Monday 27 February 2012

Hmm, Who's The Next President??

So the time for the presidential elections is getting nearer and nearer every day; and most of us are wondering who are we going to pick to become the next Egyptian president and hopefully he wont be a thieving bastard like the last one. So have you decided which candidate are you going to elect? I know I have and this was a trick question; I WONT BE ELECTING ANYONE AT ALL, I WONT BE TAKING ANY PART IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS.

You're probably wondering what are my reasons for this refusal and your question has a one word answer which is SCAF; presidential elections under SCAF's rule is like giving a pain killers to a patient with a broken leg, without resetting the leg or putting it in a cast, the pain meds. do not actually treat the fracture it just stops the mind numbing pain. How can you guarantee that the new president will be a great man if he is going rule a country with a corrupt infrastructure going hand in hand with an ant infestation of criminals and how will you be 100% sure that this president wont be one of SCAF's dogs the answer is simple, you just can't. As long as SCAF is ruling the country they will never give any real power to anyone who is not one of their friends its just not logical. If you're thinking about the parliament we can all see that its bloody useless and wont even come near SCAF not even with a 10 foot pole. As for the constitution well, that pretty much covers itself again the constitution will be useless under military rule.

Again SCAF will never give any kind of power to a president one of 2 things is going to happen either one of their dogs is going to win the elections or one of their dogs is going to win the elections nothing else is going to happen. Lets face it half of the candidates belong to the old regime like Omar Soliman, one of them is the duck master of the world and the others aren't really trusted figures. So, even if you wanted to elect someone there isn't anyone suitable to be the next president.

So, the answer is instead of looking for the next president we should start cleaning up instead, we bring SCAF to justice along with numerous lap dogs, we throw the trash out of the parliament, we write a brand new fair and just constitution and only then can we start thinking about the new president.    

Thursday 23 February 2012

Dr. Ahmed Zewail Exposed

If you are an Egyptian then you have definitely heard about Dr. Ahmed Zewail, the Egyptian scientist who won the Noble prize back in 1999. The real question is how much do we know about Dr. Zewail, for example how many of you know anything about his affiliation with Israel or America. Also, how many of you think that just because he won the Noble prize that he's fit to be the next Egyptian president or an educational and political reformer. The purpose of this post is expose Dr. Zewail for what he really is and for what he really is fit for, and that he is not our saviour.

First lets start with some background info, Dr. Zewail is an EGYPTIAN AMERICAN who was born in 1946 in Damanhour, Egypt. He got his bachelors and MS degrees from Alexandria University, he then moved to the US for his PhD which he got from the University of Pennsylvania. There is also a post-doctoral fellowship which he completed at the University of California. Oh and lets not forget that he became an American citizen in  1982. All this indicates that he actually spent a large part of his life living in America not Egypt.

What earned him a Noble prize was his work in Femtochemistry, which is the study of chemical reactions across femto seconds. His technique makes it possible to describe the chemical reactions during very short times meaning that the transition states in chemical reactions can be analysed.

His work made him the 3rd egyptian to win the Noble prize after president Anwar Al-Sadat in 1978 and Naguib Mahfouz in 1988. This means that he wasn't the 1st Egyptian ever to win the Noble prize nor was he the last one since Mohamed El Baradie won a Noble prize after him in 2005; meaning that he is not unique.

In 2009 Obama named him as his scientific envoy to the middle east, he is also a member of the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Have anyone heard of the Wolf prize? Well if not, this prize is an Israeli one and it is being presented since 1978 in Tel Aviv, to those who are believed to be working in the interest of man kind. For someone to win the prize apart from doing work that deserves the award they also are required to spend some time in Israel. Each prize consists of a bouquet of roses, a box of chocolate, a diploma and $100,000. Dr. Zewail was given this award in 1993. This means that he actually stayed in Israel for some time; more specifically he spent 1 year playing for lack of a better word in the Weizmann Institute.

Did any one notice that we never heard of Dr. Zewail giving a lecture in an Egyptian university that is scientific in nature, not even once; mean while he gave numerous scientific lectures in Israel and America; it just has to make us wonder about what Dr. Zewail thinks is important and his priorities. Also rumour has it that he gave 13 PhD and Masters grants to Israeli youth.

