I hardly can say how it is right now or even in the future but I in the past, during the reign of Messrs Sadat and Mubarak, had really open talks with Egyptians on the open road without any problems. Alright, none of us insulted religions in any way. But what a difference to Damascus, where you were invited indoors and only in a distance of some meters to the door could talk openly

The strangest thing I ever encountered was with Yemen. I in Sana'a told three Yemenis that I thought that President General Ahmed Hassan al-Ghashmi was a person the world could do well without. By sheer coincidence, al-Ghashmi got killed some two months later and replaced by far more intelligent General Ali Abdullah Saleh.

I failed a bit in regard to those rather tragic and drastic news, but "masses fighting one another" ? Do you refer to football matches of FC Basel against either FCZ or GC ?

If somebody is jailed right now it is still by the ruling junta .....

Crime rampant ? Really ? any proven figures ? Rampant crime as in GWB-run Iraq apparently however is not the case. And it rather is below the one in Rome ... where they also deposed the "Raïs"

The economy ? Yes, in opposition to the general opinion in the world I still believe that Hosni Mubarak did very good work. Now, right at present, tourism still is fairly down, but I hope that the Egyptian industry is not. The low rate of the EG£ might outbalance the disturbances. And HERE we come to the crucial point. If a more democratic and more open society, more open to innovation, can be established, the economy will even be positively influenced by the change. You now of course can argue that things look not exactly that way right now, and I will not contradict for the moment as my Crystal Ball is foggy due to the cold weather

I'm not worried at all about economy as investment in Egypt is very high in demand, just the fact Jan 2012 passed without any problems, the EGX rose over 28% in 1 month....first we get SCAF off power and it won't take long to be back on track and even better

While I and many others know what the "SCAF" is (Supreme Council of the Armed Forces) I rather am not clear about "Generalfeldmarschall Tantawi". His face faintly reminds of late Anwar as-Sadat, BUT the questions about him are >> is he a "would-like-to-be-dictator in disguise" ? is he a cleptocratic crook in high office ? or is he basically a well-intentioned caretaker just doing mistakes out of authoritarian militaristic instincts ?

I just read about him and saw that he is from Tanta, the city where I when having been by rental car on a round trip Cairo-HeliopolisApt-Ismailiya-PortSaïd-Damietta-Tanta-Alexandria lost my way (not knowing that Iskandariya also in Arabic is abbreviated) and so went towards downtown and in a garage enquired about the way to Alex., and as their English was more miserable than my Arabic, tortured the Arabic language a bit, with a remarkably good result . And, just as a few years before when I drove from Cairo along the Nile via Tanta, from one traffic-jam to the next !!!, went back to Cairo on that desert highway, which is a really interesting route for all Egypt visitors

From insider sources, when Mubarak decided to leave and appoint SCAF, Tantawi told him: "We can find another way to solve this"...Tantawi's task was to halt the revolution from day one and he never admitted it was a revolution, for SCAF it was only riots...now with all the blood on their hands, they're afraid to give up power cause they know they'll be prosecuted...this is what we're asking for now....execution of the whole SCAF.

I don't want anyone to feel sad about Egypt or suspicious of what's happening really, we're way more organized than them now and we know how to play the game....no one fears bullets, riot gas is our oxygen and we have the will, right and passion to win this battle and we will...it's not poetic words, this is the facts...our army is the people in the streets not the men in army suites....soldiers and officers fear our voices and stand speechless against our will and persistance

This is a video some friends took of a guy explaining to the soldiers about the lies of SCAF face to face, they were shaken and the officers were trying to do anything to make the soldiers stop listening to what he was saying, they turned engines on, spoke loudly,..etc:



Sorry it's in Arabic but we're working on translation of the contents when situation becomes bit calm and we get some time to do so

Well, GFM Tantawi then is a victim of himself and his military views. I know this mindset from military service. Working in the office of the staff battery of an artillery regiment told me that those officers while believing to be in the service of the nation are the plague. Having seen that the majority of CH Bundesräte were colonels or higher up and so a democratically elected military junta made me to welcome a feminine majority in the Swiss Military .... sorry I mean Swiss Federal government

This of course leads to the question about military service. When discussing matters with Egyptian students at Ismailiyia, just 300 meters apart from the BarLev line, I heard that they HAD to do military service, but don't know how it is now. I can tell you that Algeria now has fairly democratic structures but just as in Switzerland those high-ranking officers have a dominating influence nevertheless.

