At a distance… and sometimes closely, I follow the
efforts exerted by Dr. Galal Saied; Cairo governor… you can imagine how it is
like to be the governor of Cairo… Cairo; that phoenix which people combined
with the ghoul and loyal friend as the three impossible things to happen… and
again they added a forth impossible to them… I believe it is also Cairo with
its twenty millions population eating, drinking, excreting, learning, moving,
throwing away garbage, blocking sewers with sanitary pads, kitchen towels and
solid waste leading to sewage discharge at the entrances of buildings and that
sweeps over in the streets turning some of its neighborhoods into another
“Venice” but without Saint Mark’s Basilica, Murano island or even the Gondola
rides!... not to mention its expansions in every direction.
However, the governor is doing all his best to stop
all this… starting from street vendors occupying pavements and even the middle
of the streets… and not ending by those who piled fortunes by the vicious mix
between capital corruption and that of the authority… in such regard, there are
unlimited stories and tragedies to tell… I may tell you about one of them in
the coming lines.
I respected the governor; Galal Saied when he used to
go into the streets accompanying campaigns inspecting over public utilities,
traffic, demolishing infringements and removing that terrible cancer of street
vendors that spread in downtown Cairo streets and which prevents anyone from having
the chance to wander in the presence of that marvelous architecture we have in downtown
Cairo.
In many times I used to ask and discuss with my friend,
world-known professor of surgery and man of principles and unlimited humane
stances Dr. Gamal Saied; brother of the governor, about how his brother deals
with the mountain of problems that faced many before him and who could not do
anything about it… actually, they surrendered and adopted the motto saying that
“nothing better can be done” along with the one saying “stay in the safe side
and do not get yourself involved in troubles” as their golden rules in
practicing their responsibilities.
Throughout my friendship with the brilliant
world-renowned surgeon, I have not heard him for a single time saying that his
family makes any kind of interests out of their kinship to the governor…
meaning that it did not happened for once and in many occasions in the presence
of so many people differing each time that I heard Dr. Gamal Saied saying “my
brother did so or my brother will do so and so…”… or “leave it to me, I shall
talk to the governor”… or “take this card and go to the governor’s office… they
know us there”!!
Actually, I myself was once involved in a family
request from my folks to get a grave in Cairo or its expanded neighborhoods
thinking of what may happen to them when they have to move the body from Cairo
to our hometown or even get buried in old graveyards situated at the old belt
of graveyards surrounding Salah Salem road and which became full and dilapidated…
I expected some kind of a promise to answer my request but Dr. Saied laughing
and jokingly replied that “the body will, God willing, find a place to rest”!!
Recently, the governor responded to what I and others
wrote about before regarding slaughtering animals in the streets in Eid al-Adha…
I have already more than once recounted my story with the sheep and butcher I deal
with at the centre of al-Game’a square in Heliopolis… as I once went early to
the butcher shop, sat on a chair next to it and went busy reading the papers
until I heard someone saying “bring me Ahmed Bey al-Gammal”… I looked around
alarmed and then saw the butcher’s apprentice pulling a sheep from its two
horns… then the instructions followed: “restrain the movement of Ahmed Bey…
slaughter… skin… hang… cut Ahmed Bey”.
Then I realized that every sheep has a paper hanged around
its neck holding the name of its owner… from that moment, the sheep holds the
name of its owner and is called by it… I wrote how the slaughtering process is done
in the street and with other animals watching… at that time, I saw a calf tied
to an electricity pole with every cell of its skin and muscles apparently
shaking while it was watching its fellow animals being mercilessly slaughtered.
After this, the meat is distributed in bags put in the cars that go through
floods of water, blood and animals’ dung.
Another story to tell, there is a butcher in Dr.
Muhammed Hussien Haikal St. near the crossing with Abo-Dawood al-Zaheri St. in
Nasr city neighborhood… that butcher used to completely block the street days
prior to the feast or Eid as he turns the area extending from the
pavement, asphalt and reaching to the small stretch of greenery in the middle
of the street into a cattle yard where he fodders the cattle that later fill the
streets with dung… after this comes the massacre of all those cattle leaving behind
a mix of fodder, blood, dung that floods into the neighboring streets, atop of those
streets are Abbas al-Akkad and Dr. Haikal streets.
I have already gave an example of the Gulf countries
where the citizen goes to the official slaughter house, picks the animal he
wants and watches it, behind a glass barrier, being slaughtered, cut and
distributed in bags for him to take away.
For all this, I believe Cairo governor’s decision to
inflict severer punishment over slaughtering animals in the streets is a thing
we always wished for… but imposing fine alone is not enough as where all those
people and butchers with their animals ready to be slaughtered should go… also,
are there slaughter houses, even if pre-made, easy-to-construct and to
dismantle too, in pre-determined places where the citizen can go to and get his
thing done?
I am afraid such decision may turn into a great
opportunity for corrupted people as it is impossible that the police and army
will go chase those who slaughter animals in the streets… but actually
employees of municipalities and some policemen will do… and we can imagine the scenario…
a good “meat present” along with the “tips”; nickname of bribe, will be given
to those employees and policemen and eventually nothing will change… what I want
to say is that such decision is really great once there are real guarantees to apply
it on the ground; meaning providing other hygienically and environmentally-disciplined
alternatives for such awful action of slaughtering animals in the streets.
Mr. Governor… May God be with you… if your decision
succeeded in ending this horrible scene… that of blood mixed with dung, garbage
and water with all this flooding in the most prestigious streets… I believe you
deserve a memorial in one of Cairo squares.
Many happy returns to everyone.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was published in Almasry alyoum newspaper
on September 15, 2015.
To see the original article, go to:
#almasry_alyoum #ahmed_elgammal #Cairo
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