Doaa El-Bey looks at natural as well as man-made disasters Newspapers followed the impact of the floods on Sinai and Aswan. The editorial of the official daily Al-Ahram stated that saving the victims was a national target that should be given priority at all levels. It added that the victims were suffering from severe shortages in food, clean water and shelter in addition to power cuts and means of transportation. The paper's edit said those most affected had so far received meagre aid that could do little in such circumstances. In short, the edit said, local government bodies failed to understand the magnitude of the catastrophe and did not act quickly enough to cushion the blow. "The floods revealed major negligence in some areas: both citizens and government bodies are allowed to build houses in the way of possible floods," the edit added. However, it called for working out a quick mechanism by which the government and popular bodies cooperate in order to deal with the catastrophe, provide the victims with shelter, rebuild what the floods destroyed and work hard until things return to normal. Mohamed Amin looked at the bigger problem in Sinai: the absence of development. He wrote that nothing has been achieved in Sinai under Ahmed Nazif's government, and he expected that nothing will happen in the future. Nazif did not even bother to pay a visit to Sinai to show its people that they are part of the country. Thus, the reaction of the people in Al-Arish to his recent visit was expected. Some people asked why he came, some asked him to leave and others went as far as demanding he be tried. As a result, Amin added, Nazif was forced to leave. The writer believed that the people in Al-Arish and other parts of Sinai are justified in their anger because they have been living for more than a quarter of a century with the hope of developing and populating their peninsula. Their dream has never been realised. Amin asked where the national project for Sinai is. A sum of LE57 billion was earmarked for Sinai. That money was enough to turn Sinai into a paradise. Today, it is still a desert. He predicted that Sinai would remain an area of tension either because of security concerns, the way different governors deal with it or the state's policy of ignoring the problems of the Bedouins and dealing with them as third class citizens. All what officials have done up till now is talk about clichés like tourism, construction and industrial development; developing the infrastructure and upgrading the utilities or limiting the impact of floods. However, the people in Sinai realised the hoax and refused to meet Nazif who represents the government, Amin wrote in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Al-Wafd Party. The Nagaa Hammadi shooting, in which seven people, six of them Coptic Christians, were gunned down earlier this month, is likely to have an impact on society for some time. Ahmed Taha El-Naqr wrote that we are in need of revelation before reconciliation. In other words, ignoring the root causes of sectarian strife or leniency in punishing inciters, or holding reconciliation conferences after such incidents is like closing a wound without cleaning or dressing it. Revelation forces us to acknowledge that leniency in dealing with sectarian strife has contributed in creating an atmosphere of extremism and sectarian congestion. Revelation requires an acknowledgment that the media, especially satellite TV channels and the Internet, are partially responsible for igniting sectarian strife either by spreading extremist thought or by aggravating sectarian incidents for sensational motives. Moreover, Taha El-Naqr added in the official daily Al-Akhbar that fighting sectarian strife is the prime responsibility of society as a whole, especially the state, political parties, civil society organisations, men of religion as well as Muslim and Christian religious institutions. Mohamed El-Shabba wrote that we must acknowledge that laws which are supposed to protect the Egyptian citizen from any form of discrimination do not have any teeth. As a result, laws have failed to stop sectarian strife. Thus, El-Shabba added in the independent daily Nahdet Masr that if we tell the US and Europe that what happens inside Egypt is an internal matter, then we should move quickly to fix our domestic situation which not only includes ties between Muslims and Christians, but also the relationship between the capital and the south, and between the central government and border cities from Al-Arish to Marsa Matrouh. "People living in these border cities suffer from flagrant discrimination which manifests itself in poverty, social injustice, deficiency in services, absence in security and the consequent spread of extremism and crime," he wrote. Amid all the bad news, Egyptians celebrated after the 3-1 victory over Cameroon in the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola. Newspapers published rhetorical headlines including: 'Shehata circus tames The Lions' in the official daily Al-Gomhuriya; 'Congratulations to Egypt, great victory over The Lions' in Al-Akhbar; and 'Our national team defeats Cameroon in a great match' in Al-Ahram. Egypt also celebrated Police Day this week. While he hailed all policemen, Khaled El-Qadi asked them to exert more effort to protect our society from thieves, extremists and those who incite sectarian strife. He noted in the official weekly Akhbar Al-Yo u m that although Police Day was an official holiday, policemen were probably the only group who could not take the day off because their absence for a whole day could cause serious problems. Thus, he greeted them for working on the day of their holiday. Newspapers expressed frustration over US President Barack Obama's failure to take any tangible steps in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. Al-Ahram's banner headline read, 'Obama acknowledges inability to resolve the Middle East problem'. Mohamed Mustafa Shordi wrote that Obama had finally confessed he had failed to resolve the Middle Eastern problem. The admission, according to Shordi, proved that it is the American institution and not the president who actually runs the country. While Obama's confession came after one year of trial, the president affirmed he would continue consultations with the Palestinians and Israeli until he reaches an acceptable settlement that would lead to a two-state solution. The writer asked in Al-Wafd why we never see a leader in the Arab world who acknowledges his failures, or his inability to resolve a problem, or attempts to change an official of a political party who fails to deliver.
