Koria[1], ed-Doksh[2],
Mashakel[3]…
these are code names of so-called golden triangle of crime residing in Qalyubia Governorate which along with Giza and Cairo
governorates constitute Greater Cairo. All
so-called celebrities of crime world take code names just like those so-called
religion-proclaimed criminals or terrorists. However, in the second case we
have a strange disparity; those terrorist celebrities take the nickname “Abu”
knowing that the Holy Quran – as I know – has never given such nickname but to
Abu Lahab[4] while prophets and
messengers were all called directly by their names.
Those
code names; Koria, ed-Doksh, Mashakel, reminded me of the
time when I was remanded in preventive custody for months. One day, after I was
deported from appeal prison to Abu Za’abal prison the night before, I woke up
hearing an ugly hoarse voice calling my name out loud “Ahmed Gazma[5]”… he repeated it several
times roaring every time. I said to myself “you sons of the bitch… have you
started your welcoming party that early”! The voice then started to call other
names like “Sayed el-Magari”, “Hussien Meghassel[6]”,
and so on. When asking, I discovered that the caller with the ugly hoarse voice
is an on-shift old prisoner responsible for calling and gathering inmates
working in the prison’s workshops and facilities and that I was not the one
intended.
The
first code name; Gazma, was given to someone who was working in the
shoes’ workshop. The second; Sayed el-Magari, was given this name for he was sexually
impotent and so they considered him like the Magari[7] train at that time, the
man was working in cleaning WCs. As for the third; Hussien Meghassel, he
was given this code name for he was working in washing officers and lower-ranked
officers’ clothes.
However
the strangest title was that of an inmate in the appeal prison. Everyone,
including the prison administration, called him el-Kuwaiti[8],
as Kuwait starting from the end of the fifties and during the sixties was
famous for being the rich Arab country where teachers, doctors, and others who were
sent on secondments go and come back financially well-off, owning Persol
sunglasses, Mercerisé or Marcelisié – as was then pronounced – T-shirts, and Fiat-brand
cars. Fiat was the most famous car brand hoped to be owned by those travelling
to Kuwait before secondments to other Gulf Cooperation Council countries and
Iraq were dispatched. Relatives of those going on secondments used to boast and
tell stories about those fancy possessions at that time. El-Kuwaiti
earned this nickname – while his real one went into oblivion – for he was the
richest inmate dwelling in Egypt’s prisons. I have already written before about
the “code” I used to hear him use when calling from the third floor while I was
in the second of the same prison. His gang, which was headed by a woman, used
to visit him every evening gathering in Darb Sa’ada[9]
Street behind the prison. He used to order them to bring pepita, brand-new
Quran books, and chocolate; meaning narcotic drug pills, new packs of playing
cards, and Hashish or Cannabis!… as you see.. even the smuggled materials used
to have their own code names as well.
Back to Koria, ed-Doksh, and Mashakel whose
names headed first pages and crime news in all newspapers few days ago in a
follow-up to the operation called cleansing the golden triangle of crime and
drugs in some villages affiliated to Qalyubia
Governorate. I was appalled for I found that we’re facing a catastrophic
phenomenon that looks like the iceberg whose submerged part many-fold doubles the
tip we see over the surface as we have many triangles, squares, pentagons,
hexagons, heptagons, and octagons; golden, may be platinum, and diamond… all kinds
of gangs across our beloved country, not necessarily dealing in drugs alone,
but sometimes adding to this other activities that are worse and more dangerous
like gangs controlling sub-roads in governorates and direct roads connecting
governorates in Upper Egypt, or like gangs controlling whole neighborhoods to
spread hawkers who sit all over Abbass el-Aqqad Street for example and even
worse than what was in downtown Cairo. In doing so, they help increase numbers
of beggars, rogues, pickpockets, thieves who stalk residential buildings and
apartments and intimidate doormen. Adding also triangles of corrupt government employees
working in customs clearance and others practicing adverse possession on lands
next to beaches, agricultural reclamation lands, etc.
Koria, ed-Doksh, and Mashakel, along with all their
gangs were able to build palaces and huge villas deep in Citrus, bananas, and
apricots’ gardens in Qalyubia Governorate making
use of the tangled ever-green leaves that do not wilt down or go dry in any
season in hiding away from police forces. The state with all its powers and authority looked
absent from the scene until it caught fire itself when martyred police officers
and soldiers fell down on the hands of those criminals. The state had to let go
its old attitude imitating the account of Nasreddin
Hodja saying that when
he was told “your home caught fire”, he answered: “as long as it’s far from my
ass, I don’t care”. I apologize for citing such an account which is
incomparable to our case here as we talk about a state we respect and are proud
to be its citizens.
Speaking
of which, I remember when I was a little boy at the beginning of the fifties
sitting at the edge of the rug listening carefully to the elders sitting over
the elevated seats drinking tea and smoking high-quality Qoutarelli-brand
cigarettes and then go home before sunset prayers’ Azan as the government had
imposed a curfew on our village starting at that early time for our village had
committed a crime when the police station officer was shot dead while he was
driving his night patrol as he earlier had insulted some high-class people in
our village. The government sent al-Haggana; Camel riders whom most of
them were Egyptian citizens descending from southern tribes and who were
dark-skinned having deeply-engraved mark lines on the side of their faces. They
were also tough and always holding a terrible Sudanese whip. They also used to call
men by feminine pronouns and vice versa. Al-Haggana made us go to sleep
at sunset until sunrise. One day, the village mosque Moa’zen[10] climbed up the minaret to
call for dawn prayers when al-Haggana brought him down brutally beating
him with the whip shouting “you son of the bitch… we sent them to sleep and you
wake them up”!
What
I want to say here is that governments are strong whenever they want; like what
happened when bulldozers in the past days went opening the roads going deep inside
gardens of the criminal golden triangle. I don’t know if the government will
complete the operation by providing job opportunities for those who lost their
income after imprisoning Koria, ed-Doksh, and their likes, or
will they let the leaven ready to proliferate more Korias and Dokshes
at the very first chance?
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This
article was published in Almasry alyoum newspaper on March 30, 2016.
To
see the original Arabic version, go to:
#almasry_alyoum
#ahmed_elgammal #governments
[4] According
to Islamic narrations, Abu Lahab: (Arabic: أبي لهب) (c. 549 – 624) was Muḥammad's paternal uncle. He is condemned in Surah al-Massadd/Lahab, for being an enemy to Islam. (Source: Wikipedia)
[5] Gazma (Arabic: جزمة) means shoe
in slang Egyptian Arabic, used in name-calling to insult someone.
[6] Meghassel: (Arabic: مغسل) comes from the
Arabic verb يغسل meaning
to wash; the derivative here means the man who does the washing.
[7] Magari: (Arabic: مجري) meaning
Hungarian in Arabic, it denotes the Hungarian-made trains used in Egypt at that
time and which was known for being slow.
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