28 June - 4 July 2001
Issue No.540
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 28 June - 4 July 2001 Issue No.540 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Heart of the city
In Egypt investment decisions tend to be issued suddenly and then, as often as not, are as swiftly retracted. It is a pattern that is endlessly repeated, and which was once again in evidence following an announcement by the Minister of Housing Mohamed Ibrahim Soliman, concerning the two islands of Gaziret El-Dahab and El- Warraq.
The story began when Soliman, without consulting with other concerned authorities, proposed to the prime minister that the two islands, comprising 1,500 feddans in the heart of Cairo, be offered to investors for real estate development. The announcement outraged both environmentalists and those activists concerned with social development.
The state has traditionally been able to transgress property rights through confiscation and eviction and, on occasion, extends paltry sums as compensation to those who are removed by its policies -- almost inevitably members of the poorest and most underprivileged groups.
Undoubtedly the islands, from the viewpoint of developers, represent a potentially lucrative slice of the increasingly congested urban pie. Yet the prospect of the islands suddenly sprouting high rise blocks rather than the agricultural goods they have produced for decades was sufficiently alarming to provoke vociferous and influential opposition. The result? The minister in question announced a U-turn, claiming that the future of the two islands was now to be "studied and reviewed."
The pattern of events surrounding the two islands is, unfortunately, indicative of the manner in which executive decisions are increasingly announced without any account being taken of their consequences. All too often it appears as if the executive authorities operate in a vacuum, or else act in response to pressures applied by a very narrow section of vested interests. And the manner in which those vested interests operate is, in itself, indicative of the fact that the local private sector has yet to reach the stage where it is capable of taking the developmental or environmental consequences of its actions on board during the decision making process. Avarice rules the day, all too often with the connivance of government officials. Forget the vast swathes of the city given over to the poor -- this is, after all, what decision makers tend to do. Even in the most affluent suburbs, the inevitable attrition on the urban environment has led to the creation of rich men's slums.
One prime example of this phenomenon is the 40 storey high rise building in Zamalek, on the corner of Hassan Sabri Street and overlooking a narrow four-metre wide street. It now dominates the nearby Fish Garden, and though it is ready to be leased as a hotel has no parking spaces for the fleets of limousines and coaches that a five star hotel brings in its wake.
A similar lack of vision renders any attempts to rehabilitate the city's older quarters null and void. Think only of the plight of Bulaq Abul Ela. Plans are afoot to evict residents from what is, after all, an inner city district constructed on extremely valuable land, without any serious thought being given to providing an alternative habitat for those evicted. Nor has it even been considered that the inhabitants should remain in situ following the area's upgrading.
The least savory aspects of Egypt's bureaucracy, combined with the pressures of a private sector that seems to have only the most tenuous links with anything that might be described as productive enterprise, continues, it would seem, to drive policy decisions. And not content with jeopardising the banking system and locking massive quantities of capital and liquidity in redundant real-estate speculation on the outskirts of the city, the same consortium of interests is now eyeing swathes of the inner city to launch what are likely to be similarly disastrous schemes.
For such chaos to subside dialogue between all players -- relevant government departments, investors and those concerned with social and economic development -- is needed. The remnants of the bureaucracy that for years has operated in the shadow of state capitalism must step aside to allow real development -- premised on social justice and urban aesthetics -- to take place.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page