Kalb-Baladi

Monday, May 26, 2008

Tow more years of emergency



Egyptian "parliarmentarians" approved a government request to extend emergency law. Yes, two more years of emergency (which started in 1981).

The government is saying that the emergency law will only be used in the fight against terrorism... and to protect the security of the nation and its citizens. That's very thoughtful from our octogenerian boss, very clever, but did it slip his mind to think about retiring? Understandable, I guess alot of things slip his mind these days.

I heard from well informed sources that his doctor recently gave him a memory test. The doctor asked him, "What is three times one?" "274," was his reply. Then the doctor asked him, "What is three times two?" "Tuesday," he replied. The doctor asked him a third question, "Okay. What's three times three?" "Nine," he said. "That's great!" said the doctor. "How did you get that?" "Simple," he said, "just added 274 to Tuesday."

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Sunday, May 25, 2008

Interesting


When George Bush was in Sharm El Sheikh during the World Economic Forum. He had some strong words for Arab Leaders. He said:

Too often in the Middle East, politics has consisted of one leader in power and the opposition in jail. The time has come for nations across the Middle East to abandon these practices and treat their people with the dignity and respect they deserve.


You can watch the full speech on youtube. While he was talking about democracy, the camera showed Gamal Mubarak and his wife listening and looking slightly irritated. I wonder what went on in his head.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Genuis


This was the first piece of news that put a smile on my face for a long time.

A letter by Albert Einstein was sold in a London auction for over 400,000 dollars.

The letter illustrates Einstein's views on religions.

It was a letter he wrote to a friend in very simple and straight forward words.

The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.


Einstein, who was Jewish and had declined an offer to be Israel's second president, also rejected the idea that the Jews are God's favoured people.

For me the Jewish religion, like all others, is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them.


The sooner religion followers realize this the better for the whole world. It is sad that billions of people still follow blindly their religious leaders despite the fact that anyone who spends his life studying theology is neither intelligent nor slightly interesting.

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Monday, May 05, 2008

Did anybody say strike?

So yesterday's "strike" failed miserably. I have a few observations about this:

- The Muslim Brothers are not that big a threat to the government. It is supposed to be the strongest opposition group and it supported the strike, but nobody listened. Maybe this is why they didn't support the 6th of April strike. They knew it would expose them. No surprize there, that's how Islamists are they talk alot of bullshit without any real substance.

- All the so called political activists, liberals, lefties, Kefayas, Facebookers, bloggers, etc. are all irrelevant and phoney. Again no surprize there.For fucks sake they asked people to wear black and bang pots and pans from their home windows and balconies. Please... are they for real? I mean I don't particularly like Mubarak but I'm not going to bang pots from my window. Get lost you losers.

- The only real threat to the government is the spontaneous outbursts of anger and frustration from the poor and deprived, the Mahalla and Kafr El Zayat workers.

- This might seem like good news for the government, there is no real threat from any organized opposition and all they have to do is keep a grip on the economy and sustain some sort of social fucking justice to keep the poor from exploding, but they are so incompetent, corrupt and dysfunctional that even this might prove to be difficult.

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