Throwing money at problems does not always solve them. It often compounds the dilemma, writes Amin Howeidi* There are many issues that deserve the government's full and undivided attention. One is the spread of informal neighbourhoods which are virtual slums , or ashwa'eyat. These neighbourhoods, built without planning or authorisation, were constructed under the nose of the state. The phenomenon is so widespread that we no longer see it as an aberration. The government now faces two choices. Either it leaves the ashwa'eyat without public amenities and risks turning them into a hotbed of resentment and lawlessness or it legalises all existing buildings, which may act to encourage more people to break the law. The ashwa'eyat have been built in defiance of the state, and yet the state has turned a blind eye. In a sense the state was an accomplice. People who live in the ashwa'eyat deserve sympathy. You cannot blame people for their housing choices when the state has effectively failed to provide them any alternative -- when they really have no option. Thousands of acres of arable land have been lost to informal housing and for long officials turned a blind eye. When the law is so lax people break it. One suggestion is to punish not only the violators but also the officials who failed to keep things under control. The government has lately been trying to address this problem but the damage is already done. The construction of flyovers also raises many issues crying out for attention. The state is building underpasses and overpasses everywhere and yet traffic is worsening. Flyovers are expensive and have failed to make things better. What must be done now is to address the real problem. Every street has its own capacity and can accommodate only a specific number of vehicles at any moment. To keep building flyovers simply shifts the problem from one part of town to another. It is the volume of traffic that is the problem, not the lack of flyovers. We have to limit the number of vehicles imported. We can't keep buying more cars, certainly not at the current rate. Cars increase pollution and waste fuel and money. And then there are small-sized enterprises. The government has a big budget for stimulating small businesses, but are small businesses really the best way to solve unemployment? Egypt faced the same problem in the 1950s, and it was discussed within the then National Council for Production. My own view is that we need big projects as well as small ones. The state must have large-scale projects. We all know there is something called the Toshka project, but we don't know what is going on there. The president doesn't visit Toshka as frequently as he used to and many suspect that the project is going nowhere. Is this true? I for one believe we should start doing more to develop the Western Desert and Sinai. True, big projects run into big problems. This is normal but we mustn't become disheartened. We need large-scale projects because we need to turn things around in this country. Terrorism in Sinai is another serious issue. The government has been trying to shore up security in Sinai but the Bedouin tribes living there don't seem very happy about it. Whatever we do we must not alienate these tribes. Now I am told we are about to build a wall around Sharm El-Sheikh. This doesn't make sense. Remember the Bar-Lev Line, the one the Israelis thought so impregnable? Where is it now? Let's not waste money on walls. It is best to spend money on people. We could, for example, ask tribal chiefs to maintain order on behalf of the state. This is exactly what we used to do and what the British did successfully in Iraq after WWI. Think before you spend. * The writer is former minister of defence and chief of General Intelligence.
