A few weeks ago, it was a severe shortage of the heavily subsidised butane gas. Now it's a shortage of fuel oil. Having recovered from the crisis of the butane gas cylinders, Egyptians have been dogged over the past few days by short supplies of the fuel oil used by microbuses, trucks and bakeries. "I have been going from one petrol station to another trying to get fuel for my microbus," said Ahmed Farhan, a 35-year-old driver shuttling between Hadaieq el-Qouba and el-Ameria in northeastern Cairo. "They say that the problem is due to the delay in the delivery of fuel oil from abroad. They claim that the boats loaded with the fuel have been hampered by rough seas. I don't know why Egypt is always the only country hit by rough seas!" Farhan added sarcastically. Subsidies on basic goods and services cost Egypt's Treasury around LE95.9 billion annually (one dollar = LE5.50), according to governmental officials. Around LE63 billion of this is channelled into subsidising energy, including petrol and fuel oil, they add. "This crisis is deliberately made up in order to give the Government an excuse to raise the prices of oil and gas products," said Mahmoud Abdel-Rahman, a truck driver. "This is what different Egyptian governments have always done. In fact, we're fed up. Life is becoming increasingly difficult for us and our families." Many Egyptians, an estimated 40 per cent of whom live below the poverty line, complain that the fruits of the economic reform programme initiated in the early 1990s haven't trickled down to them. "Every time the Government is queried about the constant rise in the cost of living in Egypt, they say that prices are increasing everywhere else. However, they fail to explain why we are not decently paid or why prices of goods never go down in Egypt when they do in other countries," said Mokhtar Rafaat, a civil servant, who also has to work as a driver in order to make both ends meet. "Is Egypt a world of its own? Or does our Government take us for buffoons?" he fumed, as he sat stuck in his car in a long queue outside a petrol station hoping for a refill.
