September 13, 2005

Itharak

Last nights meeting was very interesting. Josh from Arabist couldn't make it and apparently some felt they were not invited (I am very sorry if I was not clear enough that it was for everyone). Other than that about ten bloggers and Mona ElTahawi made it.

We came away with Itharak.com, a get out the vote effort that most of us have pledged to support. The idea behind Itharak ("get moving" in Arabic) is to get people to pledge to do three things.

1/  Go apply for a voters card (one of the major problems in the last election as you can only apply in November)

2/ Go vote for anyone in the upcoming Parliamentary elections other than the monopolizing NDP candidate.

3/ Go get three others to pledge to do the same.

Also to concentrate on the 16 million (Correction 7 million) under 24 that do not need voters cards.

More soon.

Karim Elsahy

Posted by Karim Elsahy at 10:57:09 | Permanent Link | Comments (14) |

September 12, 2005

First Egyptian Bloggers meeting tonight

We are holding what I hope will become the first of many Egyptian Bloggers meeting tonight at my home in Cairo. About ten political bloggers have agreed to come, along with guest journalist Mona ElTahawy.

I am hoping we come away from this meeting better organized while maintaining our unique, and often very diverse, perspectives. The central objective I hope to promote in this first meeting is Sandmonkeys initiative to get out the vote for the upcoming Egyptian Parliamentary Elections this November.

I will be writing on our developments for GV as well as a latter round up piece on the results of all of our collective efforts towards that initiative.

I will then be traveling to Amman, Jordan and will try to set up a similar meeting there. If you are a Jordanian Blogger and are interested please email me at onearabworld(at)h o t m a i l(dot)com

Karim Elsahy


Posted by Karim Elsahy at 12:03:11 | Permanent Link | Comments (17) |

September 08, 2005

Egyptian Voter





It felt great

Concidering the logic that no one was going to upseat Mubarak anyway I voted for Ayman Nour. I figured that though his quaifications are light and his platform unsteady he, and every brave man and woman that stood with him against the regime, deserves the reward of response by the people.

There is a disgusting Arab proverb that goes "Ib3ad 3an el shar wkhanilu" or "stay away from dangerous actions (political) but praise them." Ayman Nour and his followers had the courage and more importantly the honest and real patriotism to secure my vote.

Karim Elsahy
Posted by Karim Elsahy at 16:42:00 | Permanent Link | Comments (7) |