Mohamed ElGohary

Thursday there was a strike for the Biomedical Department students in Shorouk Academy, something I'm really proud of since I'm one of those students. Though we didn't have all our goals fulfilled, but it is a good step anyway esp there was a not-so-bad cooperation between the Deparment Head Prof Osama Hassan and we the students.

It all began with firing three of the assistants in the department. Officially the head didn't affirm this. But from sources inside the academy, the owner Dr. Mohamed Farid Khamis, ordered them to sign their resignation. There was graphic evidence that these three assistants gave private classes with opposition to the Academy general policies that all extra-curriculum activity must be under the direct supervision of the Academy authorities.

This decision started some opposition among us (personally not me, I didn't like those fired people), but anyway we decided to unite under several causes and do a general strike to force some kind of action.

Here some of the pics:

You can check more at http://www.flickr.com/ircpresident and will search for other students who will have any available material. Stay tuned.

Our demands can be summarized in the following:

1. Returning the assistants (due to the shortage in the academic staff, other than that I don't personally like their way of dealing with us)

2. One day off vacation since it is hard to only have Friday off since many students are not Cairo residents, these usually stay in Shorouk City during the academic week and spend the weekend with their families.

3. From point one, we needed improvement to the staff and improved practical training.

During 2.5 to three hours of the strike, two assistants trying to convince that we must follow order if we wanted to be heard (Seems like governmental influence on normal people is really strong). The strike was mainly by the 3rd year students, and after 2 hours from the beginning the senior (fourth year) students joined us as well. Still we didn't move until the head of the department called for a general meeting to discuss our previously mentioned demands.

Prof. Osama was really wise in dealing with this matter. He didn't mock at the move or at the students or anything. We elected two students to be our representatives, then we had an hour discussion. Though only the third was promised to be done later this year, the first two were denied for the same shortage of resources (human as assistants and other as places). With a promise for a temporary solution like bringing staff from other departments until a permanent solution can be applied.

I want to note that this move was really criticized by our colleagues before and during the strike, but I must confess that this is really a good move. Keep going my Egyptian people.

Stay tuned for updated material.

After the last humanitarian catastrophe happening in Palestine, public
opinion in Egypt has been scattered between the reflection of the bad
news of the mass killing, political prostituion committed by different
kinds of supposedly politically aware people, or politicians, from
different political ideologies. At the moment of writing this the war
seems to be exploding in Beth Lahem.

I will be talking now from two point of views. I prefer to begin with
the humanitarian point of view since we as arabs lack understanding
the value of human life.

We see now dozens of civilians murdered bringing us back to the
barbaric culture of ethnic and religious elimination. This is a state
application of killing policy, simply innocent people are killed.
Seriously these killing machines remind me of the barbaric mongols in
the early islamic history. I don't really know if there is a
possibility to perminantly stop this state barbarism, but what I know
is when a person is desperate, what always happen in this situation is
fighting fire with fire.

Then we find politically-based statements trying to use the people's
emotions towards what's happening for different reasons. Being it
general radical opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood based
organisation with the help of their victorial statements. The other
face of the coin is blindly supporting the existing elected authority
without any try to explain or even understand what is the meaning of
victory or defeat. Did you ever just ask this question to your own
self before exploding? Attacking or defending?
Is being radical the only way of gathering people in the name of
democracy under the umbrella of intentional lack of information and
understanding?

—
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

IRC President
Biomedical Engineering Student
http://paradigm-shifters.blogspot.com
http://politikia.blogspot.com
http://www.twitter.com/ircpresident
http://www.flickr.com/ircpresident

I was tagged by my friend Rasha, I don't know really if I can answer it (since it was 3 years since I was 18), but I will try to answer it anyway :D.

Here are the rules:
1. You should state six things you should do before you turn 18.
2. This tag must be referred to 6 friends
3. A comment must be left on each of these friends.

What I should have done before turning 18:

1. Never let anyone, including your parents to force you to choose a certain career. It is totally frustrating. If you don't live a miserable life then you will do what you wanted anyway, so why losing your resources(of time, nerves, effort, money, etc) of like 4 or 5 or 6 years studying.

2. Related to the previous point, do what activities you want (sports, music, read) as long as "YOU" know that you are balancing your time, also don't take your parents too seriously on that you must Study 100 hours a day since in the end of the day you will end up like any other normal average student and you will be to blame in the end.

3. Try to live alone for sometime, this will give you a heck of experience you can't ever get by any other mean. It will also teach you the meaning of responsibility

4. Look for work in your vacations, work in anything. It has endless benefits. First of all is life experience. Maybe you can find something more appealing to you than the career you dream of, or you may find yourself more successful in. Also you will get money to do whatever you want away from the pocket money :P.

5. Be yourself with dealing with your mates, don't do anything just for the sake of looking "cool" or "popular". Developing your skills or your natural talents by hobbies or work is the thing which will give you all the confidence you want.

