#Flotilla so we should be sad?

Hello Everyone,

This is a collection of ideas I posted on Twitter concerning the Israeli attack on the aid ship heading towards Gaza in international water, how should we conceive it and should something like that make us sad or depressed as some people seem to be getting?

Let’s be positive, Israel is digging its grave. Level of hatred towards it never reached that level since its existence, right?

From the vid I’ve seen the Israeli special forces are paper tigers, hiding from civilians in a laughable way.

So here is what happened, 20 something beautiful souls met their lord Shuhada in the paradise happily rejoicing

What a dignifying death to be killed getting supplies to the poor & after ur death ruin enemies reputation and wake ur friends up

The ugly face of Israel is getting more clear to the whole world, losing the PR efforts since their existence

Now, ain’t it getting hard to get moderate westerners to believe the Israeli PR crap and lose trust in their media? We’re winning #Flotilla

Didn’t people forget sometime about #Gaza and #Palestine ain’t#Flotilla a reminder to keep it in head & puts +ve pressure on us to support

Ain’t #Flotilla bringing people together? The Turks are getting closest to the Arabs/Muslims since the fall of Islamic Khilafa.

So, don’t be depressed, I think we’re perfectly entitled to celebrate that god hands are working in our favor

And yah, unfortunately, anger is temporary, real commitment and integrating the cause in our path in life is what really makes sense.

So, don’t get depressed. In the depth of the situation is benefits we might don’t see now, but if you have the eye to look to the future, you should really be seeing the end of this siege.

– Abdelrahman

Tales of Corruption from USAID-funded Bamyan Media, with #ElMashrou3 Part I

After the striking wave of criticism the launch of ElMashrou3 was received with from entrepreneurs and despite all possible PR and Advertising tricks the money can buy; the opinion of professionals and obvious impact assessment have shown a great failure to a potentially massive project to Unleash Entrepreneurship in Egypt, for which the United Sates Development Agency seeded Bamyan Media with a $4.1 Million Cheque.

My blogs in this regard started as an observation to the feedback shared by entrepreneurs and knowing only little of behind the scenes from what I experienced with Bamyan Media, this topic evolved into an actual investigation as each communication I received led to another and ended up with mega stories of what is really going on there. The scope of corruption and deceit with which Bamyan Media dealt with their surrounding is extremely unbelievable.

Not to repeat myself, please refer to my other post Who is really behind El Mashrou3, to tack down the evidence of the entity controlling the project and its background.

There goes a lot of in-depth look of the work of Bamyan Media and it’s first ever project, El Mashrou3 in Egypt:

  • Strategy
  • Track record
  • The Funding
  • Production Industry
  • Media Agency
  • Entrepreneurship / Egypreneur
  • Contestants
  • Waste of energy and resources

Strategy

The business strategy of Bamyan Media is quite clearly stated in the LinkedIn profile of David Elliot, the one actually running Bamyan Media, I understand it might be quite sensitive to state that as David Elliot is obviously doing everything possible to make his daughter, Anna Elliot, feel like in charge, but her lack of any basic CEO skills  make this extremely obvious.

david_linkedin

Bamyans Approach is to access resources directed towards social entrepreneurs around the world and supposedly channel these resources, through some kind of “media platform” into social entrepreneurs. If we search for definition of Corruption and Mismanagement well find that most cases of corruption in development around the world is about entities that access large pools of resources and misdirect, mismanage or use these resources for private gains.

If we briefly survey entrepreneurs in Egypt whether they have sensed the $4.1 Million USD or whether it directly or indirectly contributed to Unleashing Entrepreneurship in Egypt, the response will be very obvious, if we add to it the fact that the non profit corporation Bamyan Media and its founders own a Limited Liability Company in Egypt that was created based on the assets of their project in Egypt, we will know who is really profiting from this.

Corruption is positioning yourself as a receiver of “donor” funding that you are not only unable to manage, but you abuse the whole surrounding in the process of trying to make use of it, the business strategy of Bamyan Media as stated by David Elliot is a perfect example of positioning for corruption.

