Soapbox: Death in Moqattam By Nabil Zaki The tragedy in Moqattam, Cairo, where a rockslide killed more than a score, was not the first of its kind and perhaps will not be the last. Warnings have been issued about the Moqattam Hills. The National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research, the Construction Research Centre, the Remote Sensing Institute, and the National Research Institute all said that future collapses were probable. Yet the government took no action. Why? The government made a big mistake when it abandoned its responsibility for housing low-income families. It told us that the private sector would step into the vacuum, but it didn't. The private sector is making millions providing luxury homes for the affluent. Why would it waste its time building for the poor? The worst part is that the government is now acting like the private sector. Even when it receives grants from abroad to build housing for the poor, the government still sells the land on which the houses are to be built. The government wants to make money, not worry about the vulnerable classes. This is why it didn't act when scientists issued warnings about the Moqattam Hills. This is why it fails to act until trains crash and ferryboats sink. The bottom line is that government officials don't feel accountable to the public. How many incidents of negligence have gone unpunished? How many acts of gross incompetence have gone unnoticed? The government says it will treat the injured and pay compensation to the families of the victims. This is not enough. We need a fact- finding committee to look into the tragedy. We need blame to be assigned. Only accountability can stop such tragedies of being repeated in the future. So let's have an investigation that is credible and transparent. It is time the government thinks about the poor. It's time to build them proper homes. This week's Soapbox speaker is former editor- in-chief of the left-wing newspaper Al-Ahali.
