مبروك لمصر

نعم لإستقلال القضاء

سبق وعبّرت عن استيائى من تصريحات بعض القضاة هنا وهنا, ولذلك برحب ومتفائل بنتائج الانتخابات
:الأخيرة لرئاسة نادى قضاة الاسكندرية وبتصريحات السيد المستشار رئيسه الجديد

وماذا عن السبب الثاني وراء ترشيحك؟ *

يتعلق برغبة الزملاء والذين ألحوا علي لترشيح نفسي بعد تدهور الأوضاع خصوصا في الثلاث سنوات الماضية وهو ما جعلني أوافق حيث وجدت أن احترام رجل الشارع للقضاء قد انخفض كثيرا مؤخرا بمعني أنه قد حدثت تجاوزات عديدة ضد القضاء واعتداءات علي رجاله حتي داخل المحاكم، وما حدث من أقارب عماد الجلدة خير شاهد علي ذلك،

فالقضاء ينبغي أن يكون في مكان أسمي وفي منصة عالية، بالبعد عن الصغائر وعن التجاوزات التي حدثت مثل اتشاح القضاة بأوسمة القضاء علي قارعة الطريق، ورفع العلم الأسود فوق ساري النادي ووقوف سيدات قيل عنهن إنهن زوجات رجال القضاء في وقفات احتجاجية، ولعلمك فإن الأوسمة لا ينبغي الاتشاح بها إلا في الجلسات العلنية بالمحاكم،

ولا يكون ذلك في غير المكان المحدد له، والدولة فيها سلطات ثلاث والمفروض أن كل سلطة مستقلة، ولا يجوز لرئيس النادي أن يتهم أعضاء السلطة التشريعية بلفظ يستاءون منه، فنحن لا نقبل أن تتهمنا السلطة التشريعية بذلك، وهو الأمر الذي اضطر معه (يقصد الخضيري) للتوجه إلي مارينا لتقديم اعتذاره عما بدر منه، كما ظهر في برنامج تليفزيوني ليبدي ندمه وأسفه علي ذلك، فلماذا نخطئ ونضطر للاعتذار..

إن كرامة القاضي تمنعه من أن ينزلق إلي ذلك والمفروض أن القاضي يترفع ويزن كلماته بميزان ذهب، ولا يمكن لكلمة أن يحررها في مقال قطعا أنه قرأه وراجعه عدة مرات مثلما حدث في اتهامه للمستشار ممدوح مرعي وزير العدل وتوجيه الاتهامات إليه وتناوله بعبارات ماسة كالصفع والركل وغيره، ثم الاعتذار والمطالبة بحمل الجنسية الموريتانية والتخلي عن جنسيته المصرية وترشيحه لعمرو موسي رئيسا للجمهورية بدلا من الرئيس مبارك،

كل هذه الأمور وغيرها مما قد لا أتذكره قد أساءت كثيرا إلي رجال القضاء، خصوصا في الإسكندرية التي كان يرأس ناديها وكان الكثير من أصدقائي يسألونني إلي متي ستتركونه يمارس هذه التجاوزات التي تضر ولا تنفع وتهز محراب القضاء، فكان لابد من أن أتقدم للمساعدة علي التغيير سيما أنني أرغب في أن أكمل العطاء حتي تنتهي مدة خدمتي في القضاء كرئيس للنادي.

...إقروا المزيد

Sidenotes

Mr. Khaled Mesh'al, after cockily leading the Hamas invasion from his remote seat in Damascus (and I think anybody following the news from an unbiased source reporting on the ground - rather than papers relying locally on hearsay "from their domestic sources" for their stories - will clearly see that Hamas calculatingly exploited a crisis to push a political agenda of its own; or in Mahmoud Zahar’s own words: "Sometimes it's necessary to create a crisis to settle another one." That genius concept of Palestinian diplomacy. A crisis, I may add, that Hamas, together with the asshole Olmert, and that other branch of Palestinian resistance Fatah, is largely responsible for creating in the first place), will be arriving in Cairo soon to set his terms. I hope that President Mubarak, after receiving his guest, bids him farewell with a befitting boot in the ass.

