And here comes another scandal, The Dailymail: British holidaymaker 'is raped by security guard in her hotel room at Red Sea resort'

Source: The Dailymail - UK

A British holidaymaker has allegedly been raped in her hotel room by a security guard at the popular Egyptian resort where she was staying.

The guard had been escorting the lone woman back to a five-star hotel in Sharm-el-Sheikh when it is believed he pulled her into her bedroom and subjected her to the brutal assault.

The alleged victim, a businesswoman in her 40s, was given emergency help by the British Consulate in the Red Sea resort.

A British businesswoman, believed to be in her 40s, was allegedly raped by a security guard walker her back to her room in a five-star hotel in Sharm-el-Sheikh

The attack comes as the Foreign Office warns about a rise in cases of sexual assault against Britons in Egypt  since the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, including in hotels. 

The victim has been flown back to Britain, and Hampshire Police are now leading the investigation. 

She has been interviewed by detectives but may have to return to Egypt. It is understood she is recovering at home with the help of friends and relations.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: ‘We are aware of an incident involving a British national. We are providing assistance.’ Its website warns British tourists about a rise in crime. 

 

It goes on to say: ‘Reports of cases of sexual assault against British nationals have increased during and since the unrest of early 2011. 

‘In 2012, the FCO handled  23 cases of sexual assault and six cases of rape. 

‘Some assaults were against minors. Many occurred in what were considered to be safe places such as hotels. 

‘Assaults have occurred in taxis and on microbuses. 

The Egyptian resort was attacked by terrorists before but has remained popular with British sun-seekers

‘If you are travelling on a microbus, avoid being the last passenger left on the bus. Women should take extra care when travelling alone.’

According to figures from the Egyptian government, there have been three rapes in Sharm-el-Sheikh over the past two years and numerous incidents in which tourists have been sexually harassed by hotel staff.

The resort has also been subjected to a number of terrorist attacks and in 2005 11 Britons were among  88 people killed by bombs. 

Last month, Germany evacuated the resort of its nationals amid new terror threats, though the Foreign Office said it was not advocating similar action. 

However, the resort has remained hugely popular with British holidaymakers as a destination for winter sun.

Egyptians turn CHELSEA Official page into hell on Mohamed Salah Transfer

Mohamed Salah

After the official announcement of joining Chelsea Football Club, Mohamed Salah becomes a new football hero for Egyptians. Actually, Egyptians response to the announcement is hilarious as it was tackled with a satirical perspective, not just within Egypt, but it turned to Chelsea Facebook official fan page.
Sharing the news on Chelsea Football Club Facebook page, the Egyptians has invaded the page and started to comment as if it is one of the Egyptian satirical Facebook pages, which spammed the page.

CLICK HERE to see the rest of the original article on DIGIBUZZ

The Washington Post on "Abla FAHITA" !!

Egypt’s latest terror suspect: The popular felt-and-yarn puppet Abla Fahita.CAIRO — The Egyptian government’s crackdown on suspected Islamists has come to this: a terrorism probe focused on a puppet.

ABLA FAHITA

Abla Fahita — a Muppet-style character who regularly appears on Egyptian television — went on the air Wednesday night to deny allegations that her lines in a recent commercial were coded messages to the recently banned Muslim Brotherhood organization.

“I am a comedic character,” Fahita, who plays a gossipy widow, said in an interview with Egypt’s CBC network.

The Vodafone ad featuring the popular puppet

The investigation of the puppet is an extreme sign of a climate of fear and paranoia in Egypt that has intensified in recent weeks.

Since a coup ousted President Mohamed Morsi in July, the military-backed government has arrested thousands of people believed to be tied to the Islamist group he was associated with, the Muslim Brotherhood. Lately, even more repressive security measures have been adopted following a spate of deadly bombings blamed on Islamist militants.

Authorities have arrested people — including a young schoolboy — simply for displaying pro-Brotherhood signs or paraphernalia. And this week, secret police detained four journalists with the Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera English, alleging the reporters – including one Australian – had joined the Brotherhood and helped incite riots. The network denied the charges.

And now, there is the investigation of the puppet. She has been accused by a little-known activist who goes by the moniker Ahmed Spider. The young man filed a legal complaint that was forwarded to special terrorism prosecutors.

“As stupid as it is, it’s very telling,” Ziad Akl, a political analyst at the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said of the puppet case.

“It says a lot about the patriotism frenzy we are in. There is definitely a sentiment of fascist nationalism that you either subscribe to, or face being labeled a traitor.”

