Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 23 - 29 November 2000 Issue No.509
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Another brick in the wall

By Mahmoud Bakr

Ten years ago the journalists gathered under the auspices of Mrs Suzanne Mubarak last week would have little to say to each other. But in the last decade, the environmental movement has come into its own, and as environmental watchdogs set their eyes on the Third World, Egypt has stepped up to the plate as a leading advocate of reform.

From 13 to 17 November, Cairo played host to the eighth annual meeting of the International Federation of Environmental Journalists and the stars of the show were environmental experts plugging developmental reforms to safeguard monuments and cultural heritage, particularly in the Arab world. Journalists were hailed as the primary agents of change, with State Minister for the Environment Nadia Makram Ebeid pounding the stump and telling the assembly that only the media can effectively bring environmental issues into people's everyday lives. Speakers highlighting problems of urban encroachment, overpopulation, neglect and misinformation represented Arab countries like Lebanon, Syria and Tunisia and zeroed in on the imperilled state of ancient monuments in Jerusalem.

photo: Adel Ahmed photo: Magdi Abdel-Sayed

Ibrahim Abdel-Gelil, executive director of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA), joined Ebeid to open the conference and emphasise the role of the media as a partner in sensitising the public to environmental change. Gaballa Ali Gaballa, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), offered a review of Egypt's environmental resources. Drawing on an age-old reverence for nature, Gaballa folded ancient beliefs into modern notions of religion and art. Throwing the blame for a loss of innocence on greedy business ventures and the ruthless drive to demolish and build, Gaballa called for a return to a society in which the primary concern was not only guaranteed profit, but also considerations for the beauty and nobility of the what has been left by earlier generations.

Salama A Salama, chairman of the Egyptian Society of Writers on Environment and Development and a supporter of environmentally-friendly development, put it in no uncertain terms: the forces of globalisation throw concrete hurdles in the way of sustainable development in the Third World. Greater demands are placed on the natural resources, which are in turn over-exploited and often sold at extremely low prices to keep a place in fiercely competitive global markets. Under such conditions, it is easy to see why the maintenance of historical monuments falls low on the list of priorities.

Backing up Gaballa and Salama's comments was a study of the inhabitants of the western oasis of Siwa. Siwans have traditionally been only tenuously tied to the ministrations of the Egyptian government. Descended from various nomadic tribes, they have their own spoken language. Like many small towns in Egypt and the region, the unique customs and traditions of Siwa are threatened by a shift from rural to urban patterns. It is an overarching awareness of culture and the environment that can smooth the transition into modernity without wiping out the hallmarks of Siwan identity.

Representatives of international and regional organisations were happy for the chance to air their concerns and experts from the region discussed projects under way to combat the effects of urban expansion and overcrowded older quarters. Youssef bin Zahra, chairman of the Moroccan Association for Environmental Communication, talked about how projects in places like Fes and Tangiers have incorporated the local community to tackle environmental challenges. Likewise, Samia Yaish, an urban planning architect from Tunisia, explained that safeguarding monuments does not have to mean transforming historic districts into open-air museums -- nor does it follow that any building can be torn down under the anonymous pretext of "modernisation." Proper maintenance should take account of the traditional urban environment and the area's inhabitants.

Lubna Al-Gabi, an architect and director with Syria's Technical Department for the Protection of the Ancient City of Damascus, spoke of a decline in living conditions in the country's religious, commercial and social hub. Most people living in the older parts of the city cannot afford to maintain their buildings and services are inadequate in quality and quantity. Again, it is difficult to imagine that the fastidious conservation of vestiges of the past would be of the utmost importance to most of the population.

From Lebanon, Mohamed Al-Mashnouq, chairman of the Association of Environmental and Developmental Journalists, said that excavations undertaken in the heart of Beirut had raised awareness of his association in recent years. He talked of the need to draft legislation that will protect historic buildings and stop builders from sacrificing Beirut's old-world beauty for get-rich quick high-rises. But it was when the discussion turned to maintaining and restoring ancient buildings in Palestine that things nearly erupted into a pro-Palestinian rally.

Shadia Touqan, a director with the Programme for the Revival of the Ancient City of Jerusalem, explained that local inhabitants were suspicious of planners and conservationists, often ridiculing them or simply ignoring them. But officials are wilfully blind to the destruction and Touqan argued that people, including local inhabitants, must take responsibility for saving Jerusalem's ancient buildings. The discussion became heated as questions were raised about the degradation of the city's cultural nature and comments were made about the increasing "Judaisation" of Arab quarters. Mohamed Abdel-Maqsud, environmental affairs editor at Cairo's daily Al-Akhbar, suddenly let loose an appeal addressed to all nations that Israel be forced to halt its encroachment on Christian and Islamic holy places and then demanded that Arab identity be restored to Jerusalem and Palestine.

Conference coordinator Randa Fouad brought tempers back to the task at hand and called on journalists to increase their role in protecting the environment. As cities become overburdened with too many people and too few services, no one will raise a cry for a few historical relics unless their loss is considered outside of the many problems that face overpopulated and neglected population centres. This is where journalists -- the unofficial conscience of the public at large -- must step in and carry the banner for the preservation of cultural heritage. Officials and environmental societies can give out as many prizes and awards as they like, but until people are as worried as the experts are, more buildings will fall, more waters will be polluted and more conferences will be called all the more hastily.

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