Feeling left behind by technology? With Egypt's post office struggling to meet the challenge of e-mails and cassette retailers that of digital downloads and CDs, you may not be the only one, as Mai Samih discovers Throughout the ages there have been never- ending changes in technology, as older technology gives way to newer and as one invention makes another just part of history. As if to bear out such sentiments, more and more people in Ramadan are opting to send their traditional greetings by SMS, and even official correspondence is now sent by e-mail. According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics, sales of postage stamps were worth LE156.5 million in 2007/ 2008, compared to LE280 million in 2006/2007, with a further fall being recorded in 2008/2009. There are fewer postmen today than there have been in the past, with the result that the Egyptian post office has had to diversify into other services, such as banking and financial services, which showed a 10.5 per cent increase in 2007/ 2008. According to post office public relations officer Mohamed Mamdouh, the service has experienced significant competition since the introduction of e-mail. However, he says, the post office is making efforts to reinvent itself, with traditional mail still being used for business correspondence and for correspondence between banks and their customers. It is with such services that the post office has become synonymous, especially for young people born at the beginning of the 1990s. According to law student Marina Nagui, 18, who was born after people stopped using letters as their only means of communication, it is unimaginable to have to wait for a letter to arrive before hearing from relatives overseas. "The last time I used a cassette recorder was when I was a primary school pupil," Nagui says. "The Internet is easy and fast, and I tend to use mobile phones far more than landlines." She, along with others of her generation, finds it natural to be able to contact the world by pressing a button on a keyboard. Pharmacy student Reem El-Adli, 19, does not recall ever writing or reading a letter. "I have never written a letter in my life," she says. As for cassette tapes, the last time she listened to one was about four years ago, she says, adding that she nevertheless tends to use the regular telephone, at least if she is at home. According to Sherine Beshr, 29, an academic, the last time she wrote a letter was a few months ago, since she prefers the traditional way of doing things, if with a contemporary twist. Her work obliges her to use a mobile phone, but, she says, "I use both the regular mail and e- mail. I also have a cassette recorder at home that I like listening to songs on when I don't have visitors as it reminds me of my childhood." Writing letters, she says, is one way of going back to the good old days. Strongly attached to her rural roots and preferring the quiet rhythm of life in rural areas to life in the city, Beshr is even nostalgic for the gramophone, describing it as a beautiful piece of machinery. For Beshr, it is more exciting to wait for a letter from a friend abroad than to hear from them through instant messaging or e-mail, especially from those living in different time zones. According to one government official who did not give her name, it was in the 1990s when the new technologies first started to appear that regular mail services started to decline. Those who still prefer to use the regular mail service over e- mail often come from the countryside, she says, where they often do not have mobiles or laptop computers. However, the mail service has made many attempts to catch up with developments in the way people communicate. In 2007, head of the Egyptian post office Alaa Fahmi decided to reform the mail service in order to catch up with rapid developments in technology in cooperation with international banks and through signing cooperation agreements with France, Germany and Italy. The post office has participated in international seminars on the changing face of mail delivery, and it even organised the Second International Seminar on Mail Technology. In addition, the mail service had extended the range of its services, including lost property services, enabling anyone to post ID or other cards found by dropping them into post boxes free of charge, as well as providing customers with a hotline that can be used to track down lost property. An IPS service has been started that allows customers to follow up packages, and a door-to- door delivery service that allows important documents that cannot be delivered any other way to be delivered by hand. The post office has also inaugurated certain financial services, and certain bills and fees can now be paid at post offices. In 2007, post office opening hours were extended until 10pm, and employees wishing to work in the evenings were provided with significant incentives. First tried out as a pilot scheme in 259 post offices across the country, the system has increased customer numbers by an estimated 2.5 million. A private investment project, the Postal Savings Scheme, has been started in Egyptian post offices, and an electronic signature system was inaugurated in post offices in the same year. In 2009, the post office made it possible to buy train tickets in all of its 37,000 branches. New post offices are also being opened to better serve customers. While the post office has made considerable efforts to adapt after the introduction of e-mails led to a significant drop in the volume of letters, those who used to specialise in cassette tapes have also made changes in the wake of the introduction of CDs and Internet music downloads. According to Mohamed Ibrahim, manager of a cassette store in Giza, the difference between sales of CDs and cassettes are in a ratio of five to one. "When we sell some LE500 worth of CDs, we sell only some LE100 worth of cassettes," he says. The rise of the new technologies in the music industry has "affected the cassette industry because in the past cassette tapes were like video tapes, and when DVDs were invented they totally killed video tapes, just as cassette tapes were killed by CDs." Does anyone still use cassette tapes? According to Ibrahim, "people in search of rare recordings by singers such as Umm Kolthoum or Abdel-Halim Hafez still ask for cassette tapes. They are mostly older people who wish the old days would come back," however. Cassettes currently selling well include those by Umm Kolthoum, and these still make considerable sums. However, Ibrahim also deals with newer artists on CD, though sometimes, he says, people do not stop to think about the meaning of the lyrics in the music that they buy. There are also other factors that can determine who buys cassettes and who buys CDs. As Ibrahim puts it, "CDs are twice as expensive as cassettes, though they can carry more music, and they have better sound quality. It depends on the social status of the customer when it comes to choosing between CDs and cassettes. Some people buy cassette tapes because they only have a cassette player in their car." There is no telling what technology may in future render essential in people's lives. In El-Adli's view, perhaps in future it will be possible to have an electronic card inserted in the brain, such that when a person misses something, or when another person enters a person's thoughts, the card sends a notification that is picked up on the other person's card.
