Zein's place on the net » Egypt

Conspiracy theories emerge after internet cables cut

Ahmed — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 06:56:57 +0000

The Egyptian ministry released a statement saying: “A marine transport committee investigated the traffic of ships in the area, 12 hours before and after the malfunction, where the cables are located to figure out the possibility of being cut by a passing vessel and found out there were no passing ships at that time”.

After 4 under sea cables have been cut in the past week, conspiracy theories emerge.

Egypt’s Loses Internet Connectivity

Ahmed — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 23:04:36 +0000

Not 100% mind you, but something like 70% after 2 undersea cables were damaged due to ship anchors.

I phoned my Family in Alexandria, Egypt and they tell me that the Internet is so slow it is unusable. I can’t imagine living without broadband let alone without Internet at all.

The problem with Egyptian drivers

Ahmed — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 18:10:15 +0000

It is a problem I face every day… it makes me mad just thinking about it! It is not something nice to find yourself daydreaming of the various ways that the car in front of you could meet its timely destruction

I have spent many hours in deep thought, trying to unravel the mysteries of why driving in Egypt is so bad. I have driven in England, Australia and Saudi Arabia but I have never found myself praying that the driver in front of me crash as just punishment for the crimes he commits against humanity just by sitting behind the steering wheel.

I have discovered that Egyptian drivers suffer from 3 things, all of which start with the letter S.

First we have “Sluggish”! Basically I am trying to say that Egyptian drivers respond with the speed of a slug (by definition of sluggish -showing characteristics of a slug-). This is very evident at traffic lights and at sharp bends or at crossroads. It takes forever for the average driver to take off after such stops.

In second place we have “slow”. Now this is different from sluggish. This is 3 cars taking up 3 lanes all cruising at 15 kilos/hour, virtually blocking the whole street.

3rd we have “stupid”. As an Egyptian I am very sorry to confess that stupidity is one of the major issues that prevents traffic from flowing smoothly. A classic example is a driver confronted with a braking vehicle will immediate swerve to the left no matter that there is a car coming up on his left. He wouldn’t be able to see it anyway as most drivers do not believe in the use of mirrors. In fact many cars in Egypt will not have any side mirrors or have them folded in.

Lets conclude… we have Sluggish, slow, stupid drivers that are making my life a lot harder just by existing

You know I feel better after writing that

Happy New Year (Hijri)

Ahmed — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 19:24:07 +0000

The Islamic calendar (like the Chinese calendar) is based on lunar cycles (the month starts with the new moon)! To day is the fist day in the new year (1427 AH). The AH stands for After Hijra. The journey the Phrophet made from Makka to Medena in 623 AC!

Anyways… may every year bring us closer to Allah and may every year find the Muslim nation in a better and better state!
Amen

Sami Yusuf Comes to Egypt

Ahmed — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 08:17:01 +0000

Sami Yusuf will be holding a concert in Alexandria, Egypt on February 12th at Bibliotheca Alexandrina! Tickets cost 20 LE, 40 LE or 60 LE!

broken glass to keep children in or badies out?

Ahmed — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 20:10:28 +0000

I was walking to work one day when I noticed something quite strange…
In egypt it is common practice in rural areas to put broken glass atop walls to stop theives from climbing over them. It is also common in all areas for older schoolboys to jump over the wall to skip school!
AFAIK it is not common for schools to use broken glass to keep the schoolboys in! or that is what I was thinking when I saw this:

Two men outside the school tried to convince me that the glass was to keep theives and the like out… not the children in…

Whatever the reason I don’t think that broken glass is something that should stand out in a primary school

Kareem gets his ‘kateb ketab’

Ahmed — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 19:51:19 +0000

My friend kareem finally got his ‘katb ketab’ done! I am realy happy for him and his wife Sarah. I wish them all the best and a long happy life with lots of children!

Here is a picture of them just before going to the mosque!

Amr Khalid in Alexandria

Ahmed — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 20:25:07 +0000

Yesterday was the last day Amr Khalid spent in Alexandria, in a 3 day workshop with the lifemaker teams! They mainly evaluated their efforts in the last year (SWAT analysis) and they talked about concentrating on 3 projects for the next 3 months. (more about this later)

It was pretty cool to be able to take pictures with my phonecam. I know that I was not excited about it and was looking for a phone without a camera (it would have been cheeper) but I am glad that I got one in the end.

And here is the resault of all that!!

guess which one is me

I love rain

Ahmed — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 07:54:20 +0000

It is winter now in Egypt and that means rain!! Some people in other parts of the world get rain all the time so they may not get the importance of rain here in Egypt. We only get rain in winter… imagine that you had to wait year round just to see the wonderous view of small water drops falling from the sky

As Muslims rain has exrta meanings. Prayers are answered at the time of rainfall, so here is a prayer that the Muslim Ummah regains its lost glory and peace settles upon the earth! Aaameen

so now it is time for everyone to settle down with something hot to drink and watch that rain…..

What people will do for a bit of profit

Ahmed — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 06:25:01 +0000

Yesterday was the last day of the underwriting of Egypt Telecom stock for people here in Alexandria. In fact most Stock Brokerage Companies stoped accepting requests Monday.

Needless to say that it was crowded, but just how crowded it was may supprise some. Luckily I had my new CX75 phone with me, so I got some videos and pictures of the crowd.

The videos ar still in the 3pg format as I didn’t have the time to convert them. When (and if) I do I will repost them.
Crowd infront Of Yasmeen Brokerage (video)