Swine Flu in Egypt

Unseen swine flu victims in Egypt

 

Egypt is free from swine flu so far, but extreme precautionary measures are hurting pigs and garbage collectors

“This is my money and I’m going to give it a way,” said Saber Khalil a pigpen owner, while looking with deep sadness to the back of a truck filled with pigs he owns. “I’m taking them to the slaughterhouse. They will be killed there and I will have nothing to make a living out.”

Saber is one of many farmers unwillingly complying with a decision the Egyptian authorities took on the 29^th of April of slaughtering around 350,000 pigs, in the country to prevent the threat of swine flu.

The Egyptian government took this decision as a precautionary measure out of fear that the epidemic disease Influenza A (H1A1) might reach the country.

The World Organization for Animal Health along with The Food and Agriculture Organization FAO denounced this decision saying that the virus can spread through humans and culling pigs won’t solve the problem.

However, the Ministry of Health’s spokesman, Abdel Rahman Shaheen, defended the decision by saying that slaughtering pigs in the land is a hygienic procedure more than a precautionary one. The pigs are raised in high population density area and moving the pigs outside the city will be for the well of public health.

Recycling the Garbage City

In Manshiyat Naser , located in the heart of Cairo’s old city, is the City of Garbage or Madinet El Zabalin. 6000 Christian, mainly working as garbage collector in this density populated area, are illiterate and depend on recycling the garbage they collect and the pigs they raise.

The government promised to compensate pig owners with their losses but the farms’ owners are not satisfied with what the government offered.

“They gave us 50 Pounds around $10 for a piglet and 250, $45, for a pregnant pig. These pigs worth much more than that,” Khalil said. “I wouldn’t even sell a pregnant pig with ten thousand pounds,” he said.

Now after losing an important source of making a living, raisin pigs, the garbage collectors fear that worse might come.  The government is considering moving the garbage collectors to El korimate fifty kilometers away from Cairo.

 “We accepted the decision of killing the pigs unwillingly but now the government is thinking to throw us in the desert,” said Mosaad Bekheit a pigpen owner. “As if they want to execute us.”

 

The first day that the Ministry of Health went to Manshiyat Naser to implement the decision, clashes erupted between policemen and farm owners. People living in Madinet El Zabaleen as well as Coptic organizations abroad saw what is happening as a sectarian act. Egypt is a predominantly a Muslim country where religion prohibits pork consumption.

“It’s religious persecution because the Copts are the people who are raising pigs in Egypt,” said Bekheit.

However, there are other Copts who supported the government. Georgette Qilliny, a Coptic member of the Parliament, agrees with the decision but she called for a suitable compensation.

“This decision has no sectarian reasons,” said Hani Aziz, a close associate to Pope Shenouda. “It aims at protecting the Egyptian people and the pig farmers, who are raising their pigs in the middle of neighborhoods inhabited by thousands, from the virus. The government didn’t make up the story of the virus, it is already spreading around the world. Moreover, the government is compensating the pig farmers for their losses.”

This came after the Pope said that Christians in Egypt do not eat pork meat, which some saw as the go-ahead sign from the church to slaughter pigs.

An excuse to execute

Meanwhile, the government took slaughtering pigs in the land as a chance to restore order in the industry of raising pigs in the country. It’s a decision, which the World Health Organization supported.

 “We don’t have the authority to accept or refuse the decision of slaughtering pigs, but the WHO advises the government to prevent raising animals and birds in inhabited neighborhoods,” said Hassan Albishry, WHO Middle East representative. “It will be a disaster if the virus appeared in Egypt because of the high population density. Also, there is no country well prepared to deal with the virus even the United States with all of its abilities.” 

The virus already infected around 1300 people and killed around 90 in 46 different countries since the outbreak of the disease in Mexico on the 24th of April (For daily situation updates click here). This threat pushed the Egyptian government not only to take precautionary measures but also to set a plan for worst-case scenario.

Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabaly announced that the ministry is coordinating with the airports authority, deploying physicians to accompany flights coming from infected areas, and equipping airports with thermal detection devices.

According to El-Gabaly in an interview with Almasry-Alyoum, the plan the Ministry of Health put consists of 6 stages:

• Monitor and contain the spread of the virus
• Prevent gatherings and internal traveling
• Close the affected areas
• Declare the state of emergency
• Quarantine places
• Prepare mass graves for people

 

 

Related Videos:

Swine Flu Song by Sha’ban Abd Al-Rahim

The WHO

I was watching El Etegah El Moakes Opposite direction program Yesterday on Al Jazeera. For those who never watched this program, its presented by Faisal Al Kassem, and in each episode he tackles a controversial issue and hosts two guests. Each one represents a complete different view than the other.
Yesterday’s episode was about whether or not the World Health Organization WHO made a big deal out of the swine flue in favor of medicine companies.
Just brining to the surface the doubts that human beings all over the world were being played by an organization like this, an organization that peoples’ health is supposed to come first if not only in its list of priorities makes me made.
If we can’t trust what the health organization is saying, who should we trust?

Swine flue in Egypt

 

Agarbage collector taking a pig to be slaughter, google

 

The World Health Organization WHO recently denounced the decision taking by the Egyptian authorities of slautring pigs in the county. The WHO said its not proved yet that the pigs are infected and or can transfer the disease to humans. However,  the decision was made. Around three hundred pigs were slaughtered in the past two days, and the rest are in the way. 

 

 

Such decision satire the fire among Chrisiatns group in the country, as they are the only people who are dealing, raising and eating pigs. 

today I went to film in one of the pigs styes in Cairo, located in Mokatem and there was a big fight between policemen and the owner of these styes. The people throw bottles and stones at the police men and police men responded with tear gas.

The authorities should make sure that they are taking the right decisions or else it will cause a ethnic conflight for no good reason. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8031490.stm

Chocolate

 

 

Sweet profit

The global economic crisis has hit industries from tourism to finance.  But one industry is weathering the storm and leaving a sweet taste in the mouth of investors. 

Despite the recession, leading chocolatiers in Egypt say that profits are up between 30 to 50 percent. 

Christophe Martinez, who heads the French luxury foods company Fauchon in Egypt, present on the local market since 1997, said the company’s sales have increased between 30 and 35 percent compared to last year. 

“If there will be a recession in the chocolate consumption in Egypt, we would only feel it next month, after Easter,” said Martinez. ” But I am not sure luxury products will be affected in egypt.”  

 

In fact, clients who buy from either of the Fauchon branches, in Heliopolis or Zamlek, are mainly those Egyptians who can afford to spend between LE 500 and LE 1200 on a kilogram of fine French chocolates, LE 1479 on a Happy Easter basket filled with marzipan, chocolates and a bottle of apple cider, or LE 900 for candied chestnuts.

One such client is Jehan El Alfi, chairman assistant of the Egyptian Petrochemical Holding Company. 

 

“If it wasn’t the best chocolate I wouldn’t come here,” said El Alfi, while signing her credit card slip for LE 241, after buying a Fauchon cake and one of their chocolate Easter eggs.

According to Martinez, eighty percent of Fauchon’s customers are regular guests, including Egypt’s First Lady, Suzanne Mubarak.

“Our clients know the Fauchone products perfectly well from thier trips to Paris,” he said, pointing out that the fine chocolate with hazelnut is a best seller on the Egyptian market.

But such profits at a time of financial insecurity are also being reaped by well-established local fine chocolate brand names such as Patchi and Passionelle. as well as relative newcomers like Egyptian-owned Celebrations.

“We have seen a 25 percent increase in our sales since last year,” said Akram Turky, managing director of Passionelle, the first private chocolate business to open in Egypt in 1996. “Most of ourcustomers are upper and middle-class Egyptians.”