One of the phrases that I find really interesting is "Science and knowledge have no country." this was actually said by Dr. Zewail. I agree with Dr. Zewail science and knowledge truly don't belong solely to only one country they belong to all human kind; this is provided that the purpose of this science is to improve the life of man kind. Mean while Dr. Zewail thinks that since science has no country then its ok to develop laser guided missiles for murderers since after all science belongs to all man kind. So, why not develop weapons for Israel; it wont really hurt anyone except of course the Palestinians. Funny thing is we never heard of Dr. Zewail developing weapons for Palestine, in order to fight back and be on equal footing with Israel. (I'm not completely certian how true this is but I thought I had to include just on the off chance that it is.)

What we can conclude is the follwoing Zewail is an American, he spent most of his life in America, he is the US Scientific envoy to Egypt and he's Obama's scientific advisor; this covers his relations with America, While his relations with Israel include living for a year there, receiving the Israeli wolf award, giving lectures and last but not least developing weapons. What I am curious about is how can people demand that someone like Dr. Zewail be Egypt's next president how in gods name can we put another countries advisor as our president.





How exactly did Dr. Zewail help Egypt during the past years because I seriously can't see how he helped Egypt. Oh sorry I almost forgot about his great project Zewail's city that's supposed to take Egypt to the next level. If he's so set on helping Egypt why the hell is he naming his project Zewail's city does he think that he's Egypt's next Pharoah or that he's god's gift to man kind; if you're trying to help you don't give the project your name that's just conceited and egotistical; or are you just trying to immortalize yourself. Also, for those of you who think that since science is important then consequently Zewail's City is also important wake up; the research that will be done in zewail's city will be about natural sciences not applied ones which is completely useless to a country in Egypt's current situation. And by the way does anyone know that its illegal to collect donation money for a none existent project which is exactly what Dr. Zewail is doing; I just don't know why anyone is noticing that.

To conclude the Israeli-American-Egyptian Dr. Zewail isn't fit to be Egypt's next President or Minister or an Educator; he should just do us all a favour and stay the hell inside his lab.  

If you have any information that I overlooked please tell me and I'll add it.

Zewail's award 

Wednesday 8 February 2012

The Murdering Idiots



January 25th, just passed and it has been a blood filled year since the revolution, and with this year I discovered the complete idiocy of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) and their hunger for Egyptian blood to reach their goals, as if the end justifies the means. If you remember last year when Mubarak finally decided to abdicate and stop smothering Egypt the power was handed over to SCAF on a bloody gold platter, not even a silver one. People celebrated in the streets not just because Mubarak abdicated but because SCAF was going to see Egypt through the transitional stage in Egypt’s political life.

The army in Egypt used to be revered and really respected, since they are our heroes, the heroes who defeated Israel and all that stuff. Now a days the army is shunned, despised and mocked by a significant percentage of Egyptians. The council had the chance to rule Egypt indefinitely and maybe even a member of SCAF could have run for presidency and been welcomed by the people, but they ruined every chance of that ever happening. Instead of gaining the people’s trust and just doing what they wanted; which would have been very easy, SCAF lied, killed us in cold blood and imprisoned us.  

On a large number of occasions brute force was used against the protestors without any reason, the only reason that they created out of thin air was vandalism and saying that thugs were the ones killed not the protestors. Human life is not cheap, Egyptians are not cheap. Of course no one should forget the military trials that they are subjecting Egyptians to, which are groundless and based on their whims and nothing else. Civilians should be tried and convicted in a civilian court not a military one, no matter what their crime is.

I believe that our biggest mistake is that when Mubarak abdicated we accepted his decision to hand the rule over to SCAF. The first reason is that Mubarak had no power what so ever to hand over the rule to anyone else, he wasn’t Egypt’s president anymore so he doesn’t get to choose who rules Egypt next. The second reason is that we over looked the fact that the army was part of Mubarak’s regime so they will undoubtedly be corrupt, I mean how can a person with integrity work in a corrupt system for 30 years without being affected. Also how can someone work for thieves for 30 years without having their conscience twinge a bit? The answer is that it’s not possible. I use the word abdicated because we didn’t actually remove him, he left out of his own free will because he was secure in the fact that nothing was going to happen to him since his friends were going to rule Egypt and keep him safe. 

