By Salama A Salama Some embassies and foreign agencies now instruct their employees to spend as much time, as many weekends and vacations as they can, outside Cairo, purely for health reasons. Others offer their employees a special duress allowance to agree to come and live in dirty and polluted Cairo. And it's not just the foreigners. The rich and top government officials are doing it too. They spend every free moment they have outside Cairo. They go for clean destinations, leaving the capital and its problems behind. This once great and clean city now has tons of solid and liquid waste in its streets, and cannot figure out an effective way of cleaning things up. When it comes to pollution and garbage, Cairo is a charm. Tons of garbage are routinely left mouldering in our streets, with the obvious exceptions of gated communities and a few main streets assigned to private contractors. Government contractors, with huge income (LE9 per housing unit on average) from garbage collection, are still using outdated techniques. And they hire street cleaners who prefer to spend their time begging passers-by for money instead of doing what they're supposed to do. No wonder then that most important conventions are held in other cities, such as Alexandria and Sharm El-Sheikh. You might think that the reasons are related to security or logistics. Well, think again. Over 20 years ago, we passed laws for the environment. We even set up a ministry for the environment, but to no avail. The refuse of factories and sewage still goes into the Nile and seep into our drinking water. Low-tech foundries and workshops still inhabit the heart of the city. And the black cloud is coming back every year, right on time, along with the usual accusation that the farmers are burning too much rice chaff. Instead of dragging them into court, perhaps the government should do more to provide them with recycling techniques. Meanwhile, we're sending dozens of delegations to international conferences, from Japan to China and Germany, to get acquainted with the latest technology in waste disposal. And we're getting God knows how much aid from foreign donors to help us out. Still, look around you. Dirt is not just a health problem. It is a behavioural one. Nothing is being done to raise the public's awareness of the problem. And our garbage collection systems are obviously failing. Not one Arab city can compete with Cairo when it comes to garbage. Mice are running happily around town, 100 million of them to be exact, according to a reliable report. Our national income is growing and many of our compatriots are joining the super rich. We have the money, right? So we're buying all those new gadgets, all the right tools of civilisation. But are we civilised yet? Civilised behaviour is supposed to trickle down. It hasn't. It is supposed to spread around. It hasn't. It is supposed to materialise in any shape or form, but no. Our problem is not with the garbage or the cleaning agencies alone. Our problem is bigger than being environmentally unaware. What worries me is that we're learning to live with garbage. It no longer bothers us. It no longer surprises us. We adapt to the worst, and then it keeps getting worse. We accept ugliness. We don't mind garbage. We put up with the noise of our neighbours. In short, we never complain. Why bother? Nothing will change. Everyone knows that. And that knowledge is even worse than the pollution, worse than the dirt. It is sad when garbage becomes part of culture. It is sad when filth becomes integral to our way of life.