Over this past Easter holiday season, one of the most lucrative sales periods fro the chocolate industry in Egypt, clients spent anywhere between LE 80 and LE 140 for a kilogram of passionelle chocolates. Most of the ingredients, such as cocoa butter, for these chocolates are imported but the final product is locally-made.

Today Passionelle counts 13 branches and is planning to open two more, in the coming months.

Another leading fine chocolate manufacturer in Egypt, Patchi, is also recording a profite this year. According to financial manager, Quessama Fayek, Patchi’s sales have nearly doubled compared to a year ago. 

“The recession didn’t hit us yet in any case if people have special occasions, they will buy chocolate.” said general manager Ezzat Abbas. ” That won’t stop becouse of the recession, for sure.”

Patchi also caters to the country’s affluents Egyptians that come year round to buy locally-made chocolate priced between LE 150 and LE 250.

“Patchi is for all occasions, for both the Coptic and Muslim holidays,” said Abbass. “People buy for Christmas, New Year, Valentine, Easter, Ramadan, Eid, weddings, birthdays, engagement…”

Origionally esablished in Lebanon in 1974, today Patchi counts about 140 shops in 40 countries. In Egypt alone they operate five branches, with two more opening soon in New Cairo and Alexandria.

Even smaller, family-run fine chocolates operations like Celebrations, are fairing, relatively well against the credite crunch. 

“My bussiness is going well thank God,” said owner Dina El sakawy, who first opened a small workshop in 2006 on the ground floor of a flat, and later a branch in Mohandiseen. ” The business has been affectd by the recession, but its going well,” she added.

Just this month another celebrations branch opened in a prime location of Zamalek.

” Maybe people don’t treat themselves as lavishly as they used to, but they want to feel like they can buy themselves a few chocolate every now and then,” explained El Sakawy.

Recogizing that a kilgram of imported chocolates ranging from LE 100 to LE 250 may not be within everybody’s reach, El Sakawy said she tries to accommodate different budgets.

“We get people who want to buy chocolates for a specific budget, like boys and girls who get two chocolates for their girlfriend or boyfriend, and those who really want something special,” said El Sakawy.

Although she remains optimistic about her business prospective, El Sakawy is certainly not indifferent to the reality of the economic recession.

“We all know that chocolate is an anti-depressant to begin with and now with the difficult times that we are all going through I think that we all need natural anti-depressants.”

Al Masry Al Youm’s scoop. Bardo!

Did Al Masry Al Youm turn into a yellow newspaper? writing about Ayman Nour and Gamela Ismael divorce and calling it a scoop bardo!! is something that I really don’t get!
Not only publishing such a story but also the appearance of the chief editor himself on several TV programs to defend what the newspaper published. Are they getting that insecure because of El Shorok newspaper or what?

Al Masry Al Youm and AUC

Al Masry Al Youm recently published two articles about AUC about what the newspaper claims that there is  a secret contract between AUC and the Pentagon.

http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article2.aspx?ArticleID=204939

http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article2.aspx?ArticleID=205884

The newspaper got their information from a wire called America in Arabic. Those two articles evoked both media and public dismay.

But wether or not what Al Masry Al youm wrote was true the most reputable newspaper in Egypt shacked basic journalistic  standards:
one they didn’t take the least amount of time or effort to check their facts. had they contacted AUC when they published the first article they would have know that what they wrote is not accurate. 

Two: they ran an article they entirely got from a wire and considered it to be their scoop.

It would’nt have been that shocking if the same article with the same way was published in any other newspaper but not in AL Masry Al Youm which won people’s trust over a few years because of its credibility.

The land of peace and security lacks proper security measures

The sound of explosions filled the streets of the historic Khan El Khalili old market in the heart of old Cairo. Chaos ensued with blood splattered on the ground. It was the scene that had rocked the market before, as the Khan was bombed for the second time in four years.

Just days later a major robbery Mohamed Ali Palace, which now belongs to the ministry of culture resulted in the theft of nine painting, tow of which were looted while still in their frames.

Two different locations, two very different crimes. But the acts raise questions about what security measures the country will need to implement to prevent a raise in crime.

