Ramadan Kareem

Today, Wednesday 11 august 2010, Ramadan 1431 A.H. started.

Happy Ramadan for all Muslims around the world!

Fasting, hotness, moisture & pregnancy will make Ramadan this year is very difficult as for me, but Allah helps us always.

Print on demand (POD) in Egypt

Simply, the service of Print/ publish on demand (POD) depends on uploading an eBook on a website and printing this eBook only when a reader demands a paper copy & pays its price beforehand.

Unfortunately, this service is still unavailable as for the Arabic books or the right-to-left writings.

Internationally, lulu.com is the most famous website offers POD, but in the Arabic world (22 Arabic countries), 3lsooot.com is nearly the only Arabic & Egyptian website which supports the Arabic books! It is the foundation of Arabic pen voice.

I know that one website only maybe is very enough, but unfortunately, 3lsooot.com doesn’t offer this service free like lulu.com! Therefore, I'm using the American website coyly!

Yes, the Egyptian website takes 30 USD as a fee of nomination for your book because it submits the book to publishers, not only to the readers!

This fee is illogical because the publishers maybe refuse your work & the readers maybe don't demand your book at all and in the end you will lose your money.

Likewise, the Egyptian story club takes 20 EGP as fees of participation in the annual literary contest, although the winning isn't guaranteed!

Both of them, fees of book's nomination & fees of participation in the literary contest, don't take into consideration the poor writers!

These fees are only for covering the costs of printing on demand or the annual financial prize. This is the only logical explanation!

To be a wife for a year

Today, Saturday 17 July 2010 is the first anniversary of my marriage.

I confess that the first year of marriage is the most difficult year at all and sometimes it is the worst year in marriage, especially in the oriental societies, like Egypt!

In the eastern countries, there is no a big chance to study your life's partner well before the marriage. The only true chance to study him or her is during the first year of marriage itself!

As for the Arabic Muslim nations, there are not a lot of permissions during the engagement period, so you find yourself suddenly live with a stranger in one home and you are forced to acclimate with him and accept him as he is!

Yes, the divorce in Islam is very easy & is not very expensive like the divorce between the westerns, but there are a lot of traditions & thoughts which control us. These traditions are often stronger than the religion.

In the beginning, clashes must happen between two persons from two different families, different environments, different personalities (natures) & different houses. Naturally, you are very sad during the first months in marriage, but with the ends of the first year, you find yourself calmer & happier!

In the first feast of my marriage, I'm proud because I made an achievement & skipped the difficulties of marriage in the first year!

Soaad Hosny, the Cinderella of Arabic Screen

On Thursday 21 June 2001, since nine years ago, the Egyptian multitalented artist Souad Hosni left us suddenly.

No one expected this bloody end for this comprehensive artist, who was an actress, singer, belly-dancer and show maker because she was very beautiful, laugher, vital & optimistic.

She fell down from Stewart Tower in London, England, as she was living in the apartment of her close friend Nadia Youssry.

Until now, Scotland Yard could not define if it was a suicide or a murder by Nadia Youssry!

The some said it was a suicide because Soaad Hosny was very ill & became very fat in the last years of her life and the other some said it was a homicide because Soaad Hosny decided to write her diary & scandal famous Egyptian politicians.

The sister of moon, as she was called, died on Abdel Halim Hafez's Birthday!

Officially, she married four times & had no children. The some says that she married a fifth time from Abdel Halim Hafez secretly because both of them were afraid to lose their fans, but there is no any official document confirms this marriage!

But the strongest opinion that they were in love together only & didn't marry at all!

The Building of the Ghosts!!!

None in Alexandria doesn’t know the building No. 412 in Rushdie district or the house of the ghosts.

This old building which locates on Abu Qir Street (Liberty Road), one of the main streets in Alexandria, and locates in Rushdie district, one of the highest districts in Alex, this building has a very strange story & a true tragedy.

If you passed by it, you will find it very dark even in the noon. The sun doesn't enter it at all and the exhausts of the cars during 50 years made it black & dirty.

The building of Rushdie was built in 1961. Some people say it was built by a Greek man called Bardees who died drowned with his five children in a boat during a fishing trip & his wife sold the house, then she returned to Greece forever and the Egyptian woods' trader Mohsen Bey (the buyer) took an accounting office for himself in the entrance & rented the other apartments:

1. The first floor: Mr. Zareef died burned & his family deserted the apartment.

2. The second floor: a doctor established his clinic, and before opening the clinic, a car killed the doctor while he was crossing the street.

