Dina Ezzat finds uncanny similarities between society and a best-selling thriller The cinema pages provided those who did not have the chance to read Alaa El-Asswani's masterpiece The Building of Yaccobian some insight into the multiple stories offered in the book about the history -- and in a way -- the present of Egypt, maybe even its future. It is through these pages that the reader is keen to watch the movie based on the book not just because of the mega stars featured in the huge production but because of its profound and clever diagnosis as to the state of Egypt. Reading beyond the cinema and culture pages -- especially in the pages of crime and politics which do not necessarily come one after the other in the papers -- a reader is bound to encounter daily stories of rich men abusing women, character assassination of figures in the political opposition, MPs who climbed the ladder of social society to get questionably rich, confused cultural identities on matters of sexuality and the rise and fall of societies. Just like in The Building of Yaccobian there is always this someone who says that all is well -- without going as far as saying, "Egyptians were born to love their government... they are the easiest people to rule in the world... Egyptians have always compromised on their pride to make a living," as one of the characters in the book said. However, the press is always repeating the rosy statements of one official or other, often from the so-called powerful economic group, who makes statements that clash with the screams printed in the letters to the editor section in the national, opposition and independent press. "All debts of businessmen with assets in the poultry industry to be frozen for now", the front and economy pages of the national and some of the independent papers promised. "We are faced with a dire economic crisis," cried investors in the poultry industry on the home pages of the same papers and the front of the opposition papers. Taxi drivers will finally have to use their metres and taxes will be reduced on drivers and owners of old taxis, transport officials tell the dailies. But the same newspapers carry complaints of citizens about the poor quality of service of Cairo taxis and the anger of drivers about the unfair tax laws to which they are subjected. It is not just poultry and taxis. The drivers and technicians of the underground metro on Sunday tell Al-Arabi Al-Nasseri, mouthpiece of the Nasserist Party, that they will go on strike if the government fails to adjust their economic conditions. Also on Sunday, the authors and critics of drama tell Sawt Al-Ummah that their production is undermined by no other than the drama production department of the state-run television. The same paper carries many more disturbing stories about the failure of the government to take sufficient pre-emptive action to contain the damage sustained by the outbreak of bird flu and the new regulations imposed by the Ministry of Finance on retirement and death pensions that would handicap the already limited resources of millions of Egyptian families. The families of the victims of the Al-Salam 98 ferry, which sank last month killing 1,000 people on board, tell the independent daily Al-Masri Al-Youm on Monday that they have not received compensation promised by the government and the owner of the ferry. "Compensation has not been delivered... Does this indicate that the government has any respect or sympathy for its citizens?" asked Magdi Mehanna on Tuesday in his daily back-page column of Al-Masri Al-Youm. "Is this a government worthy of our confidence and trust?" Mehanna asked. On Monday Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the liberal Wafd Party, tells its readers that Syria has imposed new restriction on many Egyptian agricultural exports and that Australia plans to impose sanctions on its import of cattle to Egypt. In almost typical Yaccobian scenes, the Egyptian press was consumed with a debate over a one-year sentence issue by a court passed against a journalist for publishing stories critical of a former minister of housing. There was perhaps a more disturbing story of four judges being questioned by the state security prosecution for their criticism of the administration of the legislative elections held in Egypt late last year. "The government is shooting all hopes of political reform," stated Wael El-Ebrashi in his weekly page three article in the independent and largely critical weekly Sawt Al-Ummah. Having called the government all sorts of names for what he qualifies as its poor performance on all levels, El-Ebrashi said the most disturbing scene in the bleak script of Egypt today is that of sending respectable judges for interrogation by state security. "It is a black day for Egypt when four judges are sent for interrogation before the prosecution." Other writers and cartoonists found it to be an equally black day for Egypt to send its journalists to jail for having printed stories on alleged wrong-doing by some state officials. On Tuesday, in his brief and profound Al-Akhbar box "Half a word", cynical commentator Ahmed Ragab recalled that President Mubarak had promised legislation to ban the imprisonment of journalists for publication offences. The long-awaited legislation, Ragab wrote, is unlikely to see the light of day under the current government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif. "Our prime minister is a man with little faith in democracy and has made clear statements to this effect... he is running an electronic government that has a software that rings alarm bells against all journalists." As chairman of Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, Abdel-Moneim Said suggested in his weekly reflective article in Al-Ahram on Monday that the trouble with Egypt today is not just the inefficiency of government or corruption. In Egypt today, like in Yaccobian, there is this disturbing state of confusion resulting from the exercise of dictatorship, corruption and lack of constructive ideas. As Alaa El-Asswani tried to indicate in his book, Said stressed, "Egypt does not have much time to waste before it starts getting very serious with re
