أيامنا الحلوة Our beautiful Days
I am always proud to be an Egyptian and will always be but sometimes things happen to further consolidate my love and passion for my country. Life is strange with its surprises. For me, most of its surprises are unpleasant, but the one I encountered on Friday night uplifted my mood so much that I haven't stopped smiling. Yet my heart aches. I miss my country so much. I miss its people, history, walking downtown late at night, my friends .. everyone. But what has been nagging me was my lack of impulsiveness. I who consider myself so spontaneous have failed to satisfy my curiosity to learn more about a random person I met coincidently. On Friday night I have changed my rituals and instead of hanging out with my work colleagues I went to the west end for a change. I should have known better. The people I was with were lovely but the night did not take us anywhere exciting, so I decided to leave early and catch the tube. I hardly take the tube in London, they are disgusting especially on weekend nights. Everyone is so drunk and loud and you are stuck with them in this long dark and stale cylinder. I was sitting there trying to avoid eye contact. That is a rule in London. People don't like being looked at or smiled at. So I am sitting, contemplating the night, my foul mood, my life, the tube, and focusing hard on not looking at anyone and there came an old couple.
Urge Egyptian Authorities to stop returning Eritrean asylum seekers to Eritrea
Amnesty International issued a request for an urgent action and calls upon its members and non members to write to the Egyptian authorities to stop forcibly returning Eritrean assylum seekers to Eritrea where they will be at risk of torture and other ill treatment.
For more information on these cases and on how to take action, read below:
Amnesty International: Assault on human rights defender a further obstruction to effective investigation of torture
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PUBLIC STATEMENT
AI Index: MDE 12/008/2008 (Public)
Date: 02 May 2008
Egypt: Assault on human rights defender a further obstruction to effective investigation of torture
The assault on a human right defender and doctor denouncing torture in Egypt two days ago is a disturbing development at a time when the Egyptian authorities purport to be combating torture.
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Amnesty International calls for investigation of police killings during Mahalla Demonstrations
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT AI Index: MDE 12/006/2008 (Public)
Date: 11 April 2008
Egypt: Arrests of Kefaya movement leaders, investigation needed into police killings
قلبي معك يا مصر ... وحقك تغضب يا مصري
Join the global protests - demonstrate 15 March
البداية:2008-03-15 12:00 النهاية:2008-03-15 18:00 البداية:2008-03-15 12:00 النهاية:2008-03-15 18:00
Troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan
Don’t attack Iran
End the siege of Gaza
SATURDAY 15 MARCH: Assemble 12 noon, Trafalgar Square, London
Five years after the invasion of Iraq the world has become much more dangerous and volatile. Latest estimates suggest as many as one million have died violent deaths as a result of the occupation of Iraq. The country's infrastructure and civil society are in shreds. Brown has promised British withdrawals but there are still 5,000 British soldiers in Iraq.
Children are being slaughtered while we silently observe
Another day passes by, I wake up, drink my cup of coffee, have my shower, get dressed, go to work. In another continent; another country, somewhere far away from home, scores of people are being killed. Children are assassinated in cold blood and there is nothing for someone so powerless like me to do. In the past few days over a 100 people in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces. Israel is defending itself, they tell me. But can someone explain to me how a 14 years old girl could have threatened the life of Israelis? Or was it Salsabeel Abu Jalhoum, the 21 months infant, that was the threat? There is nothing for me to do to stop the killings; the irrational murder of people on a daily basis all over the world. One can preach for peace but what voice can be heard over the roars of bomb shells and gunshot and screams of pain?
رسالة قام بكتابتها فؤاد الفرحان قبل اعتقاله This a letter sent by Fouad a few days before his arrest to his friends:
English to follow
من مدونة الحرية لفؤاد:
يعد فؤاد من أوائل المدونين السعوديين ومن أوائل الذين كتبوا ودونوا بإسمهم الصريح، وتتميز كتاباته بجراءتها وصراحتها مما جعله يتعرض لمضايقات أجبرته للتوقف عن التدوين لفترة، حتى قرر العودة للتدوين مرة أخرى في يوليو من عام 2007 .
تعرض للأعتقال يوم الأثنين 1 من شهر ذي الحجة 1428هـ الموافق 10 ديسمبر 2007م وهو نفس اليوم العالمي لحقوق الإنسان . اعتقل دون أن توجه له تهمة واضحة ومحددة. وقبل اعتقاله بأسبوعين كتب فؤاد الرسالة التي اخترت ان اضعها على مدونتي تضامناً معه.
Fouad Alfarhan in detention for two months شهران على حبس فؤاد الفرحان
English to follow
يصادف يوم الأحد القادم 10 فبراير مرور شهرين على اعتقال المدون السعودي فؤاد الفرحان دون توجيه أي تهمة أو سبب واضح للأعتقال، ولهذا ندعو جميع المدونين للمشاركة في فعالية أسبوع لفؤاد نحقق فيه شعار بأننا كلنا فؤاد من خلال إعادة نشر تدوينات فؤاد،
Dissapointing Film: The Kite Runner
Please, do not watch the film “The Kite Runner” without reading the book first. I was extremely disappointed at the film, which rid the story from all its human emotional complexities. The book captures your attention and intrigues your curiosity from the very first page. Disappointingly, the movie does not give you that. If there would be one word to describe the film it would be “flat”.
On a trip between California, Peshawar and Kabul, Khaled Hosseini tells us a story of two brothers, a father, and a son, grabbing the reader’s attention from the very beginning with “there is a way to be good again”. We then start a trip into the memories of Amir Jan, the central character of the story, who takes us back with him to his childhood in Kabul, where he reveals to us his darkest secrets. It is in the second half of the book that we are brought again to the present to take another trip through Peshawer in Pakistan to Kabul in Afghanistan and back again to California, where Amir grabs the opportunity to redeem himself and free his conscience from that heavy weight that it had carried for many long years.