The dawn must come.

The dawn must come.

Thursday 27 November 2014

The Letter.

By: Ahmed M. ELNAHAS – Castelfiorentino, November 17th 2014.
Dear Sir,
Over the past few decades, we continue to speak of “THE CAST” avoiding the real problem lying in the difference between the level of our public opinion and that of other nations that we must confront in an international context.
A lower middle level education, less books read, an often negotiable or inexistent public spirit, the idea that the State are the “others”, that bending the rules and acting around them is translated in personal advantage. It isn’t so.. It is the full respect for “Legality” and for “Res Publica” (Latin for Public Matter used for Republic) that brings a better quality of life, other than tangible advantages, for instance in foreign investments.
Millions of persons whom are reasoning and behaving uncivilly and family-centrically do to their country much more damage than thousand corrupt and incompetent parliament delegates. It would sufficient explaining what is being “Citizens”, what is a “Public Debt”, to which purposes “Taxes” serve, how “Real Economy” functions.
It’s not simple or easy, but neither is it impossible. Costs less and gives advantages far above the cost.
My friends this letter isn’t mine.. It’s a letter written by an Italian citizen ( Mr. Daniele Argelli – daile@katamail.com ) to the chief editor of ‘La Repubblica’ the respectable Italian daily newspaper.

More News..

By: Ahmed M. ELNAHAS – Montopoli, November 18th 2014.
1)    Season’s holidays proposals.
This is a synthesis of the updated European directory for the world’s destinations promoting their 2014/15 offers for the season’s festivities and winter holidays.. Please note that Egypt isn’t included at all and can’t be seen anywhere; not even displayed in in any show window across the territory.
ü  Exotic Destinations: Seychelles, La Reunion, Cape Town, Mumbai, Jamaica, Mexico City, Key West (USA), Bahamas, Grenada, Porto Rico, Barbados, Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Colombia.
ü  Adventure Destinations: Vietnam, Singapore, Bangkok, Sydney, Bolivia, Buenos Aires, Santiago Del Chile, Caribbean Cruises, Persian Gulf slow cruise, Mediterranean Cruises, Tunisia, Saint Petersburg and Kola Peninsula (Russia), Lofoten (Norway), Rovaniemi (Finland), Alaska, Greenland.
ü  Urban Destinations: Paris, Beijing (China), Istanbul, London, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Göteborg, Madrid, Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Toronto.
And of course the priority for each European country is to generously market the best way its own various destinations, because in times of crisis Intelligent Investments are imperative.. You should see the clips and spots. But the real news are made from the quotations proposed for these destinations, that are well wrapped inside a sealed bracket swinging between €. 390 for the Caribbean Cruises, to the €. 2750 for the Virgin Islands, passing by the most attractive and top seller Virgin Islands’ €.1100 flight + hotel + car for 7 nights full board. It is as much important to mention that all the offers are for 4 and 5 star structures..
Having said that, I hope and wish that our concerned authorities do have a plan to reposition Our Egyptian Destinations on the supplying markets agendas!! Soon enough before the total collapse of our structures, service standards and overall competitiveness. 
2)    Foreign Fighters’ inclusion.
Instead of the ‘Iron Fist’ or the ‘Repressive Measures’ adopted by most European countries like UK, France, Germany and Belgium; Finland decided otherwise. It has officially announced a new “Programme of Re-Integration” for its citizens who went to Syria and Iraq to join, and fight, in the ranks of ISIL, should they decide to come home.
The so called “Foreign Fighters” are the hour’s hot issue in a growing debate among the intellectual, political and social circles of the European Union. A debate that can be synthesised in a question: “What to do with the combatants of ISIL who return in Europe?”.
The British daily the Guardian interviewed the prefect of Aarhus (the Finish pilot city for the programme) being the responsible of the ‘Jihadists Rehabilitation Programme’, who explained that “the programme involves experts, consultants, health and scholar structures, recuperating the subject into education in order to reintegrate him/her in society as a working individual, of course lodging is guaranteed and included in the programme.
Obviously we’re talking about a very optimistic, even idealistic, plan; before which I have my own doubt.. Because those young individuals whom were exposed to the most sophisticated and severe ‘Behaviour Modification’ techniques other than the constant hypnotic ‘Brain Washing’, not to mention the ‘Maneuver & Control by Synthetic Drug Dependency’; those who tasted blood and decapitated human heads are uncontrollable.
The Lebanese example is still in memory.. For the fanatic adolescents who fought the bloody ten years civil war back in 1975, those who wore the, then American, Ray Ban sun glasses, held the M16 assault rifle and hung human ears in their necklaces, are the ones that are now dictating Lebanon’s social, cultural, political and economic policies.. Look at Lebanon’s chaos today!
3)    His voice is still loud.
From his self-imprisonment domicile, inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, the Australian journalist Julian Assange (founder of WikiLeaks) participated, through video-conference, at the Lisbon and Estoril Film Festival; where he declared that he “delegated the matter of publishing new secret files to others within the organisation.
Although he didn’t mention a precise date or time for posting such files, yet we can guess their nature reading well his attack at GOOGLE for being “at the service of the government of the USA for collecting sensible data and controlling information”.. He also said that “the verification of information in few hands drives straight into totalitarism!
Pass On The Word.