3. The third & the fours floor: a foreign company became bankrupt & its boss committed suicide.

But other people say the house was built by an Egyptian man. In the beginning, he intended to build a mosque, but he built this house. So, the curse inhabited this place forever & the owner died paralyzed & sorry for his deserted project.

Some people say it was built actually as an apartment building & other people say it was built as a hotel. No one knows the true.

The sheikhs read the Holy Koran in the building to exorcise the ghosts & the bad spirits, but without a result.

The building contractors tried to destroy the building, but the buckets of the loaders were broken.

In the end, the police was forced to block the entrance by the bricks & they left the garage works till today. And for that reason, some people see it's just a rumor because there is a conflict between the heirs and those people ask why the ghosts didn't live in the garage also?!

But if these were just rumors really, why no one could to continue in the building till now?!

I thought to write a novel about this building like The Yacoubian Building novel by Dr. Alaa Al Aswany, but I'm not interested in the world of the ghosts.

So, if you are fond of this world, you can write a horror novel!

Faten Hamama 79th Birthday

Today, Thursday 27 may 2010, the lady of the Arabic screen Faten Hamama completed her 79^th year.

She isn't just a star from the golden era of the Egyptian cinema; she was, is & will be a mark in the whole Egyptian history.

Happy Birthday to Faten Hamama!

Internet Forums Statistics

The statistics of internet forums are often:

Number of threads

Number of posts

Number of members

Number of currently active (available/ online) users (members & guests/ visitors)

Most users ever online

Number of blogs & entries

The question now to who is expert in the forums: is this counter changeable?! Is it possible to counterfeit these statistics?! How can we differentiate between the true forums & the false forums?! And why memberships' serial numbers are always bigger than true members' numbers?!

What's the better?! To join to a forum of numerous members or to create your personal forum & you are sure of the true number of members?!

Yes, the personal forum enables you to:

1. Upload attachments of any size/ type

2. Control in members

3. Create the departments which you want

But supervising & formatting a personal forum needs to an unoccupied person... Isn't it so?!

I need your opinion please!

The literary contests in Egypt

Unfortunately, the most of literary contests in Egypt, especially novel contests, don't enjoy the impartiality or credibility or fairness.

For example, the annual prize of story club… it's supposed to be the most famous & important literary contest in Egypt, however:

1. The contest of 2008 is announced in 2009 & the contest of 2009 is announced in 2010 & so on!!! Moreover, the contest of the current year is announced in middle of the next year, not even in beginning of the next year!!!


2. The winners are often old people & published authors or writers known by the arbitration committee. The young people, new talents & unknown unpublished writers rarely take their chance in this award!!!


3. The time of submitting the participating works is very short (often less than one month only), and also the time of announcing the results is very short (through few months). So, undoubtedly, the results are known beforehand.


4. The advertisement of contest is published annually in very small space in the newspapers & it's not published in the first page or a marked place. And therefore, it's invisible to a lot of people. There's no fixed date for publishing this AD, every year it is published on a different day from a different month.


5. The conditions of contest are very floating. The story club doesn’t unite the specifications of manuscript novels. The professional contests stipulate one paper size (A4 for example), four equal page margins, one font type & style, one font size, one line spacing. While, the four useless conditions of this contest every year are: (1) the novel must not be less than 50 pages foolscap & three copies are submitted, (2) the novel must not be introduced to another contest currently or in the past, (3) the contestant must not be a member in the club, (4) the contestant must not be a winner in the last two years.


6. The financial awards of this contest are very little. The first winner takes 2000 Egyptian pounds only, the second takes 1500 EP & the third takes 1000 EP!!! Beside, there are taxes about 12 % even on the prizes in Egypt!!! The three winners take also appreciation certificates, but the first winner only can take the membership of club & his/her novel is published in the silver book series of the story club.


7. The club is open three days only in the week & for six hours only (7 pm to 9 pm on Saturday, Monday & Wednesday). The headquarters & only branch is in the capital (Cairo). The inhabitants of Cairo, Alexandria, the Delta & Lower North Egypt can arrive to the club & submit their works before the deadline, but The inhabitants of far places (such as Upper South Egypt, Sinai & the Oases) are forced to send their works in a package by express mail & it's very expensive, instead of traveling for hundreds of kilometers.


