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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 March 1999 Issue No. 421 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 March 1999 Issue No. 421
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Al-Ahram:
A Diwan of contemporary life (277 )
Al-Ahram pioneered the idea of regular columns criticising and shedding light on social, economic and other aspects of life in Egypt after World War I. Initially, the columns were short and far between, with intervals of weeks or months between them. Then they became daily and were given a fixed space. In the months that followed the war, a regular column entitled "Short but Significant" dealt with topics of national interest such as education, banking, investment and agriculture. One column contained "scandalous" statistics -- 80 per cent of Egyptian males and 98 per cent of females were illiterate. Dr Yunan Labib Rizk * peruses dozens of columns in post-war issues of Al-Ahram to put together this instalment of the Diwan
Illustration by
Makram Henein
"Short but Significant" was a column that made its first appearance in Al-Ahram on 9 May 1919. The column, which was indeed short, consisting of only 10 lines, criticised the haste with which the nation's courts issued rulings. The author, who signed himself "Khanqah", wrote: "125 cases are brought before the district courts, 40 cases before primary courts and 20 before appellate courts. The judges take three hours at most to hear these cases. Should it so happen that some lawyer seek to expound on the evidence, elicit further corroboration, question the propriety of proceedings or elucidate on the finer points of law, the judge extracts a golden watch from his pocket and says, 'Time is precious.' Is this what gave rise to the adage, 'A biased settlement is preferable to a delayed ruling.'"
The second "Short but Significant" column was longer -- 20 lines -- and also dealt with a legal issue -- the use of English as the official language in Egyptian courts. In spite of France's proximity and historical links to the British isles, he wrote, the French had very little knowledge of English until the end of the 18th century. When, for example, in 1570 the king of France received a letter in that language, there was no one in his court to help him decipher it. It was only after a lengthy search that they were able to locate a French guard stationed in Calais who had some knowledge of that foreign tongue. The guard was brought to court, translated the letter and, having performed such an outstanding service for the throne, was granted a prize. "If that is the case with the French who have had 700 years of common history with the English, how can we expect the Egyptian peasant, living some 3,000 kilometres away from England and with little more than 40 years of contact with the British people, to present his case to the court in English? And, what a distance there is, too, between the Arabic and English languages!"
If readers began to suspect, by this time, that "Khanqah" was somehow connected to the legal profession, they would soon have their suspicions confirmed. In his eighth column, appearing on 25 June 1919, the author reveals his true identity: Aziz Bek Khanki, a prominent Egyptian lawyer of Syrian origin. Over the remainder of the year, Aziz Bek would branch out to other subjects that he felt were central to the welfare of Egyptian society. Perhaps, in fact, we could consider Aziz Bek the spiritual father of featured columnists in the Egyptian press. Firstly, he was not a professional journalist, but rather acquired a readership through his moral and social standing. At the same time, his commentaries were not confined to his particular occupational concerns, but rather delved into a broad array of topics.
Nor were his columns restricted by considerations of space or even regularity in publication. We thus find that "Short and significant" became increasingly longer and that the intervals between their appearance varied anywhere from a week to several months. Initially, the columns featured a pithy narrative with a clever punch line as the moral, but as they progressed, the commentaries increasingly acquired the stamp of a didactic critique. In all events, the columns as a whole offer an incisive perspective on several crucial issues facing Egyptian society after World War I.
In two of his articles, Aziz Bek brought the educational policies of the British occupation authorities under fire. His opening volley was a barrage of statistics to demonstrate that "the Egyptian government is illiterate." There is an alarming illiteracy rate among village mayors in all provincial directorates, he writes. Girga ranked the highest with a 46 per cent illiteracy rate among its mayors. The lowest was Giza, in which only 28 per cent of the mayors were illiterate. Out of a total of 3,505 village mayors in the country, 1059 -- or 30 per cent -- did not know how to read or write. In one Delta village, Aziz Bek relates, village notables agreed to allocate LE600 towards the establishment of a village council. "When the mayor learned that among the conditions for membership in the council was the ability to read and write -- and he was illiterate -- he fought the project so tenaciously that he managed to quash it and restore the money to the donors."
More "scandalous" yet was the statistic that 70 per cent of village elders were illiterate. These local leaders, he observes, represent the government in their areas and have considerable executive and legislative powers. "If the government is meticulous in selecting these officials on the assumption that they represent the elite in their parts, one must wonder about the level of ignorance and illiteracy of the rest of the inhabitants!" According to his statistics, that level was astounding. Approximately 86 per cent of Egyptian males and 98 per cent of Egyptian females were illiterate. "These figures tarnish the face of Egyptian education." So slow is progress in educational reform, he continued, that it would take 2000 years to educate all the women in Egypt, and only 200 years to educate all the men. "Unlike other countries, in Egypt it is simpler to calculate the literate, because they are so few."
In his following column on the subject, Aziz Bek presents another set of startling figures. In 1918 the Egyptian government allocated LE440,226 to education, or two per cent of its budget. "In other words, it allocated 35 milliemes (3.5 piastres) per capita to education. This is a gross injustice." To drive this truth home, he added that the allocation to the royal family was LE380,500, "close to the amount allocated to educate the Egyptian people." Meanwhile, in England, for the same year, the British spent LE25 million on education and in the US 94 million. By drawing these comparisons, he concludes, it was not his purpose to stir dismay, but rather "to urge action towards reform after having acquainted ourselves with the weak points in all facets of our national life."
