Mehlis Reports

Detlev Mehlis has handed in his report. The international investigator was assigned by the UN to investigate, Lebanon's ex-prime minister, Rafik Al Hariri's death. Today the UN is convening to discuss the report and its implications. I've read the report and it is one kick-ass investigation that does some serious finger-pointing to high-ranking officials in Lebanon and Syria. All the way up to both presidents. Apparently Bashar El Assad (Syria's version of Gamal Mubarak), was not pleased with having to share Lebanese rule with Hariri! So that's how it works! The SYRIAN president not happy with sharing rule over LEBANON with the LEBANESE prime minister. Sweet.

Here is an excerpt of a phone conversation that was recorded between a Syrian and a Lebaneese official:
The President of the Republic told me this morning that they are two to rule the country the Prime Minister and him. He said that things cannot continue this way.

A witness close to Hariri testified:
"[Hariri] reported President Assad saying to him: I will break Lebanon on your head and Jumblat’s head."

I am interested in the investigation because:

1)I've never really understood how leaders of military regimes think.

2)Syria and Egypt are probably the closest two Arab allies.

3)Politically speaking, Syria and Egypt have SO MUCH in common. They are almost identical twins.

4)The Assad family compels me to look at the Mubaraks and think.

Let's see who gets the last laugh.

A pdf version of Mehlis' full report is found at YaLibnan.com
Or if you want their HTML version.
I also came across an article that reports that an earlier version of the report mentioned specific names of Syrian and Lebanese officials likely to be involved.

Self-righteous pricks

I had just finished reading Mehlis' report investigating Rafik El Hariri's death. So I think why not write something on the blog about it. But before I do, I read the Sandmonkey just so make sure I'm not saying anything redundant that was already written.

Instead, I find no posts on Hariri.. but apparently I've been so out-of-touch about news in Egypt that there has been something of a religious sedition going on without the motherfuckers telling me. How dare they!

I would usually never write about shit like that. I mean really, what CAN one say?!

My God is better than your God?!
My God told me to fuck the shit out of the other God's people?
Can something be more stupider than a man killing another man because they both pray differently? One eats pig while the other doesn't?
You know what, FUCK THEM BOTH! They don't even KNOW their God. Hell.. they don't even know if their God EXISTS! No one really KNOWS! I wish I knew! How can I believe something that has so many contradictions in itself.. or something that has so many other "beliefs" opposing it. How can ANYONE be SO SURE of ANYTHING! And to be so engulfed in that "belief".. to have their lives focused and oriented solely around that "belief" that they would blindly and willingly do so much evil that blatantly condradicts the very basics of human life and the original purpose of those beliefs. So then what the fuck are these beliefs for if they do not improve our lives but serve as the fuel that kills us. We have taken belief to be fact that we are willing to die and be died for.
I read this quote a while ago and it struck me so true:
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction."
Blaise Pascal
French mathematician, physicist (1623 - 1662)

Can people be more blatantly stupid, ignorant and blind? 5,000 people suddenly go to crash into a church?! The paramount of Kefaya's demonstrations could not gather 5,000! Suddenly the self-righteous have appeared! The soldiers of Allah. Let's make our God proud. Let's break our fast on some Christian blood shall we! Let's stab a nun after Iftar. Oh the hypocrisy. The ugly black hypocrisy. You sicken me.

Back from the dead

Oh man .. where do I begin.. well I'm Back! :-D
Between the traveling (again) from Egypt, my new job, the freelance work I volunteered to take up, the house-hunting for my friend, my mum's operation, and to top it all off, my sister's car accident, the last thing on my mind was this blog.
Phew.. that was one fucked up month.. So now that things have settled, the fact that I am so out of touch with Egyptian current affairs, makes me wonder whether there is anything I CAN write. Oh well... I guess writing this post is a start.
Oh and Happy Ramadan :-D

Election Day Diary - Undercover @ Refaa' El Tahtawy

Continued from "Election Day Diary - Afternoon"...

After the Hishem el Hefnawy and Mostapha el Salab circuses... things started to cool down a bit.. The numbers of loaded masses were in continuous arrival but alot of them weren't able to vote because their names weren't registered and they didn't have voting cards. I caught a glimpse of another decent-looking guy .. he seemd in the early 30's.. something like that... He had asked me before what I was doing so he already had an idea of the whole election-monitoring issue.. I went up to him:

"Hi.. Did you get to vote?"

(He didn't seem interested in talking and seemed to be in a hurry)

-"What do you want? You want offenses? There's nothing here to note.. If you want offenses go to Refaa' El Tahtawy... The real offenses are there... They don't check names.. They don't use ink.. it's a real circus there"
(Finally something interesting! But I was slow in understanding that Refaa' El Tahtawy was actually a school and not a person...)
"Really?! Can you explain? What happened exactly? What did you see??"
-"Go and see for yourself!"
"Yeah I will but just give me a heads-up on what to expect? What happened? What did you see?"

