Issue No. 610
Opinion
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31 Oct. - 6 Nov. 2002 Issue No. 610 Opinion |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
The baltagis
Decades ago Cairo was a collection of small neighbourhoods, each of which was in a constant state of mutation, splintering into ever smaller entities. Each entity was a small world unto itself, and each had a neighbourhood tough, a strongman whose fortunes depended on how well he could conduct himself in a fight. He was called the fetewwah. And fetewwahs knew a thing or two about loyalty. They were not mobsters, for they had a deep sense of belonging to their community and a natural impulse to protect it. Back then streets would occasionally enter into rivalries much in the way that football fans do today. A feud would suddenly erupt between two alleys, and the fetewwahs would spring to action. But fetewwahs were not the only strongmen around.
Occasionally the baltagis would take over. These people were nothing but plain thugs. They were mobsters and racketeers.
The business in which the Baltagis would indulge involved the collection of protection money, accompanied with threats of menace, from small merchants. Their technique to ensure the continued payment of this protection money was to ensure that the locals lived their lives in a state of continual fear.
They were, in short, nothing more than oppressors. And because of this it was absolutely necessary that they be stood up to, and, when necessary, fought with.
Which brings me to my point: Is it not sad that the international scene appears today to be dominated bybaltagis? And where, one wonders, are the fetewwahs to keep them in check?
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
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