This leads to another question, which is why is the army trying so hard to oppress us and keep us in constant fear, why are they trying so hard to kill our freedom through any means possible? The answer is quite simple, the army is also afraid; because if the extent of the corruption they are trying so hard to cover up is discovered they will certainly be thrown in prison for life. So, they are not only trying to cover up their crimes they are trying to cover the crimes of their cohorts because they are all in the same boat. If one falls the others will, this is also why Mubarak’s and the other killers’ trial is a big farce.  

As everyone will notice I only mentioned murder and military trials and over looked the other things, the reason is because these are crimes against humanity not just Egyptians, so these should be enough for everyone to turn against SCAF, but sadly this is not the case. People are now divided, one group still believes in SCAF, and the other against them. There are a lot of arguments that people standing by SCAF still spout, but what really stuck out of all the lies is that SCAF isn’t in control of what happens or they didn’t give orders for the protestors to be shot and killed. Which is a really big problem because if SCAF can’t keep their soldiers in line that means that they are useless and aren’t fit to rule the country. Also let’s not forget the idiotic lie that was spread among the people that the videos showing the protestors being abused were fabricated and other similar garbage.

Also another one of my favorite arguments is that the guys in military uniform killing the protestors aren’t the army but impostors wearing their military uniform trying to drive a wedge between the army and the Egyptians. My answer is this, is SCAF this incompetent that they can’t catch who ever the hell is masquerading as them, I mean the impostors go to Tahrir in large masses to assault protestors for 3 to 4 days at a time. It’s really simple all the army has to do is get in a couple of cars go to Tahrir and arrest the guys in uniform.

Also, let’s not forget the time when SCAF had Maspero (Media) broadcast their call for help, asking the good and honorable citizens (not the protestors of course) to come defend them against the brutal attack that they were under.  This of course shows that the army is a bunch of useless ARMED, senile old women who can’t defend themselves.

Of course these lies were all circulated by Maspero, the brothel that is financed and operated by SCAF. The media is a very powerful tool and SCAF used it well. By circulating whatever lies they want to spread among the people. SCAF we so caught up trying to shove their lies down our throats the over looked the fact that we are no longer meek, and we won’t lie still while being abused and lied to. Some people may still believe their lies but their numbers are diminishing with each new assault against the protesters.

The problem is that in the past year the country didn’t move forward we are still stuck we only succeeded in replacing one tyrant with another. The parliament also doesn’t count since it was created during SCAF’s rule which means that it won’t have any really power, this is of course under the assumption that the elections weren’t fraudulent. On the other hand we were empowered that is the really positive result of the revolution we are demanding freedom, and justice we stopped being frozen in place, we feel anger against every single thing that is trying to take our new found freedom.  
      
To sum it up a bit, we have two groups one pro SCAF and the other is anti SCAF. The pro SCAF group believes that SCAF is innocent and harmless. To those I say wake the hell up even if SCAF is what you think they are, then this means that they are useless and incapable of running a country it has been a year and they still haven’t managed to catch who ever the hell is assaulting and killing us. To the anti SCAF group I say don’t lose hope our numbers are growing each day, and victory is somewhat close.  

To SCAF, I want you to know this, us revolting against you is not an American, Israeli, Iranian or whatever the hell other country you drag in to this plot. We are not aliens or spies we are fed up Egyptians. We are revolting against you and demanding an end to military rule because you are mass murderers and criminals. You are trying to keep things as they were during Mubarak’s rule. Know this we’ll continue to revolt against you until the last drop of blood is spilt and until you are brought to justice; and may god have mercy on you because we won’t have any for you, you burnt your bridges long ago. 
  

Curtsy of: ahajokes.com

Monday 6 February 2012

The Clucking Hens

Now a days the Egyptian parliament is being referred to as the revolutionary parliament or the parliament of the revolution and other shit. These names are really baffling to me, I really want to know why the hell its revolutionary how in gods name did they earn that nick name; because to tell you the truth when ever I watch the sessions on TV what comes to mind is a bunch of hens sitting together in their pen and clucking at each other, and the Katatny is the turkey that is failing to keep order. I want to know since the elections did they take any sort of revolutionary decision, did they ever side with the revolution? No they didn't so, stop calling them revolutionary because they sure as hell aren't.