As for our anarchists who cheered on agda3 nas's shooting and pelting of our "pigs", and the other ridiculous individuals who felt ashamed by them "to be Egyptian" for their trying to do their job and guard the borders, I think the next time they take up the cause of the poor villagers of Orsaya, or the farmers of Dekerness, I'll take their words with a grain of salt; I assure them that each one of these people had at one point in their lives fulfilled their civic service as a "pig". And each one of these pigs serving now in Rafah does have a family to get back to once again at the end of the day.

Flashback

Over two years ago in my very first blog post I wrote:

There is a difference between using rhetoric as a tactical means to achieve political ends, and between inflating rhetoric until it becomes so big, that it develops a life of its own and its own speaker becomes afraid to confront it. And yet the key thing to know here is that, despite appearances, it does not really develop a life of its own: it's only a balloon, inflated further and further only by the authors' fear to confront it. And it becomes so big until it obstructs their vision from seeing what is actually happening on the ground; in this case, the influx of Palestinians into Sinai and the threat to Egyptian national security that this represents.

One of Israel's age-old arguments since its foundation has been that the Arab world is so big that it can afford to settle the occupied and stateless Palestinians in its own territories - in this case among them, the Sinai - and in so doing, ending the 'Palestinian question' and the trouble resulting from its occupation. And perhaps the biggest reason for its withdrawal is its leaders' realistic recognition of its long-term inability to cope with the growing problems of overpopulation and poverty in Gaza. And yet while Israel confronted this situation by cutting its losses and withdrawing, the Egyptian government seems to have incoherently responded by opening its border full swing. Unlike the Israelis, we Egyptians were neither given a referendum to ask our opinion over the details of the matter, nor given a clue about what is going on - even a month after the border was officially inaugurated on the 25th of November. We do not know for sure how many Palestinians crossed into Sinai, and we do not have an idea of how many still remain on this side and have settled with their kin. We do not know what the border deal entails...again, we were told in the news that the Rafah border will be the gate of the Palestinians to the outside world, but we were told nothing about what this for Egypt particularly means.

I am sure Egyptians can only be happy for the new prospects this may entail for Palestinians, from newfound ability to travel abroad, to attracting foreign investment and wealth to the Gaza strip and creating new job opportunities for its inhabitants. But Egypt, whose unemployed population runs at 10.9 % of its labour force (and I think is a moderate estimate), or 2.25 million people, towers over Gaza’s total population of 1.3 million as a whole, and cannot afford to sacrifice critically needed jobs to its neighbours. And our neighbours of the overpopulated Gaza strip, whose borders are now freely open to Egypt, are now geographically closer and may find it easier to make it to the tourist and the less dense population centres in Sinai than can the bulk of the Egyptian population of the Nile Valley, who ironically have to go through a hell of their own of security checkpoints just to make it into Sinai themselves. Will all this in the long term spell a demographic, and even political, change in the future of the Sinai? The opaqueness of the Egyptian political process and the absurdity of both the governmental press and that of the opposition have left us in the dark over matters that are of utmost importance to the country's national security...And I, for one, am dumfounded and confused. There are probably strong immigration laws in place in Egypt to prevent such scenarios from happening, but can the bribery of local officials and Bedouin-facilitated human trafficking find their way around them? It is a tough border to control after all, as Israel failed to locate all the tunnels used to smuggle weapons across the border.

In the end I must say that I reserve my right to be wrong about these speculations, because I am left stumbling in the dark...and this anxiety of opaqueness is the biggest problem after all.

Prophet Seneferu has struck again, but unlike some low-lives this gives me no reason to rejoice.

Innocent yet jagged question

Workers' unions aside; why does Baheyya queen of the blogosphere prop up the Libyan lackeys of Al-Karama every other post?

* And speaking of unions, isn't it a tad bit ironic that a leader of a workers' union strike should also be an activist leader of the Nasserist party? Sort of like a curator of a massive Holocaust museum..two-timing as a leader of the good old Nazi party? Do the Nasserists forget that it was a military tribunal of the Revolutionary Command Council which instilled terror in the hearts of the unions since over 50 years back by executing the union leaders Khamis and Ba'ri just a few weeks after the coup? Or did they erase this minor fact from their collective history? And do they realize that when they protest in support of the judges, in fear of repetition of another massacre of the judiciary, that it was none other than the idol they wave in their banners who performed the only such massacre to date owning up to this infamous name?

Indeed...Mr Abu Eitta was born only months after Khamis and Ba'ri were executed, and only a happy child when the Egyptian judiciary was positively massacred..he is innocent of these events, and, chances are, himself a pleasant and likable man. But the foolish political advertisement is no more excusable than that of the eccentric curator standing over there..solemnly commemorating the Holocaust in his most fashionable swastika boots.