Interesting is to see the developments in France. While the share of people of Maghrebine origin in France is between 20 and 25 percents, the share of people of Maghrebine origin in the new professional armed forces apparently is between 30 and 40 percents

If NOW many Français of "origine natives français" now complain about the facts I can only tell them in the words of Edith Piaf "NON je ne regrette rien"

Today's news
Egypt'spost-revolutionary authorities have set it on a collision course withWashington, its erstwhile ally, by deciding to charge 44 NGO workersincluding 19 Americans with illegal activities.

HillaryClinton, US Secretary of State, has already said the issue may leadto America pulling its substantial military aid to Egypt's army, andthe issue has caused outrage in Congress, where it is seen as anothersign of the country slipping out of America's orbit at the hands ofthe very institution it has financially supported for years.

give Mowvich's friends and "internal sources" access to the NGO workers and they'll confess to sinking the titanik. twice.

Egypt is on a colision course with reality.

I find it ironic that the Egyptian military are behind charging the NGO workers with accepting foreign funding when the Egyptian military are the largest group receiving foreign funding & it is also the military that receive the largest amount of foreign funding - probably thousands of times of the amounts claimed to be received by the NGOs.

My question to all is whether the resort regions will be safe to travel to in late April? Would Hurghada be safer than Sharm El Sheikh as the Bedouin seem to be pushing into Sharm El Sheikh? We booked holidays to a resort in Hurghada, but know I am having second thoughts about the safety of my family. Any comments? Thanks.

Hurgada should be safer than Sinai (where tourists were shot and kidnapped).

to act against NGOs is a typical reaction of military regimes. What Mrs Clinton tries to do is to place the USA into a visible distance to the military leadership in Cairo. Do not forget that police still is under the rule of the generals

According to today's papers Iran is offering to invest around 5 billion US dollars in Egypt.
Also Iran is offering to send 5,000 tourists per day to Egypt; I wonder what percent will return to Iran? It must be much easier to get US/UK etc. visas in Cairo as in Teheran?

Officials in Cairo say a travel ban on seven Americans employed by pro-democracy US groups has been lifted.

Sounds sensible but at what cost & to who?

Higher authorities and the judges apologized on continuing the trial as it was demanded of them, therefore it will probably end with being transferred to other judges.

Also to mention, presidential elections submission will start 8 march, elections start 23 may, results 21 june and new president will be in duty effective 1 july

"It was demanded of them" - no more pretenses that Egypt is a state with laws. Egypt did what Arab countries tend to do - when in trouble, take western hostages.

NGO foreign workers have now left Egypt after posting bail of 2 million Egyptian pounds each - what a bunch of crooks are the current Egyptian leaders.
I assume they had no problem accepting this "foreign" bail money which ironically was the main charge - that the NGOs were foreign funded.

Today 2 milllion Egyptian pound buy a western hostage. Judging by Egyptian economy: in a year's time they won't be enough to buy a Malouhiya.

Well they just cancelled the natural gas export contract with Israel worth around $150M per year; just a small thing versus Egypt's spiralling debts.

It is claimed the circa 1M Egyptian workers who worked in Libya are not being allowed back by the Libyan leadership making the massive unemployment situation worse. Something to do with Egypt's military leaders showing little support for the "Libyan Spring".

Tourism is also down, by how much is not clear.

Despite Govt. claims of adequate fuel supplies there are long line ups outside garages with fuel.

Rumours of Govt. censorship of the Internet will likely impact telecom companies.
Both foreign & domestic investors have pulled back due to the uncertain political situation.

The now (probably/possibly) finally agreed $3B IMF loan will keep things afloat for a while but unless the post-Mubarek Govt. tackles the widespread corruption & starts to take an interest in the economy then the economic outlook is grim.

This is not government decision, this is because the broker company which Hussein Salem is partner in with an Israeli business man have due payments and it haven't been paid regardless of several warnings, therefore EGAS (The provider company) had to cut gas on Israel and that have nothing to do with the political situation in Egypt.

Tourism is actually doing better than the same period 2010, i couldn't even travel due to the high flight prices all last period

There's several criminal attempts to burn fuel companies in Egypt which are being investigated now.

As you said it's just RUMORS....this won't ever happen again i assure you, if you follow the Egyptian activists on Twitter, we actually have more freedom of speech than western countries now and our words on internet are having huge impact on the ground.

This is not true at all, foreign investments are actually increasing...latest major deal is France Telecom buying majority of stocks of Mobinil which is a multi billion euros deal

We're actually against the IMF loan as we know we have enough resources to generate much more than the loan without the bloody terms and interest of IMF