One measure that the ministry of interior is seriously considering is planting security cameras in most of the highly visited tourist places. Mohamed Abdel Fattah, chief security official and member of the Egyptian parliament said security forces attempted to plant cameras in heavy tourist spots for over a year but were unsuccessful.

“It’s easy to through accusations at the government and accuse it with being negligent,” said Abdel Fattah. “But these procedures need time and money that’s all.”

And security officials said that cameras alone wont deter anyone who want to do an act of terrorism or any other sort of crime.

“In London alone there are about 20 million security cameras,” said Abdel Fattah but no one can claim that London is more save than Cairo.”

He added that even if there were thousands of cameras in Khan El Khalili area that wouldn’t have stopped the latest bombing.

“ A man left a plastic bag under a chair and left,” he said. “ Who would suspect anything? He could be going to buy something and coming back.”

And citizen, he added share the blame when it comes to security lapses.

“ The people don’t cooperate with the police,” Abdel Fattah said. “They don’t report to the police if they saw something odd or not right going on.”

 

Terrorism

Still, while Egypt has witnessed several terrorism attacks in recent years, political analysts believe that security forces in Egypt have strengthened their grip in that field.

 “According to statistics when it comes to security measures that has to do with terrorism, Egypt is the least country in the region that faces attacks like the one recently happened in khan El khalili,” said Diaa Rashwan an expert at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.

People from the ministry of interior measure the security success in Egypt with the number of attacks they thwarted.

“ People have to think of how many attacks we knew about a head and aborted,” Said Allam, a security expert at the ministry of interior.

 

Felonies

But Khalid Salah chief editor of El Youm El Sabea newspaper said that the security forces success in fighting terrorism is due to the fact that other forms of crime are neglected by police.

“ There were tight security measures in Mahala when people were demonstrating, with detectives everywhere monitoring people’s movements,” said Salah. “ While just a hundred kilometer away from Mahala, there are towns that face looting on daily basis and no proper present for security men.”

Salah said that political security comes first in the agenda of the ministry of interior. Harassment in the streets during an Eid celebration will occur without any intervention from security forces. But if the same area used for a demonstration, hundred of security people would appear out of nowhere and surround this demonstration.

Rashwan relates that to the way the security institutions function in Egypt.

“Egypt’s security problem is how the security institutions set its priorities,” Rashwan said. “No doubt Egypt has strong security institutions, but the political security comes top on their agenda. They are good at that. But they also need to exert the same effort in the field of crime security.”

And Rashwan added that until there is trust between the people and security, Egypt’s problem won’t go a way.

“People here don’t have faith in the security,” Rashwan said.  “ There’re even scared from security people who are there to protect them in the first place.”

 

“So Said The Storyteller”

After an exhausting day from every day home cleaning and everyday studying to his kids, Moteea took a shower and dressed nice clean pajama and put the perfume his wife likes and waited for her in bed. May be she would desire something. But after a long day usually Moteea is in a state of extreme tiredness and exhaustion and is overcome by sleep.

But whether or not the wife had any desire for him, she would turn her back to him and fell into deep sleep snoring very loudly indeed. While Moteea would stay sleepless thinking of how things turned out for him, and asked himself should he tell her he never felt any pleasure?

Scared of the idea he immediately abandoned it.  For if he told her he didn’t reach orgasm or never had pleasure she would doubt him as being sinful and she would say, “where have you heard about pleasure and from whom?”

So said the storyteller.

Yes it was just a story, but the message behind the tale is very real indeed.

This story is one of many others written by a group of feminists who are rewriting old folktales reversing gender roles then narrate them in a story telling performance. 

The performance is one of many projects created by the women and memory forum organization. It started with a writing workshop, writing stories about women and how they are stereotyped in their society. Then the organization decided to make a story telling performance out of it.

“Not many women can read and write and those stories were written for all categories of women,” said Sahar El Mougy a storyteller. “ So storytelling is one way of disseminating the idea.”