What's next, the Stalinist party for democratic reform? OK, ok..we already have one of several such here...

...انتظروا المفاجأه

؟ ...

... نبذات ميمون عن الحارس الراحل شمشون

... قريباً - بعد غداً غد غداً - فقط - على صفحات ــــــ اللولبية

(... الحبر خلص - إستنوا معانا شوية) ...

مقدمة: لقد كتب الأستاذ ميمون المقدمة لهذه النبذات الإلهامية عن الأخ الراحل شمشون فى 28 برمودة السنة قبل قبل اللى فاتت...راح خبطت فكرة فى دماغه وقاللك ليه ياد يا ميمون مات خلّينا أكثر فقاقة و ننشر المقدمة بتاعتنا بتاريخ
... !النهارده أحسااان؟؟ وهو كذلك - قال ميمون لنفسه - عدّاك العيب

جرى إيه يا جماعة!..هو الواحد ما يعرفش يكتب صفحتين مقدمة على بعضهم)
(... من غير ما يخلص الحبر؟!! ... معلهش, إستنوا معانا شوية كمان

... قريباً - بعد غداً ... فقط على صفحات ـــــــ اللولبية

Discrepancies

Cry Clinton cry:

Hillary sounded silly trying to paint Obama as a poetic dreamer and herself as a prodigious doer. "Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act," she said. Did any living Democrat ever imagine that any other living Democrat would try to win a presidential primary in New Hampshire by comparing herself to LBJ? (Who was driven out of politics by Gene McCarthy in New Hampshire.)

Her argument against Obama now boils down to an argument against idealism, which is probably the lowest and most unlikely point to which any Clinton could sink. The people from Hope are arguing against hope.

Round 2, come South Carolina:

Talk and its meaning seemed to dominate the day.

In the Clinton radio ad, which uses a clip from his recent interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal editorial board, Obama is heard saying: "The Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10, 15 years."

An announcer says: "Hillary Clinton thinks this election is about replacing disastrous Republican ideas with new ones, like jump-starting the economy."

Obama's campaign enlisted supporters in South Carolina to denounce the Clinton piece as selective editing. Former Gov. Jim Hodges said Clinton's campaign seemed determined to win "at all costs."

Obama's comment about Republicans came as he discussed elections that represented shifts in political direction. The full quote is: "I think it's fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10-15 years in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom."

He preceded the remark by noting that John F. Kennedy also had shifted the direction of the country. "I think we're in one of those times right now, where people feel like things as they are going aren't working," he said. "That we're bogged down in the same arguments that we've been having, and they're not useful. And the Republican approach, I think, has played itself out."

كيهك

.صباحك مِساك

Movie review

So I just saw the much talked-about new blockbuster film "El Gezeera," and let me tell you, people...I thought it was horrendous.

Ok where should I begin ya tara, where should I begin...7adi-badi-sidi-m7ammad-el-boghdadi - se'ssa2a's beard it is then!


Ok first of all you will never see a real-life, self respecting se3eedi with se'ssa2as unshaven beard, let alone Mr. Sa22a's signature cleanly cropped at the sides, hourly-machine-trimmed, straight out of the 80s (or somewhere) mockette beard. No siree, this won't happen. (And I will not go to his bling rings.)

Secondly!

Come on, people -Did this woman really look se3eedi to you??:-) Imagine this person wearing the same make-up, flaunting the same soft demeanor you see in this photograph (and wearing maybe a slightly different hairdo?) playing the role of a housewife from a hardened drug baron family...would you buy it?

Thirdly, the dialects - they were clearly flawed; as in obviously inconsistent, and therefore clearly manufactured to the listeners and inauthentic. You can't help but note that the producers of old black and white movies of yore had more meticulously researched their works than the makers of this film.

Fourthly, the attire...

What was that that Hind Sabry was wearing? Those were not se3eedi clothes - you could think Siwan maybe, who knows, but not typical Upper Egyptian dress. And Mr. Sa22a's changing dress sometimes looked more like an Alexandrian fisherman's than that of a powerful se3eedi clansman.

