Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | Letters to the Editor

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 7 - 13 June 2001 Issue No.537
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Most likely to...
Sir- While looking through some old magazines, a statement caught my eye, under the heading "Winners and Losers" (Time, 15 May 2001). It read: "Adolf Hitler, ex-dictator, is voted the most hated person in Madame Tussaud's annual poll." May I add to that just one more sentence -- "...till the reappearance of Ariel Sharon in the political arena."
Reine Naggar
Agouza

Connect the dots
Sir- I have heard of the prime minister's decision to allocate parts of the island of Al-Warraq to developers, and his subsequent statement that those inhabitants possessing title deeds to the land on which they live would not be evicted. I fear that this caveat is not sufficient. Most of the inhabitants of Al-Warraq and the other islands in the Nile live there because it is the only place they or their forefathers found when they migrated to Cairo from the countryside. They settled there and built what shelter they could; gradually, they developed into close-knit communities that survive (yet surely do not prosper) through fishing and a little agriculture. What is the logic behind demanding proof of ownership from what was until very recently an informal settlement? The inhabitants of these islands have not harmed anyone by settling there; they did not steal or seize the land from its rightful occupants, and if anything they are benefiting the country while not demanding much in return.
I visited some of these islands and found them a rare spot of greenery in a city that has become nothing short of monstrous. I cringe to think of them transformed into forests of hideous high-rise buildings such as those that adorn the Corniche on both sides of the Nile (the purple blight near the Mounib bridge springs to mind...). This is madness, truly. Why not just be done with it? All the developers need to do is pour concrete into the Nile and start building -- there is no need for a river, after all, and according to this way of thinking it is merely a waste of space. I am saddened by what is happening to this city, beautiful for a thousand years, made desolate in a few decades.
Mariam Kamel
Maadi

Egyptian beauty
Sir-I enjoyed Hani Mustafa's review of Magdi Ahmed Ali's new film Asrar Al-Banat (Al-Ahram Weekly, 19-25 April), but was surprised that the focus was only on the taboo issues portrayed: female genital mutilation and teenage pregnancy out of wedlock. The film, however, like last year's American Beauty, lays bare the dysfunctional family, this time an Egyptian one. This is the real taboo that no one has perceived. It deals with the murder of creativity, freedom and spontaneity in our society, and the inability of our social fabric to provide children with the necessary love, support and understanding to enable them to grow into healthy, curious, adventurous and happy adults who can contribute constructively to society's development.
The movie is about alienation, and the consequences of dreadful loneliness and psychological isolation on society as a whole. Parents are unable to provide moral or ethical anchorage. They themselves are lost: their only criteria are material, their only concern what people think. Worn down by frustrated ambitions and material demands, they cannot understand their children.
The educational system also fails to provide any anchorage or inspiration. The conclusion seems to be that none of our social institutions (marriage, school, family, friends) can fulfil the functions required of them. The result is the death of hope for future generations. Young audiences were moved to tears by Asrar Al-Banat. Would that the alarm bells this movie sounds are heard and heeded.
Heba Abdel-Latif
Giza

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