Keffiah, Stone and a Spit!

Francesca Borri From Ramallah for Il Fatto Quotidiano.
Translated and adapted by: Ahmed M. ELNAHAS – November 20th 2014.
A child in Keffiah swinging a Sling launching Stones will never stop an occupation!! Everybody knows that.. The UN, USA, EU, Arab League, and the entire world.. They all know that, yet no one can or will do anything about it.. Because the occupation has armed itself with a much more sharp and a lot more sophisticated weapons: “Laws” and “Procedures”!
The basic idea in using these weapons is “Unpredictability”.. Just render your moves unpredictable and no one can prevent or stop them; so that apparently everything would seem normal. But here, in ‘this Palestine’, one can be arrested in any given moment and for whichever pretext. And that only would drive the Palestinians to isolate and shut themselves inside cities and localities.. Thus not only Gaza becomes separated from the West bank; but even Ramallah from Nablus from Hebron and from Jenin.. From Jerusalem!
Ever since Salam Fayyad, Premier in 2007, has decided that “it is useless to negotiate” and that “the only solution is to start rebuilding our ‘Independent State’ in order to apply afterwards for the UN recognition”; it became an easy thing acquiring a ‘Bank Loan’.. Everybody, almost, got a car, a house, a washing machine.. Some have started commerce and were able to own a shop.. And the ‘Occupation’ seemed inexistent. But enter any shop or supermarket to discover that ALL the displayed merchandise is 100% “MADE IN ISRAEL”! There is absolutely not a single Palestinian product offered.. Not even an egg!
Then try to have a walk about ‘Al Masyun’ area, where are the banks and offices, there you’ll face a wall behind which lies ‘Al Amari Refugee Camp’ where 10 thousand Palestinians ‘exist’ without water and without  electricity or services.. This is today’s Palestine.. Full of contradictions and complexities!
But let us try and be fair, because all of this is just the fulfilment not the failure of the Peace Process.. Of the Oslo Accords.. Whereas in 1993, in the name of a “Palestinian Progressive Self-Governance”; they have accorded the splitting of the West Bank into three areas: A, B and C; in their turn fragmented by the Israeli Settlements into seventy (70) smaller and isolated areas, completely disconnected from one another. Only ‘A’ zone seems to be controlled by the Palestinian Authority.. Area ‘B’ (Jerusalem) has been shattered by the wall and the disproportionate Arab houses and properties seizures.. While area ‘C’ (61% of the West Bank territory) is entirely under the control of Israel, and it is there that the real ‘battle’ roars.. In the rural areas.. “…because Israel aims at the West Bank lands, not those of Gaza. In August, Netanyahu took advantage of the war to approve and pass in secrecy one of the major land seizures ever.. Another 400 acres.. Soon we, the Palestinians, shall become the ‘Colonies’  in an all Israeli West Bank”! Said Moustafa Barghouty, one of the well noted Palestinian mediators.
The real problem is fundamentally ‘Economic’.. The rich aspect of Ramallah is an illusion veiling the full dependency of the Palestinian economy to Israel.. Israel controls everything, the borders, the infrastructures, the transports, the energy other than the most crucial resource: Water.. It forces a completely dependent Palestinian economy towards certain sectors to complement its own.
The West Bank’s poverty rate was 75%.. Gaza 80%.. East Jerusalem 78%!! “However”, explains the 31 year old Mohammad Matter, “the real drama reaches its climax when we know that: a) the Gaza Tunnels provide for the survival of the population, but they also supply their owners with at least a net income of US$ 100,000.- a month; b) in the past few weeks, it was all about splitting the millions of dollars dispensed for the reconstruction of what the war have destroyed; c) EU and USA are classifying a ‘Humanitarian Crisis’ what really is a sheer ‘Political Matter’; and d) both the EU and USA are continuing to rebuild what Israel destroys because 45% of their ‘Aids’ are spent in Israel”!
Also the Palestinians, same as their fellow Arab youngsters elsewhere of a crippled and frustrated Arab Spring; are completely crushed by a growing official corruption added to the uncertainty of their own future expectations.. While in the West Bank they officially think that reconstructing Palestine is ‘the’ priority, their youth are slowly joining with their cousins in Gaza to believe that fighting Israelis anywhere and by any mean is ‘the only valid’ priority.. To fight Israelis anywhere and anyhow, even with a spit! An affirmations to which a UN observer was reported saying “You spit and the other will bombard”.
If you go to Hebron (El Khalil), you’ll notice that 200 thousand Palestinians are hostages of 600 Israeli colonies.. Where Palestinians and Israelis walk side by side ignoring each other.. Israelis think that they ‘will’ erase out from the map any possible Palestinian State; and the Palestinians believe that a Unified State ‘will’ materialise, and given the demographic diversity, in 20 years it shall be a Palestinian majority state!
They walk side by side; each convinced that time is ‘his’ ally.. So there is no need to negotiate.. And that’s the only thing they have in common.
Pass On The Word.