My first reason in not believing in the parliament is that it was elected under military rule, and SCAF will never allow anyone other than their dogs to enter the parliament, and if they did the members of parliament wont have any real power. Who are SCAF's lackeys? they are the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and Salafies. The few other members of the parliament who are obviously against SCAF were included so the general public wont notice that there is something wrong and that the parliament consists of only the so called islamists, since they aren't that popular.

The fact remains the the MB along with the Salafies are obviously on SCAF's side. Lets take for example today's session, when some of the members of parliaments (MB and Salafiies) denied that the police where using bird shot against the protesters. Also when another member said that the protesters in front of the Ministry of Interior are being paid 200 LE a day along with 2 meals and Tramadol pills to destroy the country. Lets not forget the legendary session after the Ultras massacre when they decided to do send a fact finding committee to investigate what happened and nothing else, this is SCAF's style in dealing with anything; they didn't take any revolutionary decision like for example impeaching SCAF which they could have done and they would have been backed by the Egyptians.

As I said before SCAF wont give any real power to their opposition, and its very clear that the MB and Salafy members of the parliament are on SCAF's side. This raises a whole other issue of whether the parliamentary elections were fraudulent or not. I totally believe that the elections were fraudulent to some extent, the number of votes for all the candidates was tampered with. Votes for the Salafies and MB were increases while votes for the opposition were decreased so they will only form a minority of the parliament.

Some people may ask why did SCAF agree then to the parliamentary elections? the answer is easy, its to shut us the hell up. Did you ever see a kid crying and just being plain noisy that he's getting everyone's attention? then the kids mum gives him a lollipop to shut him up and it works the kid stops crying and is happy. Well we are the kid and our treat was the parliament

I don't believe in the Egyptian parliament and I will never back them up; for this reason I completely refuse the idiotic suggestion that after we bring SCAF down we hand over the power the parliament.  Yes civil disobedience will begin on February 11th, hopefully it will work and it will be the end of SCAF but we will not hand over rule to the parliament.

  

Sunday 5 February 2012

Civil Disobedience

During the last couple of days we have been hearing a lot about civil disobedience, starting with the fact that over 19 university's including GUC, AUC, Nile University, FUE and Cairo University have declared 11th February the beginning of civil disobedience in Egypt.

Civil disobedience in a well known form of peaceful resistance to power and the government. People decide to go on civil disobedience when the government is refusing to meet the demands of the people, and after all the other methods like protests don't work which is the case here in Egypt. The most famous case civil disobedience was actually in Egypt during the 1919 revolution, against the British occupation; so, as you can see its not something new to Egypt.

To put it simply during civil disobedience people will refuse to deal with any government organizations, go to work, pay their bills or go to schools and universities everything just stops to get the governments attention. Also stores close, traffic stops, sit ins will take place and again every thing just stands still, that is what civil disobedience is about. We deliberately and knowingly disobey the government or in our case the band of idiots, murderers and criminals who were assigned to rule Egypt.

I know this doesn't sound really good and people may think that this will destroy the country's economy and all that crap. This will happen to some extent, but lets face it SCAF wont leave and wont be brought to justice any other way. We have been trying to over throw SCAF for almost a year using the usual method which is Tahrir, and again lets face it Tahrir hasn't done anything so far except get people killed and mutilated during clashes between PEACEFUL protesters and the army and the CSF, what we got out of it is being called thugs and anarchists. Cleaning a country, demanding freedom, equality and justice has a price, there is no place in this fight for the cowards and for us to be free and win this fight we have to be able to pay this price.

Civil disobedience is the next logical step after Tahrir, its telling SCAF that no matter what they do we will still fight you and on our own terms; you wont leave because you want the money then we wont work and we wont do anything to get you money; you wont leave because you want power well that power isn't yours and you wont get it this power belongs to the people and the people say no.

Join us on February 11th, and tell SCAF to go to hell we aren't afraid to do what it takes to bring you to down.

SU Statements declaring civil disobedience
List of institutions declaring civil disobedience

Friday 3 February 2012

Student Union Statement

This is Nile University's Student Union's statement on the current events and calling for civil disobedience.



بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
يتقدم اتحاد طلاب جامعة النيل بخالص تعازيه لأسر شهداء احداث بورسعيد الذين استشهدوا غدرا و خيانة و علي مرأي و مسمع من قوات الامن المركزي التي من المفترض أن تحمي الجماهير. و 
لابد ان لا ننسي ان أبطال الاولتراس كانوا وقودا للثورة و ساهموا في انجاحها.

ويطالب اتحاد طلاب الجامعة بمحاكمة و زير الداخلية و رئيس الوزراء لانهم مسئولين مسئولية كاملة عن احداث بورسعيد، كما يطالب الاتحاد مجلس الشعب باتخاذ خطوات ثورية و حاسمة تتماشي مع حجم هذه الفاجعة التي راح ضحيتها خيرة شباب مصر و لابد ان لا يكتفي بلجان تقصي الحقائق حتي لا يضيع حق الشهداء. لا تضيعوا حق من جعلوكم نواب عنهم .

ان مسلسل العنف المستمر من يوم الخميس في محيط وزارة الداخلية يجب ان يتوقف ولذلك 
نطالب الداخلية بوقف حمام الدم و ان يتعلموا ضبط النفس في التعامل مع المتظاهرين و يجب الا ينسوا اننا ابناء وطن واحد و لسنا اعدائهم.

يا طلاب مصر و عمالها حان الوقت لحماية ثورتنا و استكمالها لذلك نطلب منكم المشاركة في 
عصيان مدني بداية من يوم 11 فبراير للضغط علي المجلس العسكري لتسليم السلطة للمدنيين و يجب محاسبتهم علي الجرائم التي ارتكبوها و الارواح التي أزهقوها .
اتحاد طلاب جامعة النيل
يسقط  يسقط حكم العسكر

المجد للثورة...المجد للشهداء


Tyrants & Chaos

Chaos: a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order.(Dictionary.com)

Did anyone notice before that just before the Egyptian tyrants (Mubarak & Tantawy) set the country on fire and go on a killing spree that they always give us a choice which is either them or chaos and we get to choose. Its ironic really that tyrants decide to practice democracy at that specific time. They always say if you want me to leave then its going to be chaos and if you don't want chaos then I get to stay.

Last year when the revolution started Mubarak gave us a choice we either shut the hell up and and go home or the country will be in total chaos and that turned out really well. Needless to say we didn't shut the hell up for 18 days, he got bored and handed over the rule to his best buddy Tantawy and his council of dumb asses and that was a really happy occasion. So during the first round that lasted 18 days we chose chaos and weren't deterred by the death and mayhem like he thought we would be.

A year later we are still given the choice which is either settle for the status quo or its chaos again. This time its a different tyrant its Tantawy and his band of idiots. Again we chose chaos we continue to choose chaos every single time a protester is killed and every time Egyptian blood is spilled we grow stronger, more determined to bring an end to military rule and our numbers grow. Everyone understands that except of course the idiots who think they are the next Egyptian Pharaohs or something.

Its funny actually for a nation that chose chaos and is continuing to choose chaos we are really organized. You will see this organization in the guys on motorcycles who transport the injured from what can safely be called a battle field to the field hospital, you can see organization in the way that field hospitals are created and run, in how the excess supplies for the field hospital are stored and in even how the supplies are transported to the field hospitals to begin with. We created a whole network dedicated to supply the field hospitals just so we can live to fight another day. For a nation that chooses chaos every single day I would say that we are very organized, and this will give us a very bright future when all is said and done.

 What I want to say is that we are choosing freedom and that we'll continue to choose freedom as long as we live and no matter what. So SCAF do your worse, burn down the country if you want but know this after you are gone we will rebuild because to us this fight is not about who gets to rule its about justice and our hope for a better future or for a future for that matter, we are not sheep, we are free human beings.

One last thing SCAF you are in deep shit.

http://bit.ly/zQw5t5



U're Getting On My Nerves

From what I have been reading everywhere is that there are people who are against the protests in front of the Ministry of Interior or any place other than Tahrir for that matter. People also say that the people protesting at any place other than Tahrir aren't the real revolutionaries. All I can actually say to that is what the hell is this bullshit?? really people wake up, what the hell is wrong with you!!!

