Al-Ahram Weekly

Strange world order

Sir- It is not easy to understand the world today. The latest events in Israel and the occupied territories and the West's response make one wonder how the world really works. Since Ariel Sharon's visit to the Haram Al-Sharif, more than 100 Palestinians have been brutally murdered, among them several children, by Israeli soldiers. In spite of these outrages, the West has confined itself to oral condemnations of Sharon's visit and to urging both sides to resume the peace negotiations. We have not heard any serious reaction from the UN and probably we will never hear anything either.

If you have studied the modern history of Israel, you will know that Israel has never been forced to respect UN resolutions and the UN has never punished Israel for its violations. Concerning Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, however, Iraq is still punished because it has not fulfilled the UN resolutions. Why are some states treated differently than others? World politics do not make sense.

Asa Hyden and Salam Kamel
Uppsala University, Sweden

No exit

Sir-I write to you in a matter that has been most upsetting to me and my husband as all our complaints so far have fallen on deaf ears.

In 1997 my husband and I invested our hard-earned money in good faith in purchasing a shell in the villas area of Hadaba, Sharm Al-Sheikh. We proceeded to build and complete it to a luxury standard and furnished it with no expense spared.

Sadly, we were never told (neither at the time of purchase nor during the process of building our villa), that we were going to be left without necessities such as roads and street lighting for years to come.

Most upsetting of all is the fact that some villas are still left unfinished and unattended in dangerously filthy states, labourers using them as toilets.

Stray animals are left dead, their decomposing bodies covered in flies in the heat, further polluting the environment. I fear it will not be long, if something urgent is not done, before humans are contaminated.

My husband is Egyptian and I am British. We have no entry or exit to our villa and have already destroyed our brand-new car, which we are now obliged to leave with a friend in Cairo.

Any hope of us seeing a decent road and street lighting is disappearing quickly along with having a place in Sharm Al-Sheikh for ourselves, and visiting relatives and friends from abroad. Instead, there is the reality of living in the oppressive darkness at night resembling a burial ground, with an impenetrable pile of contaminated rubble and filth which has now become a health hazard.

When we contacted the people concerned, we were given a series of excuses, followed by a vague suggestions that it will be done soon. All our complaints have so far been in vain. We were told that the project of the villas area began in 1992. It is now 2000 and the area is still without roads and street lighting.

M H Higazi
Surrey, UK