Soapbox:

In place of trophies

By Azza Heikal

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While Egyptians were celebrating the victory of their football team over the lions of Africa others were standing patiently in the queues that form daily before public bakeries. Increases in the price of wheat, flour and a host of other basic commodities have left many families unable to cope. Inflation now threatens the very fabric of society, with price rises leading to a critical problem in the Egyptian street. Unfortunately, the government seems unaware of the pulse of street life and seems not to notice the growing anger that has spread among most of Egypt's social classes.

Those people whose income does not satisfy their daily needs are classified as poor. In the Egypt of today it is a classification that includes almost all government employees, indeed anyone paid from the state treasury. Many young graduates are desperate to leave Egypt, and will even risk the potentially fatal consequences of illegal immigration to Europe rather than stay in their homeland and wait until they are allocated an official post. Egypt is becoming a country that cannot feed its children. It is a barren land, a breastless mother. Doctors, engineers, teachers and professors all face a daily nightmare as they struggle to meet the needs of their families. Honesty and efficiency in the workplace have been replaced by corruption and hypocrisy. Discontent, anger, and fury are undermining our society and driving many to crime. Injustice in the distribution of wealth, a haphazard policy of privatisation and a dearth of job opportunities make for a very pessimistic picture. Compounding the atmosphere of gloom is the greed of merchants, and the ruthless exploitation of monopolies. So dire is the situation that no one can predict how it will end.

Beware the steady build up of anger, the terrible pressure that threatens to burst forth. Their daily bread, in the end, means more to the people than a thousand football trophies.

This week's Soapbox speaker is a professor of English literature, Faculty of Alsun, Ain Shams University.