One columnist devoted several instalments of "Short but Significant" to economic concerns. He found it troublesome that so few Egyptians invested in their own country. Once again, the author draws comparisons between Egypt and other countries. The assets of the banks London alone, he said, totaled more than LE2 billion and the assets of the US banks totalled LE8.6 billion. "Once you imagine these enormous sums of money pouring into industry, commerce and agriculture you can readily comprehend why these nations have become superior to others." In another column, Aziz Bek wrote it would be easy to establish a successful national bank. "The entire question depends on the determination of a man and the noble-mindedness of other men. It requires no more than for the man with the determination to invite the other men to meet and consult, after which all they will be able to say to capital 'Be!' and it will be."
Certainly, he continued, the money exists. There were some LE14 million deposited in Egypt. He also had a lengthy list of large landowners which included members of the aristocracy and more than 25 prominent Egyptian families. Were these people to pool their resources, "we would have an enormous capital base with which to establish a national bank." Aziz Bek also wrung his hands over what he considered to be wasted money. One wealthy landowner bequeathed LE24 for bread to be distributed to dogs. Another willed that a percentage of the proceeds from his land should be dedicated to the nightly reading of certain verses to counter witchcraft. A third allocated a portion of a trust fund for having a particular Qur'anic verse (Al-Ikhlas) read 100,000 times per week. "Tell me, by the life of your father, what benefit accrues to the nation from these recitations? Would it not be more worthwhile if these sums were spent on other matters? I do not believe that the provisions of Islamic law would prohibit transferring such sums towards the creation of banks with truly philanthropic aims."
While the economic crisis engendered by the war may have been a compelling reason for sluggish investment, Aziz Bek found no justification for the measures the government adopted to counter the crisis. Raising salaries and compulsory prices were no way to remedy the crisis. Instead, he proposed that the government allocate LE5 million to be distributed as follows: One million pounds should be allocated for the purchase of chemical fertilisers which should be given to farmers at cost price. "With this sum, we could double the production of wheat, barley, beans, corn and other grain." Towards this end, a second million should be allocated for the purchase of livestock and agricultural equipment that would also be given to farm owners at cost price. Another million pounds should be furnished to the agricultural syndicates which, in turn, would dispense the sums to their members to enable them to buy livestock and poultry. The fourth million would be in the form of a long-term non-interest loan to those who take it upon themselves to establish a national bank. Finally, with the fifth million the government would purchase ships "for the transport of wheat, wood, coal, petroleum, meat, oils, fabrics, iron, potatoes, and fruit to be sold in Egypt at cost price." Shipping, Aziz Bek believed, was an important indicator of economic health. "The happiest day for Egypt will be when Egyptian ships ply the seas, when the Egyptian flag flutters on their masts and when Egyptians are both their passengers and at their helms."
Because of its centrality to the Egyptian economy, Aziz Bek devoted several columns to a number of agricultural issues. "Land reclamation" he saw as a priority concern. Egypt had more than eight million feddans of cultivable land, but less than 35 per cent of this land was actually under cultivation. Three elements needed to be brought to bear to rectify that shortcoming: water, labour and money. Water could be supplied through "the construction of barrages in Egypt and Sudan and the distribution of the Nile waters that are stored in the reservoirs these create will be carefully regulated to prevent losing them to the Mediterranean at the time of the flood."
Labour was also an abundant commodity. Some provincial districts were heavily overcrowded and the government could easily encourage the poorer segments of these populations to move to less crowded areas where they could be put to work reclaiming idle land. Apparently, concerns for overpopulation had given rise to suggestions that excess labour should encouraged to migrate to Sudan. That, in Aziz Bek's opinion, would be a tremendous squandering of an important national asset. "As long as there is a single feddan in Egypt that requires the work of the Egyptian fellah so that it can be put under cultivation, not a single fellah should be sent to Sudan."
Money, too, was available, and it must have raised some eyebrows when he said that "the coffers of the Ministry of Finance are overflowing and the surplus has been deposited in the National Bank. If the ministry were, instead, to offer this sum in the form of easy-term loans to farmers ready to reclaim land, it would earn much more than it does from its bank interest." Nothing, he concluded, was more detrimental to the country than to allow land to remain fallow.
Aziz Bek's final articles in his "Short but Significant" series addressed the need to modernise agricultural production. Cotton production, the nation's primary staple crop, he warned, had declined by a third since the beginning of the century, due to the lack of fertiliser and the increase in pests. The author pointed to the superiority of Germany, Belgium and Denmark in cotton production even over other European countries. He praised the ingenuity of one American company which converted military tanks "to machines which plow and till the earth." Similar ingenuity and efforts should be brought to bear in Egypt, he exhorted, "to offset the enormous shortages in agricultural products such as cotton, wheat, beans, onions, barley, rice and sugarcane because of years of neglect in agrarian affairs."
* The author is a professor of history
and head of Al-Ahram History Studies Centre.