8. The club has no an independent place. It's an apartment in very old big building. You will pass across a lot of corridors to arrive to it. The staff is very old people, the boss of club, the members, the secretary & the office boy. If you rang the door bell or called by telephone, you must wait for long minutes until somebody answers you. A lot of people think that there's no body there & they lose the connection with the club.

http://www.egstoryclub.com/index.php?lang=en

Sham el-Nessim Day

Literally, it means Smelling the Breeze (Zephyr). In general, it's Spring Day in Egypt & an official vacation in the whole country.

Every year, the oriental church defines it on any Monday since the beginning of April till the beginning of May according to the Coptic calendar. However, Muslim Egyptians celebrate it like Christians exactly, because it's also an ancient Egyptian feast since the days of pharaohs.

The breakfast is colored boiled eggs and the lunch is smoked or salted fish or sardine & green onion. As Christians don't eat fish during their Lent (55 days) & finish their great fasting on the day before that day or Easter.

The 33rd anniversary of Abdel Halim Hafez

On 30 March 1977, Halim died while he was 47 years old. The Dark Nightingale was one of the most famous Egyptian singers & actors in Egypt & the Arabic world.

The triangle of orphanage, lovesickness & illness made Abd El-Halim a very creative artist.

His mother died after few hours only from his birth, and then his father died also before Halim completes his first year!!!

He fell in love only one time in his life & had never been married.

She was a very rich young woman. He met her by chance in Alexandria & loved her at first sight. She was so beautiful & has blue eyes, but she was married & has two children. This unknown woman who was called (Dawlat) or (Dede) left her family to marry Abd El-Halim, and before their marriage, she died suddenly by brain cancer.

Abd El-Halim was a very reticent person, so nobody saw this woman at all, even his closest friends, except his own driver. However, he sang his saddest & most pessimistic songs to her memory.

In London, he died by Esophageal Varices & returned to Cairo in a box between luggages inside an airplane!!!

His funeral was third of most popular funerals in Egypt, after funeral of Nasser in 1970 & funeral of Om Kalthoum in 1975.

A lot of girls & women committed suicide on hearing of his death!!!

His apartment & tomb are still receiving thousands of visitors till today.

Ahmed Zaki… the black tiger

Today 27 March 2010, five years passed since Ahmed Zaki left us. He was not just a favorite actor by the Egyptians, but he was a genius talent will not be repeated easily. He could play all roles & characters creatively.

Although he was not a handsome or muscular, but he was so attractive. He succeeded to win hearts of many Egyptian actresses & millions of fans.

This black star that defeated a lot of difficult challenges in the beginning of his life, but in the end, lung cancer defeated him while he was 55 years old because he was a very gluttony smoker.

The French doctor, who came from France especially to examine Ahmed Zaki, arrived to Cairo on the same day of death & he attended his funeral!!!

Ahmed Zaki could act 90 % of his final movie (Halim), and then he slept in a very deep coma. So, his only son (Haitham) completed the movie. Halim is the biography of Abdel Halim Hafez who lived & died in similar conditions to Zaki himself!!!

Mother's Day in Egypt

The international Mother's Day is on the second Sunday of May from every year.

In Egypt, today 21 March is Mother's Day & Orphan's Day is on the first Friday of April from every year.

Happy Mother's day to Mama & to all the mothers!

Alexandrina International Book Fair No. 8

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is organizing its 8^th Alexandrina International Book Fair from 25 February to 14 March 2010.

The guest of honor this year will be "French and Mauritanian Books".

http://www.bibalex.org/English/bookfair.htm

Happy Valentine's Day to the Christians!

If we –as Muslims- wanted to celebrate this day, we should celebrate the day itself or celebrate the symbol of love, not celebrate the saint Valentine.

In this connection, I wonder at who says to me: don't be sad if you didn't marry who you love, because maybe he wasn't a good person!!!

Ok, I'm ready to marry him, even if he was the worst person in the world.

This is the difference of love!!! But it is the will of Allah.

The 35th anniversary of Om Kalthoum

On 3 February 1975, the lady of Arabic singing & the planet of orient Om Kalthoum the Egyptian superstar left our world to sing in the sky.

She was circa 76 years old because her birthday is unknown exactly!!!

Although, I was born in 1979 after her death, but a lot of Egyptian youth & I are still enjoying her many songs. She is a unique phenomenon.