Track record

Bamyan Media was awarded a $4.1 Million USD grant to “Unleash Entrepreneurship in Egypt”, Bamyan Media established in 2010 as per their website, had absolutely no track record in performing any of these activities, though, the only argument is that Anna Elliot, the daughter of Mr. David Elliot and presumably CEO of Bamyan Media was the “executive producer” of a similar TV Show in Afghanistan executed by USAID.

This part is covered in my post: Who is really behind El Mashrou3, makes it obvious that the show in Afghanistan was executed by USAID itself with funds from ASMED project which was managed by David Elliot, furthermore, by this time Anna Elliot was a student at Hampshire university and part time bar-tender she didnt qualify even as a junior producer to be credited as a the executive producer of a TV Show.

Meaning that the only supporting reason behind bringing Bamyan Media to Egypt was the fact that David Elliot managed a $54 Million USD funds for USAID in Afghanistan, part of which was used in funding a pilot season TV Show there, then with his daughter they set up Bamyan Media to continue running the same model at different environments where there are any “grant” money directed towards entrepreneurship according to the strategy above.

This is very striking in USAID’s approach  in contracting entities for impact, which obviously known to be former consultants with no experience or linkage to the economy who can cover up all their shortcomings through clever PR machines and creating a network of beneficiaries who would be interested in covering up on these cases of corruption and mismanagement for pieces of the pie.

The Funding

In this official document from USAID Egypt Entrepreneurship Fact Sheet, its confirmed that Bamyan Media, with no track record was able to secure $4.1 Million USD for their operation in Egypt. It is not an easy job for anyone around the world, but it sounded like a piece of cake for the Elliot’s. When I first met David Elliot on a one-on-one basis which resolving a strategic conflict he did everything possible to claim that he just joined his daughter after she started Bamyan Media which recently while looking at the background of the organization proved to be completely false. Why so keen on hiding this background?

USAID-Bamyan

U.S. State Department try to reflect pride in big numbers for supporting youth and entrepreneurs in Egypt and region, while USAID comes along as a PR initiative that doesnt mind, intentionally or unintentionally wasting potential for the sake of a few good mouths and a few articles in western news sites that doesnt take the effort to investigate real impact on the ground.

The funding which was granted for a non-profit was then used in setting up a Limited Liability Company, EL Mashrou3 LLC, registration number #63834 that its founders and cashing out from right now, even more, as they had no understanding of what they should be doing with the funds, Bamyan Media abused an unbelievable number of professionals, local entrepreneurs and even one of the largest media agencies in the world on their way to graduating El Msahrou3.

Below are some of these cases:

Production Industry

I interviewed exactly 7 producers who repeated the same story of the manipulative, amateurish, unethical approach of Bamyan Media. Beside David Elliot and Anna Elliot, Bamyan Media was joined by Asim Haneef, he was credited as the Executive Producer for the show, but practically speaking he was as far from production as it can be, following the same pattern of crediting Anna Elliot as Executive Producer of the TV Show in Afghanistan, Asim Haneef is obviously trying to use his journalistic background in building the image of Bamyan Media and expand their business in different countries.

My first accidental interview was with Mohammad A., the producer of the popular Khawater TV Series, he mentioned to me that when they arrived to Egypt, they tried to reflect their preference to work with him, while they shied away from presenting the TV Show produced in Afghanistan, as of being amateurish, Mohamed worked on formatting the concept for production, while is almost equivalent to starting from the scratch, meaning, they came with nothing, he also managed to  introduce them to a TV Network which accepted the project.

As the reformatting was done and introduction to the channel made, Bamyan Media turned their back on Mohammad A. and proceeded with their project then when they wanted to access the TV Network, they were turned down by the network which didnt knew them rather they approved the project for him, they were forced to get back to him and as he states it as a result of their manipulative, unethical approach he unreasonably increased the production budget to turn them away and he preferred to keep a cool personal relationship away from work.

What happened with the producer of Khawater was repeated dozens of times with the rest of the production industry in Egypt to the extent that Mr. Hisham Mahmoud former Vice President of ONTV mentioned that Egypt always had a mature, decent media industry, such abusive, unethical behavior was never witnessed in his years of experience.

Hisham Mahmoud former Vice President of ONTV also had more serious experience, he was brought aboard as a Senior Producer with the mission to aid the work on raising corporate funding for the production of the TV Show, Bamyan Media intended to use the $4.1 Million granted from USAID for its own operation and rather as its easier once you have the setup raise the production cost from corporate sponsors, initially a budget of 10-12 Million EGP was estimated, then reduced into $1 Million dollar.

Mr. Hisham states that they had colorful promises that attracted a lot of people as the media industry is challenged since Jan 2011, yet, they used some bureaucratic limitations imposed from USAID not to commit beyond three months with their sub-contractors, which as per his saying, was only a trick to get the juice and skip the payment.

The experience of Mr. Hisham Mahmoud included using him to initiate communication with potential sponsors and skipping his commission once deals are secured against the agreement made, using the three months limitation period as a legal cover. He also goes further to mention a weird situation when he arranged a meeting with a Senior Director at a leading Egyptian Bank that was interested in sponsorship, yet, David Elliot heard about a study conducted by the bank and got unreasonably clingy in accessing information, he says, the bank turned down the offer because of Elliots suspicious behavior relating to accessing the important economic study.

I always wanted to do something about this but never had the time and focus to, Mr. Hisham Mahmoud mentioned to me by the end of our meeting, this should really be known, it should be known that we have a decent and mature media industry in Egypt, I have never in my past professional experience ran by such manipulative, unethical example, who repeated the story with plenty of others.

Tamer E., Director of the popular Ray7een 3ala Feen Reality TV Show is also one of the Directors/Producers who was brought aboard, Tamer sensed the amateurish approach early on, after being squeezed for basic information and as he described it feeling violated like never before. Tamer excused himself from further involved with an SMS communication stating that The Dynamics are Awkward.

Another production house in Maadi witnessed a repeated story, after Bamyan Media approached them to lead the production for the show and they got the word, Asim Haneef requested a one-on-one meeting with one of three partners of the firm and offered her to join on her own individual capacity, which obviously is betraying the interest and trust of her partners, Haneef didnt find any issues with repeating the same pattern with several organizations, the situation fired back as she responded in an aggressive email communication CCing her partners that this was very stupid and unethical to propose.

It seems that Asim Haneef has repeated the same approach with several other organizations, the attitude of snitching, stealing and manipulating is not an attitude of someone who want to stay, we are a small industry and everyone knows everyone, no one would work with Bamyan Media anymore after being known for deceit and manipulation, main partner of the Production House stated, while requested Asim Haneef to be brought into the office, youll find half the production industry so keen on kicking his butt as he described it.

I was given plenty of other names and contacts for producers and production houses who were brought aboard, but this was enough for me to understand how they approached the production industry.

Furthermore, I was told another awkward story from the production house they finally worked with, I never had the chance to verify it and prefer not to publish it until its verified from its source.

Media Agency

Bamyan Media strike a strategic partnership with a leading Media Agency in the states before coming to Egypt where they started working with their local office on their branding and media strategy, I followed up with a lead that founder of Bamyan Media claimed before being over charged by the agency, as I went through a print out of Bamyan Medias account with the agency in a meeting with their CEO, It was clear who is lying, plus, the fact that, probably for emotional reasons, Bamyan Media didnt pay 70% of its pending installments to the agency and they might go for a legal action from their US office.

Moreover, the Media Agency CEO mentioned that Bamyan Media repeated the same pattern of behavior with professionals and production houses with the media agency, the agency brought an expensive format editor to write the format for the show, the agency endured the cost which was supposed to be covered from sponsors, upon securing the sponsorship deals Bamyan Media cut their relationship with the agency and denied payment, the CEO said that they used a void in the contract to avoid that, given that it was their fault they didnt request payment except for direct services.

