CAIRO – Coinciding with the fasting month of Ramadan and a weak police presence, street sellers spread chaos and thuggery in downtown Cairo, harming surrounding shops and pedestrians. Since the police withdrew during the January 25 revolution, people suffer from a lack of security. The police presence is too weak to ease people's burden. “There are more and more street sellers, nobody can stop them. They use thuggery to frighten people,” said Rageh Eskander, an accountant, who owns a shop in Ramses Square. “People should earn a living in a decent and honourable way. The street sellers quarrel and threaten each other to get a particular location, where there can display their wares. As a result, I closed my shop to protect myself and my workers,” Eskander told the Arabic-language Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper. “Most street sellers are related to each other. When there is a conflict, they gather their forces, bring Molotov cocktails and embark on what looks like an organised war,” said Kamal, another trader who owns a shop in Ramses Square. The street sellers offer low-quality goods for cheap prices and have affected the shops in the area. “Unlike these sellers, shop owners have to pay salaries, rent and taxes. Our prices are obviously higher. The sellers manipulate the market and are bad for business,” Kamal said. The street sellers offer all sorts of wares, clothes, shoes, glasses and fireworks. “They work in shifts, day and night, which guarantees that they don't lose their place. Now, during Ramadan, there are not as many of them,” Kamal asserted. The market is witnessing chaos and insecurity. “Before the revolution, fireworks were only sold in Ataba. Now you can find them everywhere,” Kamal added. Noise levels have obviously also increased. “The sellers block the streets when pushing their vehicles, and cars blast their horns even more than before,” Emad Ahmed, an employee, said. “The absence of the police is fuelling the crisis. The sellers argue and defend themselves, which only makes matters worse.” “I don't want to be a thief or a thug and prefer to sell at good prices. I have to think of my family's needs,” said Karim Mahmoud, a street seller in Ramses Square. “Some of us have graduated from high school and university.” In Talaat Harb Street near Al Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the January 25 revolution, street sellers also cause unrest. “They have occupied both sides of the street and disturb the drivers,” car owner Amr Ragab complained. The chaos has also spread to tourism sites in Cairo. “For instance, street sellers have taken over the historical Islamic areas of Al-Azhar and Hussein. They are everywhere,” the newspaper quoted a worker, who talked on condition of anonymity. “The Tourism Police have not interfered to stop the chaos from spreading to these historical sites. It's all very bad for Egypt's reputation.”
