2011: The Year of Heroes

It would be an understatement if one says 2011 was the year of change. The year of revolutions, the year of power of the people, the year of realizing yes we do have the power to overcome and triumph. What has not happened in 2011? Families battles, world disasters, Arab revolutions, global movements, personal struggles & successes, and of course love, all took place in 2011, and sometimes all at once. I saw death, I lived in Tahrir, I witnessed miracles, I went to places never thought were possible, I sprayed graffiti of Khaled Said on the gates of interior ministry, I lived. There are no words that can describe my pride and honor of having been part of the roots of the Egyptian revolution and still fighting for its victory. The days when we protested in tens in a cordon surrounded by thousands of riot police in front of the press syndicate or on the sidewalk somewhere, now seem now only like a small picture in an album book on an old shelf somewhere. From the start of 2011, Alexandria church bombing 20 minutes into the year, this small picture forever changed. People poured into the streets fighting sectarian strife and showing Egyptian unity. Soon enough along came the step-down of Ben Ali, ex-dictator of Tunisia, 10 days later we were in Tahrir demanding the removal of regime, and 18 days further Mubarak, the dictator who terrorized us for decades finally stepped down. The sweetest moment of victory ever short-lived, knowing what we experienced for months after and until now by the extension of Mubarak’s dictatorship under SCAF. So many people around me are disappointed and discouraged with how things are turning out since Mubarak stepped down, but being part of how things were before the revolution makes me so much more hopeful now. I always like to have the big-picture perspective on most events even in my personal life, and what I see now for Egypt is nothing less than greatness and unprecedented achievements in 2011 despite all the massacres and SCAF’s iron fist on Egypt.

Pictures speak louder than words so instead of telling you all the events that made the Egyptian revolutionaries my heroes of 2011. Below is the year of the revolution in pictures highlighting the most powerful images I chose for 2011. This is why there is hope, as long as we are breathing, we will fight for our freedom, social equality, and dignity. We die for freedom, but we live on hope & resistance. May 2012 be the year of freedom. Revolution until victory.

NO MORE FEAR! – Jan28

NDP ON FIRE (for 3 days) – Jan29

The Bastard IS OUT – Feb11

WE RAIDED STATE SECURITY – March5

WE WON’T FORGET OUR MARTYRS – May6

THE BLOOD OF ATTEF YEHYIA – May15

KHALED SAID GRAFFITI ON MOI – Jun6

BATTLE FOR MARTYRS – June28

WE ARE BACK IN TAHRIR, WON’T GIVE UP! – July8 sit-in

ARMY RAID ON TAHRIR – Aug1: Ramadan 1st

FLAGMAN – Aug21

ONE DAY REV – Sept9

MASPERO MASSACRE – Oct9

NOVEMBER UPRISING – Nov19

OCCUPY CABINET – Dec16

There so much more ..but one video says it all. SCAF MUST BE EXECUTED IN 2012!!!

With all the painful images above, I am not depressed nor worried. I have seen the strength, courage, and bravery of the Egyptian revolutionaries. We never stop fighting, we never give up, we will continue until victory and I have no doubt that we will EXECUTE SCAF.

#RevSoc: We want to dismantle the state of oppression – نريد اسقاط الدولة المستبدة

Revolutionary Socialists Press Conference @eSocialists

After a conference by the Revolutionary Socialists in Egypt on the future of the revolution that was held at the Center for Socialist Studies in Giza on 13 Dec 2011, the Revolutionary Socialists found their video (below) of the 20mins talk of Sameh Naguib being edited into 2 & 3 mins and re-posted with titles such as, “Revolutionary Socialists want to dismantle the State” or “The Revolutionary Socialists’ ruthless plan to burn and destroy Egypt.” As if we had raged war against the people of Egypt ignoring all our well established and credible resistance against oppressive regimes and systems from capitalism to Israel, and all in between, which is all very transparent on our website and in their files at State Security. I am not posting this to defend Revolutionary Socialists or convince how “awesome” and revolutionary we are, but simply to sum up what has been happening.

A media war directed by SCAF and led by Ikhwan & other political groups against revolutionaries and anyone who is challenging their interests to remain in power, has gone to the dirtiest tricks to protect their interests and kill the revolution.

Freedom & Justice Party newspaper 25 Dec 2011 "Revolutionary Socialists: Violence First!"

Why especially the Revolutionary Socialists? I think because Sameh Naguib hit the nail with a hammer on its head exposing SCAF & Islamists. The video gave them all the right “keywords” like “dismantling of state” to incite fear in the public even more and turn the public against the revolution while all the deadly clashes in the past few days were taking place. Another reason is the timing. SCAF chose to do this attack now & not before, since we have statements as early as February that give the same message as the video, simply because they are shifting the blame & the attention from their own crimes committed against revolutionaries onto revolutionary groups like the Revolutionary Socialists & others, who are gaining popularity on the ground for their radical stands against SCAF.  SCAF’s stupidity is gaining us more and more support because revolutionaries, with us or not, are against SCAF more than ever before.