The guy TOTALLY ignores me and just hurries off! What the hell?! Fucking bastard! Anyway so I'm still thinking that Refaa' El Tahtawy is some guy who voted in the committee I was monitoring. Must be a hot shot or something because the guy was talking like he was pretty famous! He said he didn't use any ink.. So I run around like a madman looking for someone without an ink mark on their fingers. I decide if he's a famous guy maybe I could ask someone around.. they would probably know him.. I'm not from around here. So I go up to one of the NDP guys (we've become pretty friendly with one another):

"Hey do you know someone called Refaa' El Tahtawy?"
-"Refaa' El Tahtawy? Hmm... That's a school isn't it?"
"No. No. Someone who voted here. Isn't there a famous person called Refaa' El Tahtawy?"
-"Yes Ofcourse! But he's been dead a long long time ago! Maybe you mean the school"
"Hmm No. Anyway thanks."

I go to one of my colleagues and he doesn't know who Refaa' el Tahtawy is either. Oh well.. whatever.

The NDP guys started becoming friendly with me. They told me their names, and basically helped me out with the names of all the officials that were around. They weren't doing that out of support to the monitoring. They were just being friendly and its not like names are confidential or anything. They used to check up with me from time to time on how many people had voted. They seemed to have started counting but gave up in the middle since it was kinda tiresome and they saw that I was doing a fairly honest job of counting myself.. so why duplicate the work? They would throw lines like "Only 300?! Come on man! Lighten up your hands a bit man!" (That's something like saying: don't be so strict.. add a few hundred more.. noone will notice!) I'd tell him "Just that?! How much do you want? 3,000? 3,000,000?" and would just laugh it off. I didn't add a single count ofcourse. And in anycase the counting was just a check to make sure those heading the committee weren't playing around with the uncast ballot cards. It's not like I had the official numbers or anything. It didn't mean that if I increased the number to 3,000 I would have actually increased the official number of voters who voted in the committee. It was just something to compare the official results to. If he really wanted an increase in votes he'd have to tamper with the official results.. not my humble powerless pretty-much-useless count. They'd offer me cigarettes too. Not like a bribe or anything. Just keeping it cool with me. And hell man I think I kinda deserved it. If I ever missed someone who got out of the committee and I hadn't noticed his finger, I would practically run up to him and ask him if he'd voted or not.

"Ok thanks. Just counting the voters thats all"

I think the NDP guys noticed that. I mean I could have just ignored the guy and not put much effort in trying to find out. But I didn't. And I think it helped break the ice a bit. They were more open with me than my other colleagues and respected the effort.

At around 3 or4 pm a few other colleagues showed up. A guy who was a law student, some guy who seemed to some with the law student, a chick and some guy with the chick. The law student told me he heard that some serious offenses had happened in Refaa' El Tahtawy school.

-"I've heard the place there is a mess! They say it's too dangerous for us"
"So it IS a school! Some voter told me to go there and check for some offenses but I didn't understand what he was talking about"

Hmmm.... I started wondering whether that's where I really should be. One of my colleagues then introduces me to the Al Ghad and Al Wafd representatives. The Al Wafd representative looked smart. He was maybe around 22 or something but with this kinda of prestige about him.

-"Al Wafd. Aristocratic" (commented on of my colleagues)

The Al Ghad representative was maybe 24?25? He was a bit chubby and wide. He seemed kinda silly actually. In a goofy way. But he was one of those know-it-all people. Other than that he was ok.

So anyway I talk to the Al Wafd representative and we start talking about the situation in Refaa' El Tahtawy.

-"Yeah I heard about that too! We decided it was too dangerous for our representatives to go there and just left that area"

Damn. Something serious must be going on there. One of my colleagues was talking on the phone to the law student:

-"Ok but take care.. Keep your distance and no need for photos. It's too dangerous"
"He's going to Refaa' El Tahtawy??"
(still on the phone)-"Yeah he is"
"Ok then tell him to hold on! I'm wanna go too"

I hand one of the chicks my stuff and tell her to continue the counting. I meet up the law student at the entrance of the polling station and we take his car. There was another guy with him too.

It took us a while to actually find out in which area the school was in. The area seemed ok. I mean it's in a not too bad part of Nasr City. And the roads are main roads. What could possibly go wrong here? Then when we actually reached the school we found out that the school was situated in a hidden area with bashed up side roads leading to it. The area looked really pathetic with bashed up walls like there was a war that I didn't know about. We circled the school from a distance and noticed a large amount of police officers and police trucks at the entrance. I didn't know whether they were here to contain the trouble or they were the ones causing it. We parked a little way away and started walking to the school. We passed the officers without any problem. Other people were coming in too so no problem there. We entered the school and quickly guessed where the voting was taking place. It was a hall at one side of the school. There was something like 3 or 4 committees in the hall. Each committe simply composed of a few men sitting at a desk at one side of the hall with ballot boxes beside them. It kinda reminded me of the parent-teacher meetings we had at school where some of the non-class-teachers (i.e. religion, arabic, P.E., music etc.) would sit in the school hall to meet the parents. Beside each committee there was a black curtain at a corner somewhere, which looked like a lame attempt to comply with voter privacy rules but it was sufficient.

