Deadly African bugs
The tragic death of two sportsmen and a national dialogue found their way to this week's Egyptian press, writes Fatemah Farag
News of the "black cloud", Sonallah Ibrahim's rejection of the Arab novelist award and the situation in Iraq continued to dominate the papers. But while the banner of Al-Ahram on 31 October informed the public that "Bush is in an awkward and dangerous position now that the death toll of Americans has reached 116 since he announced military victory in Iraq," the nation's attention was also forcibly drawn to the tragic death of two members of the national chess team that had been participating in the All-Africa Games in Nigeria last month. "A sports crisis" screamed the banner of Al-Wafd newspaper on 31 October. The paper was not only referring to the deaths but to sportsmen returning from Abuja, Nigeria, having fallen prey to malaria. With 27 athletes already ill, the paper described it a "medical and sports catastrophe". Those ill and those still being tested informed the paper that there was an obvious lack of medical services -- five doctors for a 700-member delegation. The next day, Al-Wafd continued to publish details of the situation including the testimony of Hamada El-Naqeeb, head of the Egyptian delegation which went to Nigeria. El-Naqeeb said the athletes had suffered vicious bug bites during their stay in the African country. "The handball games were held in a mountainous area and around 70 or 80 kinds of bugs were attacking us from all sides."
Attention in the press across the board focussed on the lack of medical supervision, fore-planning and awareness. According to Hani Baheeg and Zeinab Abdullah in Al-Osbou' on 3 November, "Day after day it becomes clear that shoddiness is one of the most important characteristics of work in Egypt." They said that while the athletes did receive a drug preventing malaria before leaving Cairo, they received it too late, and were not subjected to quarantine procedures upon their return, jeopardising their health and those around them. "Everyone in Egypt has the right to know, right now, why the Fever Hospital in Alexandria failed after seven-and-a-half hours to save Egypt's chess champion Essam Ahmed," wrote Adel Hashim in a half-page feature published by Al-Ahram on 3 November. Hashim reported that a lax and deficient system at the hospital was one of the main reasons the sportsman died.
The press also reported that the health of Egyptian citizens was also jeopardised by the Giza Zoo in conjunction with the Spanish company responsible for garbage collection in the area where the zoo is situated. A case in point was the discovery of nine donkeys heads in the Saqia Mekkey area. According to Al-Wafd of 3 November, workers at the zoo said they had slaughtered the donkeys to feed the lions and had thrown the heads into garbage cans. Al-Akhbar of the same day pointed out that every day eight donkeys are slaughtered and their refuse thrown into garbage cans that were at one point kept within the confines of the zoo. But after receiving complaints about the smell, the workers began throwing the donkey remains into bins on the main street outside the zoo. The Spanish company added to the problem by waiting for an inordinate amount of time before picking up the remains of the carcasses.
It's enough to drive anyone crazy but as Al-Ahali reported, psychiatrist Ahmed Okasha confirmed in an official statement to the ministers of health and interior that it was unacceptable to threaten citizens under investigation by sending them to mental health hospitals. Okasha was making specific references to the case of Raef Mohamed, a student at the American University in Cairo who was arrested and then sent to the Mental Health Hospital as a way of intimidation. According to Al-Ahali, "In his letter, Dr Okasha mentioned that the mental health of citizens is the responsibility of those officials responsible for mental health and it is unacceptable that those responsible for security frighten citizens by using the profession [of psychiatry] and its tools..."
And so "Egyptians are waiting for change," or so claims Magdi Abdel-Karim in Al-Arabi. Abdel-Karim claimed that the popularity of the current government was dwindling on the Egyptian street and that "the proliferation of corruption is feeding anger and frustration among Egyptians." A closer look, however, shows that these are not necessarily Abdel-Karim's sentiments but rather a review of the "Pharaohs are waiting", an article published by the Atlantic Monthly.
However, indigenous critical stances were to be found in the coverage of the first round of what has been dubbed the "national dialogue" published in this week's press. Galal Mohamed in Al-Arabi argued that "there is a consensus that the hidden agenda of the national dialogue is to work towards increasing the isolation of the Muslim Brotherhood... In addition to rescuing the [Prime Minister Atef] Ebeid government from its current economic crisis by giving it a veneer of legitimacy." While Sami Fahmi of Al-Ahali asked: "The dialogue of the National Democratic Party: trick or reality?"
Journalists had their own bone to pick this week, namely the statements made by the American Ambassador to Egypt David Welch in which he allegedly attacked the Egyptian press. Details of the alleged remarks were conspicuously absent in coverage of the reaction to it. Nevertheless, according to Al-Arabi, there is great anger within journalistic circles to what it described as the "arrogant interference of the American ambassador". The paper also said the head of the Journalists Syndicate Galal Aref had presented a memorandum to the foreign minister calling on him to summon the American ambassador to inform him of the syndicate's position -- which is that it rejects any interference by the ambassador in the affairs of Egyptian journalism. It also called on Egyptian journalists to stop dealing with Welch. Al-Ahali disclosed that the syndicate had turned down a USAID grant to train 50 Egyptian journalists for eight weeks in the US.
At the end of the day we all root for Egypt and Al-Osbou' called on the Egyptian government to "wake up" and start lobbying seriously to host the 2010 World Cup. "Until now the committee responsible for hosting the event is focussing too much on local publicity." And it warned that South Africa had already ensured that 11 of the 24 votes necessary to win the bid will go to it, even though the actual voting will not be held until May.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 6 - 12 November 2003 (Issue No. 663)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/663/pr1.htm