At some point Bamyan Media announced being sponsored by a Major telecom, it seems like David Elliots attitude was repeated in a meeting with the CMO of the same teleco that resulted on turning down their offer, he was crazy, shouting at the CMO of a major teleco while securing a sponsorship deal? commented the CEO of the media agency.

To be continued

Remembering #Gaza

Hi Everyone,

Today reminds us with the Israeli aggression against #Gaza last year, which ended with more than 1300+ kills majority among women and children.

If you’re on Twitter, at the moment, you should participate in a campaign about #Gaza by placing #Gaza in your tweets and keep #Gaza a trending topic as much as you can.

Here is a reminder of some writings I wrote before about Gaza:

War on Gaza, background for truth seekers:
https://www.abdomagdy.com/war-on-gaza-background-for-truth-seekers/

Had you been to Gaza? founder of IfAmericansKnew did:
https://www.abdomagdy.com/had-you-been-to-gaza/

Had you been to Gaza? Rachel Corrie did:
https://www.abdomagdy.com/had-you-been-to-gaza-rachel-corrie-did/

Media lies: Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land:
https://www.abdomagdy.com/peace-propaganda-the-promised-land/

Keep the spirit up

– Abdelrahman

Sharing: https://www.abdomagdy.com/qtm4mr

Why do you kill, Zaid?

Hi,

This is a comment I posted on a blog on Ecademy and thought to share it on my blog too, the comment is a reply to a topic about torture

Check it out here: http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=132933#c645421

Hi John, Yes, I understanding what you mean and I’m not personally offended or anything, the point is just, when referring to torture and wrong doing in warfare in the last 100 years, how much of that wrong was coming from those you’re referring to as your people. Taking war on Iraq as an example?

In the video from 6:00 to 8:00 :

“We created a great lie to live with, the lie was, we’re the good ones, we’re the idol, we’re the ones who help others, But that’s not the case. I think we in the west didn’t control the world because of our great way of thinking, or for our great values, or for our great religion. But, because we used merciless violence more than others.

If I can be more serious. Muslims weren’t who slaughtered 4 million people during the crusade. Muslims weren’t the people who slaughtered 50 million people during imperialism. Also, Muslims weren’t the people who killed 70 million people during WWI & WWII. Muslims weren’t the people who killed 6 million Jews either.

But, that had been the result of western invasion, and when we talk about the victims of Al-Qaeda, and here I repeat that Al-Qaeda to me are murderers, then we need to talk about the victims of the western policies in Iraq & Afghanistan”

By the way, I’m pretty open minded and while I proudly belong to Egyptian, Arabs and Muslims. I had been in close personal relationships with westerners, including a Jew, and quite sense that they’re my people too, as long as they don’t do or wish any harm to anyone.

And I’m being religious and following my religious teachings while doing that:

8 Allah does not forbid you respecting those who have not made war against you on account of (your) religion, and have not driven you forth from your homes, that you show them kindness and deal with them justly; surely Allah loves the doers of justice

9 Allah only forbids you respecting those who made war upon you on account of (your) religion, and drove you forth from your homes and backed up (others) in your expulsion, that you make friends with them, and whoever makes friends with them, these are the unjust.

English Translation of the Holy Qur’an [60:8 ~ 9]

– Abdo

Hollywood seeking Muslims and Arabs

Hi All,

That guy keep bringing me incredible laughs!

Just to clarify something, Muslims does come from every ethnicity and background so you can’t define someone as Muslim by look, and Arabs make 18% only of the total population of Muslims.

– Abdo

Sharing Link: https://www.abdomagdy.com/g78hzb

God bless America, Palestine .. or Saudi Arabia?

Hi All,

Being subscribed to clevonamerica YouTube channel from a while, I really liked his latest video addressing Nationalism:

It made me remember a movie “Head of State“, in which two individuals were going for presidency. One’s motto was “God bless America … and no place else” the other replied “God bless America .. and everyplace else!“

Human nature will keep inside us a sense of belonging to the people, culture and land where we grew up. And a desire to see it the best, which might be obvious in Football matches for example. But what the heck might be the problem for me, you or anybody else if god also blessed the other countries!!