The military has enjoyed broad public support for removing the democratically elected but deeply unpopular Morsi, who had lost support because of rising crime, a sinking economy and his courtship of hardline Islamists while in power.

The swelling nationalism — fanned by the country’s state- and privately-owned media — has given the army-backed government the legitimacy to quell further dissent in the name of national security.

Today, opposition to the government is being suppressed even more brutally than it was under strongman Hosni Mubarak, the longtime ruler who was forced out in the Arab Spring revolt in 2011. And the campaign against government critics has gone beyond Islamists.

In November, authorities jailed some of Egypt’s most prominent pro-democracy activists under a draconian new protest law that severely restricts free assembly. Security forces have arrested hundreds of students who have staged regular anti-government rallies on university campuses across the country.

The string of recent bombing attacks — many of which involve jihadist groups based in the Sinai Peninsula — has spurred public calls for a strong response from the state.

The government last week designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, one of the most serious moves against the group in its 85-year history.

Morsi himself is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 8 on charges of involvement in the killing of protesters outside the presidential palace in Cairo in December 2012.

Officials have made a series of seemingly far-fetched allegations against Morsi and the Brotherhood, including that they conspired with Iran to seize power in Egypt. Morsi has also been charged with stealing livestock from a prison complex he escaped from during the 2011 uprising.

In a post about Fahita on her blog, Inanities, the British Egyptian writer Sarah Carr said the public mood in Egypt has become “almost fascistic in its reverence” for the elimination of opponents or critics of the state.

“Sometimes it seems that Egypt does extreme tragedy and extreme comedy and nothing in between,” Carr wrote.

Signs of the paranoia about potential enemies are rife. Last fall, security forces in the country’s south detained a stork they suspected of spying because it was wearing an electronic tracking device.

The puppet Fahita’s suspicious messages were allegedly transmitted in a new commercial for the telecommunications company Vodafone. Security officials summoned Vodafone executives Thursday to interrogate them.

In the ad, Fahita is shown speaking with someone on the phone about how to find and reactivate her late husband’s telephone SIM card. She mentions using a sniffer dog at a shopping mall in an effort to locate the card.

In a statement, Vodafone said the skit was meant to explain to consumers how to reactivate old cards. But Ahmed Spider, an opponent of Egypt’s 2011 uprising against authoritarian rule who filed the complaint, interpreted the reference to the mall as a suggestion for the location of a forthcoming bomb attack.

Other phrases in the commercial allegedly allude to the government’s recent seizure of Muslim Brotherhood assets, Spider says. He adds that the appearance of a cactus adorned with Christmas decorations in the commercial is a threat of violence, with the ornaments symbolizing bombs.

The Associated Press said it received an e-mailed statement from Vodafone that called Spider’s interpretation of the ad “mere imagination.”

On social media sites Thursday, the investigation of Fahita was widely mocked. Twitter users started the hashtag #FreeFahita.

“We are laughing about the puppet now, but replace the puppet with anything else — another symbol, another figure — and the media can manipulate and do anything with it” in this climate, Akl said.

CLICK HERE to see the original article on the Washington Post

CLICK HERE to see related article on CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS .. EXCLUSIVE: Amr Diab's 2014 SINGLE - Dawam El Haal

Terrifying Facts about Sexual Harassment in Egypt ..

Sexual Harassment is becoming a nightmare for women in Egypt .. the facts you are about to read may be very disturbing, But it is really important to know the size of the problem we are facing here .. and believe me .. it is beyond serious.

In April 2013, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN WOMEN) in cooperation with the Demographic Centre and the National Council for Women (NCW) issued their report of the growing phenomena of sexual harassment against women in Egypt.

I had the opportunity to receive and read this report. It is ,by far, the most professionally executed and recorded survey and research i ever read about sexual harassment in Egypt (and i have read many), I can send the original report in PDF to anyone who wants to go through the details by email as it is not possible to publish the whole report here on the blog.

Here, i will give you a brief summary of the long - fact loaded - report, you will see a lot of numbers, i sincerely ask you to read them carefully, to have a clear idea of what's really going on against women in our country, hoping that knowing some of these very disturbing facts will be enough reason for you to stop being negative about it and have the right attitude towards this horrible phenomena that is spreading all over EGYPT like a plague.

In the study, the researchers made sure to cover several governorates (including urban and rural areas), an age range of 10-35, and a detailed distribution of percentages according to age, type of harassment, location and other variables.

