Gwynne Dyer, a reknown Canadian journalist, historian, academic and essayist on international affairs, writes that the recent Egyptian Presidential Elections are a Cynical Farce! He mentions that the ruling party engaged in everything from ballot stuffing to bussing government workers to vote en masse after it was apparent that the turn out was very low. He also correctly notes that President Bush, who says he wants democracy in the region, do not want to see Mubarak go.

I occasionally check Technorati to see if somebody cared to link to something they read on my web site. Two days ago, I was doing the random spot checking, and found that my site is linked to from Drupal.org. This is not out of the norm, since I have been using Drupal and contributing to it for some time. What was surprising was to see that a new aggregator was put in, and called Drupal Planet. Althought I frequent Drupal.org daily, I sometimes miss checking the front page, and go to the tracker directly!

Mohamed's nickname in school was "Toffee", derived from the Tawfik in his name.Mohamed was good in sports, and was a serious swimmer in high school and beyond. He graduated in commerce, and now lives in New York. He got an MBA from New York in 1988, and passed New York State CPA exam in 1992.Then he decided to start his own business, and now runs a company that specializes in Organic Cotton products, called sckoon. His wife is from Japan, and he has one daughter.See how Mohamed looked in 1966! 

Magdy was my classmate in E.G.C. from kindergarten to grade 9 (3rd preparatory), then in El Nassereya for High School, then in University at the College of Pharmacy. He was the only one who was with me for the entire span of 17 years of education.Magdy came from a relatively wealthy Christian Coptic family. They own the Sabry pharmacy in Rushdy, Alexandria, as well as several other ventures over the years, including such factories as Handy Tissue and Paper, and others. As a youngster, Magdy was fiesty, and sometimes hyperactive. I remember he once got into trouble in the first year of high school because he punched someone who pushed him while going up the stairs to class. He used to drive hard too. One time, I was with him in a red Volkswagen Golf he had while in university, and he went to the other lane (between Sidi Gaber and Mostafa Kamel) where a bus was coming directly at us. He accelerated so hard and we made it to safetly.

Hazem was my classmate for 9 years at E.G.C. We were in the same class in our last year before leaving that school. We always bickered and fought for various reasons.Hazem's father was the dealer for Texas Instruments computers, and had a data center in Glym. Hazem pursued a degree in Computers at Alexandria University.He now works for the World Health Organization (WHO), East Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) as a Technical Assistant for Health Information and Communication.You can visit his web site which focuses on the ex-Royal Family of Egypt, which is somehow tied to Hazem, as well as some stuff of Golf, Cigars and Travel. Hazem is also interested in his own genealogy.

Ahmed Ezz El Din Fahmy was initially in my same class in E.G.C., but later moved to another school (E.B.S. I think). His nickname was MeeshoBy the time we were in High School, we were in the same school again, El Nassereya in Bakos. He remembers that I fixed his fishing rod one day. I have no memory of that incident myself, but I did go fishing at Glym beach in High School, and we may have done so together. By coincidence, it turns out that his mother and my mother were classmates too, and his mother is friends with my aunt to this day.

Khaled Mounir was one of my classmates from kindergarten to grade 9 at E.G.C. We were the only two Khaled's in our grade, and we were in the same class most of the time. Following his father's footsteps, he specialized in Ophthalmology and is an eye surgeon at El Mowasa Hospital in Alexandria, and the head of the department there. He also has a private practice.I have not seen Khaled for about 20 years, apart from running into him by accident in a gas station in Alexandria many years ago. He visited me in Summer 2005 while I was on vacation in Egypt. What is interesting is that he ran across my web site by accident, and

Magdy El Rayes was one of classmates from kindergarten all the way to the end of High School.Magdy used to be a master soccer player, able to take the ball from one end to the goal of the opposing team with great skill.  He has a Ph.D in welding technology, is a faculty member at Alexandria University, College of Engineering, and teaches at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

After a Virginia, USA school decided to sell their used Apple iBook laptops really cheap, panic and stampede ensued, as humans exhibited their worst behavior. The local newspaper, the Times Dispatch also has an article and even a slideshow showing people pushing and trampling on falling fellow human beings. Slashdot also has some comments, some from those who attended.

Ahmed Mattar أحمد مطر is an Iraqi poet who have been living in exile for decades, most recently in London.

His style is somewhat reminiscent of Nizar Qabbani نزار قباني but does not have the latter's knack for vulgarities and themes of womanizing.

His poetry is extremely critical of rulers of Arab countries, lack of freedoms, the use of torture, clinging to power at all costs. He also laments the general situation of Arab societies.