Wednesday 12 November 2014

News..!!

Selected by: Ahmed M. ELNAHAS – Montopoli, Novenber 9th 2014.
1)    Pink Floyd reloaded.
The release of “The Endless River” this week marks 20 years since the recording of ‘The Division Bell’ in 1994. David Gilmour and Nick Mason were working over this project for the past two years, their work came out with a colossal 18 pieces album divided into 4 instrumental suites and one song “Louder Than Words” interpreted by Gilmour and written by his wife Polly Samson.
The album’s music was the fruit of rearranging 20 hours of Pink Floyd’s unfinished sessions of improvisations that were recorded back in 1994 during the making of The Division Bell, and never inserted or published before.
By this work Gilmour and Mason are giving one last tribute to the art of Richard Wright, their co-Pink Floyd founder friend and organist who passed away in 2008. A recent statement of per David Gilmour revealed that “this album will be considered as a declaration of the dissolution of the band; however Pink Floyd corp. will remain in function”!
2)    Spy stories and the Zar!
After his well wrapped documentaries on Arafat, Fidel and Chavez, Oliver Stone flew last week to Moscow in order to meet with the political refugee Edward Snowden and the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Stone’s visit only scope is to finalise his newest projects:  the first is a film entitled “The Snowden Files”, telling the story of the person who unveiled and revealed to the press the mass spying of the American NSA (the National Security Agency) that is in an advanced phase; and the second is “The Zar a documentary on the Russian president, which is still blocked in a primary negotiating phase.
3)    For real or just propaganda?
The proposal of the Russian Duma deputy Yelena Borisovna Mizulina, has overcharged the web recently sending it almost in tilt. Here is what she suggested: “Every Russian female citizen shall receive via regular mail, the sperm of President Putin, to get pregnant and deliver a child. Those mothers will enjoy various fiscal tax relief generously offered from the government”.
The apparent similarity, of such a provocative idea, to the imaginary NAZZI dream projected on the silver screen as “The Boys From Brazil, would place a doubt about its veracity.
4)    And counting..
4960 deaths and 13200 documented cases of EBOLA. The latest figures released according to the WHO. (The World Health Organisation of course not the band)!

That’s all.. For now.

Agoraphobia!