6. Languages. Languages empower your imagination, your linguistic skills, your chances of success in your career, your contacts. Just learn what you thing is fine. Learning languages (must be followed by practicing it is really a best value for money.

I tag Dev, Hero, SunShine, Emania, Shaghaf, Saso.

A useful link about the internet submarine cables cuts.

www.ilovebonnie.net/2008/02/12/the-submarine-cables-a-complete-guide-to-the-2008-internet-outage

Via http://focusonthespirit.blogspot.com/2008/02/connect-dotted-line.html

—
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

IRC President
Biomedical Engineering Student
http://paradigm-shifters.blogspot.com
http://politikia.blogspot.com
http://www.twitter.com/ircpresident
http://www.flickr.com/ircpresident

via Zeinobia

If there is Fouad in Saudi Arabia ,there is Tarek in Syria , both are young bloggers who are detained , the only difference is that Fouad was arrested in December 2007 where as Tarek was arrested since July 2007 , yes since July 2007 till now February 2008.

Tarek Biassi was arrested in July 2007 in his home city "Tartus" for the following : criticizing the security forces ,in a comment in the forum "I am a Muslim",visiting online the opposition Websites and his father Dr. Omar Biassi is currently detained too for 20 years till now whom he did not see since 20 years ago !!

Resources are the basic unit of development in any country. The first responsibility of any government is to manage these resources for the benefit of their people. There is a concept which is supposed to classify different countries democratically, which is: "People shouldn't be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people". The more this concept is achieved, the more this resources management has the opportunity to be optimized.

While in the countries where the people are afraid of their governments, the outcome of this resource management (I will call it RM for simplicity) is almost always to finance the corruption heads and to maintain the corruption needed for the stability of the fascist government. This is done on the local level inside the country or internationally in the mutual deals in and out of the country. Leading in the end to some form of resources draining (I will call it RD).

RD is then observed equally in the local society. The rate of family support increases due to normal increasing unemployment. Acting under the urge of self-benefit ignoring any ethical value, leading to a social collapse. This social collapse usually affect the responsible government itself due to the increase rate of crime and violence. Controlled corruption to uncontrolled corruption. The state which can not be maintained for long.

Then in the end of the day, chaos for all, under the effect of some stupid act.

Normally when there is no external support this types of governments fall really fast. But these governments enjoy the unlimited external support by financial and military aid by many western countries. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran in the Shah era, AlQa'eda in the USSR era, the list is open. This problem also goes internationally in the form of terrorism, and ironically the so-called democratic governments fight terrorism and supporting it.

"Fairness, Justice and Freedom are more than words, they are perspectives."

She is a great loss, though I hope this can accelerate the idiot
Musharraf departure, either peacefully or violently.

—
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

IRC President
Biomedical Engineering Student
http://www.paradigm-shifters.org
http://politikia.blogspot.com
http://www.twitter.com/ircpresident

Saudi Blogger Arrested
Fouad Al Farhan, a leading Saudi blogger, has been arrested in Jeddah about two weeks ago. The reasons behind the detention of Al Farhan remain unclear, but it is known that he had to shut down his blog previously after being harassed by some authorities. He remained on hiatus for a few months…

How does authoritarian media plan to researh the so called "New Media"
NOW. Why is New Media equivalent to blogging? Or is it the tendency
towards freedom as a value since satellites are more common and more
connected to people. Or is it the fear of responsibility because who
are to blame are the blogojournalists? I urge professional media
people if this expression is correct, to be more honest with
themselves to give the real picture of what's going on rather than
debating the credibility of people with no material interest
(financial to be precise) opposed to people who are taking media as a
living, which is a very serious point.

—
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

IRC President
Biomedical Engineering Student
http://www.paradigm-shifters.org
http://politikia.blogspot.com
http://www.twitter.com/ircpresident

Mobile test

—
IRC President
Biomedical Engineering Student
http://www.paradigm-shifters.org
http://politikia.blogspot.com
http://www.twitter.com/ircpresident

Review the last posts from Arabawy

And more pictures from here:

From Nora Younis (Arabic)

Todays protest for tax-collectors was cancelled under the effect of this offer after a long discussion between State Security, Minister of Finance and the tax-collectors leaders:

1. Two months would be paid before the coming Eid (before the next Sunday and Monday)

2. The minister would meet with a committee from the protestors just after the Eid (23 and 24 December) to manage the bonuses for the tax-collectors.

3. Today a conference is to be held for the heads of the tax-collectors authorities with the attendance of the minister and a cimmittee from the protestors. The minister is to announce the points of the deal to all of them.

4. No protestor would be punished or harrassed by the security forces or by the management.

5. All the strike days must be considered working days.

I decided to change my attitude (posting under a nickname) to post under my real name. I guess this can be better.

Any questions about it is open.