By Ayman Abdel-Wahab Many wonder why civil society is not doing much about the swine flu. I heard some people claim that civil society is only motivated when it comes to problems of a political nature. The fact is that civil society has a role in providing social security to the nation, but it is not equipped to spring into action at a moment's notice. It lacks the resources, training, and staffing to do so. More importantly, it lacks the tradition, the political support, and the administrative leeway. These are the things that we need to start working on in order to have a civil society that helps us handle emergency situations in a better way. How can we have a more active civil society? To answer this question we have to consider the climate surrounding our civil society institutions. We have also to keep in mind that our style of government still favours the conventional ways of communal work over the more modern and fluent approach. Furthermore, there is little coordination between the government, business, and the voluntary sectors in this country. We all claim to love the country, but what we need is not love. What we need is a clear strategy with discernible lines of communication, accessible databases, as well as the flexibility to act fast in any new situation. We need to revive the values of communal responsibility and pro-active citizenry. We need to establish acceptable patterns of reacting collectively to any given disaster or threat. A democratic system could help, and more staffing and resources would be a definite plus. At the end of the day, it is the men and women on the ground that will make the difference. This week's Soapbox speaker is director of the Civil Society Programme at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
