Khalad Said

Imagine if you got killed for saying no?

For refusing to show your ID?

Imagine dying because you tried to expose drug dealers working in the police.

On June 11, a 28 year old male died in Alexandria, Egypt.  He was a normal guy who decided to go fishing and then went to a net café because there was no access to internet at his home. Let's assume he was checking his facebook or twitter when two guys came to the café asking for people's ID. Khalad Said refused to show his ID. In a split of a second, he was arrested and beaten. The café owner decided to interfere; he asked the two guys and Khalad Said to leave the café at once. And so they did. They went in front of Khalad's building and started beating him. Then he was taken in a police truck, a covered truck, and came back after fifteen minutes. If you want to see Khalad's picture after he was beaten up, click here.  

After Khalad said's death, the government declared that he was a drug dealer and he swallowed a drug called bango which led to his death. If that is true, why was he tortured? Why there were all these bruises on his face and his body? Why did he even swallow the  bingo in the first place?

The two guys who worked for the police were released for no proof. But with all the protests that happened in Egypt, things heated up. The two guys got arrested again and they will go under a trail in a few days.

What do I have to do with a guy who died in Egypt or somewhere else, you might ask?

Well, I am here to convince you that the death of Khalad Said could have an impact on you.

Rule: whatever happens in another country has an impact on you. Whether you live in that country or far away from it, it will impact you.

For example, when Iraq wasn’t doing so well, USA invaded it and who paid the price…. The soldiers'  families and the Iraq people.

Another reason:

We all should care about each other. Why? Because we all share the same blood color. Red.

If you want to show sympathy to Khalad said's death, do the following:

·         Join this fan page:

I know it's in Arabic. No problem.  Go to Google chrome. Click right on the fan page. Click "Translate to English". Everything will switch to English language.  This page will help you get the latest update about Khalad Said

·         Talk about it with your friends and family

·         Tweet about it or blog about it

·         Here is Khalad Said website…again you can translate it in Arabic.

We must stop those people who keep on torturing us for no reason.

Happy Father Day 2010

Thanks dad for lots of stuff

Thank you for making me like all the boyish stuff

i.e. soccer

I am literally addicted to soccer, thanks to you.

My first time watching world cup was with you at age of 10

I wish it was just soccer but also history

You always forced me to listen to the historical stories

Boring and time consuming

But really it helped with my communication and knowledge skills

People ask how you know all that history

I tell them dad told me about it 

Politics that one too

I know why Israel is formed? Why USA is strong? And why third world countries do exist?

Songs- I love listening to my generation's songs

But he always forced me to listen to the black and white songs

Of course black and white songs is full of real music

Oh yea another thing, he used to promise me and my brother an adventure

The adventure turns out to be borrowing as much books as possible from the library

Happy Father's Day J

Forget Me Not, Squirrel

Hey

Today was a beautiful day. The sun was glowing peacefully in an endless sky. Everything seemed real. Seemed ordinary.  Less people in college now because of less demand. People who are taking summer courses are relaxing outside in the sun. Friends sitting on one bench laughing and chatting, when something disturbing happened, that made all of them jump out of their seats.  

What happened?

A squirrel came jumping or it was more like running on the grass because (I think) it needed to stay away from the burning sun. Then, something else appears on the same scene, there were another squirrel surrounding the first squirrel. Helping the first squirrel to get on its feet.

I started getting interested watching the squirrel help its partner. It started pushing it, running around it and looking at humans. Humans who were standing around "the about to die squirrel" doing nothing but watching. The "about to die squirrel" kept twitching its head and its whole body which brought goose bumps to my own body. The "about to die squirrel" kept going on circles. Its partner kept to go to the benches where humans laughed and chatted but they ignored it.

When I was looking at the" about to die squirrel", I concentrated more at the bigger picture.

The picture:

There was an animal in need. On the other side, there were humans who were watching. As if it was a tulips festival. As if it was a healthy animal dancing on the grass. We just stood there and watched, while an animal was struggling to death.

This even created a bigger picture. That’s what all humans do. We watch people and animals struggle everyday and do nothing about it.

I forgot to mention that I was one of those people who watched and did nothing as if it was a "FORGET ME NOT" festival.