Libya now by Carlos Latuff

Media...what media?

Tonight at 10 pm Cairo time (9 pm GMT), there will be an electronic protest on line against military trails for civilians in Egypt. As I was thinking about this today, I found this website Cartoon Movement by Khalid Albaih. The media is playing a very big role around us everywhere and especially with the Arab Spring in 2011. Here are 2 images from Khalid site on the media role. I am off to catch up with the online protest!

Life is hard, but.....

"Life is hard"...one of my friends said to me and I agreed. It is so difficult sometimes. You look around and you try and make sense of situations that are really difficult. Then you look worldwide, and there is no much comfort out there either, wars, famine, crimes and brutality. In the middle of it all we start to drown between our personal problems/challenges and the world's sufferings. The results....tiredness and frustrations most of the time.

But while we were away on holiday, I had a chance to think of so many things and reflect on God's creation. I thought of the times when people were dying because there was no simple antibiotic or the times when hot water was luxuries that the poor could not afford. I remembered when we used to go to a phone office to ask to be connected and make a 3min phone call to the capital, when phone numbers were 4 digits! Remember when education was just for the wealthy? when women were still fighting to get some of their rights?

There are so many problems around us, but there are so much that we are enjoying and taking for granted. The beauty of nature, the vast oceans and the blue skis. The education and the travel and the medical advances. I am under no illusion that as I write this, there are millions of people who are still suffering and fighting for their rights. However, in the middle of a gloomy world, let us not be consumed of the darkness of the night because the sun always shine at the end.

2011..what is so different?

What is so different about 2011? since the start of the year, images of protests, riots, famine, tsunami and more are still coming.

From Syria, Bahrain, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt to the riots in London and the massive earthquake in Japan and the famine in Somalia.....these events are seen every year, but this year seems to be extra special. Something is happening deep in the hearts to people and I am not sure what it is. It is the scale of these events that make them extra special. It seems that Roland Emmerich's movie, 2012 will be true!

Dear Tomorrow

Dear Tomorrow
I know I can not rush you to come any faster, but please don't let us down. All we are asking is justice in Egypt. Mubarak's trial is tomorrow, will it actually happen? will it take place? will he turn up? will anything really happen? or will it be another frustrating step?

We want to see real change, we want the military trails to civilians to stop, we want to know what happened to the 2000 people who are still missing since the start of the revolution. We want justice to those who lost their lives at the hands of the government's snipers. We want fair society and a real, strong and fair government - not puppets. We want an end to the military rule and fair elections. Too many have died already and many more are still in hospitals across the country nursing their wounds since January 2011. We are tasting freedom but we still want more.
All we can say is, we can't wait.
Yours

A Battered Wife

Imagine the scene … a dim light in small house, a woman sitting down crying with her hands covering her face. In comes a big guy into the room and looks at her and ask her to stop crying. She does not want to listen to him. She tells him it is over between them, as she removes her hands from her face; the light is shinning on the marks on her face of the fight they had.

But he sits down and try and talk to her, he tells her that he loves her and that she is the one for him, he says that she pushed his buttons and made him so angry that he had to hit her, he tells her that he wants the family to stay together and for the sake of the kids she must stay with him. He tells her that he is not like other guys who beat their wives so badly that they end up in hospital when their men are angry, and it is only few bruises on her face and it will heal very quickly. He tells her that he knows best and she is better leaving all the decisions for him and not to interfere in the future.

Now….this is what is happening in Egypt at the moment, A battered and helpless wife's relation with the one who is in charge, the one the wife used to love. Look at the army arresting and killing innocent civilians, “but we are not like the Syrian or the Libyan armies” you hear them say. “We know best and for the sake of stability of the country we need to rule with an iron fist”. “Some people are protesting so much and stopping normal life and so we had to intervene by force” the “you pushed me to do it” story. So many excuses and while the battered wife used to be able to call for her neighbours for help, at the moment the world is watching and getting more immune to the numbers who are getting killed each day. The majority respond by saying: “but at least it is not like Syria”. True, but how do you feel if I say to the people of Norway after the killings last week, “ah at least it is not like the twin towers in USA” This will be the most inappropriate thing to say.

A life is a life; injustice hurts whether it is against 10 people or 1000 people. The whole police force in the UK was under huge, long and expensive investigation for the unlawful death of a newspaper seller in London during a protest last year. What is happening in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Palestine and many other places is not acceptable on any level. However, brutal force in one place does not excuse extreme force in another.

One thing about battered wives, they may believe the lies first, but they soon learn to stand up and defend themselves. I believe that Egypt will.