The state of the economy and social concerns preoccupy the pundits, write Gamal Nkrumah and Mohamed El-Sayed Political and social chaos, corruption and mismanagement are all the talk of the town. One of the reasons these issues have suddenly come to the fore and have taken on such gigantic proportions is a new film released by the country's most distinguished director, Youssef Chahine. Focussing on several matters of social concern, the film is also an enquiry into where the country is aheading. Chahine's masterpiece, according to many pundits, tackles pertinent social dilemmas that need to be addressed. Writing in the daily independent Al-Masry Al-Yom about the latest movie Heya Fawda? (Is this chaos?) directed by the celebrated Chahine, political commentator Hassan Nafaa applauded the movie for its success in precisely diagnosing the chaos that is reigning supreme in Egypt nowadays. "The first message the movie intends to convey is that the magnitude of corruption and violations of human rights and public and private freedoms committed by the regime against citizens and [certain] groups has reached a crescendo unprecedented in the history of the country," Nafaa concluded. In much the same vein, the paper described the demonstrations, sit-ins and strikes taking place around the country as unprecedented. Writing in Al-Masry Al-Yom about the recent massive strike staged by property tax workers in downtown Cairo, Samir Ghattas analysed the causes and effects of this unparalleled public action. "The strike staged by property tax workers came within the context of the drastic transition Egyptian society is witnessing today, especially on the political and economic spheres, as well as the fast shift towards market economy mechanisms. Meanwhile, the state and the government have taken the side of local and foreign capitalists, which have made living conditions of the majority of underprivileged classes -- workers, peasants, civil servants -- even worse," Ghattas observed. He warned of dire consequences if the situation is not remedied. Meanwhile, the government itself came under fire. The opposition daily Al-Wafd launched a harsh critique of the government. "Dr Nazif... leave!" ran the paper's headline. Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has come under intense criticism. He is blamed for many of our mismanagement woes. The paper quoted laymen who called upon Nazif to leave office after the series of crises that have affected their daily lives, such as inflation, subsidies, lower salaries and unemployment, the paper noted. Other ministers, too, came under fire. The economic situation and sluggish growth rates, in particular, were severely criticised. The daily business Al-Alam Al-Yom quoted Minister of Economic Development Othman Mohamed Othman as saying that growth rates are unlikely to pick up anytime soon due to a foreign investment shortage. "Keeping the economic growth rate calls for a miracle," the minister confessed, much to the chagrin of the commentators. "Egypt needs $1,259 billion in investments so as to keep the current growth rate of eight per cent annually," Othman explained. On this sombre note, it was another week when the prickly problem of subsidies was hotly debated in the press. The controversy the subsidies issue has generated over the past few weeks reached a peak with commentators harshly criticising the government for mishandling the issue and warning of grave consequences if the subsidies on basic commodities are actually lifted. Indeed, the issue of cutting subsidies continued to incense pundits. Writing in the weekly pro- government Akhbar Al-Yom, Momtaz El-Qott was preoccupied with "the future of livestock in Egypt, in case the government cancelled bread subsidies. Statistics show that one-third of subsidised bread is offered as fodder for livestock," an outraged El-Qott raved. He derided the government for its twisted economic logic and hypocrisy. He added, tongue-in-cheek: "which means that the government spends LE5 billion on fodder." The contentious issue of spinsterhood preoccupied the press. Akhbar Al-Yom also ran a feature about the growing number of Egyptian women who prefer to remain unmarried. It is a question of personal choice. "Young women prefer to stay spinsters, so as not to be servants for men," ran the headline of the feature. Most of the young women interviewed cited three reasons for staying unmarried. "Fear from husbands' arbitrary control, husbands' tendency towards taking their wives' salaries and men's unwillingness to shoulder the household responsibilities," the paper quoted some unmarried women as saying. This augurs ill as far as some commentators are concerned. Others, however, concluded that as long as it is a question of personal choice, then there is no problem. Spinsterhood only becomes a problem if the women in question are actually desperate for men but cannot find any suitors. At any rate, spinsterhood might turn out to be a blessing in disguise: it might be the answer to the country's high birth rates and population explosion, assuming, of course, that those who do get married have as many children as they can. The paper, in any case, sought out the views of several academics. Sociologists argued, "Egyptian men haven't changed their patriarchal traditions and young women seek to achieve their own ambitions and independence." The daily pro-government Rose El-Youssef warned the government against the increasing numbers of illegal migrants: "Another boat carrying illegal [Egyptian] immigrants before the Turkish shores." The paper quoted the prime minister as saying: "There will be a decisive battle with illegal migration gangs." Writing in the daily Al-Ahram , Makram Mohamed Ahmed tackled the housing crisis in Egypt. Having reviewed a recent study about housing, he argued that "there is no serious housing crisis in Egypt. The problem is not a lack in supply and increase in demand," the paper noted. "Rather, there is discrepancy between supply and demand."