I still meet some people who are going with the mentality of the first motto! And really don’t know what to say!

– Abdo

Sharing Link: https://www.abdomagdy.com/79wpev

Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land

As a part of my blog yesterday War On Gaza, Background for Truth Seekers! I meant to provide some documentaries as a reference for whom might be feeling that something isn’t right in his perception of the conflict, or what the western media is presenting to him/her.

For someone who’s watching Aljazeera!, then reading western media articles online, it’s sometimes hard to tell that it’s the same incidents being covered, or the weight given to each incident is somehow close to fair or normal, a certain techniques, including making use of people’s perception to the conflict (which is one-sided and formed by the previous propaganda from the beginning of the conflict) to get the new incident as an evidence to that perception maybe, but when it gets up to 1000 kills, most of which are purely civilians, shooting ambulances, aid workers, and killing journalists. Isn’t it the right time to double check your information? or question your perception?

Of course that’s in case you’re searching for the truth, not someone blindly supporting a certain project and somehow involved in promoting the massacres, and spreading false information to intentionally cover what he/she know is the truth.

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land is a 2004 documentary by Sut Jhally and Bathsheba Ratzkoff which—according to the film’s official website—”provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” and which “analyzes and explains how–through the use of language, framing and context–the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media” – Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace,_Propaganda_&_the_Promised_Land

The official page from Media Education Foundation, the producer of the video is here: http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=117

Here is a clip as an introduction to the video: [8:33 Min]

As the video is protected by Fair Use Clause, which allows the broadcast of the video for the purposes of commentary, criticism and education. here is the full video [80 Min]

Finally, truth and facts isn’t things that someone – including myself – say it’s the truth and the facts, everybody should form his own opinion after listening to both sides and understanding what they’re trying to communicate, and bypassing the propaganda from both sides.

Regards,
Abdo

Had you been to Gaza? Founder of IsAmericansKnew did ..

Hi All,

We won’t get the truth, until we demand it — Founder of If Americans Knew

While clouds of incomplete information, and propagandized reports and news coverage flooding to the western media, which not only hindering western’s ability to understand the root causes of the conflict in the middle east, but most times find sick reasons behind killing children, destroying homes, and the use of prohibited chemical weapons against civilians.

Back to 2001, a journalist in a small town in the US, thought something is wrong about the coverage she gets about that conflict, and decided to go to Gaza herself to have a first hand experience on what’s going on. When she came back and read the articles and news coverage in the American media, she didn’t find anything from what she has seen. And realized that she and all of her follow Americans is getting a very one-sided view of the conflict.

Decided to found If Americans Knew, and conduct research and get statistics about the conflict, and started getting her voice to public.

Here is she, telling her story herself, and showing some of the statistics she got from an Israeli organization. In the documentary by Alternate Focus http://www.alternatefocus.org/

Part I, [9:29 Min]
Part II, [9:30 Min]
Part III, [1:02]

That’s their website http://ifamericansknew.com/, Just imagine how the statistics will be after the recent terrorist attacks on Gaza?!

Not sure about your media sources, and how you’re being misinformed. Check; Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land movie posted earlier: http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=120619

We won’t get the truth, until we demand it — Founder of If Americans Knew

Abdo

Had you been to Gaza? Rachel Corrie did ..

Hi All,

That blog had been originally published by myself on Ecademy.

Away from the current situation in Gaza, I’ve tried to give an introduction to the root causes of the conflict, and the distortion in most western media, and as a result in westerner’s views about the conflict.

I’ve posted couple of blogs, and was intentionally presenting westerner’s views who visited the occupied Palestine, conducted research or collected statistics. because as we say here a blue eyed can only believe a blue eyed – that was obvious lately having no formal western media in Gaza during this massacres. It was justified to say we don’t hear, don’t see and don’t believe -.

