Doaa El-Bey tackles tomatoes and Rasha Saad sectarian strife The rising cost of fruits and vegetables, especially that of tomatoes, was an issue this week in every Egyptian home. No wonder so many writers focussed on the theme in the press. The editorial of the official daily Al-Ahram stated that the governors' meeting held by President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday and attended by a number of ministers concerned was very important because it discussed the food hike. The edit called for a series of measures that need to be urgently taken by the governors, including tightening their control over markets, facilitating the process of transporting goods directly from the producer to the consumer, reducing middlemen as much as possible, relocating the local market in the village and cities to be as close as possible to consumers and guaranteeing proper storage of extra goods. Sherif El-Abd focussed in the same newspaper on parliament members' anger with the minister of agriculture because the price of tomatoes jumped to LE8 a kilogramme. He described the wave of anger as a unanimous rejection of the rise in prices, and sympathy with the poor citizen. However, El-Abd questioned whether the legislative authority could play a role in stopping inflation. "The government has asked the citizen to boycott any good that is continuously rising in price. So the citizen boycotted meat, chicken, fish, fruit, vegetables and dairy products. What's left?" he asked. Wagdi Zeineddin expressed his anger at the Council of Ministers spokesman Magdi Radi who mocked reporters who asked him about the soaring prices, especially that of tomatoes and aubergines. Radi nervously responded by denying that there are any rise in prices and that these are mere rumours. The writer concluded that Radi probably lives in a different country or a different world or eats a different kind of food. "It will not be an exaggeration to assume that Radi is living in a complete coma because he denied facts that the people are suffering from on a daily basis," Zeineddin wrote in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Wafd Party. He summed up his column by stating that, "had we been living in a country that respects its people, the official would not have denied the facts and the prime minister would not have accepted the farce." The 37th anniversary of the 6 October 1973 War with Israel was commemorated in the press this week. Taher Qabil wrote that all Egyptians -- even those who were not around at the time -- will celebrate it all the same because it corrected the balance of power, opened the door for development and imposed peace on Israel. "The October victory was a miracle by any standard. The Egyptian fighter destroyed half the Bar Lev line in the first hours of the war, laid siege for 141 days in Al-Kabrit instead of withdrawing and leaving it to the enemy, and regained every part of Sinai," Qabil wrote in the official daily Al-Akhbar. Mohamed El-Zorqani wrote that 6 October was the only day in his life in which he felt genuine happiness and pride. He added that the great thing about that day was that everyone in Egypt and the Arab and Islamic world shared the sentiment with him. "6 October was a turning point in the lives of individuals as well as the whole nation," El-Zorqani wrote in the official weekly Akhbar Al-Yom. Faten Abdel-Raziq remembered the victory and "how our brave fighters managed to free a dear part of our land, Sinai." However, she asked in Al-Akhbar whether we managed to invest all of Sinai's resources. Abdel-Raziq wondered why we did not work seriously in developing the land and stabilising it, and how can we push the wheel of economic and social development on Sinai's lands but why there were no specific programmes and strategies to benefit from its treasures. "Isn't it high time to appoint a minister for developing Sinai who can recruit all the efforts to benefit from its treasures in a way that would benefit the whole of our beloved Egypt?" Abdel-Raziq asked. While the preparations for November's parliamentary elections are in full swing and the controversy over whether opposition parties should take part in the elections is ongoing, Ahmed El-Khatib questioned whether the Muslim Brotherhood would succeed in the poll. Although the MB claims it is still considering whether to participate, El-Khatib believed this was nothing but a political game in which there were two goals: the first, to wait and see who are the candidates of the ruling National Democratic Party in certain constituencies. "The MB is waiting to see the official candidates in certain constituencies so that it would refrain from running in these parts in order to send a message to the government: we aim to participate but not compete," El-Khatib wrote in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom. Second, it wants to claim that it is taking the side of the opposition that wants to boycott the elections. But the question El-Khatib raised was whether the MB could gain seats if the government did not interfere in the voting. Some believe the MB lost its influence on the street after the security and information campaign the government launched against it. Unlike the 2005 elections, El-Khatib elaborated, the political street knows the MB, meaning it will not be chosen simply because they shout out Islamic slogans that people believe in. Others believe that these campaigns contributed to increasing the Brotherhood's popularity and fed people information that made them believe in the beliefs of the group. Though it is one question, it has two answers, El-Khatib added. He hoped that the elections would be fair enough to show which of the two answers was right. How to take necessary measures to prevent sectarian strife and stand against those who try to stir it up was another pressing issue in the press this week. Nabil Rashwan warned against closing the file with hugs and kisses. Instead, "all wounds should be properly cleaned and all mistakes should be corrected and apologies accepted." He wrote that sane people should try to bypass this crisis by writing a prescription or drawing up a roadmap that would return mutual respect to each other as well as maintain respect of all prophets, messengers and holy books. "We should not mix political and religious matters because politics is variable whereas religions are stable and fixed. We should not allow anybody to encroach on religions or cast doubt on any of them," Rashwan wrote in the independent daily Nahdet Masr. Rashwan called for issuing a law that bans contempt of religions and punishes whoever carries out such acts.