By: Ahmed M. ELNAHAS – Montopoli, November 3rd 2014.
As you have noticed, this title is a compound term formed of two words: “Agora” and “Phobia”. While the first, originating from the Greek ‘Agorà’ (being the main central square of a Greek Polis or City) where all the political and commercial activities of the city are carried out. The latter refers to a distressing fear , of no apparent or sufficient motivation, therefor of a pathological nature.
Putting the two terms together we have: “A distressing fear, of no apparent or sufficient motivation, to face the square, or to be in an open space.. Even crossing a city square, a street or an alley would provoke intolerable anguish and terrible panic for those who suffer from such pathological disturbance”.
Today, the world is busy commemorating two major events that changed the world’s politics, history and even geography forever.. Or at least until similar events would occur..  A century has gone by since the day the “Slaughter of WWI” initiated; and a quarter of a century is already gone marking the “Fall Of The Berlin Wall”!
Actually I will not discuss any of the two; I just want to share with you a thought that flashed across my mind while watching the celebrations/commemorations live on TV. A thought that may have a connection with the title I chose for my article.
Now, you may rightfully ask me: “but Ahmed, what does Agoraphobia has to do with celebrating the fall of a wall, or the commemorating a slaughter?”!! Patience my friends and please bear a little while longer with me so I can organise my scattered thoughts in the right perspective.
First of all, we must never forget that in a Greek Agorà all political and commercial activities of the ‘Polis’ (city)  occurred. Cutting important trade deals, debating political views, discussing new ideas, rallying, lobbying, manifesting, parading, reciting poems, acting, playing music, buying, selling, playing games and proposing for marriage, celebrating or mourning..etc.. All happened in that MAIN SQUARE.
It was all about the full involvement in the events of the daily life in a POLIS; where all citizens are participating and sharing TOGETHER and peacefully. Even when sometimes the voices may rise into shouts, the end result has always been peaceful, needing no interference of “Law Enforcement”; so that the minority would go home accepting the majority’s views until the next ‘gathering’. And that’s how the Greeks practiced their DEMOCRACY.
Nevertheless, the social values and sound democratic practices exercised within the circumference of an Agorà didn’t last long enough to reach us intact, same as many other human characteristics related to ‘Belief’ and ‘Traditions’, they have mutated into an exact opposite made of intolerance, fear and disrespect of the ‘Other’!
As far as I can tell, such mutation started in Alexandria of Egypt some twenty centuries ago. Precisely in 415 AD. In those days, while Egypt was still under the Roman rule, it maintained a great cultural and social coherence of Greek, Egyptian, and Jewish liberal life style. Music, dance, art, science, and philosophy were parts of everyday life in Alexandria; whether in the Agorà or in the Theatre. And that did not appeal much to Cyril the Patriarch Of Alexandria.
While exercising great efforts to expand ecclesiastical power, Patriarch Cyril, a brutal tactician but also well-educated and able scholar heading Alexandria’s religious institution, regarded as his political enemies two of Alexandria’s prominent figures: the first was the ‘Liberal’ Christian Roman prefect Orestes; and the second was the brilliant woman Hypatia, the Neo-Platonist philosopher and mathematician who taught science, astronomy and philosophy to students, including pagans, Christians, Jews and foreigners; at the most prestigious and internationally respected Platonist School of Alexandria presided by her.
In order to bend the Roman prefect to his will and power, Cyril started by using tactfully the Agorà to ignite a series of frequent confrontations between his fanatic Christian followers and the Jewish community of the Polis, using the Jewish dancing exhibitions in the theatre a pretext. Further on, when the frequent incidents in the Agorà forced the citizens to desert it, he up-levelled the tension thus provoking serious conflict situations leading to blood shedding; during which one of his devoted and able fanatic readers (minor cleric) named Peter, inciting and leading a mob, kidnapped Hypatia on her way home and took her to the Church called Caesareum, where they stripped her cloths off completely, and then murdered her with sharp chips of tiles. Afterward, the men proceeded to mutilate her and, finally, burn her limbs.
Socrates Scholasticus, the contemporary Christian historiographer, documented those events as follows: “Yet even she fell a victim to the political jealousy which at that time prevailed. For as she had frequent interviews with Orestes, it was calumniously reported among the Christian populace that it was she who prevented Orestes from being reconciled to the bishop. Some of them, therefore, hurried away by a fierce and bigoted zeal, whose ringleader was a reader named Peter, waylaid her returning home and, dragging her from her carriage, they took her to the church called Caesareum, where they completely stripped her, and then murdered her with tiles. After tearing her body in pieces, they took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron, and there burnt them”.
We know that her horrifying death allowed the Christian mobs to enter the Platonist School and Hypatia’s astrolab (situated inside the Library of Alexandria) to destroy it and burn it entirely. Kathleen Wider proposes that “the murder of Hypatia marked the end of Classical Antiquity”, and Stephen Greenblatt observes that her murder “effectively marked the downfall of Alexandrian intellectual life”.
Until our present time, every Agorà (the main square of every city around the planet) did never regained its initial democratic character.. By the regular practice of such tactics, both the citizens and their governors became chronic “Agoraphobic” cases.. Because each time the first should try to claim their right to gather, to meet, to protest or manifest, the latter would invent whatever excuse to engage immediately the ‘Law Enforcement’ professionals to silence the square.
I don’t recall exactly which wise philosopher said that “Reason unites us, faith divides us, and never the twain shall meet”!
Pass On The Word.