Fifthly, and I must mention the fifthly!...the goody-two-shoes cop! Now this fellow had a good heart; so good that he would on several occasions miraculously find himself intruding inside the drug baron's house, bystanding all the guards you would imagine said drug baron employs. Now Hollywood would usually waste your time explaining to you how cop expertly accomplished this feat - but in our film it just happens, et voila; in one shot you find the man already strolling in drug baron's house...ezzaay?? Makhabershy...wallahu a3lam. Excellent accomplishments from the same man who was shown in an earlier scene lost and confused, spinning in the same spot (yes, without actually running around to explore another spot...) in the assab fields gun-fight scene much like a dog does in play-chasing his own tail...Kat neyyeto safya awi eddadda3da wallahy.

Sixthly, that scene where the undercover security apparatus installed a monitoring camera - and I mean a huuuge 1980s embassy-style not-trying-at-all-to-look-hidden camera - outside the wall of the drug baron's own house to spy on his drug transactions, and the team looking so surpised (and saying darn!) when the baron waves at them that he can see them..Smart Sa22a!

Seventhly, the battle scene near the end where Sa22a and his men charge forward shooting their guns as if they were fighting a middle-ages battle with wooden swords...and this coming from the man who we are told just graduated from special forces' school and is praised by his comrades throughout the film for his rare learning and intelligence! Scene totally uncalled for...

This is not to say that the whole movie was bad...there are clearly some production and directorial strides forward being made, but those being emulative rather than innovative of Western action scenes, for example, and that in my humble opinion is unnecessary and misplaced in the Egyptian context. The customary plot adaptations from Hollywood in Egyptian action flicks are also clearly present in this film; from The Godfather in this case - all inclusive of the weaker brother Fredo who is very originally shot in this adaptation in the person of young Godfather's betraying uncle instead.

Almost forgot: That spooky mokhber hired by Sa22a to spy on his uncle: it was understandable to see him following him as he came out of the police station, but not really to see him following him on foot out of the woods when the uncle was soon shot while and after driving a journey in his car. It looked more like a snap of a phantom in the directorial style of The Passion of the Christ.

Bhutto and the 23-4-5-...

Down with murder.

مولد

...النهارده يا جماعة مولد سيدى محمد أنور الساداتى

* Me luvs to tease me some uber-intellectuals :-D

Alternative tuna

.ماهو عصر النووى بئا يا جدعان

آخر أخبار

:الزعيم العبئرى المُلهَم وحيد الأقصرى اللى ألهم الوطنى بالنووى يا جدعان

.عدد إمبارح للأهرام *

...وبمناسبة خِرفان العيد

.جريدة العربى الفتية أوى أوى أوى *

:وألذ حاجة إن هؤلاء اللى لا يرتعشون فاتحين جيوبهم عالآخر لمن يموّلون الإعلان دوّت فى صفحتهم الأخيرة

.كل سنة وأنتم يا أعزائى طيبون

Musing of the day..من باب النكش

...تحديث: والحمد لله فيه عندنا ستات محترمة بتتكلم؛ حلاوة شمسنا

The eerie silence of Egypt's ever-outspoken activists on such a fundamental national and environmental issue of turning the country to a nuclear energy-based system has led me back to the amusing revelation that we've really got one confused, and confusing, political landscape in Egypt: we've got "liberals" who are often seen as conservative; and a "left" that is militant, and partly fascist (the Nasserist branch of them; and what a great joke it is for some of our numerous "local and Western experts" to label them as left rather than far-right), and so wants to get its freak on with the atom :-)

It's no wonder come to think of it now that the state got el-Tagamu's Rifaat el-Said - the official, if not really the popular, face of the left - to be among its first public signatories of the project; who but the left would really object now to its nuclear proposal?

Smart, very smart.

We mabrouk 3aleikom gamee3an 3asr el nawawi ya ged3aan.

Update:

Speak of the devils, we mabrouk tani ya ged3aan:-)

Nay to a nuclear Egypt

I'm not exactly a regime-challenging kind of person; hence my avoidance of writing about this matter any earlier than now. But a year later, and all seemingly in place for going forth with the nuclear program, I thought I'd just let my opinion of it be known...

So Egypt's crown-prince-apparent has tacitly announced his nomination for the presidency with his proposal for a nuclear Egypt.

Egypt has a history of illegitimate leaders adopting mass-scale projects as a means of carving out a place in history for their own legitimacy (distracting the focus of local public opinion from their misplaced selves onto a major foreign and disapproving power instead, that is).

