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Rough English transcript written while the debate was live can be found here:

Round 1

Round 2

Please note that this was typed while the debate was being aired live on TV so there are bits missing and possible inaccuracies. Also lots of spelling and grammatical mistakes.

The video of the debate itself can be found here.

The man in white hair who looks like Jor-El and appears in the projected screen, just like in Superman II, is called Timothy Trujillo and he is someone who is "a Mind-Body Healing Specialist with certificates in Acupuncture, Hypnotherapy, Reiki, and Reflexology."

Reiki, Reflexology and Acupuncture are types of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) that have no solid empirical evidence to back them. Their practitioners claim that certain power fields exist and that these therapies modify such fields. But these fields can't be measured and don't make much sense giving our current knowledge of biology and physics. Although there are papers that claim they do have an effect, very often these studies are flawed or the effect is due to the placebo effect. (I won't explain the placebo effect here, look it up, it's very interesting)

I may be biased against CAM but lets examine the evidence quickly for the sake of this blog post.

Practitioners of CAM usually resist any criticism of their methods and are unwilling to provide evidence for its effectiveness by conducting proper studies. Often the sensationalism, the grand claims by CAM practitioners and perhaps giving the patient more attention and time are the main reasons that draw the public to it.

Hypnosis is a form of an induced trance state where the subject is suggestible and relaxed. It is a real phenomenon and may have some effect but has very limited applications, not easy and doesn't work with everyone. The public perceive hypnosis as something magical or intriguing possibly due to the practice of stage hypnosis which is pure deception.

I took part in a training workshop for the medico-legal authority (forensic authority) in December in Cairo and last month in Assiut.

My part in the training was on the psychological consequences of torture. This was part of a training on the Istanbul Protocol, an internationally recognised guideline for medical and legal documentation of cases of torture. The IRCT managed to convince the director of the authority (chief forensic examiner) Dr. Ehsan Gorgy to provide such training, in exchange the authority will get them several digital cameras to help improve their documentation.

The authority was established in 1931 and is part of the Justice Ministry. It works within the legal framework of laws passed in 1952. A year before the structure of DNA was discovered and before many of the current advances in radiology and other fields of medicine. Currently the authority has an office in every governerate and a workforce of about 70+ doctors.

The authority was under intense scrutiny by the public following the Khaled Said case. It was accused of being complicit with the regime. This case is still a sore issue for forensic doctors and the public still carry lots of mistrust.

While exchanging contacts with one of the doctors at the end of a training day. One told me he has a Facebook account and is quite active on it but no longer writes his occupation as a forensic doctor fearing insults and shaming from his Facebook friends.

Whenever Ahram newspaper asks their graphics team to photoshop anything a scandal erupts. Remember the Mubarak in the lead photo?

This time the content of the photo wasn't the source of the scandal but the entire case and how the government and media insisted that it's a matter of sovereignty. Up to the extent that prime minister Kamal El-Ganzoury said Egypt won't kneel to the US.

Background (skip this if you know the case):
The government started a witch-hunt against foreign funded NGOs. But decided to pick on the easier target, one that will arouse minor criticism locally. US NGOs working for 'democracy promotion' such NDI, IRI and freedom house. The legal status of these NGOs is under question but that's a side issue, although the basis of the case against them, because they have been operating since 2004.

Ever since the revolution started state owned media launched a smear campaign against political activists and groups such April 6 that they were foreign funded and trained. That invisible foreign hands are responsible for this chaos. After Mubarak stepped down, SCAF took that line and continued in the same direction using state media and their stupid Facebook communiqué.

This was taken further, perhaps for local consumption and to add legitimacy to their foreign hands claims or part of a long term campaign to crackdown on NGOs, specially those working in human rights. So, 43 NGO workers were banned from travelling, including American citizens and referred to trial. After pressure from the White House, the travel ban was lifted for the foreigners and they left. Disgracing the government and judiciary.

Photos
Ahram used several odd stock photos and photoshop creations to add to the sensationalism. Here are some example I managed to keep.

Substance abuse among health professionals is serious. An impaired physician may harm the lives of her patients or may lead to their own death as in the case of Dr. Karim Aly. Compared to the general public, physicians have access to very serious medications. More so in certain specialties like anesthesiology.

In the US, 15% of physicians will at one point during their professional lives be impaired. Educating doctors during their undergraduate years and establishing programs to help identify and treat doctors without harming their career is important. Physicians may respond better to treatment programs than the general public.

7 police officers who tried to grow their beards on duty were quickly suspended by the ministry of interior. This level of firmness is never seen with officers who kill or torture.

The matter of officers growing beards is controversial.

Should the Egyptian police force respect the officers' personal choice and religion, provided they are treated equally and Christians are allowed to wear a cross. Or is it better if the image of law enforcement is a secular one?

Already female officers are allowed to wear a Hijab. The article says there are no laws that ban officers from growing a beard. Anyway, secular is a dirty word now.

Impunity, emergency state and restructuring the police force is a much more pressing issue. But this won't be on the agenda of newly elected MPs in the parliament because they gave the minister of interior a round of applause after he said his forces didn't use loaded shotguns against protesters few meters from the parliament. 17 people died and 50 lost at least one of their eyes from that latest round of police violence.