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Egypt: Ramadan Musings

Categories: Middle East & North Africa, Egypt, Economics & Business, Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Labor, Media & Journalism, Migration & Immigration, Protest, Youth

It's fair to say the month of Ramadan [1] provides a unique experience for all parties involved, the fasting followed by excessive eating, the excessive eating followed by excessive partying and the scathing eye of everyone around you.

It's amazing that while all this keeps everyone busy, the Egyptian government still finds time to suppress free speech. Zeinobia reports [2] on the most recent developments on imprisonment of journalists.

I do not know if that is going to be on a daily basis , I mean every time I open an Egyptian website I find the news that an Egyptian court somewhere ordered to jail Journalists and chief editor of some newspaper with fine to be paid !!

This is in less than a week , oh man

There was another court order today to jail another group of journalists ,the order came afternoon ,I do not know when ,but it turned out that the Agouza court decided to jail the publisher of “Sawt El-Oma” , the Chief in editor of the same newspaper and three journalists in it for two months and a fine equals to 100 E.P each

Not eating all day can put people on edge, add some people's stupid behavior to the formula and you'll have a very dangerous combination. Mo'men is fuming [3] with road rage after dealing with some inconsiderate drivers.

Driving in Egypt is like surviving in a vicious jungle, Dominant species (lions) get to do what they want without ethical restrains while submissive species (sheep) choose to play it safe, be victimized and endure the frustration. There is no such thing as dual-species that can go both ways; inevitably, one attitude will conquer the other and you are labeled; Predator or prey.

Labor protests are snowballing into a nation wide fervor this month as iron and textile workers join forces to protest work conditions, I'll let Hossam Al Hamalawy take it [4]from here.

…a number of textile labor activists in Bolivara, El-Soyouf, and Alexandria Spinning and Weaving have met and are mobilizing for solidarity protests in their factories. Kafr el-Dawwar workers are also mobilizing for a new protest, while the Helwan Iron and Steel Mills workers are fund raising for the Mahalla strikers.

The Socialist Alliance is also calling on Egyptians to join the protest against the General Federation of Trade Unions…

Carmen is certainly one of the better voices of the Egyptian diaspora. I think Ramadan stress is taking its toll on her, she presents a story like only she can, laid out in simple but eloquent terms. As usual her students provide more laughs through their innocence than any grown adult could ever hope for. Here's her side of the story [5]

So I didn't fast. I woke up in the morning with the headache and couldn't go through that pain again. It's still lingering right now as I write this, but I managed to hold it at bay throughout the day.
Lunchtime felt like an inquisition. I had all my colleagues’ eyes on me as I was heating up my food. “What's going on? Is Ramadan over?”
“No, I'm sick today.”
Ten minutes later. “What happened? Is Ramadan over?”
“No, I'm sick.”
Five minutes after that I was asked the same question once again so I decided to go into the schoolyard to eat in peace.
No such thing.
I sat on the bench for about a minute and a half before one of my Pakistani students came running up to me.

I strongly recommend you read the whole post for its full entertainment value.

Till next week everyone.