How the markets really work

Ibrahim Eissa Protest

Journalists and activists gathered today in front of the Press Syndicate in downtown Cairo to protest the courts decision to imprison al-dustour's editor, Ibrahim Eissa, for two months. There was a large turnout and chants ranged from condemning Mubarak, Gamal and their corrupt regime, to calls for free unions and a revolution.

Nasr City, ewwww

How ugly is this suburb of Cairo? Even its name is ugly - victory - victory of what, I'm not so sure. It consists of building after building of concrete - I mean, just a glance at the photo reveals the utter tastelessness of the place. It reeks of the army everywhere you go - their 'fine' touches are everywhere. And they don't even have a single bar there. All they have are malls - really horrible ones, like Ginena mall, and wonderland. What kind of names are those anyways. And lets not forget Teeba mall......the ugliest of all. And why the hell do they have so many malls in the first place? And it is always crowded, it doesn't matter what time of day it is. It seems as soon as people enter this god foresaken place, they immediately want to u-turn and leave, thus the traffic jam. And let me not get started with the people that live there - those are another story altogether. It seems they actually think they're 'cool' because they live there, not realizing that no one in their right mind would even consider having a meal there, let alone live there. I think if I was given the choice of living in Nasr City or living in Saudi, I would have to choose Saudi - yes, it is THAT bad.

Kafr Elw residents

A year after their houses were demolished by the Egyptian government, the residents of Kafr Elw were given housing in the Muthalath neighbourhood of Helwan. Their plight began when the government decided to demolish their houses with bulldozers and usurp the land 'for the good of the country'. The men were imprisoned to make the demolition process easier and the families were told to go find somewhere else to live. Finally after a year of continous protests by the residents in front of several governmental offices, the residents were given these apartments in Helwan. Of course this is not the first such case and will not be the last. This gentrification process is ongoing, as big business men, big hotels and the like expand and forcibly take over locations at the expense of the often very poor inhabitants. The residents of Kafr Elw will hopefully set a precedent for others who will also find themselves in the street at the hands of Hosni and his buddies.



3arabawy taking photos of the Kafr Elw residents in their new flat.

Old newspapers

A friend of mine working in Darb al Ahmar came across a pile of old newspapers, mostly Ahram and Akhbar, dating from the late 60's and the early 70's. They had been placed in a big plastic bag and left next to a rubbish dump in the area. I looked through a number of them and found some interesting propaganda pieces - an indication of how much has changed over the last 40 years.
Sadat asserted during a conference (with history as his witness) that he was only going to serve as president for one term, and would not run again for the presidency. Of course all those attending this conference screamed out, saying that they were completely against the statement issued by Sadat and that they wanted him as president forever. Sound familiar? [on the front page of Al-Akhbar, 27 July 1971]



I thought this one was really funny. The title under the photo says something along the lines of how all members of parliament have faces full of joy as they listen to President Sadat give his speech about the constitution. I tried in earnest to find one happy face amongst the crowd but couldn't. [al ahram, 21st May, 1971]


This piece is about a meeting that took place between the Mahalla workers and the Minister. They asked him to forbid women workers from wearing mini-skirts in the factory because the sight of the women's legs and knees hinders the men's ability to produce! A discussion ensued between the men workers and the minister, without the participation of the women workers. It was decided in the end, that this was a personal matter and that only the husband's or brothers of the women workers could solve such an issue. I was just really happy to read that once, not so long ago, women working in factories wore mini-skirts. It sounds so alien to us now. [al gomhouriya, 26th April 1968].