Last-minute Egyptians

Doaa El-Bey was impressed by the will to change the status quo in Egypt and Iran

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Genuine determination to challenge is shown this week in President Hosni Mubarak's speech and in football. Such will, though, was nearly absent in combating swine flu.

Mubarak's speech was widely regarded as painting a clear Egyptian picture of peace. The official daily Al-Ahram wrote that the article firmly outlined the main pillars for a settlement of the Arab-Israeli settlement. The first and the most important is that Israel must confirm serious will and genuine intention to achieve peace. The second is the key to real peace, the establishment of a Palestinian state with full sovereignty within the boundaries of 1967.

The third pillar is full normalisation linked to achieving just and comprehensive peace, as it is not possible that we start normalisation with Israel at a time when it denies the rights of the Palestinian people.

The forth is the necessity of the immediate freezing of Israeli settlements. The fifth is that any peace negotiations now will not start from scratch or from square one as negotiations began two decades ago, and there are many details agreed upon. "So we have here a real opportunity to start negotiations to achieve a comprehensive resolution. What is missing is the will by Israel. So are we going to hear anything positive from Tel Aviv soon? We are waiting," the newspaper editorial concluded.

Mohamed El-Shabba wrote that Mubarak declared in a firm and rather angry manner his rejection of the Jewishness of Israel. He also put an end to all forms of normalisation with Tel Aviv when he said that there would not be normalisation except after resolving the Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese problems. "Mubarak clearly said that the peace process and normalisation are dead. And the ball is now in the Israeli court," El-Shabba wrote in the independent daily Nahdet Masr.

Mohamed Amin questioned in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the Wafd Party, why Mubarak decided to write an article rather than deliver a speech. "There were strong indications that Mubarak would respond to Obama and Netanyahu's speeches with a speech, possibly from Cairo University," Amin wrote.

The Egyptian football team showed great steadfastness in their win this week against Italy which Nahdet Masr called the happy week for Egyptians. Although it ended sadly against the US, writers focussed on the performance and the will to win rather than the end.

Shabba wrote that the Egyptians showed great steadfastness when facing Brazil and Italy, two of the world's greatest teams. "Our team is part of the Egyptian people who stand in long queues to buy bread and half the population suffers from anemia, whereas the other teams get optimum care. Nevertheless, the Egyptian will was shown at its best," he wrote.

Commenting on the performance of our football team this week in the Confederations Cup, Yasser Rizq called on the reader not to wonder why Egypt lost 3-1 to Algeria in a World Cup qualifier, then came back with a heroic performance against Brazil, scoring three times, and defeating Italy. The writer ascribed the discrepancy in performance to the nature of Egyptians who are creative under pressure and who achieve in the last minute. That nature is obvious in football, in politics and life in general.

Rizq concluded in the official daily Al-Akhbar by thanking the Egyptian team that succeeded in doing what politics failed to do: unite the Arab world.

Al-Ahram wrote that regardless of the results of our football team, in which it displayed impressive performances, what to consider when analysing the team is the will which always appears in Egyptians in the most difficult situations and which makes them able to make tremendous achievements that impress the whole world.

The newspaper's editorial added that from the building of the High Dam to the great October victory, to political and economic reforms, each time challenges appear, Egyptians make miracles.

While the edit emphasised that we have much potential, the greatest potential is the Egyptian personality that possesses the heritage and experience of 7,000 years, during which it faced challenges of all kinds and dealt with various forms of occupation and attempts to erase its identity.

Thus, that personality can accomplish the impossible in any field only if it has the chance and under the right conditions. Providing management and the required tools and pushing the will are enough; if so we will obtain stunning results.

The same will is absent in combating swine flu after some newspapers highlighted numerous loopholes in the campaign to confront the disease.

The official daily Al-Akhbar said in its front page that only 19 out of 29 doctors who work as managers in government health centres succeed in exams testing their knowledge about the government's plan to combat swine flu.

Heba Omar wrote that in spite of all the preventive measures announced in the newspapers by government ministers, the public remains on edge, fearing a real and certain reality that the virus is still spreading and that it is difficult to discover the carriers until their temperature increases. Meanwhile, it is impossible to avoid crowded places, especially in public transport, schools and offices that are overcrowded and poorly ventilated.

However, to Omar these measures are not enough because the protection of human health is not limited to preventive measures taken by the Ministry of Health such as the awareness campaigns in the media, providing a treatment drug, or quarantines in ports. Other ministries, such as the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Local Development, should participate in providing protection, monitoring public cleanness which is still deficient in many areas, and continuing treating the bird flu problem considered by specialists more dangerous than swine flu.

"Public cleanness needs a continuous campaign in all streets and buildings in Egypt. The government should start with itself and be a model for the people," Omar summed up in the official weekly Akhbar Al-Yom.

Tariq El-Ghazali Harb expressed his wonderment at the contradictions under which Egyptian live. At a time when millions of Egyptians are living in a state of horror from swine flu, they still live in polluted areas surrounded by garbage while their cleanliness and hygiene habits haven't changed. Meanwhile, they suffer from illnesses far more dangerous than flu including renal failure, hypertension and diabetes.

"These illnesses would not have spread if the government had provided the public with basic living conditions including clean water, sound nutrition for children and control over the quality of food," Harb wrote in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom..