Care too much about what is happening and the prognosis is not good, writes Galal Nassar In a short span of time, no more than three months, several members of my family came down with a range of illnesses, some temporary, others chronic. It is hard to see a son or a daughter bedridden, no longer filling the house with chitchat and laughter. When the smiles fade it is difficult to look forward to the future. Cheerfulness can all too easily seem an exercise in futility. There is something about sickness that is reminiscent of the daily discomforts facing ordinary Egyptians, spreading corruption, nepotism and the rest. As my family struggled with multiple health issues I found myself contemplating the general mood of the nation. Doctors told me to avoid stress and to stop worrying. How this might be achieved I don't know. Can you close down all feeling at the press of a button? Is it possible to remain truly alive cut off from reality? How can someone who runs a business or supervises a project put his feelings on hold? Yet some people manage to do so. In Egypt there are people who work and worry and others who don't work, indeed often stop others from working, yet seem to have no worries in the world. Unfortunately, it is the latter group who make it to the top. Egypt has a pernicious custom of placing the wrong people in the wrong jobs. If this is not treasonous, I don't know what is. It reminds me of the story of the CIA agent in the former Soviet Union. When asked what his duties were he replied that he just made sure the wrong people were in the wrong place. Once that was accomplished it was simply a matter of time before the state fell apart. Yet Egypt seems to be in the throes of a systemic implosion about which intelligence agencies can only dream. The most unsuitable person is chosen to lead a team of which he is the least qualified, the appointment almost invariably justified by recourse to security clearance. The selection of public servants is done in the absence of any standards. Corruption has spread its tentacles to virtually all government agencies. It is a frustrating experience to have to deal with people who have climbed their way to the top not because of any intrinsic merit but because they lack standards or judgement. But woe to those who dare question such decisions. Woe to those who dare challenge this sorry state of affairs. Often it seems that people make it to the top simply because they are good at undermining what were once competent establishments. Some even get decorated for their effort. Our public services are in a dreadful shape. Transport, sewage, water treatment and the like are blighted with neglect and led by the wrong people. Egypt tops the world in the number of bird flu victims. Why? And as disaster piles on disaster budget constraints are wheeled out as an excuse. Yet far poorer countries have done much better fighting the disease. Recently I had to rush my three-year-old son, Selim, to the emergency unit of Qasr Al-Eini, one of the country's biggest hospitals. I found doctors and nurses working the night shift but without the equipment necessary to save lives. How can a country that cannot even run a decent emergency service design a proper health system? In Egypt there are senior officials who cannot provide the nation with bread. There are officials who lament not being able to attract investment yet are happy to retain enough red tape to frighten away the most determined of investors. In Egypt we have a transport system that some countries would not condone for cattle. Traffic regulations are systematically ignored. Children sleep in the streets. Little, if anything, is being done about it. We have unplanned urban areas blighted by poverty and crime, high levels of joblessness and disease. Officials keep writing reports about the problems. They attend conferences all over the world. Yet when was a convincing timetable stating when and how to deal with the problems produced? It is as if we are talking about citizens of another country, people who have no right to the resources and budget of this one. What we lack is not money but will. We do not care and we are not accountable. Our education system is redundant. We have schools that do not offer education, universities that fail to encourage thought. Vicious circles intersect -- obsolete curricula, illegal private lessons, a nerve- racking pre-college general exam, the thanawiya amma, meagre teaching salaries, a broken infrastructure. Years pass as officials debate the problem with no end in sight. It is as if someone is keeping things this way on purpose. In Egypt a mafia sells the state-owned land. Officials collude in allowing urban development on agricultural land. In Egypt millions of citizens live in sub-standard housing because building and planning laws are not enforced. Officials turn a blind eye to developers who add extra floors illegally, or build without licences. How many of our buildings would survive a major quake like the one that hit in 1992? How many could survive tremors such as those that recently hit Turkey and Italy? Once prestigious publications lost their bearings as soon as they were taken over by men whose only qualification was their intimacy with the National Democratic Party and the secret services. Newspapers and television channels lack any professional vision. The press that is afraid to deal with real issues for fear it might involve stepping on someone's toes. There are writers who defend NDP policies without a second thought, and who lash out at all opposition figures and parties as if it were a natural reflex. The government press spends all its time worrying about the delicate sensibilities of the regime. There are officials who run from a picket line to sit-in, from a factory to syndicate, trying to calm down protesters while having no solutions to offer. Their only concern is to contain the protests, not to deal with their causes. There are officials who fight reform every step of the way, who keep dropping hints about the Old Guard and the New Guard, when in fact there is no change in policies and little hope for change. It's all just a game, one in which the regime manipulates the rhetoric while opposing real change. How to adapt to such make-believe? How do you pretend not to care? How can you feel secure about the future? Sometimes I wonder if it is not better for children to grow up without sense or sensibility. Only then will they be able to cope. In Egypt illness is too often the only reward for a job well done.