This was our official response to the dirty organized campaign against the revolution & the Revolutionary Socialists. Statement in response to “accusations” in English & Arabic. We also held a press conference reaffirming our strong stand against SCAF and reassurance of the dismantling of the State of repression, inequality, and injustice in order to build a State based on freedom, social justice, and dignity for human rights.

Videos of statements and testimonies below.

Feel free to share this post in solidarity with the Revolutionary Socialists in Egypt. Add a Pic Badge on your twitter or facebook. Follow us on Twitter @eSocialists & Like our Facebook Page

Down with military rule! Long live the Egyptian Revolution !

@BBCNewsNight Hypocrisy & Insults

BBC NewsNight chooses Kissinger as the "expert" on Arab Spring

I was invited to be on BBC NewsNight on Thursday, 15 December 2011, along with Henry Kissinger, Tawakul Karman, Simon Schama, and Jeremy Greenstock to speak on the prospects of the Arab Spring. They emailed me the following questions to answer before the show, and I gave them a brief on my position on each: (copied & paste from the email here:

My brief answers were as following:

When I got on the show, which will hopefully be uploaded to youtube so I can posted here, I was faced with the most western-centric, orientalist, and racist point of view on the Arab Spring. Comments about the Arab spring ranged from “a cry for western democracy,” calling the Middle East “the Muslim world,” “Islamist threat to democracy and prosecution of minorities,” to posing “western technology as what made these revolutions possible.” It was impossible enough to bare Henry Kissinger’s deep voice on the other end of the line being asked as an “expert” on the Middle East let alone the Arab spring & “Islamist scare” they portrayed. Henry Kissinger?! The one whose exact polices ruined our country and many others to the ground?!! unbelievably stupid. I was going to explode out of frustration for not getting ANY chance to address these comments (insults in my opinion). I hardly had a minute all together to express my point of view or have any questions directed to me except 2 compared to the other guests, who dominated the already dominated western/oriental point of view on the Arab spring. The least any professional media outlet would have done especially speaking on the topic of “democracy” was to give an equal time to all the different speakers or the different point of views.

I was able to get in 2 sentences about the western (US in particular) aid to SCAF, who is leading counter-revolution and acting on the “prosecution of minorities” that other speakers wanted to label it as the “Islamist threat,” but I linked it that it is SCAF who is prosecuting minorities alluring to the Maspero massacre. I also added that the west has NO positive impact what so ever on these revolutions in fact we are going exactly against it.

I sent them an email afterwards explaining my frustration, and requesting to never be invited again on NewsNight as a guest. I do expect an apology and a response to my email copied & pasted below.

“BBC News Night

When you invited me on the show, I was okay to arrange my own ride in

the middle of the night when streets are not safe and activists are

being kidnapped by state government & army everyday to fulfill your request

of being a guest on the show. Secondly, I requested to be introduced

as “a revolutionary socialist activist” and you said no problem, but

Kristy Wark did NOT. I was asked by Jake Morris to give my opinion about

possible questions on the show, and I had no problem responding on the

spot with my opinion.

As the show went on, I noticed that you had total of 5 different

guests including Henry Kissinger, who if you had done any kind of

research or simply took my answers to your questions seriously, you

would know that my point of view is the exact opposite. YET, your

presenter Kristy Wark completely cut me off, and never gave me the

chance to get an equal opportunity as the other guests to express my

point of view. Please review the tapes and actually calculate the

amount of seconds i was able to speak compared to the other guests

when I have a complete opposite opinion of this very orientalist,

western-centric, racist discussion of the Arab Spring. If you saw that

i was too much or too “radical” for your racist/discriminatory show to

cut me off like you did, why did you invite me & not give me enough

time to express my point of view like others? or is it because i

didn’t follow the western-based argument about the “Muslim world” or

the ignorant “western technology” comment from Greenstock, so you shut

me up? I felt very disrespected for bringing me there in the middle of

the night to only frustrate me by not giving me a chance to speak. I

would have been much more comfortable sitting at home and not getting

the few seconds I got on the most insulting show on the Arab Spring

that i have ever witnessed.

Please do not ask me for any news night interviews again. Your entity

incites and affirms the western agenda that our revolution stands

against and if you are professional journalists you would at least

give all sides an equal opportunity to present their view, but you

chose Henry Kissinger (with all his history) to be more of an “expert”

on the Arab Spring (given how much time you allowed him to speak) than

someone fighting there and knows more about what is happening (given

why you invited me in the first place). The least you would have done

is an equal time to each speaker but you proved to me how

unprofessional you are.

Thank you for a night of deep frustration.”

Following day I received this email from deputy producer of NewsNight, Liz Gibbons:

This was my response:

“I am not changing anything about my blog, and you can sue me. Just

because you kept inviting me to report on what was happening during

the 18 days of Tahrir doesn’t give you any right to insult me in

return on the show and expect me to be okay with it. I felt

disrespected, and violated by the condescending tone and the whole

orientation of the discussion. All the feedback I got from those who

saw the show, completely agreed that I was cut off by Kirst Wark, and

you can check twitter for that. I can hold whatever opinion I have and

I know that you will never accept it because you are unprofessional

and your righteous indignation is the proof of it.”

I have no comment.