U.S.A.
Everyone Else
Health
Science
Business
Technology
Sports
Video Games
Entertainment
Future
Humour
NEWS > EVERYONE ELSE > EGYPT STARTS THE NEW YEAR OFF WITH A BANG
EGYPT STARTS THE NEW YEAR OFF WITH A BANG
January 1 2011
Alexandria, Egypt – The coming of the New Year has always been a time of renewal. While for most people it is a time to get really, really drunk and engage in resolutions that inevitably fail a month or so in, the core idea remains true. A new year is a 
progression, a shuffling of the past and a chance for a reinvigoration. For those who have had a good year, the new one is an opportunity to continue that success, and for those who have had a rough year, it is a fresh opportunity.
Of course much of that is superstitious in nature. There isn’t any really difference between December 31 and January 1 aside from having to start on a new calendar, but human beings revel in such superstitions, embrace the notion of fate and destiny. Because of that the New Year has a great deal of power for a lot of people and as a result is a time for great celebration. As 2011 was ushered in celebrations were had all across the world with fireworks in Sydney, the giant ball drop in New York, parties the world over. Those celebrations weren’t isolated to the Christian world however with many nations joining the celebrations including Egypt which rang in 2011 with a big bang.
“The last thing I heard was a powerful explosion and then my ears went deaf. It was something like I had never seen before. It was totally unexpected because there was no warning that this was going to happen. It got everyone very excited,” said one witness to the celebrations which apparently accidently destroyed a church and killed 21 people.
“This is most certainly not what we expected from New Years celebrations. This is meant to be a time of great celebration and of renewal and change and so the deaths here are very much regrettable. This was not a part of the planned celebrations and we are very saddened by these events,“ said a spokesperson for the Egyptian government.
It’s not yet clear who was responsible for the bombing but the government had been the subject of criticism for granting fireworks licences to Al Qaeda contractors.
“We were very concerned when the preparations were announced. The government 
had been informed that these particular groups had had interaction with various terrorist organizations and while it was believed that that experience would make them ideal candidates for working with explosives, it is also clear that their due diligence was lacking,” said one critic who declined to be named. “There is no clear evidence at this stage of intent but whether these deaths were planned or not it is clear that these contracts were the wrong ones to issue. This decision and the tragedy that has occurred will colour the New Year and the government for a long time to come and they must bear responsibility for their decisions.”
It’s believed that the licences were issued by a relative of one of the fireworks crew.
“Anytime you are dealing with explosives of any kind there is a risk of injury. Because 
people use fireworks in their backyards they believe that they are docile and simple but these major displays are something else entirely. They are highly controlled bombs and only people with a great deal of experience and training should be using them,” said Scrape TV Explosives analyst Doug Wright. “Without due diligence serious mistakes can happen and when you are talking about explosives, that can result in tragedy as it has apparently done here. Whether it was just lack of due diligence or sheer ineptness, it’s clear that things didn’t go the way everyone had hoped and is a very inauspicious start to the New Year.”
Egyptian officials had no comment.
Emil Uliya, International Correspondent
NEWS > EVERYONE ELSE > EGYPT STARTS THE NEW YEAR OFF WITH A BANG
LINK IT! http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Everyone%20Else/pages-8/Egypt-starts-the-New-Year-off-with-a-bang-Scrape-TV-The-World-on-your-side.html |
TWEET IT! http://bit.ly/h4VRna |
BOOKMARK IT!  
|
|---|
Scrape Store