The group carried out this performance in different places to perform in front of divers audience. One time they are performing in a small stage in a poor ally where most if not all their audience men and women are illiterate and over religious. The other time they are performing on the stage of the library of Alexandria in front of completely different class of audience, more educated and more open minded.

But unlike any performance there is no décor or customs only one chair in the middle of the stage where the storytellers rotate on. While speaking, each storyteller would change her voice to act all characters in each tale.

Hala Kamal, creator of the idea said the group recognized that stories from Egypt’s cultural heritage reflect tremendous bias against women. Women are often represented in traditional roles and stereotypical images that promote sexism and ignore the multiplicity of women’s roles in life.  To combat those notions, the group of writers decided to retell these tales from a feminist perspective.

“We aim at empowering women particularly young women,” said Kamal creator of the idea.

They started to create their own stories like Moteea story based on what they face in life as women and what they hear from other women as well. 

“ This particular kind of problem in bed was told to me from many women I know,” said Fatma Hassan a storywriter. “ Most of them are shy to talk about them with their husbands.”

Hassan added that she knows only one woman who complained to her husband that she doesn’t feel pleasure with him during having sex. The resulting arguments put a strain on the couple’s marriage.

 “They might actually get divorced soon,” Hassan said. “Only because she complained.”

But fear and embarrassment aren’t always the only reasons women avoid discussing their sexual with their husbands. For many women, there is concern that men will start to question their virtue if they appear knowledgeable or interested in the pleasure of sex.

“ A friend of mine told me that her husband gave her really hard time the first time they had sex because she was moaning in bed,” Hassan said. “ He wanted to know whether she learned that from porn movies or out of experience.”

Kamal said that her goal is to help women to express their own desires in bed with their husbands without being socially stigmatized.

But if that is the case how such a performance manages to get through in a Muslim conservative country like Egypt where most women are veiled and quite a number of the population are illiterate?

“ Humor,” said Caroline khalil director of the performance. “This is the magic word of the Egyptian people.”

 Sahar El Mougy, a storyteller, said humor helps Egyptian to process the message in a more acceptable manner.

 But as humor is important to make the performance acceptable to the viewers, shock is also needed.

“We need to shock people,” said Kamal.  “But at the same time how to shock at a degree to make people think and reconsider, without making them dismiss the whole thing because this is a tricky area.”

As the classes of the audience vary, so do their reactions. Some people see it scandalous, others see it as a needed outlet.

“I was sitting there stunned,” said one woman from the audience in the library of Alexandria. “ I need two days to absorb what I have seen today.”

“This show wants to say one thing, look at the woman from another side,” said another one from the same performance.

Also men reaction varies. Some see it interesting while others say it is a brave undertaking.

“I am skeptical when men praise those texts without really giving you a concrete thing they did like,” said kamal. “ When they tell you wonderful and fascinating I wonder whether they are sincere, genuine or they are just trying to appear civilized and profeminists.”

But of course when performed in front of uneducated people the men reactions differ.

“What do these women exactly want from our wives?” said a man from the audience of Wekalet El Ghoury. “Don’t they know that the man is the man and the woman is the women?”

 