35-year-old officer Gamal Abdel-Nasser lacked any form of legitimacy after overthrowing not only the constitutional parliament and parties, but also the respected general of the coup.

So he campaigned, a la method explained above, for the grand project of the High Dam, previously studied and rejected by a succession of democratic parliamentary governments. He totally screwed the Egyptian ecology, agricultural black lands and delta coastline and fisheries in the process – not to mention drowned a people's entire ancestral land which also happened to be a huge percentage of scarce Egyptian arable Nile land - but no matter; he got from it what was important to himself, and that is what really matters in the end.

Unlike the historical case of drama and controversy related to the construction of the High Dam however, the United States comes out this time in favour of Jimmy's nuclear proposal and says, "Sure, no problem, we'll even help you out with it"...which kind of ruins the whole rebelliousness part of the project, and makes it seem, well...a little silly?

Then there is the whole speed factor of the matter - why the rush? Gamal announces the nuclear platform last year and then soon after Al Ahram publishes this headline:

Then right after prints this one the following day:


The initial hype eventually followed with official silence, but gave sudden energy and rise to all sorts of empty causes for obscure officials with nothing better on their hands to do:


Ok, personally I am against this nuclear energy business, peaceful as it may be, for some of the following reasons...

- We don't need it first of all; the High Dam generates more electricity than we need, enough that we apparently export electrical power to our neighbors.

- If we are talking alternative energy here, then what country more than Egypt should be using its all-year-round scorching sun to generate solar energy? If we really have 2 billion dollars to spare on one of many nuclear plants, then how cool would it be to use these kinds of funds to prop up Egypt as a pioneer and world leader in developing and using solar technology, for example, as India now is a leader in the field of IT?

Look at what a country like Spain, which has much less sun than we do, is building and already using to invest in solar energy.

And why shouldn't the vast expanses of the Egyptian desert be flanked with windmills left and right to generate even more electricity?

If it is cleaner energy sources than petroleum that we are looking for, Egypt is supposed to have huge reserves of natural gas...why aren't we using this fuel on a wider scale to clean our environment? Why isn't the government even applying simple traffic regulation laws as a first step to clean our extremely polluted environment?

And who is asking for this project anyway?

Egyptians are supposed to be a simple and peaceful people; I don't think we're exactly the nuclear energy-flaunting kind of folks.

So who is this project meant to please? My guess held that only the most insecure and irrelevant of Egypt's politicians will be happy with this project:


Al-Oqsori ran for president on a platform of not only making Egypt a nuclear power, but the regional hub for exporting nuclear technology to the rest of the Arab world. This platform of his gave me good heartfelt laughs afterwards for a long time to come…but even this good humour I am now sadly deprived of when I eventually heard the government's plans to materialize even part of it into a reality.

El-Tagamu's Rifaat el Said has also jumped on the bandwagon at some point, predictably, describing it as a 'positive proposal'.

Is it perhaps the "prestige" of this project that gives it an extra shine as a leadership model of 'dignity and pride' in the wider Arab world? The politicians should focus on their constituencies' domestic interests here, within the Egyptian borders, not beyond.

You've got to admit that the NDP did a pretty good job in the last presidential elections in eliminating any realistic competition to the president by the funny bunch of people they presented to the public as alternative frontrunners. But then, going with the apparent fad of one-upmanship in Egyptian politics, the NDP decided to go on and announce its platform in outdoing the opposition in their proposed policies, which I had previously deemed as stupid.

And not to feel left out by the grand championship of one-upmanships, the few writers of the opposition who actually are vocal about the nuclear proposal object to it not out of infeasibility of concept or disagreement on principle, but do so in the tradition of an annoying housewife heckling an exhausted husband every night: "Ha! So you say you can do it?? Then hurry up and show me what you can do!"

Which kind of puts a damper on any hope that the NDP was maybe reconsidering its nuclear proposal in its relative year of silence since its initial announcement, and shifts it more into a matter of willpower in the style of Abdel-Fattah el-Ossari in his classic film where he insists: "Ana Ragel, we kelmiti matenzelsh el ard aaabadan!"


And step into the fray of domestic housewives are the classic nutjobs like this Avigdor Lieberman character, who most welcomely fills in the empty role of foreign disapproving power while simultaneously throwing any local skeptics into the basket of “defeatists, imperialists and Zionist pigs.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the NDP, and the political landscape in Egypt in general, to be fair, stole my laughter away.