Wednesday 5 November 2014

Speculation do not make Progress!

In 2006 the historic Italian aeronautics company “Piaggio Aerospace” has been subject to a speculative takeover by the “Mubadala” of Abu Dhabi; whereby Mubadala came in control of 98% of the Italian firm. Just for those who don’t know, Mubadala (in Arabic means Exchange) is presided by HRH. Sheikh Mohammad Ben Zayed Al Nahyan the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and the Vice to the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces!
“Dainese” another piece of the ‘Made in Italy’ industry, a historic and internationally well reputed brand for technical sportswear and gear especially for motorcycling , have conceded 80% to the investment fund “Bahrain Investcorp” against 130 million US$.
These are only two examples of how in recent times, Arab wealth has been invested, funneled, abroad! Throughout the last 45 years, Arabian Petro-Dollars have always been used for concluding hundreds of Financial Speculative deals and adventurous mergers. Of course that’s OK with me as it is good for them, may Allah increase and bless their fortunes. Nevertheless, they remain always ‘Private’ fortunes, properties of a Dynasty.
Now, looking at the Far Eastern booming economy, one cannot do other than raising the ‘cliché’ question: “How did they do it?”. The answer may be in Mr. Paul Krugman’s analysis published lately on the New York Times, by which he praised those economies and presented the Japanese example as model.
Japan, same as China and most of the South East Asian nations, did survive the many difficulties and have firmly confronted the Global Economic Crisis of the past two decades; they all succeeded in saving and preserving their industrial structure, by considering that the Productive Capacity is far more important than balance sheets. By contrast, being obsessed by Debts, Deficits and Budgets; all Western Economies have remained prisoners of repeated decreases and cuts.
The reason, according to Krugman, is conceptual.. Whereas “LABOUR” as a value, is conceived in two totally opposed ways. In the Far East, labour is a Cultural Ethic considering its fundamental role in structuring society. It is seen first as an element necessary for Social Cohesion before being an economic component.
The ‘pragmatic’ west couldn’t understand such philosophy; it continues to confront economic crisis with a complete opposite attitude, undervaluing social repercussions. It didn’t quit comprehend that in order to have an economy, first serves a society. If the social tissue is disunited or disintegrated, there will remain not a single chance whatsoever to see an economic recovery.
Thank you Paul Krugman.. How I would like to forward this to the Middle East economists (since all financial consultants are foreign firms); so that they may finally figure out why their economies are in reddish deficit, and for whose benefit their countries are bound in the chains of conflict.
Pass On The Word. 

Thursday 23 October 2014

In the name of a Divine Justice!