The study confirms the spread of sexual harassment in Egypt to unprecedented levels. Of the female respondents, 99.3% replied they have been subjected to one form or another of sexaul harassment.

Among the distributions of percentages according to the type of harassment, of every 100 women questioned about each individual type of harassment, 87.7% were subjected to whistling or verbal abuse, 59.5% were subjected to touching of their body, 70.7% to telephone stalking, 62% to stalking and pursuing, 49% to obscene language, 75.2% to dirty looks to the body, 29.3% to exposure by the man to private parts or hinting to it, and percentages range from 10-20% of insisting to invite to a meal or to a ride home despite repeated refusal, posting sexual content on internet, asking for extra late working hours for no good reason .. and others.

The results confirm that 67.1% of the female respondents said that all girls are subjected to harassment, regardless of attire, looks, manner of speech or gait. They also revealed that 29.9% replied in the affirmative to this question, indicating that the victim can sometimes be the cause for harassment. Yet, when a question was posed on the age of the harassed female, her marital status, or if she comes from a rich or poor family, the biggest part of the answers, which scored the highest number, was that all girls,

regardless of their characteristics are liable to be harassed. When a question was posed on the ages more liable to be harassed, 57.9% replied that all ages suffer from harassment. To the question on what type of attire made a girl more liable to be harassed, 72.4% replied that all girls, regardless of how they are dressed, are subjected to harassment. To the question on which marital status led to a female being harassed, 81.2% replied that all of them are liable to be harassed. Asked about which social class is more liable to be harassed, 87.7% of the female respondents answered that all social classes are liable to be harassed.

According to the respondents opinions, the percentages of harassment according to segments was that 91.3% of female students were subjected to harassment, 66% of female workers, 47% of housewifes, 30% of female tourists, and the worst of all, 18% women with mental disabilities !!

63% Said NO to a question whether the girl herself is the cause of the harassment while 37% said YES.

Among the locations where harassment is most likely to occur "frequently", the percentage of women subjected to harassment according to the location are 60% of the women in the markets, 60% in the beaches, 82% in public transportation, 90% in the streets, 35% in the malls, 40% through mobile phones, 46% in deserted areas, 53% in public gardens.

From the total respondents, 19.2% said that they get harassed weekly, 7.3% get harassed monthly, 49.2% said they get harassed DAILY !!, 3.4% harassed only once and 20.7% rarely but more than once.

Regarding the profession (employment) of the harasser, the respondents answers revealed that 10.7% of co-workers are harassers, 16.9% of policemen and security forces are harassers !!, 22.5% of shop owners, 53.6% of workers and craftsmen, 57.1% of Drivers (Either Taxi, Mass transport or private), 61.9% of school and university students are sexual harassers, 85.9% of the unemployed and 7.3 of relatives and friends !!

With respect to age category of the harasser, it was found that 18.3% of Egyptian minors (under 18 years) perpetrate sexual harassments, 22.5% of the males between 19-25, 11.4% of males between 25-40 and 5.7% of males above 41. On the overall of All ages, 68.5% of Egyptian Males perpetrated sexual harassment at least once through their lives.

Percentage distribution of female body part that was touched during the sexual harassment: 5.5% at the shoulders, 3.6% at the arms, 54.5% at the breast, 0.5% at face, neck and head, 0.3% at belly, 13.5% at buttocks and hips, 0.1% at female organ, 2.3% at thighs and legs and 7.1% of Full body.

Only 6.6% of women sexually harassed in Egypt request assistance from Police at the scene!! this negative reaction is because of "as per the respondents replies": Women are afraid of people's reaction, afraid of the impact on their reputation, treat the incident as common occurrence that happens to everyone, afraid of harassment by the police, and/or believed that police will not believe or help.

Reactions of people around the victim at the scene of harassment: 7.5% of men screamed at harasser to stop, 4.5% of women screamed at harasser to stop, 0.5% participated in the harassment, 33% do not notice, 11% pretend they do not notice, and 40% DO NOTHING !!

The report goes on with more and more terrifying and astonishing percentages and numbers, when i read the whole report and put the numbers in a bigger picture i find it really beyond imagination .. I cannot find enough words to express how painful and bad it feels to know these awful facts about the men and the youth of our country. 

I will comment no more, as the facts need no comments or explanations, it is a SHAME with every meaning this word can ever have.

