We are all thieves one way or another. Gandhi told the students of YMCA University in Madras, India in 1916: "If I keep something that I do not need for myself, it is as if I stole it from someone else." I remembered these words when I read the tragic news of the murder of Hala Fayek, the credit manager of Banque du Caire. The burglar who killed her reminded me of the others like him from the businessmen with their luxurious offices. "Wealth can fill many cavities," said Don Quixote. And Shakespeare said in 'King Lear', condemning the devastation caused by capitalism: "This money will breach treaties, bless the damned and grant thieves titles and respect."
The burglar Sameh Naguib is not the only killer in Egypt. The rest just know how to circumvent the law. They have lawyers who tell them how to get away from a needle's hole. Sameh Naguib's case should not be considered as mere murder and theft. If we want to stop the drain of theft and murder, which has become an alarming feature of the Egyptian society recently, we have to go to the root of the problem, namely that the regime in Egypt has since the nineties allowed capitalism to rob the wealth of Egypt, without providing employment opportunities or a decent living for the majority of the population.
Sameh Naguib, who has a family of four, did not have 3000 pounds to pay his debts. Just three thousand pounds, not three million! I am not defending or excusing him, for he deserves the maximum punishment. I mean to say that he is not the only one that should be convicted. Try those who raised the prices of land and construction material for the rent of an apartment consisting of two rooms in May 15 City to reach 300 pounds. Try those who made unemployment the inevitable fate of the youth after years of poor education. Try those who allowed the market wolves to dominate the riches of Egypt. Try the officials of the Egyptian TV that broadcasts nonsense. The whole system is corrupt. It will only produce more crimes. I say to the young generation: Go back to the books and the newspapers that were published in Egypt in the fifties and sixties to read about the achievements of the Egyptian leader Nasser, whose main concern over 18 years was for the poor to take their share of the wealth of this nation.