By: Ahmed ELNAHAS – Montopoli, October 22nd 2014.
What kind of mental preparation is needed so that a person could slit the throat of another human being? What could be the nature of the faith by which a human being would despise another human being to the point of committing such barbarous act? Let us examine for a moment the mechanism of what ‘they’ preach as being ‘Justice by The Order Of Allah’!
What we’ve seen in the past decade or so on many TV screens, and on YouTube; was a man who uses a 10 or 12 inch sharp blade knife to cut clean the head of another hand-cuffed kneeling man apart from the body!! Even with the sharpest blade ever, it would take the assassin few long terrible moments to finish the job.. Not like the guillotine or the executioner’s sword that takes only a second to end the agony of a helpless person.
So, back to the initial interrogative.. How is it possible to convince an intelligent mature individual (assuming that  intelligent and mature are the case) that such a criminal act is JUSTICE? Not just that, but as well it is a justice ordered by GOD!! There is not any satisfactory answer that I could objectively find*.. Anyway, on one hand, it requires the most sophisticated techniques of exposure to the most advanced “Behaviour Modification” and “Guerrilla Warfare” programmes; but on the other hand it needs the expertise of a clever recruiter to know from which river, sea or ocean to pick his fish, and from which school of fish to choose!
Our societies (Arab, Muslim, African, Asian, even Western societies) are those rivers, seas and oceans that are filled with large schools of similar fish waiting to be picked up, recruited, trained and sent to the front.. Any front.. There are tens of millions of frustrated, unemployed, envious, depressed, desperate, indifferent and disoriented individuals; mostly ignorant and in majority unaware of their own root culture.. Belonging to every social class.. Most of whom were raised since childhood to accept the mingling of tradition onto religion without questioning, hence becoming vulnerable to any social, economic or cultural intrusion.
By adding to the equation: Money and strong Finance, you’ll get the most brilliant recruiting expert, and the extremely capable trainers or tutors, and even mentors, for delivering the sophisticated techniques of “Behaviour Modification” and “Guerrilla Warfare” programmes. A flock of hired mercenaries whom are not interested in faith or ideology.. They work for gold.. Characters that have always existed all throughout human history; and mostly in our region! 
So, if I may suggest it, be just, firm and vigilant on your sons and daughters while educating them how to separate tradition from religion.. And how to identify and clear faith from the mist of folklore, myths and legends; and try nicely to recommend the same to your friends and neighbours so that none of them, or their dear ones, would turn into those fish splashing their innocence in the muddy rivers of mediocrity.

And may peace be upon you if they refused or even abruptly rejected you and your “blasphemy”!! For you have just did your part before your own conscience and before God.

Pass On The Word.
*Because even in the Holy Koran itself we can only find the suggestion (severely conditioning its use only in war and never against civilians or defenceless prisoners of war; or in the QESSAS, to execute a killer) to “…hit their necks…”!! Hit not slit.. Simply because slitting was an ancient pagan practice used to deliver human sacrifices to divinities.. Islam forbad all that.  


Thursday 16 October 2014

EBOLA In Brief!

By: Ahmed ELNAHAS – Castelfiorentini, October 13th 2014
The deadly pest has already started knocking the doors of the Nile Valley basin, even if it’s still apparently contained in the African sub-Saharan regions; therefor it is important, even imperative, to know it and to spread our findings to those whom cannot acquire such notion. It’s the least humanly moral thing to do.
First let us review some very frequent asked question about EBOLA; then I’ll try to synthesise some relevant material as simply as I can, in a way that it would turn easier for you to transmit the information and share them with everyone you know.
Ø  What is EBOLA?
EBOLA (EVD) previously known as “Ebola Virus Haemorrhagic Fever”, is a grievous disease; highly fatal having a 90% mortality rate.
Ø  How is it transmitted?
EBOLA is transmitted through direct close contact with the blood, secretions (sweat, tears, saliva, mucous..etc), tissues, organs or corporal fluids of infected individuals (humans or animals).
Ø  Who are the persons at risk of infection?
Health and sanitary operators, families or other persons in close contact with infected subjects, and persons who are in contact with the dead corps of diseased patients.
Ø  When it is not transmitted?
Ebola cannot be contracted while swimming in pools, handling money or food stuff; not even through a casual contact with a carrier that doesn’t show the symptoms.
Ø  What are the main symptoms?