The interesting story of ADIDAS .. and PUMA

If you ask ME, i am a big fan of adidas .. :)

adidas AG is a German multinational corporation that designs and manufactures sports clothing and accessories based in Bavaria, Germany. It is the holding company for the Adidas Group, which consists of the Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-Adidas golf company (including Ashworth), Rockport, and 9.1% of FC Bayern Munich. Besides sports footwear, Adidas also produces other products such as bags, shirts, watches, eyewear, and other sports- and clothing-related goods. Adidas is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Germany and Europe and the second biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world.

Adidas was founded in 1948 by Adolf Dassler, thats where the name came from as ADI (Short name for Adolf) and DAS (short name for Dassler) following the split of Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik between him and his older brother Rudolf. Rudolf later established Puma, which was the early rival of Adidas. Registered in 1949, Adidas and Puma are both currently based in Herzogenaurach, Germany.
Adolf "Adi" Dassler started to produce his sports shoes in his mother's wash kitchen in Bavaria after his return from World War I. In July 1924, his brother Rudolf returned to Herzogenaurach to join his younger brother's business, which became Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) and prospered. The pair started the venture in their mother's laundry, but, at the time, electricity supplies in the town were unreliable, and the brothers sometimes had to use pedal power from a stationary bicycle to run their equipment.
By the 1936 Summer Olympics, Adi Dassler drove from Bavaria on one of the world's first motorways to the Olympic village with a suitcase full of spikes and persuaded U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens to use them, the first sponsorship for an African American. Following Owens's haul of four gold medals, his success cemented the good reputation of Dassler shoes among the world's most famous sportsmen. Letters from around the world landed on the brothers' desks, and the trainers of other national teams were all interested in their shoes. Business boomed and the Dasslers were selling 200,000 pairs of shoes each year before World War II.
Both brothers joined the Nazi Party, but Rudolf was slightly closer to the party than Adolf. During the war, a growing rift between the pair reached a breaking point after an Allied bomb attack in 1943, when Adi and his wife climbed into a bomb shelter that Rudolf and his family were already in: "The dirty bastards are back again", Adi said, referring to the Allied war planes, but Rudolf was convinced his brother meant him and his family. After Rudolf was later picked up by American soldiers and accused of being a member of the Waffen SS, he was convinced that his brother had turned him in !!!
The brothers split up in 1947, with Rudi forming a new firm that he called Ruda – from Rudolf Dassler, later rebranded Puma, and Adi forming a company formally registered as Adidas AG from Adi Dassler on 18 August 1949. Although it is popularly claimed that the name is an acronym for All Day I Dream About Soccer, that is not correct; the name is actually formed from "Adi" (a nickname for Adolf) and "Das" (from "Dassler").

Puma and Adidas entered a fierce and bitter rivalry after the split. The town of Herzogenaurach was divided on the issue, leading to the nickname "the town of bent necks"—people looked down to see which shoes strangers wore. Even the town's two football clubs were divided: ASV Herzogenaurach club supported Adidas, while 1 FC Herzogenaurach endorsed Rudolf's footwear. When handymen were called to Rudolf's home, they would deliberately wear Adidas shoes. Rudolf would tell them to go to the basement and pick out a pair of free Pumas. The two brothers never reconciled, and although both are buried in the same cemetery, they are spaced apart as far as possible.

In 1948, the first football match after World War II, several members of the West German national football team wore Puma boots, including the scorer of West Germany's first post-war goal, Herbert Burdenski. Four years later, at the 1952 Summer Olympics, 1500 metres runner Josy Barthel of Luxembourg won Puma's first Olympic gold in Helsinki, Finland.

At the 1960 Summer Olympics Puma paid German sprinter Armin Hary to wear Pumas in the 100 metre sprint final. Hary had worn Adidas before and asked Adolf for payment, but Adidas rejected this request. The German won gold in Pumas, but then laced up Adidas for the medals ceremony, to the shock of the two Dassler brothers. Hary hoped to cash in from both, but Adi was so enraged he banned the Olympic champion.

Nowadays, In Germany, Adidas owns 9.1% of Bundesliga club Bayern Munich. Adidas sponsors the German national team and Bundesliga clubs Schalke, Hamburg, Bayer Leverkusen, Nuremberg, and Wolfsburg.

In addition, Adidas has numerous major kit deals with clubs worldwide. Amongst the most high profile are Real Madrid, Feyenoord Rotterdam, Fulham, Chelsea, Milan,Ajax, Benfica, Lyon, Marseille, Fenerbahçe, Basel, Feirense, River Plate, Beşiktaş, Swansea City, West Bromwich Albion, HJK Helsinki, Southampton, Palmeiras, and Flamengo. In addition to other national teams, such as the Spain, Denmark, Sweden and Finland national football teams.

