28 Feb. - 6 March 2002
Issue No.575
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 28 Feb. - 6 March 2002 Issue No.575 |
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Train to tragedy
The catastrophe of the Aswan-bound train, which experts describe as the worst of its kind in rail history throughout the world, brings to mind countless catastrophes that took place over the last few years on highways, on the Nile, in shops and factories. Fires ignite suddenly for reasons that remain unknown. Every time, hundreds of people die, and heavy material losses are sustained.
In every country natural circumstances, technical or human errors result in such tragedies. In Egypt in recent years, however, such mistakes have increased at a frightening rate, claiming record numbers of victims, and revealing an ever higher degree of carelessness and imprecision. In a society shifting from an agricultural, rural and manual mode of life to one that is electronic, mechanised and urban, human development has not kept pace. Except for a limited class of technicians and skilled workers in a few major industries, Egyptians continue to adopt a tentative, suspicious approach to even the most simple household appliances, including those the average European child would be capable of fixing.
This does not imply that Egyptians lack talent. I was surprised when I discovered, for example, that the captains of large Nile ferries, who chart the river's dangerous course, negotiating its complex currents and shifting islands with ease, are simple Upper Egyptians whose independently honed skills surpass those of graduates from the best naval academies.
Yet the train disaster indicates a terrible human failure to deal with methods of transportation and communication -- an unprecedented degree of ignorance, in fact. Whether the reason for the fire was a faulty electrical connection, the lack of brakes, alarms and fire extinguishers or the use of a kerosene stove to make tea and coffee, neither the railway administration nor the passengers are aware of the priorities involved in dealing with a large-scale apparatus like the railway network. Even though Egypt was among the first countries in the world to acquire such a network, the Egyptian's relationship with the train remains almost metaphysical in its whimsy -- with occasionally horrifying consequences.
It is clear, then, that while the accumulation of experience should have resulted in a highly efficient and technologically advanced railway system, the state's carelessness in dealing with it has resulted in stasis, if not actual deterioration, over the past century. This backwardness has affected not only administrators and technicians but also beneficiaries of the system, with the passengers causing as much damage as those who run the trains.
The state has only taken care of those people who want to go to Alexandria, Luxor or Aswan. Almost luxurious, almost rapid trains (dubbed "the Spaniard," "the Italian," etc., according to their country of origin) are available for them. As for second- and third-class services, they have remained resolutely the same, like the cages in Guantanamo Bay. The railway network, moreover, has not been modernised, and so cannot cope with the exponential increase in population, let alone keep up with the global transport revolution.
The condition of the railway network cannot be expected to improve simply because the minister of transport and the head of railways have resigned (the latter to be replaced by his deputy). Capabilities, technical and administrative systems, and the bureaucratic mentality have remained the same. And if conditions do not change, we must not expect such tragedies to end, or at least fall to average rates, anytime soon.
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