The Third Cup Successively & the Seventh in Championship History!

1. The Best Player in This Championship Egyptian!

2. The Best Goalkeeper in This Championship Egyptian!

3. The Best Scorer in This Championship Egyptian!

4. The Prize (Cup) of Clean Playing for Egyptian!

5. The Title of the Best Coach for Egyptian!

6. We were not defeated in any match in this Tournament

7. We defeated all the teams which are participants in the next World Cup!!!

Yes! We are the Egyptians! Viva Egypt!

What a Great Country & what a Great Nation!!!

Congratulations the Revenge from Algeria!

Yesterday, Thursday 28 January 2010, at 9:30 pm (Egypt Time) the Egyptian team of football took our revenge for the tragic match of Wednesday 18 November 2009 in Sudan.

Yesterday, our national team defeated the Algerian team 4-0 in Angola & three Algerian players (including the goalkeeper) were fired from the playground during the match!!! They took red cards at once.

Even if we were defeated by Ghana the next Sunday (the final match), it is so enough the winning of yesterday.

We didn't scandal the Algerians… they who undressed themselves by themselves in front of the whole world. They verified that they are a very barbaric nation.

Cairo International Book Fair No. 42

Today, Thursday 28 January 2010 CIBF was opened officially by the president of republic & tomorrow Friday 29 January, it will be open for the people.

It is continuous for two weeks. It will be closed on Saturday 13 February.

Neturei Karta International (Jews United Against Zionism & Israel)

I tried to contact the Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, & nkusa.org told me that he has no an email address, a blog or a website & he is not on computer at all.

They gave me his phone number, but I want to greet him from here for his noticeable activity against Zionism & Israel.

I watched him since a while in a TV program on the Egyptian satellite (Nile Sat.). He was a very good spokesman.

The Difference between the Novel and the Fiction

According to Wikipedia,

The fiction is a branch of literature which deals, in part or in whole, with temporally contra-factual events (events that are not true at the time of writing).

There are also the definitions of non-fiction & semi-fiction in Wikipedia.

The novel is a long narrative in literary prose.

According to English-to-Arabic dictionary,

The fiction is a short story, a novel, a novelette (novella), a tale, a narrative, children's book or story, but it must be an imagination or a fantasy (fable, myth, legend).

The novel is a long story only. Maybe it is a fiction, maybe it is a true.

If anyone knows other definitions, please he tells us.

Stop the wall between Egypt & Palestine

To the last pharaoh, to our Egyptian stubborn president Muhammad Hosni Mubarak: Who gave you the right to build an underground metal barrier on the eastern borders of Egypt?!

Who gave you the permission to separate between the Egyptians & the Palestinians?! USA, Israel or yourself!!!

You wanted really to block tunnels used to smuggle weapons into the Palestinian land or you wanted to leave the Palestinians as a prey for the Israelis!!!

Please, our aged president: don't isolate our brothers from us!

2010 & 1431

Happy New Year

Today 2010 started & before two weeks ago exactly on Friday 18-12-2009 the new Islamic year 1431 started.

1430 years passed since the great migration (Hijra) of our prophet & messenger Muhammad from Mecca to Medina (the light city).

Muhammad & his close friend Abu Bakr As-Siddiq emigrated at night & were hidden for three days in a cave in the mountain.

When the unbelievers arrived to the cave, they thought that the cave is empty & went without killing Muhammad & Abu Bakr!!

As there was a spider weaved a web closed the entrance of cave & two doves built a nest & laid eggs in front of the cave.

If one of the conspirators looked under his feet, he would see the two men, but this didn't happen & the two friends reached Medina safe. And from The Light City, the message of Muhammad arrived to the whole world & the Islam became spread till now.

The First Chapters of My Novels on Scribd.Com:

All of them in Arabic Language:

The first chapter from "Be luckier than us"

The first chapter from "Qenawy ollas"

The first chapter from "Memories in the corridor"

The first chapter from "My heart is zigzag"

The first chapter from "Made in Egypt"

The first chapter from "Messages to Allah"

The first chapter from "A hole in my heart"

The first chapter from "Reda"

The first chapter from "Chechnya"

The first chapter from "Cabin no. 9"

The first chapter from "America Brunei Egypt"

The first chapter from "Foreigner, but!!!"

The first chapter from "12 Circassian roosters"

The first chapter from "A Somali pirate"