how it looks like having a wal of police officers in front of you with gaps opening from time to time to let a hand or a leg in to do damage), after the stole my bag with everything in I decided not to break I stood up and started taking photos, one of the officers asked the thugs to get the camera.

ok I can't really protect myself, I can't do shit for this fucking country, I can't protect my possesions, how can I maintain my feeling of selfworth through this?

by going crazy off course.

the camera is myself, men actually have a soul and its in the memory stick of their digital cam, they don't really want me, the laptop was random stealing, what they want is my camera I heard the officer say it GET THE CAMERA, I will protect the camera, just as I protected my mother.

crazy but it helped, I actually feel proud (yeah the photos sucked but thats all beside the point).

I shoved, I fought back, I curled in the floor, I kicked back, I was clever, they failed to inflict more injuries, while on the floor hands grabbed at the camera I put it in my pocket, TEAR HIS CLOTHES hands grabed I kicked, a uniformed hand is in my pocket, I bite.

another officer comes, stand up, why won't you leave, leave how? we'll be lynched.

he takes all the soldiers and goes away, we are alone and cornered, more fighting, they throw 2olal (قلال) at us, man its my fault, I brought the things to their attention when I broke one on their leaders head (he did not flinch, thank you tv real life is actually more scarry, has better special effects), it hurts everywhere.

the police come back, they shove us into a building, shouting at us.

I think it was stupid of mom to try and stop a whole demo on her own, she does this trick on the amn markazi, but the soldiers are normal poor exploited egyptians, they hestitate, a fighting woman confuses them, they don't want to hit her, they wait for orders and the officers seldom give it.

but to try and protect what remained from the kefaia demonstration on her own? and these thugs they don't hesitate, the horror stories of what they did on our third retreat are unbelievable, in comparison I was lucky.

the first time the people on the cafe interfered, we refused to budge and the thugs moved on, but why did she have to start again? she went to protect this little guy, I tried to explain to her he is one of them, they're fighting each other over something or other.

and now we're trapped.

well better make phone calls, we both take out our mobiles, the officers starts shouting put these down.

ok another small battle, these silly victories is what makes you go on, is that how my dad managed to survive 5 years in jail? by winning small victories?

we make the calls, I call manal, I call dad, the phone calls agitate the officers they call for higher ranking officers they decide to move us, the amn markazi is there they froma protective cordone and we are swept to a pharmacy.

4 more protesters are there, we exchange news, one of the guys after the camera comes in, so he is a police guy who can tell the difference, I move deep inside the pharmacy.

back when I was on the floor with qolal raining on me I moved the memory stick from the camera and put it in a seperate pocket, I make sure its there, as long as I have the photos I'm intact, I retain my dignity I'm victorious.

in the middle of it all I flashed whatever money I had in my pockets, only 10 LE I shouted hey sorry I only have 10 can you spare me and I'll owe you the rest.

the pharmacy is full of officers in civies, they keep asking who we are and what do we belong to, why are you invistegating us? go talk to the thugs.

they seem to think this will scare us, they ask for names and we give them, who cares they know us all already, its not like its a secret movement.

the guys play a silly game, to each his small victories I suppose, they hide the mobile phones so none will fall in the hands of the police (protecting our friends they say), I'm thinking how silly.

negotiations begin, we'll take you out one by one, no way you did that in the begining and delivered us to the bastards, we all move together.

ok come with me, now no way we go out with a uniformed officer, I'm the highest ranking officer in the place (رئيس مباحث جنوب القاهرة) yeah but in civies you can melt into the croud.

they keep saying we are Egyptians bardo, ya 3am 7ad 2al 7aga, I get tired, my head hurts, my feet hurts, I can't see without glasees. shiiit I lost my laptop, SHIIIIIT I LOST MY FUCKING LAPTOP, depression, rage, helplessness.

we can't do small scale demos anymore I keep thinking, its over, its too dangerous, and we can't do large scale ones, on the ekhwan can.

the trouble is the ekhwan avoided protests until we did them.

I want to go home now, thats enough for me today.

they reach some agreement, I can't move I drag myself, we hold hands and we walk out, after 10 minutes we see reporters (WHERE THE FUCK WHERE YOU) some woman tries to interview me I can't even focus, we end up in a taxi.

the third retreat today, everyone moves to the syndicates.

when we get there is the typical scene few hundred protesters witgh thousands of central security soldiers around.

seems safe enough I think, back to normalcy.

little did I know, by the time I arive home we get loads of horrific reports.

we leave the others and head home, mom lost her phone in the pharmacy, so its with the police, we gotta get the number blocked before they make some international phone calls or something.

I joke with the taxi driver, I'm fine now, still in shock (I got hit by no less than 7 flags of egypt, the eagle never looked that intimidating before, I definatly can't think clearly) more phonecalls

ok I tell a blow by blow like 5 times, I chat on IRC and vent my rage a bit (root is the master and sudo is his prophet).

I'm alaa, I'm still the same, I say the same stuff, I do the same things, I can't see, it hurts but I'm intact, my camera is empty now, it can get back to being a gadget.

ok I was very confused, did not know how to write this, which language to use, how to go about it. what voice, what style (yeah it will suck like the rest, will get 200 readers only like all my long posts but thats beside the point, I write for me).

the ban on بق أم الشتايم is too much, its practicaly the reason I have this website and now I can't do it??

I don't know how this post looks like I'll read it again later.

btw for the fellow bloggers who asked manal why she never writes, when I got back home manal was about to write, all you need to do is beat the shit out of her husband, just make sure she knows about it and is trapped at home with nothing she can do to help.