The Sayes

Near a small oven located at the corner of a garage Hisham stood rotating small pieces of meet boiled in a metal small pot. This is his meal for today, it’s the first day in Eid and one of his clients gave him a plastic bag has a kilo of meat. He will share it with his brother Saied and they will eat it with rice leftover from yesterday’s meal.
And in a sunny area at the same garage stood Saied at the corridor of the garage entrance, putting out the washing on the line to dry. Both of them were interrupted from what they were doing several times. But they are used to that. Every ten minutes a car arrive to the garage entrance corridor, its driver leave it and Hisham and Saied would leave whatever they are doing get the spare key of each car arrives and go fiche for the perfect parking spot in Ali Mahmud street to park it.
This garage located in Ali Mahmud Street in Heliopolis is where they live and work. Its tiny but it always keep them busy.
They are two brothers working as Soyas, car attendants in a garage building in Heliopolis. They are responsible for around one hundred cars. Only ten of those cars are parked in the building’s tiny garage. For the remaining cars, the Soyas are responsible for finding parking spots along the same streets as well as keeping the cars in their charge clean every day.
What makes their job even more difficult is how Ali Mahmud Street always packed with cars. The street has two lanes with a pavement in the middle. Its always packed with parked cars on both sides of each lane, which now makes it a four line street with parked cars.
“When I go back home late which is the case of most days, I just leave the car for Hisham or Saied to find a parking spot for it,” said Abeer Mohamed owner of Cherokee. “The street is horrible and it’s easy to leave them the car to park.”
Hisham and Saied are originally from Mahala, a town in Al gharbyya governorate, north of Egypt. But unlike most of the people in their village, Hisham and Saied were not into farming. So this job they have been holding for eight years now was a chance to seize when offered by their cousin who used to work at the same garage but had to leave to serve in the military.
“In this job we drove all car models from the Siat to the BMW,” Saied said.
They rarely go outside Ali Mahmud Street wither driving a car or on foot. They eat, drink, sleep, work and have friends all at the same street.
“We only know how to go to Mahala and come back,” Saied said.

Their job doesn’t have specific working hours. But they usually start cleaning the cars at six in the morning and then every client dives his car to work. Then begins the difficult part when cars starts to come back starting from five p.m. and they have too find parking spots for them once they arrive one after the other.
Since their clients don’t have the same working hours, washing and parking the cars is a 24-hour non-stop procedure. Accordingly their sleeping hours are always interrupted. They sleep at two p.m. then wake up again at six to clean the cars. Then they try to sleep again at 12pm for two hours then wake up again to wait for the cars to come back and park them.
“I don’t have fixed hour going back home,” said Galal Zareef owner of Siat. “But whenever I go back to home Hisham and Saied are either parking a car or washing another. Sometimes I wonder when do they sleep?”
There is only one small room in the garage that can take one of them to sleep in. the other sleeps on a bench located in the center of the garage. They exchange their sleeping places every night. The garage is wide open with no doors so it’s really cold in winter. Their working conditions are even worse when they wake up early morning to wash the cars.
“Sometimes I don’t feel my hands, I feel they are freezing,” Saied said
It’s a tiring job, they both admit.
“But it’s worth the money paid,” Hisham said.
They charge between 30 and 60 pounds a month over each car parked inside the garage and 20 pounds over cars parked in the street.
But Hisham and Saied depends more on tips especially in occasions like the Eid and Ramadan. Their clients give them from 50 to one hundred pounds each as Eidya. Then at the end of the month one of them go to Mahala and give the money to their family.
“We make around two thousands pounds a month,” Hisham said. “We keep around four hundred pounds for us and the rest goes to our family in Mahala to build an apartment for Saied to marry in. It’s almost done then we will start sending money for to build my house.”
They come from a family consists of four brothers and two sisters. The girls are married and the men too except Hisham and Saied. Now Saied is engaged to a girl from Mahala, and Hisham will wait for him to get married then he will ask his mother to find him a “bride”.
Hisham and Saied have good reputation in Ali Mahmud Street as being honest, polite and faithful in their job. Their clients think there are in dispensable.
“When I first started to deal with this garage ten years ago there were other people than Hisham and Saied, but I never trusted them” said Rasha Kamal owner of Octavia. “That’s why I would take the burden of going up and down the street to park the car myself instead of leaving my spare car key to them to miss around with it”.
Their clients express their satisfaction with the service Hisham and Saied are providing in different ways.
“One afternoon Mr Ihab called me and invited me to go up to his apartment and have lunch with him,” Saied said. “After hard work and sleepless nights we feel rewarded, and we feel that our clients appreciate our work. And that what keep us on our feet”

