Nesmahar Sayed and Osama Kamal follow the street vendor saga Nearly 20 months ago, millions took to the streets to demand political freedom. Since then, another wave of humanity has taken over, furiously selling stuff on the sidewalks. Just as Tahrir Square was the site of the first revolution, it now stands witness to the second revolution, the peddlers and their ubiquitous sidewalk displays. The revolution which freed us from political tyranny has also freed the hundreds of thousands of hawkers and petty merchants from the inconvenient restrictions of law and order. Highly mobile merchants now line the sidewalks, spill into the metro station, occupy every intersection, howling cries not of political victory, but of commercial desperation. They prod the passers-by, impede pedestrian and vehicular traffic, importune the innocent masses to sell anything and everything, from balls that light up, balloons of every imaginable shape, tiny cars, plastic bicycles, toy planes, dry batteries, pens, lighters, kitchen knives, bags, flags, and anything of use or no use at all. The average peddler is 15-35 of age. Many came from the impoverished provinces of the country, the provinces which development plans never seem to reach. Diaa, 20, was born in Birkhil, a small village near the town of Bellina in the governorate of Sohag. He dropped out of school in the fourth year and cannot find a better job. "I have no other recourse. I have seven brothers and this is my only source of income. I live in constant fear of the metro and municipal police. But I got used to this situation," Diaa said. Diaa buys discarded children's toys from shops and sells them in the metro. Sometimes he displays his ware in Tahrir Station, and sometimes in others. He cannot save any money and lives from hand to mouth. He lives with relatives in Hekr Al-Qallaya in Boulak. *** Walking in Midan Tahrir these days is almost like being in an endless moulid, or saint's day, in the countryside. A brilliant song writer, someone like the late Salah Jahine, would no doubt be able to make a great musical out of it. The peddlers have taken over the square. You no longer need to seek out cafés and restaurant. Just walk around the square, and you can eat and drink on the go, and the cheap. You can have tea, buy corn on the cob, and finish off with the puffed, fried pastry known as Balah Al-Sham (dates of Syria). Pushcarts are everywhere in the square that never sleeps. You can shop for T-shirts and other memorabilia of the revolution; you can buy pens, mugs, key chains, and wallets bearing revolutionary slogans or the likenesses of the martyrs. Umm Hassan, 54, operates a tea stand there. She is divorced with three children and no formal education. Selling tea is the only trade she has ever known. Since the revolution, she has not only been working but also living in Tahrir Square. She is originally from Istabl Antar, a densely populated and underprivileged area in southern Cairo. She likes her life in Tahrir: "The greatest thing about the square is that you're never alone. It's always day time in the square. I don't know how I will leave the square and go back to my former life. We are simple people and live by the grace of God. If we don't work one day, we don't have food to eat. The square has been good to us and to all of Egypt," she said. Gamal, 33, sells slogan plaques and stickers on the Talaat Harb corner of Tahrir Square. He has a college degree in history, but was never able to find steady work. He worked as a salesman in shops, then decided to go independent. "When the revolution broke out, I came up with the idea of selling slogans on stickers and plaques. It was a very successful idea for a while. Now the business is only good when there is a million-man-march, such as those called by various political parties. I have no future aside from being a peddler. The government should either offer me a steady job or leave me alone," Gamal said. Mustafa, 37, is a graduate of a polytechnic school in Menoufiya. Married with three children, he has tried his luck in various professions, selling food and drinks sometimes and garments at others. "The sons of the rich are rich and the sons of the poor are poor. The government has left us to our own devices, but it must help us before we turn into thieves and beggars," Mustafa said. Mustafa admits that the peddlers block the traffic, but he says they have no other way to make a living. Passersby are often tired of the unruliness of the peddler-controlled streets. Abdallah, a computer engineer in his mid-20s, said that the sheer sight of peddlers on every corner is off putting. "I feel that the revolution has been hijacked by the two largest organisations in Egypt: the Muslim Brotherhood and the street peddlers," Abdallah said. In the streets radiating from Tahrir Square, it's the same story. Peddlers have occupied the streets, slowing pedestrian and vehicular traffic to an uncomfortable crawl. Mohamed, 22, is selling women scarves next to Law Courts complex on Ramsis Street. He dropped out of school at ninth grade and has been working odd jobs since then. "You don't have much of a choice. Our circumstances force us to occupy the streets. Ours is not an easy life. I pay LE50 a day for this spot of the street, and LE100 a day in the high season. The only way to resolve the problem is to create jobs. Anything else is a waste of time," Mohamed remarked. *** Many are sympathetic with peddlers, yet their reaction has not been helpful. Some refuse to move, point blank; others leave while in the presence of the police but no sooner come back. Ibrahim Maghawri, 62, the sheikh al-bayaain or master vendor outside the Supreme Court, arrived in Cairo from Qena in 1968; he is a 1973 War veteran, and was discharged from the army in 1977. He says he has "ruled the street" for 20 years. Maghawri knows the name of each street vendor on the pavement and mentions that they applied to the district council for licence two months after the 25 January Revolution. "We always wanted to have a legal position even while we are selling our goods on the pavement," he said firmly. Maghawri speaks on behalf of his colleagues when he says the one-day market project will not help them as much as it may help the thugs. "A day by day movement from one market to another would help the stronger to control the piece of land offered for rent," Maghawri said. It already happened in Al-Darrasa: "Some shop owners closed their shops and left the workers at their shops to rent places in the market. By the end of the day the goods were all stolen." He added that staying in one place for many years has allowed peddlers to create the right environment and routines. "We rent stores near Ramses Street where we stand which means that we do not have daily expenses for transporting the goods every day as we will do if we move from our place," he said. One of his partners on the pavement suggested that they could pay from LE5 to LE10 daily to the governorate and stand closer to the fences "so as to give the passers-by their right to move safely and freely". The one-day market, he suggests, should be restricted to the provinces -- to help prevent vendors from immigrating to Cairo. In Cairo the markets cannot be in such out-of-the-way locations, away from high densities of population. Maghawri says most street vendors (some of whom are actually not Egyptian nationals) are educated, but the government never offered them job opportunities; and when they solved the problem by themselves the government, whether before or after the revolution, "did not let" them work. Yet the authorities are adamant. General Abdel-Salam Abdel-Bari, deputy governor of Cairo, says the one-day market will take place in 32 locations all over the governorate: "Five working days a week with Saturday and Sunday as holidays." Abdel-Bari believes the project will benefit both vendors and citizens in every way. "Looking for clean streets and smooth traffic is an important demand to attract investors to the Egyptian economy". According to Abdel-Bari resistance results from vendors not understanding how the process is going to work. "So many meetings will be held with them to explain all the details. Others benefit from the street vendors' presence in the streets because they rent the streets to them. And this will be dealt with according to the law." Abel-Bari concluded that the one-day market is a step on the way to spread discipline on Egypt's streets till new markets are built in places of high population, including downtown Cairo. *** With the number of street peddlers in Egypt estimated at three million or more, besides, a few designated locations can hardly address the problem. The peddlers are dissatisfied with the government's. So are the shopkeepers, some who whom threatened to sue the government if it designates their venues as one-day markets. The war over Cairo's streets is going to be hard, and heart-rending. The government has fired the first shot with its clear-the-street municipal campaigns. But the street peddlers are now the size of an army. If they withdraw, it may only be a tactical move.
