MayDay celebrations has been replaced this year in Egypt by a double call for strike and demonstrations in the streets of Cairo. Over the weekend, few hundreds of Egyptian workers, civil society activists, youth movements, parliamentarians and ordinary citizens demonstrated in the Egyptian capital demanding a rise in the minimum wage and the end of the emergency law.

The 2nd of May strike has been organized together by the very active independent labour movements and civil society activists, mainly asking the government to abide the court order of 1200 ghinie minimum wage per month.

The National Association for Change (NAC), established by Mohamed ElBaradei, along with activists and opposition parliamentarians, planned instead to hold a march on 3 May from Tahrir Square to the Egyptian People’s Assembly, to present a letter demanding reforms and changes in the Constitution.

Both demonstrations turned into concentrations surrounded by the Egyptian security apparatus.

Check the article “Egitto. Canzoni di maggio” on the Italian on-line review PeaceReporter.

Among worldwide fear of imminent catastrophes due to climate change, analysts consider the Nile delta as a very vulnerable area. Scientists believe that its population will have to face in the future several problems especially related to sea level rise, salinization of water, demographic boom and the possible appearance of climate refugees.
The full riportag [...]

Former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei had a triumphant welcome back to Egypt last week. Hundreds, or even thousands of Egyptians waited at Cairo airport for hours the arrival of the national “saviour”.
ElBaradei started soon a round of talks with politicians and activists, publicly challenging Mubarak’s regime while advancing [...]

The new decade began in the Middle East with the same old, but recently forgotten, confessional problems. Events reminiscent of the tough “ages of sectarianism” of the biennium 2005-2007, when Shiites and Sunnis forces staged political and military clashes around the region. But beside the recent sectarian episodes in Egypt, Yemen, Irak, and Lebanon, it [...]