Hisham and Saied

Sayed sat behind the wheel of the BMW, his eyes red and shadowed, as he searched for 15 minutes on Ali Mahmud Street for the perfect parking spot. The fancy car he was so keen on parking somewhere near and safe in the street was not his. A simple glance at his weathered clothing made that clear. He was shrouded in a worn pullover that lost its original color from being washed several times and the tiny holes and flimsy texture weren’t thick enough to protect him against the penetrating cold even as he sat in the comfort of the luxury car that he had been entrusted to park. Finally he decided to leave it at the garage iterance corridor hoping to sleep an hour or two before people starts to take their cars in the early morning drive them to work. Then he will park the BMW for couple of hours before its owner wake up and drive it work too.
As he finally fell sleep at one a.m. in the morning on a small bench located in the center of the garage, in the 21 Ali Mahmud street in Heliopolis, he was awakened by Hisham who told him that two more cars had just arrived. They both took the spare keys that the owners left, and drove off in a separate car to resume the hunt for the ideal parking spot on the same street.
It was another day on the job.
Hisham and Sayed are two brothers who work as Soyas, car attendants in a garage building in Heliopolis. They are responsible for around one hundred cars. Only ten of those cars are parked in the building’s tiny garage. For the remaining cars, the soyas are responsible for finding parking spots along the same streets as well as keeping the cars in their charge clean every day.
In the past, Ali Mahmud Street was full of villas just like most of Cairo streets. But at the beginning of the nineties, villa owners converted their homes into housing plots. On average, Egyptian buildings have five floors. If each floor was to have two apartments, and each apartment had at least two cars, it would be impossible for the cars of the residents of a certain building to be parked around their building. That’s where people like Hisham and Sayed comes in.
Now Ali Mahmud Street has two lanes with a pavement in the middle. It’s always packed with parked cars on both sides of each lane, which now makes it a four line street with parked cars.
Sayed arrived to Ali Mahmud Street from his hometown, Al Mahala, a town in Al gharbyya governorate, north of Egypt before his brother. He used to work in a dye house where he got a severe allergy from the chemicals used that developed later to asthma.
“I was making good money,” Sayed said. “But I was losing my health.”
Unlike most of the people in his village, Sayed was not into farming. When he was invited by his cousin to work with him in a garage in Cairo, Sayed jumped at the chance and he left to Cairo in 2001.Two years later when Sayed’s cousin went into military service, so he asked his brother Hisham to come and work with him at the same garage.
Both Hisham and Sayed come from a family that consists of four brothers and two sisters. Following family tradition, the eldest of boys goes to school while the rest work as farmers. Sayed as the eldest went to school for eight years and earned a diploma in handicraft, Hisham and his siblings, however, didn’t go to school at all. In Hisham national identification, the profession section says, labor.
“I cannot read or write but its ok its not necessary at my work as a Sayes.” Hisham said.
While unschooled in book learning, Hisham was knowledgeable when it came to cars. He worked as a mechanic to a car valet.
“It’s a tiring job,” Hisham admit. “But it’s worth the money paid.”
For the ten cars parked inside the garage, the owner of the garage, who hired Hisham and Sayed, takes hundred pounds a month for each car. Then, it’s the brothers’ job to have a deal with the car owner to pay them more than a hundred pounds a month. When a new client ask them how much he would pay if he hired them as his Sayes they just give him a number according to the car model.
“So not all car owners pay the same, the monthly payments ranges from 130 to 160 pounds per month, what is over hundred we take it” Saied said. “ I cannot take from a Fiat owner the same money the BMW owner will pay.”
As for the cars they park in the street, the car owners pay 40 pounds per month per car. Twenty pounds go to the garage owner and twenty goes to Hisham and Sayed.
“Although these cars park in the street, they first arrive to the garage entrance corridor and they stay there till we take them one by one and find places for them in the street,” Hisham and Sayed said.
Hisham and Sayed depends more on tips especially in occasions like the Eid and Ramadan. Their clients give them from 50 to one hundred pounds each as Eidya.
“After hard work and sleepless nights we feel rewarded, and we feel that our clients appreciate our work.”