CAIRO - The life that wells up in the streets of Egypt at night, with shops and restaurants glowing with the spirit of the crowd, is a vivid image that many visitors to this country take away with them. For both Egyptians and foreigners, Egypt's atmosphere is unique at night, especially in summer, when you find people out and about, far into the wee hours. New York is known as the city that does not sleep, but surely this applies to Egypt, but this might all change if the Government implements its threat to force all shops to close by 9pm. Because of the many power cuts Egyptians have been suffering from this summer, the Government is now mulling the possibility of closing all shops at 9pm and restaurants at 11pm, to reduce power consumption. "If closing our shops early reduces the consumption, I'm all in favour," says Ali Mohamed, who owns a downtown optician's. "Of course, I'll make less money, but at least my shop and my home won't suffer any more outages. In any case, the public will soon adjust to going shopping a bit earlier and no-one will lose out in the long run," he told the Egyptian Mail. But many workers, including those in the tourism sector, are worried that this decision, if implemented, would negatively affect them. "This decision is unhelpful for tourism," says Essam Ibrahim, a tour guide. "Tourists love Egypt late at night, because it's the country that never sleeps." "We, tour guides, often take tourists out in the evening to districts like el-Hussein and el-Moez Street [in Islamic Cairo], because they're so beautiful at night," says Ibrahim. He adds that sometimes they take tourists on nocturnal tours running from 8pm till dawn. “But, if the shops and cafés have to close at 9pm and the restaurants at 11pm, the tourists will get bored," Ibrahim complains. Many tourists say that in Egypt, unlike their own countries, there's always something interesting to do at night. "We work all night, as people love to hang out here till the early hours with their friends," says Ahmed Hamed, a waiter in a famous coffee shop in el-Hussein. "If we close at 9pm, our takings will plummet by 75 per cent and many of our shift workers will get the sack," he warns. According to the Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Centre, locally generated electricity leapt by 78 per cent between 2000-01 and 2009-10. Despite this, the increase cannot cope with the skyrocketing consumption. Closing shops at 9pm will cut Egypt's consumption of electricity by a massive 17 per cent, according to a General Petroleum Corporation study. "Closing the shops early is one way to reduce electricity consumption and put an end to the power cuts," says Rashad Abdo, an economist. "The problem is that we have a 10 per cent shortage in electricity production." Fathi Gamal, another shop owner in Nasr City, believes that, if the Government's initiative goes ahead, it will be disastrous for the shop owners and workers too. "We have many financial commitments; we have to pay rent and the workers' wages, which will still be the same if we work fewer hours. If this plan goes ahead, our profits will fall by about 30 per cent and we won't be able to pay our staff," he explains. Yasmine Azmi (27) envisages another problem. “If the shops turn off their lights early, there will be more insecurity on the streets," she explains. "Calm, quiet streets are the perfect place for thugs to mug law-abiding citizens. Besides, the streets will be more crowded till 9pm, as people rush to buy what they need."
