CAIRO - Waking up very early in the morning, Enjy takes a taxi to work and the journey usually takes around an hour. Yet, this time she reached her destination without the morning headache that's usually caused by the deafening music she endures during her daily drive. She read instead. Enjy Azab, 32, was fortunate enough to stop one of the 50 white cabs all over Cairo that provide their passengers with a collection of books to read en route. They're all part of the ‘Taxi of Knowledge' project started by the Egyptian bookstore chain Alef. “He's made my day with this book surprise,” a happy Enjy, who works in October 6th City outside Cairo, said about the taxi driver.” It's much better to read on the way than spending the time being forced to listen to loud songs or chat with the driver.” This new initiative was first introduced last June for a six-month trial period, which ends this month. According to Alef bookstores, the project will expand remarkably next year, after the success of its pilot, which exclusively uses the new white taxis, which first hit the streets of the capital about 18 months ago “We'll be working on this project more intensively in 2011,” Wael Abdallah, the project manager and the head of media and public relations for Alef bookstores, told The Egyptian Gazette. “There will be around 200 cabs in the project in early 2011 and hopefully this number could reach 2,000 by the end of the same year,” he added enthusiastically. In the ‘Taxi of Knowledge' taxis, you find a cloth rack attached to the back of the passenger seat, containing books for the passengers to read and even buy from the cabbie. Being the first of its kind, the project took a long time to prepare. It was very difficult to choose the 50 pilot cabs and the books, as well as maintaining the mini library in each car and finally getting people to understand the idea. "It was very hard preparing for the project," Wael explained. "Some taxi drivers threw me out of their cabs when I suggested the idea and others just made fun of it. For four months, we were doing nothing but searching for suitable drivers for the project." The belief in the idea and being the first to start it were the main reasons why people in Alef persevered with their initiative; they wanted to reach a different segment of people, who don't usually read. A recent UN report shows that less than 2 per cent of the Arab population reads one book a year, while there is an average of one book published for every 19,150 citizens in the Arab world, compared to one for every 491 in Great Britain. Moreover, one third of older Arab citizens are illiterate two-thirds of them are women. This very fact gives the ‘Taxi of Knowledge' and projects like it added importance, as they aim to attract new readers and introduce the notion of reading as a useful leisure activity and not a waste of time. “In Alef, we want to change the ancient idea about libraries and bookstores, which suggests that we only cater for the well educated and the elite,” Wael added. “We want to reach out to people and that's the core of the idea. If they won't visit a library or bookshop, then we'll go to them.”Ahmed Saber, who owns 21 cabs in the ‘Taxi of Knowledge' project, says that not only does he take part in the project for the sake of the idea, but for profit too. “Any new business or idea can succeed in Egypt. That's what encouraged me to take part with Alef in this initiative,” Saber told this newspaper. “When Wael suggested the idea to me I liked it but asked him to be sure that the books put in the car wouldn't cause any problems to the drivers.”Although the fares for the cabs in the ‘Taxi of Knowledge' are the same as in other cabs, the benefits are numerous, according to Saber. He stressed that, in many cases, the passengers love the idea and take his phone number and ring him when they need a lift somewhere. Soon, there will be an independent website for the initiative, an idea which has been praised by a number of governmental, cultural entities. This website will have the names and contact details of the drivers, as well as the names of the books in their cars, while encouraging passengers to donate their own books. “After reading a chapter of a book on the way to work, I went to a bookshop and bought it. In fact, I bought three different books,” said Enjy. “I thought I never had enough time to read, but now I've just discovered I was wrong.” The Tourism Ministry said on Sunday that hotel occupancy rates in Cairo and the Red Sea governorates increased by 7-8 per cent compared to the same period last year. Ahmed Attiya, the Deputy Minister of Tourism, also said that occupancy rates for Arab tourists increased from 62 per cent last year to 74 per cent this year. "The shark attacks have had a very limited impact on the flow of tourists," he said.
