President Mohammed Morsi has said in several speeches that he will be able to resolve several chronic crises within precisely 100 days, as his ‘Renaissance Project' includes an integrated plan to salvage Egypt's economic crises, boost security and improve living conditions. The country's basic problems include traffic jams, water, electricity and bread shortages, shortfalls in healthcare and mountains of rubbish in the streets. Dr Morsi has a 100-day programme to deal with these problems, the fruit of Mubarak's dictatorship, that lasted for 30 years. “President Morsi does not have a magic wand to solve these chronic problems. It will take more than a year," Hajj Abdel-Tawab, who owns a supermarket in el-Bassateen, southern Cairo, told The Egyptian Gazette. “Nothing's been done to remove the mountain of trash from outside my supermarket, even though el-Bassateen's municipal offices are just round the corner. “I think that we should change our behaviour and learn how to keep the environment clean. But, at the same time, the municipality cleans the [nearby] district of Maadi, because VIPs live there. “It was the same under the former regime. All that must change and all people should be treated the same," he added angrily. The traffic is another big problem in Egypt. Seven days a week, the streets are crowded with vehicles and vendors. It will take a long time to resolve this problem – 100 days arenn't enough. “If the traffic policemen did their duty, things might get better," says Hassan Saad, who works in downtown, adding that the behaviour of drivers, especially microbus drivers, who like driving the wrong way down the street, must change. “Dr Morsi's 100-day programme might succeed if we all help him. To start with, we should stop throwing rubbish in the street and should also obey the traffic rules," he stresses. “Every day, I have to queue for more than three hours to buy 20 rounds of subsdised bread," says a young woman called Manal Adel. “The main problems for me are the traffic chaos and the shortage of bread. I think President Morsi's idea is good, but we need to change our behaviour. “For example, a woman I know buys subsidised bread to feed her animals, while the bakery owners sell the flour on black market. But, if we love our country and help the President, his programme will succeed," she adds. “The 100-day programme will work, when the feloul [remnants of the former regime], end their duties. They are preventing the implementation of the President's programme," Abeer Naguib told this newspaper. “When my daughter broke her arm, I took her to the Ahmed Maher Teaching Hospital, where the doctors said that there wasn't any gypsum to set it; they told me to ask the President for some," she added. For Abeer, the President should firstly change the managers of every State institution, in order to get rid of the feloul, so that his programme can succeed. Major-General Sameh Seif Al-Yazel, a security expert, thinks that security will not return to the streets within 100 days. “To restore the security, the police should arrest about 10,000 thugs, as well as the drug dealers. The police must also crack down on the street vendors, who are to blame for the crisis, as well as dealing with the traffic chaos," he explains. “The people and the Government must be responsible for the success of Morsi's programme. In order to rebuild our country, we should be one body and one soul, as in the January 25 Revolution," says Mohamed Ali, a driver.
