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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 September 1999 Issue No. 445 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 September 1999 Issue No. 445
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Focus Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Carts and horses
By Safinaz Kazem*
Years ago, as a little girl going to school from Abbasiya and passing through Gamaliya, I learned the important differences between a cart driver and a coachman. The cart driver, arbagy, transported whatever on his donkey driven cart while the coachman was in charge of a gleaming vehicle pulled by well-fed and perfectly groomed horses.
Coachmen, enjoying a higher living standard, could easily be outdone by the cart drivers as far as their repertoire of insults and obscenities was concerned. At times even the donkeys seemed to look away in disgust from masters who spent the bulk of their time spitting and swearing.
Years later, when the sight of donkeys, mules and horses has become less common in the city, we continue to refer to these animals in our conversation. Engines are graded according to horsepower; someone rude is dubbed a "hammar" or else an arbagy, a cart driver.
Today, though, our society is riddled with well to do people whose manners do not rise above those of the cart driver stereotype. Arbagys today are everywhere: in offices, cafés, throwing rubbish from the windows of expensive cars, and can even be found in the ranks of the self-proclaimed intelligentsia.
And now I have more sympathy for the poor arbagy of old, who swore and spat out of despair. They were poor, and their life was one long struggle to make ends meet. But what excuse can we find for the despicable behaviour of the new, affluent class, whose behaviour and awareness of environmental issues is far beneath the arbagy's.
*This week's Soapbox speaker is a senior journalist and critic.
