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.

Yet another contributed Drupal module that I have written! This new Drupal module allows jobs and resumes to be posted and for job seekers and employers to search them.In effect you can build your own mini monster.ca or workopolis.com web site using this module.More information on the job search project page.

Two presidential candidates in Egypt's upcoming elections have withdrawn from the race. Nawal el Saadawi withdrew her candidacy a few  days a go, though I doubt that she would get much votes, being on the fringe as far as most Egyptians are concerned. A few days later, Saad Eddin Ibrahim also withdrew from the elections, and also said he is boycotting the election, calling it a "farcical electoral process". He said that some people outside have been deceived by the recent cosmetic and token changes, and that the new election laws effectively prevents independant candidates from running.

Ali Abdullah Saleh has been president of Yemen for 27 years. On Sunday July 17, 2005, he announced that he will not seek re-election next year.

This move is unprecedented in the Arab world, where no head of state leaves office voluntarily, whether they are monarchs or so-called presidents.

Here is another Nigerian 419 Advance Fee Fraud Scam that uses a Christian theme.

Any rational person knows that a certain symptom has to be analyzed before its real cause can be diagnosed, and that a correct diagnosis is necessary before the symptom/problem can be treated or cured. Terrorism is no different. If one remembers the first few weeks after the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks, there was a lot of discussions in mainstream media about why they hate us and how America's foreign policy played a major role in that hatred. However, as you also may remember, the discussion quickly shifted into belligerent jingoism where Americans were made to believe that they are hated because of democracy and freedom, thus justifying the invasion of Afghanistan and later Iraq.