Sudden improvised fever, intense weakness, muscular pains, headache, painful sour throat, vomiting, diarrhoea, renal insufficiency, hepatic internal and external haemorrhage.
The name of the disease originates from one of those first recorded outbreaks in 1976 in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Zaire), which lies on the EBOLA river.
Symptoms typically start two days to three weeks after contracting the virus, with a fever, sore throat, muscle pains, and headaches. Typically nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea follow, along with decreased functioning of the liver and kidneys. At this point, some people begin to have bleeding problems.
The EBOLA virus may be acquired upon contact with infected animals (commonly monkeys or fruit bats; it is no surprise given that both are the most common species used for biological laboratories experimental activities). However, the virus capability to spread through the air has not been documented in the natural environment. Fruit bats are believed to carry and spread the virus without being affected. Human male survivors may be able to transmit the disease via semen for nearly two months. In order to make the diagnosis, typically other diseases with similar symptoms such as Malaria, Cholera and other Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers. are first excluded. To confirm the diagnosis blood samples are tested for viral antibodies or the virus itself.
Prevention includes decreasing the spread of the disease from infected monkeys and pigs to humans. This may be done by checking such animals for infection and killing and properly disposing of the bodies if the disease is discovered. Properly cooking meat and wearing protective clothing when handling meat may also be helpful, as are wearing protective clothing and washing hands when around a person with the disease. Samples of bodily fluids and tissues from people with the disease should be handled with special caution.
Ebola virus was first isolated in 1976 during outbreaks of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Zaire and Sudan. The strain of Ebola that broke out in Zaire has one of the highest Case Fatality Rates of any other human virus, roughly 90%.
In 1990, Hazelton Research Products' Reston Quarantine Unit in Reston, Virginia, suffered a mysterious outbreak of fatal illness among a shipment of crab-eating Macaque monkeys imported from the Philippines. The company's veterinary pathologist sent tissue samples from dead animals to the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) AT Fort Detrick, Maryland, where a laboratory test known as an ELISA assay showed antibodies to EBOLA virus.
Given the lethal nature of Ebola, and since no approved vaccine or treatment is available, it is classified as a Biosafety Level 4 agent, as well as Category ’A’ Bio-Terrorism agent by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It has the potential to be turned into a weapon for use in Biological Warfare.
Pass On The Word.

No way back.

By: Ahmed ELNAHAS – Pisa, October 15th 2014
At this point, I fear that there will be no turning back.. We have already regressed into another Tribal Era! Just consider, and try to answer this question: in a relatively short lap of time, into how many fragments, groups, clans,  movements, cults, sects our Arab societies have been torn?
The reasons for such a division why don’t matter, because the fact remains: we have been divided FOREVER. Period. And the phenomena is worsening. Let me give you a practical example by simply analysing the latest news related to this present conflict involving the Fertile Crescent; today newspapers brought the following:
“The killers from the White Shrouds against the Black Flags of ISIL”! All the articles related to the subject explain that a new Syrian militia, (about 300 fighting units) formed from the ex-brigades that still fight Assad’s army, calling itself “The White Shrouds” (Arabic ﺃﻜﻓﺎﻦ in reference to the white cotton tissue in which Muslims wrap the dead after washing and before burial), is showing its capability of being more lethal and more cruel than the ISIL itself, by committing frequent decapitations and crucifixions against the ISIL warriors, all along the Syrian/Turkish borders.
What’s complicating the situation is the nature of each group: The White Shrouds are completely and exclusively Syrian Muslim fighters, while the ISIL militias are formed mainly by foreigners. Moreover, the White Shrouds have joint forces with other radical groups like “The Phantom Brigades” and the “Death Angels” brigades; having the same scope, they have already ambushed, killed and mutilated hundreds of the ISIL Sunni fighters. They have only one operational problem: the Western Coalition Air Raids are complicating their work!
Now, objectively speaking, when in time the dust shall settle in a year or in a century; what shall be the socio-geo-political structure of the entire region? Who will be able to unite not only Sunni to Shi’ì, but as well Hezb’Allah to Saraya Al Qods to Hamas to Fatah to the Muslim Brotherhood to Ansar Beit Al Maqdis to the White Shrouds to the Phantom Brigades to the Death Angels brigades to Al Qaeda to Boko Haram to Abu Sayyaf Brigades to the Curds to the Yazidis to the Christians to the Copts….etc???!!!
No one.. For each of these fragments will continue attracting, or recruiting, followers and supporters to form in the end a complex multitude of separated tribes in continuous conflict among each other over… Actually I don’t know exactly over what!
Do You?

Pass On The Word.