S & M quite the combination!

S & M 

Friends for a long time  

Perfectly complimentary 

Somewhat weird and can get crazy 

S generally does what M asks 

M is always thankful for S 

Thank you Shamel for looking after Andy and I!

:)
x

A Special Blog for my Mum, or as she is known here, 'Queen Ann'

A message from your boyfriend at China House, Sofitel Hotel, Alexandria:

"Please come visit me during half term Queen Ann, I miss you!"

He continued, "I have been waiting for you for years, my beard has grown long, my smile vanished. 

But you Queen Ann can bring it back to me, all my sadness will disappear into an abyss"

Sweet really, if not a tad bizarre.

If that doesn't convince you, Andy's photo of the food should!

If that doesn't a picture of us happily devouring the food will, surely! 

Come on Queen Ann, you know you want to ....

Graffiti/Street Freedoms

Egypt is now covered with graffiti, much of it is the Egyptian flag, a true testament of love for the country.

Some are signs of peace, like below near where we live in Alex ...

Others are signs of struggle, this one is by the sea front in Alexandria ...

However, it is a dangerous expression of ones thoughts and desires. During the run up to today's protests several people were detained for their street art. Mohammed Fahmy, an infamous graffiti/street artist was one of them. 

Street art is another way of expressing anger, justice and absence of fear, for example the graffiti below has been explained to represent the underwear of Mohamed H Tantawi, the commander of the armed forces - an attempt to show that many are no longer afraid of the military.

With the military cracking down on such freedoms of expression, and many are beautifully sprayed onto the rugged and somewhat desperate buildings and roads of Egypt, many have taken to using stencils in order to avoid being caught and probably detained. 

Egypt seems to be battling the future. People are talking on TV shows especially crested to serve endless discussions on the revolution everyday. Coffee shops are filled with the words of 'change', 'freedom' and 'stability'. Everyone has become politicised. However some are expressing it individually, as many no longer want to talk.

 Anger, love, peace, desperation is written on the walls, streets and bridges of Egypt. It is both beautiful and saddening as nothing seems to be happening, not really. 

Protests to be held in Cairo, Alex and other major cities this Friday!

Should I stay or should I go

?

Death Sentence for Policeman Convicted of Murdering Protesters

Mohamed Ibrahim Abdel-Monem

Killed 20 protesters

"at random"

Got sentenced to death 

on the 22nd May 2011

Mubarak to be Tried in Criminal Court

Pretty ugly situation ...

Egypt's public prosecutor has referred former president Hosni Mubarak to stand trial in a criminal court for his alleged role in the killing of anti-government protesters during the country's uprising.



The charges for Mubarak included "intentional murder, attempted killing of some demonstrators ... misuse of influence and deliberately wasting public funds and unlawfully making private financial gains and profits", the prosecutor said in a statement on Tuesday.


The prosecutor also referred Mubarak's two sons, Ala'a and Gamal, and a close confidant, Hussien Salam, to stand trial in a criminal court as well. Salam, a businessman, has been blamed for a controversial deal to supply Israel with gas at lower than usual prices. He has fled the country.


What with a policeman being charged with the death sentence for killing protesters in Egypt during the revolution, many voices, including newspaper can see the possibility of Mubarak having the same penalty.


However, there are sceptics, it seems that everytime the youth and other protest fired Egyptians organise a mass protest, like the one this coming Friday, the administration makes some concessions. However, making some concessions are not enough. What is more, having spoken to people - they know the concessions are part of a wider plan to pacify the protesters.




Egypt Tourism Slashed post-Revolution

So today I read quite the statistic about tourist figures in Egypt:

In February, there were just over 200,000 foreign visitors, while the year before the number was 1.1 million.

(Al Jazeera)

That is a HUGE drop! It was pretty obvious whilst at the pyramids just how few tourists were in Egypt, but when you take a look at the numbers from February, you begin to worry about the economic state of Egypt, a country where tourism brings a lot of its income.

There is a good video on Aljazeera concerning this fall in visitors: http://www.aljazeera.com/video/middleeast/2011/05/201152365513846172.html

Being in Egypt now, it does feel like Andy and I are some of the only visitors. I hope it changes during the high season of summer, for Egypt's sake...