But no matter! Dark comedy always finds a way of seeping into our collective lives as Egyptians…


Guess who's invited himself to dinner; Yevgeny Primakov drops in for a visit to offer his services the very next day after Egypt announces a legislature for its peaceful nuclear energy program. Who but Chernobyl Russia should we entrust in building our safe nuclear reactors?

عن سعد زغلول

عبقرية سعد زغلول

(بقلم طارق حجى (مايضرّش, المهم كووتات المعاصرين اللى حاطتها

وُلِدَ سعدُ زغلول في سنةِ ١٨٥٩ وتوفي منذُ ثمانين سنة بالتمامِ والكمالِ (١٩٢٧). ويهدف هذا المقالُ لإبرازِ جانبٍ عبقري من جوانبِ زعامةِ سعد زغلول لم يلتفت إليه المؤرخون بالشكلِ الذي يستحقه

وأعني اختلاف زعامة سعد زغلول عن الزعامات الأُخري في تاريخِ مصرَ المُعاصر وفي تاريخِ معظمِ شعوبِ العالمِ أيضاً . فقد بلغ سعدٌ (علي خلاف هؤلاء) ما بلغه من نفوذٍ طاغٍ علي الجماهيرِ وتأثيرٍ يشبه ما يقال عن أعمالِ السحرِ علي الناسِ وهو (أي سعد) مُجَرد تماماً من كلِ منصبٍ رسمي (مثل المهاتما غاندي).

ولنتأمل معاً سلوك المصريين عندما عاد سعدُ زغلولٍ لمصرَ في ٤ أبريل ١٩٢١ بعد نفيه الأول في مارس١٩١٩. يصف المؤرخُ عبد الرحمن الرافعي، وهو أحد زعماء الحزب الوطني المشهورين بعدائهم لسعدٍ استقبالَ الجماهيرِ لسعدِ زغلول يومذاك بقولِه: (وقوبل في الإسكندرية وفي الطريق منها إلي القاهرةِ وفي العاصمةِ بأعظمِ مظاهرِ الفرحِ والحماسةِ بحيث كانت مقابلته سلسلة لا نهاية لها من الزيناتِ والمظاهراتِ والحفلاتِ والأفراحِ مما لا مثيل له في تاريخِ مصرَ الحديث).

أما الدكتور محمد حسين هيكل أحد أبرز شخصياتِ الأحرارِ الدستوريين الأشد عداء لسعدِ زغلول فيقول في الجزءِ الأول من مذكراته: (وكان استقبالُ سعد في ذلك اليوم منقطعَ النظير، فما أحسب فاتحاً من الفاتحين ولا ملكاً من الملوك حظي بأعظم منه في أوجِ مجدهِ .

خفت القاهرةُ كلُها : شبابُها وشيبُها، رجالهُا ونساؤها حتي المحجبات منهن، إلي الطرقات التي سيمر بها يحيونه ويهتفون باسمه هتافات تشق عنانَ السماء، وجاء إلي القاهرة من أقصي الأقاليم وأريافها ألوف وعشرات الألوف يشتركون في هذا الاستقبال الذي جمع بين رجالِ الحكمِ من وزراءٍ ووكلاءِ وزاراتٍ ومن دونهم ومن طبقاتِ الشعبِ المثقفةِ وغير المثقفة).

(ورأي سعدٌ ذلك بعيني رأسِه، فوقف في سيارته التي سارت الهويني من محطةِ القاهرة إلي داره يحيي بكلتا يديه هذه الجموع الزاخرة الهاتفة، المولية وجهَها إلي الرجلِ الذي اجتمعت فيه آمالُ الأمةِ كلِها) .

ثم يضيف الدكتور هيكل: (تري.. أقُدِّر للأسكندر الأكبر أو لتيمورلنك أو لخالد بن الوليد أو لنابليون بونابرت أن يري مشهداً أجلَ وأروعَ من هذا المشهدِ؟ وماذا كان يجول بنفسِ سعدٍ وهو يري هذا المنظر الرائع يمر أمامه وعيون الناسِ كلهم مشدودة إليه وأفئدتهم متعلقة به وقلوبهم ممتلئة بإكبارِه وإعظامِه؟).