Today, here is an Interview conducted by Middle East Broadcasting Company on March 14th, 2003, two days before Rachel Corrie was murdered by the Israeli Defense Forces, she talk about water well being destructed – water that people drink -, houses people live in being flattened with the ground .etc May be someone will come-up with the idea that some terrorists was drinking from the water wells, or may be hiding inside, and the house of a physician was, hmmmm , was whatever a sick, silly imagination can bring!

Duration [4:00 Min]
———————————————

Content and photos from: MIFTAH “The Palestinian initiative for the promotion of global dialogue and democracy”:
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=1866&CategoryId=23

Peace activist Rachel Corrie, 23, is a student at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. She died Sunday, March 16, 2003, in the southern Gaza city of Rafah while trying to stop an Israeli bulldozer from tearing down a Palestinian physician’s home. She fell in front of the machine, which ran over her and then backed up, witnesses said. Israeli military spokesman Captain Jacob Dallal called her death an accident. State Department spokesman Lou Fintor said the U.S. government had asked Israeli officials for a full investigation.
1. Protecting a water well in Rafah, Gaza, Rachel Corrie is on the far right.
2. Rachel Corrie, right, and other members of the ‘International Solidarity Movement’ hold up a banner reading ‘Israeli army stop shooting children’ in protest of Israeli military actions at the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza in this photo taken Friday March 14, 2003.
3. Rachel Corrie chats with a Palestinian friend, living in a dire situation in Rafah, Gaza.
4. Rachel Corrie stands in front of an Israeli army bulldozer wearing an orange jacket so that she can be easily identified and seen.
5. Rachel Corrie uses a loudspeaker as she stands between an Israeli bulldozer and a Palestinian physician’s house in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
6. The Israeli bulldozer ran over her and then backed up, crushing her chest and skull.
7. Friends try to aid Rachel Corrie after she was run over by an Israeli army bulldozer.
8. Palestinian doctors try to save the life of Rachel Corrie at the Najar hospital in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
9. Alice, a friend of Rachel Corrie, holds her friend’s passport as she break down upon hearing the news of Rachel’s death at Najar hospital.
10. Two volunteers of the International Solidarity Campaign to Protect the Palestinian People comfort each other after the killing of U.S. citizen Rachel Corrie.
11. A Palestinian medical worker carries a mock coffin covered by a Palestinian flag for Rachel Corrie, during a memorial service in Gaza city.
12. Palestinian children carry a mock coffin covered by an American Flag commemorating Rachel Corrie.
13. Palestinians put flowers at a mock coffin of Rachel Corrie, a member of the ‘International Solidarity Movement’ during a memorial service at the Unknown Soldier square in Gaza city.
14. Palestinian children light candles for Rachel Corrie.
15. Olympia, Washington, residents stand in silent vigil around a mock casket at a candlelight vigil Sunday evening, March 16, 2003, for Rachel Corrie.
16. Students at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, gather around a shrine for Rachel Corrie. Friends and college faculty are mourning what they are calling the senseless murder of Corrie.
17. An unidentified man cries next to a shrine in honor of peace activist Rachel Corrie during a protest outside the Israeli consulate in downtown San Francisco on Monday, March 17, 2003.

Content and photos from: MIFTAH “The Palestinian initiative for the promotion of global dialogue and democracy”:
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=1866&CategoryId=23

———————————————

We’re very acquaint with Palestinian burning the US flag, as a natural result of being killed by a US weapons and the US supporting whatever might happen to them under whatever silly reason. But we see here the Palestinians themselves carrying the American flag. So, in case of Palestine, it’s not the evilness of some people who want to hate others, it’s people’s actions and situations that make them loved or hated by others.

Rachel’s family started Rachel Corrie Foundation For Peace & Justice http://www.rachelcorriefoundation.org/. More resources on http://www.rachelcorrie.org/, International Solidarity Movement: http://palsolidarity.org/.

For me as an Arab when I engage with someone in a discussion who’s taking a tough view against the US people, I tell him that they don’t know the reality on the ground and don’t understand what their country is doing on their names and usually find Rachel Corrie a brilliant example of people still alive! far away from others who suffer and can feel their pain. Unfortunately, In today’s world those are few.

Regards,
Abdo