There was nothing out of the ordinary. Everything seemed calmn enough. Nothing really caught my eye. Maybe we came late? We decided to hang around outside the hall for a while. We could still see what's going on inside through the doors and windows. Voters were coming out with ink on their fingers. Everything seems ok. All three of us would talk in whispers. I felt like an undercover spy. We were freaking out actually but in time we cooled down.

I saw two urban-looking people come from outside. A man and some guy in his 20s. They were talking in whispers too!

-"Everything seems ok don't you think?"
--"Yeah. Everything seems normal"
-"So then what's all that they said was going on?"
--"I don't know. Maybe it was earlier"

Monitors too?! They've also heard things about the place!

I ask the younger guy for a cigarette (Something I HATE to do) when the older guy leaves go check out the inside of the hall. A lame attempt to break the ice and get him to talk.

"I've heard that there were some problems here"
-"Yeah we've heard that too."
"Did you vote yet?"
(in whispers)-"No actually we're here to monitor the area"
"Oh cool"
-"But things seem to be going fine till now"
"Yeah"

So what happened?! I had no idea. I finish off the cigarette and my and my election monitoring buddies decide to leave. Nothing to see here.

As we walk outside we decide to talk the longer route to the car. Just check out the area. We walk past an "ahwa" (traditional coffee place) and there seemed to be an argument with some people gathered around an urban-looking guy wearing a suit. I decide to join the crowd and try to eavesdrop on what they were talking about. The other two colleagues walk along. The argument was between one of the locals and the guy in the suit.

-"Pasha I counted them myself. They were a maximum of 800 no more for sure! That's maximum! He was saying more than a 1,000! That's impossible I'm sure! I'm positive Pasha!"
--"Ok Ok. I'll tell them that. Now you have to do something about this."
(Then some stuff I couldn't hear)

The guy in the suit starts talking on his cellular and leaves. I try to butt in and know what was going on.

"What's the problem?" (How helplessly naive can I be?)
-"No! What problem?! There aren't any problems!" (What can I say? With a question as naively honest, how could I expect a better answer?)
"I don't know you seemed a little bit upset that's all"
-"Hehehe. No I just.. I was just talking and you know he wasn't listening much... I don't like that that's all"

Bummer. Anyway I came all the way to Refaa' El Tahtawy I had to come back with SOMETHING! So the stubborn little me decided to stay a while. I overheard two people who seemed to be part of the earlier argument talking.

-"So what are we going to do now with the count?"
--"I don't know CAN we do?!"
-"We need to get more people!"
--"I can't go get more people. I can't do that"
-"Look. Just give me the truck and I'll go get people. Ok?! You don't do anything just give me the truck that's all"

Ok so I tried to put the pieces together and made up my own story. Its fun to make up stuff. The way I see it is that the guy in the suit seemed to be one of the NDP guys. Apparently the NDP will not pay these local people anything (a more drastic version is to close the unlicensced ahwa) unless these local people get their asses off of their ahwa and bring more voters to counter the (El Ghad?) voters who came in earlier (that's what he was referring to as 800?). Or maybe 800 was money? Maybe they got ripped off of a few hundred pounds? Maybe that's what an earlier fight was because of? Or maybe they were Al Ghad supporters and got into a scuffle with the NDP supporters? And that's why rumours started spreading about Refaa' El Tahtawy not being a safe spot to monitor. Who knows! We're in Egypt. Anything can happen. Ofcourse this whole incident was not noted in my final report since I don't really have any facts or anything.

Anyway I decide it was enough and joing my fellow monitors. We walk to the car and we notice a truck with Mubarak signs on it. I take a quick shot with my phone as we drive. I wasn't ready to get caught doing that on foot.

The red pick-up truck. You can see the green Mubarak posters on top although the writing isn't very clear. The wall at the end belongs to the Refaa' El Tahtawy school. You can also see a guy wearing a blue shirt sitting across the road opposite the pick-up truck. That's the "ahwa" where the argument I overheard took place. One of my colleagues also noticed that the poster on the truck featured a pic of the guy who was wearing the suit (alongside Mubarak's pic ofcourse).

To be continued...

Election Day Diary - Afternoon

Continued from "Election Day Diary - Noon"...