أما المؤرخ الكبير أحمد شفيق (باشا) فإنه يصف لنا هذا المشهد التاريخي في الجزء الثاني من «الحوليات» فيقول: (لقد روي لنا التاريخ كثيراً من روايات القواد والملوك الذين يعودون إلي بلادِهم ظافرين، فيحتفل القومُ احتفالاً باهراً باستقبالِهم، ولكن لم يرو لنا التاريخ أن أمةً بأسرِها تحتفل برجلٍ منها احتفالاً جمع بين العظمةِ غير المحدودة والجلال المتناهي لم يفترق فيه كبيرٌ عن صغيرٍ احتفالاً لا تقوي علي إقامته بهذا النظام أكبرُ قوي الأرض لولا أن الأمةَ المصرية أرادت أن تأتي العالم بمعجزةٍ لم يعرف لها التاريخُ مثيلاً).

أما أحمد حسين مؤسس حزب مصر الفتاة والذي رغم خلافه السياسي مع الوفد كان رجلاً كبيراً اتسم بالموضوعية البالغة في التأريخ عندما أفاض في تصوير عظمة شخصية وجهاد سعد زغلول الوطني في كتابه «موسوعة تاريخ مصر» معطياً إياه حقه الكامل كأعظمِ زعيمٍ في تاريخِ مصرَ الحديث، يكتب أحمدُ حسين في الجزء الخامس من هذه الموسوعة عن استقبال سعد زغلول يومئذ فيقول: (وصل سعد زغلول باشا إلي القاهرة يوم ٤ أبريل .

وفي ختام الجزء الرابع تحدثنا عن الاستقبالِ «الخُرافي» أو فلنقل الأسطوري الذي استقبلت به مصرُ سعداً حكومةً وشعباً، ولا غرابة في ذلك فقد كان إبرازُ هذه المشاعرِ واتخاذها سعدَ زغلول رمزاً لها هو أسلوب الأمةِ في التعبيرِ عن إرادتِها، وقد استمرت الاحتفالاتُ بعودةِ سعد زغلول تتجلي لعديدٍ من الأيامِ في الوفودِ التي هرعت من أنحاءِ البلادِ لتحيةِ سعدٍ ... وإذا كان من نواميسِ الطبيعةِ أن يكون لكلِ فعلٍ رد فعلٍ ، فلابد أنه كان لهذا الاستقبال «الخُرافي» رد فعل في مختلفِ الأوساطِ المعاديةِ للشعبِ وفي الشعب وفي نفس سعد زغلولٍ علي السواء.

فأما أعداءُ الشعبِ وعلي رأسهم إنجلترا فلا بد أن يكون الاستقبالُ قد أفزعها ورأت ما ينطوي عليه من معانٍ، حيث تضامن الشعبُ وتكتل خلف الرجل الذي أصبحت إنجلترا تعتبره خصماً لدوداً لها . ولا بد أن يكون السلطانُ أحمد فؤاد قد أفزعه بدوره أن يصبح في مصر إنسان بكل هذه القوةِ).
أما عباسُ العقاد فإنه يصف لنا مشهدَ عودةِ سعد زغلول يوم ٤ أبريل ١٩٢١ فيتحدث في الفصل الثالث والثلاثين من كتابه «سعد زغلول - سيرة وتحية» فيقول: (ملك سعد ناصية الموقف من ساعة وصوله إلي شاطئ الإسكندرية، وثبت في عالمِ العيان لمن كان في شك من الأمر أن هذا الرجل أقوي قوة في سياسةِ مصرَ القومية.

وأن كل اتفاقٍ بين مصر وإنجلترا يتم علي الرغمِ من هذا الرجل أو مع إغفالِ شأنه وتهوين خطره مستحيلٌ). (لقد كان اليوم الرابع من أبريل - يوم وصوله الإسكندرية - يوم الجيل بأسرهِ في العالمِ بأسره، ولك أن تقول وأنت آمن من الغلو أن استقبالَ سعدٍ في ذلك اليوم وفي اليوم الذي بعده كان أفخمَ استقبالٍ لرجلٍ من الرجالِ في أوائل القرن العشرين، فقد انتظمت مصرُ موكباً واحداً للحفاوة به من شاطئ البحر بل من مدخل الميناء إلي عاصمة الديار المصرية وارتفعت الزيناتُ وأقواسُ النصرِ من سُلَمِ الباخرةِ إلي حجرتِه في فندق «كلاردج» الذي نزل فيه وكان الناظرُ لا يري في كلِ مكانٍ إلاّ صورة سعد ولا يسمع إلا الهتافَ وأناشيدَ المترنمين بذكِره .

