Here's a little chestnut I missed in my reader from Robert Fisk's feed:

Labels: Egypt, palestine

... certainly not if it's the restroom at the Rafah border crossing.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Friday that no humanitarian aid would be transferred to Gaza without Israel's approval, and that Israel should control the goods crossings as "the occupational authority ruling the Gaza Strip", Al-Jazeera reported. [ynetnews.com]

Thanks for the link go to The Angry Arab News Service.

So is this the part where all the Egyptian nationalists start waving their flags at me? Cos I think I missed the part where you can find the dignity in ceding control of your border to another Government.

Labels: Egypt, palestine

hi, all,

i'm looking into a trip to cairo from around dec 25 to around jan 1/2. right now i have no-one to travel with, as my friends/acquaintances are all going off to different locales for the holidays (india, chile, lebanon...)

would any nomads be up for travelling around egypt for a week, on the cheap? or are there nomads in cairo/alexandria who will be around for that week and up for some local adventures? or do you know anyone else looking for a travel buddy?

please do let me know. sim pho nat ic at gmail dot com.

cheers!
simran

<http://simran.nomadlife.org>

Labels: Cheap Ass, conversation starter, Egypt, help, Travel

(3arabawy)

"So anyway, the referendum is tomorrow (Monday March 26), and most of the opposition has decided to boycott because they know the election results will be fixed, and that they'd just be legitimizing a farce if they voted. But the purpose of having this national referendum is so that the government can claim, for the sake of greater international legitimacy, to have the support of the majority of the Egyptian people (for the same reason every crackpot dictatorship has to call itself the 'democratic republic' of whatever), and so the way to take that way is to have a mass media spectacle protest. Usually these are downtown, in the main Tahrir square, in front of the Arab League building, the Mugamma (civil service bldg, where you go for visas and licenses and whatnot), the American University in Cairo, etc. So today's is about to start.

The government has sworn not to allow any protests or demonstrations, that they must be prevented from "delaying, opposing and stalling the democratic process". So the lines have been drawn...

I just passed through Tahrir a few hours ago, on the way back from a class at Al Azhar, and it is FILLED with beltagayya (plainclothes thugs), like tons and tons standing in formation waiting for protesters to come by. I've never seen that before... typically they wait in police trucks and occasionally microbuses and only come out when protesters are getting significantly out of hand. This is even with major protests that they've been expecting for ages - the judges last May, Lebanon over the summer, etc. Also these beltagayya look much more like normal people than usual - usually they have black boots and carry police clubs. Now it's jeans and, like, tennis shoes. The gist is: they're really playing it both ways. Egyptians all know that beltagayya are the ones to be afraid of (normal cops never hit you, because they fear the media attention), and the regime is just sticking them out there, daring a response. They're even in formation, so they're not even pretending, not even trying to deceive the Egyptians. But they're wearing more normal clothes than usual, because enough readers/viewers of foreign media ( i.e. the regime's foreign bankrollers) will be so stupid as to think that protesters are just being random and violent and beating each other up, and that the referendum is actually democratic and meaningful." (Aatif)

UPDATE (Tom) - I walked through the square around 7:30 and it looked just like this - a ton of plainclothes guys, a ton of thugs (in unbelievably flagrant coordination with the police - actually reinforcing police lines in places...) and few protesters. But it turns out something really terrible happened, check Arabawy for the details

Labels: Egypt

Trying to figure out which ISP to choose while in Egypt? This post might help eliminate one of your options.

"I will get directly into the point. BE WARE FROM DEALING WITH LinkDotNet !! Here's a story that shows all factors of corruption, mismanagement, unstructured and a lying organization that will rob you off your money, patience and even sanity.

To cut a long story short?I subscribed with this company for a DSL service [512 MB] for only a 1 year contract to be used in my own company. After 6 months, I decided to transfer the line to my home address to be used from there and they kindly shifted it successfully.

1 year passed by and my signed contract expired . I called the customer service 2 weeks before the contract ends and requested to end the service as soon as the contract due date ends. The 2 weeks passed by [my contract came to an end] and the DSL service was still active !!!! I called again and requested to end the service 2 days later?I waited a couple of days and the DSL service was still active..!!!! To cut it short for you kind readers? I called LinkDotNet customer service up to 15 times requesting the same thing and no response !! You know how long they kept the service running after the contract ended and after me requesting to end it??..1 FULL YEAR.

Then I receive the 1st phone call from LinkDotNet and to my surprise?they are bluntly requesting payment for the period that followed the end of my contract !!!! I explained that I had a legal contract that ended and I personally requested to end the service following the expiration of that contract?but again they requested the money and I rejected paying !!! You know what they did??they kept the service running again for more than 2 months?

After receiving more than 10 calls requesting the payment of what they called "late service period" I received the final call from a gentlemen their and check out the conversation:

LinkDotNet Representative: Sir?we need you to pay the money for the period you used after the expiration of your contract
Me:Excuse me; I had a legal paid-up-front contract for a period of 1 year only. LinkDotNet did not end the service neither when the contract expired nor after I called requesting to end it?..therefore, logically I will not pay and legally you are not authorized to ask for the money?as a service company you should have ended the service after the contract expires.
LinkDotNet Representative: [with a threatening voice] You know?I can make you pay that money in different ways?so you better do it yourself nicely !
Me:and how can you do that ?
LinkDotNet Representative: I will upload the amount pending on you to your phone bill
Me:You can not do that... LinkDotNet have no authority to carry out such thing
LinkDotNet Representative: Wait and see?thank you and good bye

Before i go further...here' s a pure example of the people LinkDotNet hire to serve their customer...you and me !!! Here's a worthless pig threatening a customer under the name of LinkDotNet Customer Service

2 days later?I find out that the phone line itself went out of service. I called "El Masria Lel E2tesalat " to report a normal phone line down. Although it takes a maximum of 2 days for "El Masria Lel E2tesalat" to fix the problem?it lasted for 2 weeks !!!!! Later on?an old man from "El Masria Lel E2tesalat"came to check out what's going wrong and fix the problem [although the old man knows nothing about the DSL problem] and surprises me by the fact that the DSL line that I have is the reason why the phone line itself can't function [ i.e. The respected LinkDotNet Co. jammed my line..

BE WARE OF THIS COMPANY?.THEY ARE NOT WHAT THEY CLAM THEY ARE
THEY ARE UNPROFESSIONAL
THEY ARE THIEVES
THEY KNOW NOTHING CALLED CUSTOMER SERVICE
THEY HAVE NO MANAGEMENT SKILLS
THEY ARE AFTER YOUR MONEY ONLY

P.S: Please send me your stories if you have/had similar situations with this company. I will sew them in court and I will not step down till I get a formal apology from one of their top management.

Here below are my contacts:
Peter Magdy
Mobile: 012 3520 674
Email: marteny@gmail. com"

Sorry for the length. The link is here.

Labels: Egypt