A while after Hisham el Hefnawy - the business man with the super models - left I saw a voter coming up in the line. He seemed out of place. Somewhat decent-looking. He looked a bit younger than me.. I guessed 19 - 20 max? I was looking for a Nour supporter all day - just out of curiosity so I threw the usual line at him:

"Hello, I am from a neutral organization and I am going to ask you a neutral question. If you prefer not to answer you are ofcourse free to decline and I would understand your decision."

-"Ok" (with a fat grin like I had a cameraman with me from one of those "Answer and Win" tv shows)

"Who are you voting for?"

-"Hosni Mubarak" (bummer)

"Ok thanks.. I am just taking a random poll"

-"What organization are you from?"

We start talking about the organization I volunteered with and the election monitoring and all.. He was cool and he seemed genuinely interested (not asking out of suspicion like the others). Anyway we parted and a I meet him as he came out of the voting committee.

-"They didn't let me vote" (He was saying it like he was reporting a wrongdoing)

We started talking about how he was not registered with that particular voting committee and therefore had to have a voting card. We talked a bit and that was it. A few moments later I see him come back and he says:

-"I want to help you"
"You mean in the monitoring?!"
-"Yeah. I'd like to help you out. I work close by and I came early so I got nothing to do for a while. Is there something I can do for you?" (Ahh, the love of justice at work)
"Yeah sure! Well, first could you find out who told these guys (the NDP guys) to come up all dressed like that?"
-"No probs!"

He dissappears for a while and comes back again.

"They are from the NDP's youth committee. The Secretariets of the NDP youth committee told them to come this way. The Secretariets of the NDP youth committee in Ezzbet El Arab are here too."

Great!

"Could you run a random poll on who these people are voting for? And could you find out of these people are being paid anything to vote?"

-"Sure!"

Dissappears again... Reappears....

-"Almost all the people on this floor are voting for Hosni. Upstairs it's 60% Hosni. Noone is getting paid anything"

We start talking about how it doesn't feel right. How come all these people are voting for Hosni and without getting paid?? What's pushing them? He let's me in on a bit:

-"It's like what goes on from where I come from. I am from Western Tanta. There the Sheikhs of the area tell the heads of families to vote for Hosni. The heads of the family in return tell their family members to vote for that person. You know how it is here in Egypt. The word of a Sheikh or family head is highly respected. The voters won't get much from voting one way or the other so they might as well respect the decisions of the elderly family members and leaders. The same thing is happening here."
"This really happens in Tanta?!"
-"Ofcourse! I know for a fact that it does. My relatives are Sheikhs in Western Tanta."
"Could you give me some names of Sheikhs in Tanta?"
-"No way! That's my uncle! I'm sorry I won't be able to give you his name."
"Yeah sure. I understand."

We talk for a bit and he gives me his name - for the record. He then leaves for work. I felt really good meeting someone like that. A random voter who felt compelled to help out in what little way he could in the monitoring. Despite the fact that almost everyone - me included - feel that nothing minutely drastic is going to change because of a monitoring report.

The time approaches 1:35 pm. Suddenly I hear clapping and cheering and za3'areeet (refer to the next note).

Note: (Za3'areet :- a seemingly impossible sound that is caused by the quick movement of the tongue and has something to do with uvulacoordination. Done by Egyptians -certain talented individuals only, usually women- as a show of joy and celebration. It really sounds like an African tribal shriek. The one they do before sacrificing the kill. We don't have pom poms so we do with what we've got.)

Yes za3'areet. In a voting centre. But then again, we're in Egypt. So what's the deal with the sudden chaos? Mostapha el Salab. Another hot shot millionare businessman in Nasr City. Ceramic tiles businessman, that is. God knows what else he deals in now but that was his main market area. Anyway, Mostapha el Salab is also a member of Parliament. Rumour has it that he won the Parliament seat for the Nasr City region with only 1,000 votes. That's how apathetic we are. So if you have a big family - and a few supporting neighbours - you can win a seat in Parliament... Only thing is that you won't do that because you're apathetic... just like your neighbours. Rumour also has it that he had buses go to some poor areas in Nasr City to collect people to vote for him and then pay them something like 50 L.E. each (8.6 USD!). 50*1,000 = 50,000 L.E. (8,680 USD!) A small price to pay to secure a position in parliament.

Anyway.. here are recordings of a za3'roota from some fine Egyptian kiss-ass woman:

The Recording

Recording: "Weeeerrrreeeeeeeeeerrreeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"
In English: (That's what za3'areet sound like)

Then they started cheering like they were in a Premier League match or something. They started shouting "El-Salab told us... Mubarak is in our hearts" which rhymnes in arabic so they must have thought they made-up a really cool motto and they just kept going on and on and on and on.