وانقضي أسبوعٌ قبل وصولهِ والوفود تتزاحم علي الإسكندرية من أقصي القطر إلي أقصاه حتي تعذر المبيتُ في الفنادقِ ولجأ الناسُ إلي البيوتِ يسألون أصحابَها أن يؤووهم إلي مكانٍ يسكنون إليه ريثما يحين اليومُ الموعود .

ولم تبق شرفةٌ في الطريق إلا غالي المستأجرون بثمنِ الوقفةِ فيها بضع ساعاتٍ حتي نيفت أجرةُ الشرفةِ علي أُجرةِ البيتِ، وضاقت الطرقاتُ عن مسيرِ المركباتِ وأوشكت أن تضيق عن مسير الأقدام من مجاز لمجاز. ولما استقل القطار من الإسكندرية إلي القاهرة تلاحقت الجموعُ علي طولِ الطريقِ تأبي إلا أن تستوقفه مرات في غير مواضع الوقوف ومنهم من كانوا يترامون علي القضبانِ في بعض القري الصغيرة ليغتنموا لحظة من الوقتِ يقف فيها القطارُ ويطل فيها الزعيمُ علي المستقبلين .

كانت تلك بعض كلماتِ «العقاد» في وصف استقبال الشعب المصري لسعد زغلول يوم الرابع من أبريل ١٩٢١ بعد كلمات «عبدالرحمن الرافعي» و«محمد حسين هيكل» و«أحمد شفيق» و«أحمد حسين» وكل منهم يروي ما عاصره ورآه لا ما حُكي له أو تناقله الرواةُ. ثم نتساءل هل كان سعد ملكَ مصرَ؟.. أم رئيسَ جمهوريتها؟ .. أم رئيس وزرائها؟.. أم وزيـراً؟؟

والإجابة علي كل تلك الأسئلة بالنفي : فلم يكن سعد ملكاً ولا رئيساً ولم يكن رئيس حكومة ولم يكن وزيراً ولم يكن يشغل أي منصب رسمي عندما استقبله شعبُ مصرَ بهذا الاستقبال .

وهنا تكمن عبقرية سعد زغلول: فبدون سلطة، حيث كان رأس الدولة هو السلطان فؤاد ورئيس وزرائها هو عدلي يكن. وبدون مؤسسات رسمية تحشد المواطنين في الشوارع، وبدون وزير إعلام يسخر أدوات أجهزة الإعلام لتسليط الأضواء علي وجه واسم رئيسه، وفي ظل الوجود الحربي البريطاني المعادي لسعد زغلول والذي كان قد نفاه قبل سنتين إلي مالطة مما فجر ثورة ١٩١٩ . وبدون أي حول ولا طول إلا شخصية سعد زغلول العامرة بمؤهلات الزعامة الحقيقية.

معارضون وقوادون سوق العبيد

."شوفوا ابن الكلب واصم كلمة العبودية كام مرة...سبع مرات بما فيهم عنوان "المقال

الشيخ بيبو بيمسّى عليكو

Stop the impending genocide

I'm no fan of Bridgette Bardot for her statements about us that I've read in the past, but in this case I really hope her campaign to stop this massacre succeeds. And it's always the convenient excuse of the "women and children" being used - and you just know that the person writing this piece is neither a woman nor a child, but in all probability an almost middle-aged man who at the thought of facing a stray dog in the streets is wetting his pants.

Go Bardot!

The Family Jewels?

...عمّو شرشر بيقول

"عبدالناصر استبدل 3500 جنيه من معاشه ليزوج بناته"...

A lady I know spotted the picture above in the July issue of an Egyptian fashion/celebrity-society-photo magazine...


...and said no matter how much money you have, you can't afford to buy so many jewels (rubies, she maybe mentioned?) on your necklace. She was implying that this necklace probably belonged to the jewellery acquisitioned by "the revolution" from the Royal family.

I don't know much about jewels myself - she could be right, and very well be wrong - but there's just a thought, at least to what the esteemed Mr. Sharshar says...

(Disclaimer: This post seems to me like a typical Adel Hammouda muckraking moment, so I apologize for that, but Mr. Sharshar's editorial just provoked me into sharing this fleeting thought...)