First of all the people demonstrating in front of the Ministries of Interior and Defence are the same ones who demonstrated on Jan. 25th they didn't change, well they did change a bit due to the the tremendous amount of protesters killed courtesy of SCAF and the people who consequently joined the fight to avenge their loved ones. I'm not with vandalism or burning down the ministry or anything like that even though the mass murderers deserve it, and just to put everyone at ease if anyone is going to destroy anything it will be SCAF or their lap dogs and definitely not the protesters. Yes, I'm definitely biased so sue me.

So why not Tahrir? The revolution started over a year ago and what we actually got out of Tahrir is strength, bravery and a never ending ability to fight for the truth. The gains where more on the emotional and moral level than on the physical one. True we were able to remove Mubarak but that was because he was 100% sure that SCAF was on his side and that he was completely safe and nothing was going to happen to him. Lets face it Mubarak's and his cohorts's trial is a big and undeniable farce. This is not to be little the revolution, the revolution made us believe in ourselves and made us strong after 30 years of blindly obeying and being afraid of our own shadows. The revolution made us strong and without it we wouldn't have lasted this long or fought this hard.

Protesters left Tahrir and decided to find other places to show their so called disobedience because they are fed up, every time one of their loved ones die a brother, a father, a husband, a sister or a friend. A witness of the Ultras' massacre said that he went to Port Said with 13 friends and he was the only one who made it home alive. Can you imagine the amount of grieve and anger that someone like that is bound to feel and then he is asked to stay in Tahrir and wait. Of course he wont wait, he will go to the Ministry that he holds responsible for what happened to his friends and throw rocks at the murderers.

SCAF and the corrupt government are killing us at any opportunity they get, they are killing us brutally and in cold blood. If you wont do anything then at least sympathise and if you have a rock in the cavity that is supposed to hold you heart, THEN YOU MIGHT AS WELL SHUT THE HELL UP BECAUSE THIS COUNTRY DOESN'T NEED SOMEONE LIKE YOU.    

Yes I'm not being objective, and this is one the one topic that your opinion reflects whether you are a human being or if you are part of a flock of mindless sheep.

Thursday 2 February 2012

Ultras Massacre


Today is a truly sad day in egypt, 73 human beings were killed and over 1000 injured in under an hour. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about I’m talking about the clashes that occurred between 2 football fan groups. After the match ended the clashes started and the result was this massacre. 
The ahly ultras were murdered last night in cold blood. I don’t for one minute believe that this massacre was about football, I believe that this was an assassination attempt, its aim was to destroy the Ultras.
The main reason for the Ultras assassination attempt is that the Ultras are one of the truly active groups in Egypt they are the ones who organize and give spirit to the revolutionaries during the protests demanding an end to military rule. Another reason is that they also protect the protesters and help take the injured protesters to the field hospitals. In other words without the Ultras the revolution would have been very slow paced and without spirit, may be even floundered a bit. They are the main force that SCAF has to deal with. 
According to testimonies of eye witnesses of yesterdays events, as soon as the match ended the gates were opened for the Masry fans to have free access to the Ultras. Also, they had weapons with them like small knives. Another thing that is truly suspicious is that security didn’t bother to search the people before entering the stadium which is what happens before every single match. In addition to the gate opening and the weapons the stadiums exits were locked and so when the attack begun the Ultras were trapped and couldn’t escape. One eye witness says that this wasn’t a normal attack in fact the attackers broke the necks of people belonging to the Ultras, another witness says that throats were slit and people were thrown over walls.
Another fact is an officer says that they were given orders to leave the stadium hours in advance. Also, the ones who were present during the attacks were the ones who provided access to the ultras and didn’t lift one finger to help the ones who are being slaughtered in front of them. 
There are other factors that point out that this was an actual assassination attempt but I wont go into them. What really sticks out is the slit throats and the broken necks this is not the work of normal thugs, this is the work of professionals. 73 ultras were killed in under an hour this is not a simple disagreement about football. 
Some may think that the Ultras aren’t this important for an assassination attempt but I will only say that they are the force that drives the revolution which makes them a thorn in Tantawy’s side. So, SCAF arranges for the ultras to be trapped in the stadium with their blood thirsty special forces to be killed.
So I say down with military rule, you will not scare as and you will definitely not succeed in smothering our revolution you murdering bastards, your end will come no matter what you try to do.


                                       This is a video showing the stadiums gates welded shut.