The Recording

Recording: "El Salab 2allenaaa.. Mubarak fe 2albenaaaa.. El Salab 2allenaaa.. Mubarak fe 2albenaaaa.. El Salab 2allenaaa.. Mubarak fe 2albenaaaa.."
In English: "El Salab told us.. Mubarak is in our hearts.. El Salab told us.. Mubarak is in our hearts.. El Salab told us.. Mubarak is in our hearts.."

Care for a few pics?

People rushing to greet El Salab like he was the pope or something. Hell I doubt if they would be like that if Al Azhar's Sheikh went there to vote. The guy behind him in the "Mubarak 2005" T-shirt and light green shirt is one of the NDP youth committee members who there there. He told us that he was Assistant Secretary of the NDP youth committee in Ezzbet El Arab. He also hinted to us (in a moment of honesty) that he was receiving money to bring in people. Someone close to him told me he got 100 L.E. from the Shiekh of Ezzbet el Arab to do that. That same person told me that businessmen, like El Salab, would pay the Shiekh money (for the Sheikh's personal use) in return for him to bring in people from his area. Also notice the NDP ninja holding the Registered Voter's List in the back. She is the wife of one of the higher-ranking NDP officials that were present and wearin suits.

More people to greet the millionare businessman, NDP member and Nasr City's member of Parilament, Mostapha El Salab. The NDP guy in green just won't stay off of his back. The NDP ninja (clear in the previous pic) is introducing some voter to El Salab. They would do that often telling El Salab "He used to work for you and got let off. We were hoping Sir if maybe you would be so kind as to find a place for him back we would be so thankful. We would really appreciate that Sir. You know we are greedy for your kindness."

To be continued...

Election Day Diary - Noon

Continued from "Election Day Diary - May the voting begin!"...

11 a.m. to 3 p.m. was the peak time. The loaded masses would just keep on coming. Almost 90% of them coming to vote for Mubarak. Not that they had any particular reason to do so. They seemed too ignorant to think for themselves. They were just told to "mark on the crescent". At some point one of the NDP supporters would gather the poor women around.

"Listen. When you go inside they will give you a paper. Then mark on the crescent on it. The one that looks like this. (While holding up a green "voter's guide" card which had the picture of Mubarak; and pointing to the crescent on it)."

The voters were pretty clueless. One of the voters came out after casting her ballot. She went to the NDP supporter:

"I made a mark on the crescent. Is this correct?" (Pointing to a marked crescent in the "voter's guide" card she had)
-"Not this crescent! The crescent on the ballot card that they gave you!! Did you mark it on the ballot card?!"
"No I thought the crescent on this card." (Smiling in embarrassment)

The incident sends me laughing and pisses off the NDP lady. She immediately goes to crisis control mode. She collects all the poor ladies around her once again and explains in more detail that they should NOT mark the "voter's guide" card. They should, instead, mark the ballot card.
"Forget this crescent! Just look for the crescent on the card that they will give you!"

The ladies nodded in robotic agreement. I doubted if they understood anything. She seemed to doubt it too and told an NDP guy to take away the "voter's guide" card so that they don't get confused between the cards!

Here is a recording of one of the NDP guys telling the voters to mark on the crescent.

The Recording

Recording: "Zay de.. 3alama zay dee....... 3al helaal da.. 3al helaal da.. 3al helaal ha"
In English: "Like this.. A sign like this......... On this crescent.. On this crescent.. On the crescent yeah."

Here is a recording of one of the NDP men complaining to a colleague after the woman complained that one of the voters had marked on the "voter's guide" card instead of the ballot card. He is complaining that the voters are leaving the ballots empty! Hehehe.

The Recording

Recording: "Mohammed! Khod ya Mohammed! Feeh zahera we7sha henna. El naas betkhosh we mebte3rafsh haga. Bettaba2 el wara2 we tetla3 tany!"
In English: "Mohammed! Listen up Mohammed! There is a bad phenomenom here. The people are entering without knowing anything. They just fold the paper [ballot card] and come out again!"

Nonetheless, there were only 6 void casts at the end of the committee's ballot counting. So I guess the majority was able to correctly follow instructions. At noon, there seemed to be no end to the "shipped" voters. They would just keep on coming. Still, I kept on counting the voters in case they tried to give some imaginary number at the end. I also started my stopwatch to calculate the rate of voting. The average was around 1 cast ballot every minute. Some voters would go in the committee and be sent away since they didn't have their names in the voter's list and didn't have the pink voting card either. I didn't count these but I wondered how the number would be if they had successfully voted too. I guess around 30% or 35% of the people got turned away.