They also produce kits, balls, and equipment for most types of sports including (but not limited to): Basketball, handball, tennis, cricket, golf, rugby, gymnastics, baseball and Hockey.

Be NICE Dude .. it won't hurt you ..

I am not really sure how and when did it all start, but i am sure many of you guys have noticed it .. In restaurants, cafes, workplaces, government offices, homes, among friends, co-workers, and even in the streets .. well .. specially in the streets .. The people of CAIRO are becoming more and more MEAN to each other. Being NICE is something you just can't find around CAIRO anymore ..

Words like "Thanks", "Please", "I beg your pardon", "Sorry", "Excuse me" .. etc are becoming strange to the ears of CAIROIANS these days !!

I am pretty sure this has everything to do with the stress of being a resident in the capital, specially if this capital is the mighty CAIRO .. After all, when you spend your day from Sunrise to midnight in an agonizing struggle to reach anywhere in the traffic craziness of CAIRO, and you reach the place only to find that parking is a whole new journey, or if you are a mass transit customer, and you spend your day trying to squeeze your body between tens of other sweaty and smelly bodies in a tiny metal box called "micro-bus" in a multi-legged journey to reach your destination, it becomes a little difficult to measure your level of niceness and tune your manners.

I can understand the amount of stress that an average CAIRO resident suffers just to get through his day .. between the traffic, the attitudes, the sexual harrasments "For Ladies", the endlessly increasing life expenses, the kids' school trouble .. etc .. but Still dude .. it really costs nothing to be nice ..
Let me tell you .. it actually helps, if each one of us decides to be nice to one person that deserves it each day, this person will be nice to someone else and so on .. believe me, life can be easier .. or at least .. happier ..

I'll tell you a little story .. one day i decided to take my wife to the cinema, and it was a midnight show. After we finished the movie, we were hungry and decided to go somewhere to eat, but it was already 3:00 am and most places were already closed, so although i am not a big fan of PIZZA HUT, we decided to go in.

We entered the restaurant, there were 2 or 3 occupied tables and we were yet going in to take a table at 3:00 am in the morning, so i expected the guys working there to be a little grumpy as they want to finish and close the place.

To my surprise, a very good looking and neatly dressed waiter came to us with a smile on his face to take our order, and as much of an arrogant prick as i can sometime be, i felt that their standard pizzas are just not good enough for me so i decided to order my own pizza with my own list of ingredients and additions. So i started telling the guy one by one each thing i want and each thing i don't want on my pizza, and after i finished i asked him to repeat it all to make sure they will not make any mistakes in the kitchen. The guy "i still remember his name MAGED" took my order with full attention and a smile.

Few minutes later, he came with my pizza, smoking hot, perfectly baked, with everything exactly as i ordered (although it is nothing like their usual pizzas), it was just delicious. Absolutely the best i ever had in pizza hut. His service was great, he checked with me if the order was to my satisfaction, he smiled, removed the empty dishes .. overall .. it was perfect. 

So what did i do? i told him "GET ME YOUR MANAGER", as soon as i said this his smile was replaced with a serious worried face, as this request is usually made when someone is about to make trouble .. and my look didn't give him a chance to ask about the problem so he just went to call his boss. 

The manager came, with a wondering worried face, and MAGED stayed inside, so i waited until the man came in front of me and i smiled, and i said " Don't worry, there is no trouble, i just wanted to thank you, you are running a great branch, i loved the food and the service, and i want you to extend my thanks and appreciation to MAGED because he is very good .. and i will definitely come back to this place .. Thanks a lot" .. and i left them a good tip.

At this moment, i could see the deepest looks of relief, gratitude, satisfaction and happiness on the manager's face, he thanked me back, walked me to the door, opened the door and while i am getting out i saw MAGED looking from the kitchen window, with the same smile he met me with.

I told my wife .. "This man is going home happy tonight, and it cost me nothing" ..

Why do we always say "GET ME YOUR MANAGER" when we are angry and not satisfied with the service and we never do it when we want to show appreciation of a man who does his job perfectly?
Why do we insist on punishing and forgeting to appreciate and thank?


Why do we set the rule that doing a good job is only to avoid harm not to receive gratitude?

It may be a long story to explain a simple situation, but it's worth it .. Some good manners and nice attitude will not harm you, but negative energy and mean behavior harms all of us in every action of our daily lives, and they are messed up already .. so be nice .. don't make it more difficult.