It might sound convenient to vent anger and outrage on governments. It is even easier to point accusing fingers at ministers and bureaucrats and pretend that once they are sacked everything would be just fine. However, would the identification of the government as the culprit remedy the situation? At this historical juncture, the blame game would not do. Successive governments have been grappling with similar catastrophes and yielding few positive results and solutions, but obviously something in the system itself is at fault. The very concept of offhand and formless attitude or policy isn't simply a physical slum, it is unfortunately a jumbled way of thinking. We can no longer afford to sit idly by as the country falls apart. No year passes without some disaster of one sort or another striking. This year, in particular, was especially difficult. First, the Marsa Matrouh rail disaster, then the thanawiya aama fiasco followed by the fire that engulfed the Shura Council building and now the destruction of tens of poorly-constructed houses in the Dweiqa shantytown because of the tumbling of boulders from the Moqattam Mountain top. Surely, it is not merely coincidental that these catastrophes occur with such ominous regularity. However, we should instead get to the root cause of the problem. Corruption is endemic, and it is found at all levels of society. What is of critical importance is to tackle the issue head on. There is a way of avoiding the disasters. We need to plan better for a much safer future. Instead of getting bogged down in the morass of superfluous paperwork, bureaucracy and red tape, the authorities should come up with practical ways of addressing pressing social concerns, and especially in the slums inhabited by the impoverished millions who feel alienated from the state and lack basic amenities. Matters have come to a head. Columnists in official papers are now urging the dismissal of government ministers for their irresponsibility and lack of concern for the disadvantaged in Egypt. It is inopportune, here, to mention the tirades of pundits in the independent papers. The lack of accountability has become a cause of catastrophe in the country. Who is responsible for such disasters? The blame cannot be shoved on the poor, on the victims of such calamities. The disaster this time is in the scale of the scandal. A boulder tumbles down on hapless slum dwellers and the authorities have no credible answer to people's queries. The authorities knew that the boulders of the Moqattam Mountain were liable to fall at any moment. Yet, they waited for the disaster to occur. Why didn't they take action more quickly? Geologists have long predicted such a disaster, yet the authorities pussyfooting have declined to take speedy action. Instead of relocating the unsuspecting victims to safer locations, they left them to build poor standard housing in a shantytown of over 500,000 people. The Dweiqa disaster looms large in the collective national psyche. The horrifying images in the print media and on television have driven the point home. Dweiqa was an accident waiting to happen. The shantytown's residents were frustrated and felt politically impotent. They didn't even have the means to take the law into their own hands. Theirs was a survival game and like the law of the jungle they ended up being the victims of unforeseen circumstances. Their world collapsed before them. Everything they owned was buried underneath the rubble and debris of their poorly constructed houses and shacks. Their loved ones, in many instances, also met a horrific end, being buried alive. The human tragedy cannot be belittled or underestimated. The poor of Egypt have the right to a decent living. They do not deserve to live in substandard housing. They, most certainly, deserve far better.