A random shot. The guy with the black shirt on the bottom right with his back to me was one of the NDP supporters who were responsible for dealing with the 'shipped' herds of voters (or 'customers', as they would call them). The guy with the grey suit on the left (you can see his ears and he seems to be smiling) holds some position in the NDP youth committee in Ezzbet El Arab. He was one of the 'leaders' amongst the NDP supporters who were around. The guy in the center of the photo (with the sunglasses, and white turban over his head) is the Shiekh of Ezzbet El Arab. I was told that it was he who would get money from the area's businessmen in order to bring in large numbers of voters. I was also told that, in return, he would pay the NDP supporters (the guys from the NDP youth committee) 100L.E. (17.3 USD) each to manage and deal with the constant flow of voters from Ezzbet el Arab. The target was 1,000 vote casts.

At 12:35 p.m. there was a sudden confusion at the entrance of the club. I went to check it out and it turned out to be some big shot business man coming to vote. It was really funny when I saw him. The guy didn't look like he was coming to vote. He looked like he was running a campaign for Mubarak. Little did I know that another business man would soon be coming with a larger campaign. This whole elections thing is really turning into a circus. First NDP ads all around the committee. Then the messed up Voters List. Then the herd of voters shipped in by the NDP. Then some hot shot fucks running campaigns in the committee. What the hell is going on?

Take a look:

The hot shot fuck business man with his entourage. He had to take the call because .... he is a hot shot fuck business man. He came with his own photographers and everything. A note in his favour, however: The little girl was the cutest thing :) I wanted to take a pic of her banner but all the men were leaving. Nonetheless she stood very still for a while so I could take one. She stood there for me with the cutest most innocent smile :) On the other hand, where the fuck did he manage to get the asshole with shades on the left?

Another pic of the hot shot fuck businnessman with his hot supermodels on his side wearing those banners like the Miss Universe contestants. Oh and look who's there right next to him with a towel over his head! It's the guy we all love: The Shiekh of Ezzbet El Arab. Sure he'd wanna pic with the guy with the green.

The sign says: "Yes Mubarak" signed "Hishem El-Hefnawy". Also notice the crescent with a "1" inside it. The crescent is Mubarak's campaign sign (signs are used so that people who cannot read know where to mark on the ballot cards) and "1" indicates that Mubarak is the first candidate listed on the card.

To be continued.....

Election Day Diary - May the Voting Begin!

continued from "Election Day Diary - Intro"...

The voting started at 8:45 a.m.

They were late because of something about the phosphoric ink and the committee's Registered Voters List not being received on time.

When the voting started, a few of the NDP gang that was there started to go and vote. The rest had a copy of the committee's Registered Voters List and were helping out other voters find their names. Which is kinda odd. How come the NDP gang had the List before the committee??!

Anyway.. This is how the voting worked:

To prevent causing a bottleneck INSIDE the committee, the voters were asked to search for their names in the Voters List that was OUTSIDE. The List didn't seem to me to be in any sort of alphabetical order 'cause I saw a Mohammed something then a Mohsen something then another Mohammed something. Maybe sorted against the first letter only. Anyway. Those who find their names would copy down their number and then go inside. Inside the committee, one of the committee members would scan the list to go directly to that number (I'm assuming it was sorted against the number) and make sure the name paired with the number was the same name on the voter's Personal ID card.

For those who didn't have their names in the Registered Voter's List of that committee:

By law, those who were in a committee in which they were not registered (i.e. their names were not in the Registered Voters List for that committee... or simply were supposed to be registered to that committee but for some reason were not added to it) could vote in it, provided they had their pink voting card. In cases like these, the voter would not need to look up his name in the Voter's List (because it would simply not be in it) and could directly go into the committee, show his pink voting card and the member of the committee would jot down his name and voting number (which was in the voting card) in a list of "outside voters" (i.e. voters not registered with that committee).

Many voters wanted to vote as 'outsiders'. I.e. they didn't find their names in the committee's Voters List but they had their pink voting card. However, I observed that many of these were turned away. When the voter would argue with the committee member that by law since he had a voting card he could vote as an 'outsider', the member would reply:

"We have instructions that we are to treat voters as 'outsiders' only if they live outside the Governate of Cairo"

Now how about that! At first I thought maybe it was to ensure that voters wouldn't vote as 'outsider' in several committees. But then that would mean you could have a guy from Aswan, vote as 'outsider' in several committees in Cairo because, since he lived in Aswan, he would be treated as a 'outsider' in ANY committee in Cairo. And wasn't the irremovable phosphoric ink the REAL guarantee to prevent multi-voting? What logic could possibly lie behing such an "instruction"? I cannot understand.

By 11:30 a.m. the place was starting to look like those lines of Tsunami sufferers at the Red Cross distribution points. There were like 60 men and women all crowded together. About 30 attempted to line themselves up to wait their turn to go in the committee while the rest were either just sitting there waiting for their friends or looking up their names in the Lists.

I'd understand if they were distributing bread along with ballot cards. Only then I'd expect these numbers. Call me a disbeliever: but this just looks too suspicious.

"Where are you coming from?"
-"Ezzbet el Arab"
"Did all of you come together?"
-"Yeah"
"How did you come?"
-"Buses"

I note that down. Masses come together from Ezzbet el Arab by buses. The guy who was supposed to be monioting outside said he got the numbers of several mini-buses that were constantly unloading passengers. He said the same bus would come again in a while. Things seem to have been neatly planned by the NDP.

"I am from a neutral organization.
I will ask you a neutral question.
You are free to refuse to answer if you feel that I am not being neutral."
-"Sure" (with a fat smile. Smartass thinks he knows what I'm going to ask)
"Why are you voting?" (and before I finish the sentence...)
-"For the president of course! Who else will I vote for?! We love the president! We are all here with the president"
"No I don't want to know who I want to know why"
Another guy in the line overhears us...
-"Yes! Hahaha! Yes! We want to know WHY! Why don't you tell us WHY?" (His smile is from ear to ear.. he had a look like he was cornering him and had pleasure seeing him try to wriggle out)
-"Hahaha.. I am here for the president! Because he is a great man. He did so much for us." (He to had a smile from ear to ear)
"Really?!" (I couldn't help laughing)
-"Yes ofcourse! Hahaha!"
"Yeah but you didn't tell me WHY you are here to vote?"
(The other guy... laughing)
-"Yeah why don't you tell him WHY?!"
-"Hahaha! Without Why's!"
"I am from a neutral organization and I won't take your name. If you choose not to answer you are free!"
-"Ok then we'll leave it at that!"

Hehehe... the other guy was having the time of his life!

Don't let the beard fool you. This is a die-hard NDP voter.

I then start to wonder whether ANY of these masses are going to vote for anyone other than Hosni. They were all poor. They seemed to know each other somehow. At least they seemed to know that the NDP guys were waiting for them. I actually heard one of the NDP guys shouting out to a colleague of his "Hey... You take this group" while pointing at a group of newcomers. They all looked the same. The dark skin, the poor 'galabeyya', the big smiles. They had this excited gleam in their eyes. Like they were about to embark on some great new experience for the first time of their lives. They gave me shy silly smiles like they didn't really know what they were doing here. All of them were from Ezzbet El-Arab.

To be continued......

Election Day Diary - Intro

I finally decided to sit down and write all I saw and heard on Election Day... beginning to end.. and be forewarned... it will be long... but hey.. I got pics and stuff! :-D

The day is 7th September 2005...

I can't tell you what time I woke up because I didn't really get much sleep. Too restless. Thinking what could happen in a few hours.
Anyway I got out of bed.. got dressed.. and drove off to the meeting place in Nasr City. I was supposed to meet a few guys and a hot gal there and from there we were to decide which polling station we were to monitor. They had supposedly scanned the area the night before to locate the polling stations in Nasr City (since they only got the names of the polling stations that day). Meeting time was 7:30 a.m. I wanted to meet up earlier because we were told and amongst the tricks that these people pull to forge, is to open the polling stations earlier than the official start of the elections (8:00 a.m.) so the monitors and party representatives wouldn't get a chance to check whether the ballot boxes were empty or not. "Oh you came late.. we already started.. people already casted votes" and shit like that. You never know really. We're in Egypt. Anything can happen.

I was there at 7:25 a.m. A few minutes later I meet up with one of the guys. A few minutes more and our coordinator shows up. She, her dad, and a couple of other chicks.
Looking good! :-D

We had two options:
1) Go to a polling station that was expected to be crowded. We could easily catch the expected "mass shipping" of people by the NDP to go and vote.
2) Go to a polling station that was NOT expected to be crowded. Here we would require a little more effort to catch any wrongdoing since polling stations such as those would probably mean the wrongdoing was happening INSIDE the secondary committee (where we didn't expect to be allowed in) probably with the consent of the heads of the committee. On the other hand, such wrongdoings were a run for our money.

Just in case you are not following: I am using the term "polling station" to mean the building/school/police station/club that was assigned to have one or more "secondary committees" where a "secondary committee" is the room/lounge/section of the polling station that would have the ballot boxes and members who would be supervising over that committee. So for example in my case I was assigned to monitor one of the three "secondary committees" in the "Nady El-Sekka El-Hadeed" polling station. I don't really care if my terming is correct. I fucking hated translation at school so I can't find a reason to do it out of school.

Anyway. We decided to go for option 1. I wasn't really into that. I wanted the big scandals. But whatever. If the chicks say so.

So we drive to "Nady El-Sekka El-Hadeed" (literally translated to "The Railroad Club").

The club had three committees. Committees 5,6, and 7. "5" was downstairs.. "6" and "7" upstairs. We all went upstairs first. Met the head of one of the two committees. He was the coolest thing. He allowed us to enter the committee and told us he will not let us stay but that we could come in and out from time to time to check on things. That was actually more than what we expected. He was safe. I didn't get a chance to meet the head of the second committee but I heard he was pretty cool too. So fine! Things were going alright!

Then we decided to distribute ourselves. I was to take "Committee 5" downstairs. The triple-chick-power would take the two upstairs. And the other guy would roam around in and out to make sure the whole place was covered.

I went downstairs. A few men and women standing about waiting for the voting to start.
Good thing about "Committee 5" was that the committee's side that was facing me was glass. It was like this ugly conference room. There were, of course, curtains on the inside in case they wanted privacy but the head of the committee, although kinda stern and mean-looking, was cool enough to keep a nice part of it open so I could pretty much see everything that was going on inside.

8:30 and the voting hadn't yet started. I was just standing there and then a guy in a suit came up to me...

-"What's that say?" (looking at my 'Election Monitor' badge)
"The Coalition of Civil Society Organizations For the Monitoring of the Elections"
-"What's that?"
"We are a neutral organization to monitor the elections"
-"What you mean monitor?"
"We make sure that nothing illegal takes place"
-"Ahhaa.. I see.. so you are with the El-Ghad party?"
(Does that mean I have to be with El-Ghad if I want to be fair?!)
"No... we are neutral.. we are not with anybody... we are not taking any sides"
-"Ahaa.. I see"
"So who are you with?"
(He pauses for a moment staring at me like he was challenging me somehow.. He seemed hesitant at first to say.. then he said in a matter-of-factly way..)
-"The National Party" (With a so-what-are-you-gonna-do-about-it look after it)
(Oppss.... I thought he was a party representative or a monitor or something... nop! I stumbled on the very person I should keep my eye on...)

A few seconds later I realized that ALL the people around me were NDP! About 11 of them.... and me :-D There were 2 guys in plain clothes. 1 guy with plain clothes but with "Yes Mubarak" stickers on his sleeves. Around 2 guys with green "Mubarak 2005" T-shirts. 2 with a reddish "Mubarak: Peace and Progress" (or something of the sort). I think 2 in suits. And 2 ladies: 1 veiled and the other totally covered in a burqa. I kept wondering which of them would gang up on me. Or would it be all 11?? Sweet! I felt like a diver swimming amongst sharks.

And so begins the day!



to be continued.................

I WAS THERE

Waw... Wednesday was, without doubt, the longest day of my life. I've learnt so much. I've learnt so much about the "insides". The people. The country. The me. Who runs the place and how. I think I've actually changed. I feel somwhat Enlightened. Wiser. Happy. Loving. Fullfilled. YES! That's the word! Fullfilled! And I am so into this. This is me man. I felt so in my element. Doing the good. Doing the right. Not eating for 15 hours and a half so I won't miss a minute of monitoring. Not being able to sleep the day before. Being free and making sure the others were just as free. Meeting "them". The "other" 80% of the population. Striking up random friendships out of nowhere with people I will never meet again. Having a high-school boy taking me to the side after watching me monitor and telling me who pays whom and how much to get people to vote. Being told by a random voter: "I want to help you" after knowing that I was monitoring the elections to make sure voting is fair. Being asked by a bunch of labourers for my number "in case they harm us because we were not able to vote". That tore my heart up. Being approached at the end of the day by a member of the committee that I was monitoring requesting to join the organization. I know I must sound crazy. Oh and talking about crazy, my apologies for the "My Version of Animal Farm" post. I read it again and I doubt if anyone understood a word without understanding beforehand what the hell I was trying to talk about. I was pissed and I just let out whatever thoughts were inside. Anyway it was natural and I'll leave it. Back to today's issue.

There is SOOO much to talk about I hardly know where to start. I was monitoring a secondary committee in "Nady El-Sekka El-Hadeed" (literaly translated to "The Railroad Club") in Nasr City in Cairo. The were actually 3 committees in the club. 2 on the 1st floor and 1 on the ground floor. I got the ground floor which was called "Committee 5". All voters registered to vote in "Committee 5" were from a poor area called "Ezzbet El-Arab". I got a chance to talk to them. Why are they here? I got into some hot political debates with one of them. I got some "inside" information from another. Hell I got to see Mostapha el Salab (one of the richest and influential men in the area, a member of parliament, and a member of the NDP) vote. Saw some funny things and heard funnier things. But above all.... I WAS THERE. And it felt so darn good.

This brings me to another issue. Why was I monitoring? Believe me the answer is not quite simple. I know it. It lies somewhere deep within the complexities of me. But I just can't put a finger on it.

Alaa has added a magnificent post saluting the monitors and protestors who have changed inside since this all began on referendum day. I believe that he and others share with me this same hidden magical inner urge. This inner thirst. This addiction. And I have to thank him too. It was, after all, through his help, nomatter how small, that I can proudly say: I WAS THERE.

.I.WAS.THERE.