A new report has come to reveal shocking facts about the relationship between rampant poverty and economic liberalisation in Egypt by shedding light on the suffering of millions of Egyptians because of this liberalisation. The report, conducted by the non-governmental Land Centre for Human Rights, says economic liberalisation has beggared Egyptians and caused unending problems to the nation's farmers. Titled “Winds of Change in the World”, the report, which also focuses on the effects of the international economic crisis on the local economy, says around 48 million poor Egyptians live in 1,109 slums cut off from all economic and social services. It adds that 45 per cent of the population in Egypt lives under the poverty line by earning $1 a day. It says 46 per cent of Egyptian families cannot find adequate food. “The situation on the ground can be even worse,” said Karam Sabir, the director of the Land Centre and one of the authors of the report. “If they reveal anything, these figures show that we're heading towards a major crisis,” he told the Egyptian Mail in an interview. More shocking still is that the report, which was released a few days ago, says more than 50 per cent of Egypt's civil servants are ready to accept bribes, while more than 12 million Egyptians are homeless. It says around 1.5 million Egyptians make home of the nation's cemeteries. The findings of the report seem to have spooked the Government, the thing that made some Government officials hurry to offer a comment or doubt its finds. “Most of the information the report presents isn't accurate,” said Mushira Khattab, the Family and Population Minister. “The situation isn't totally bleak. The Government has planned some measures to tackle the problems of Egyptian families,” she said in statements to the press. The authors of the report, however, say they did not invent these figures. They say they got them from official local and international reports. A recent Central Auditing Agency report also referred to increasing poverty in Egypt. The report, which was read out during a session in Parliament two days ago, said 23.5 per cent of Egyptians live in poverty, up from 20 per cent months ago. It said 77 per cent of Egypt's poor live in the countryside. The Land Centre report, however, has taken economic mismanagement and administrative corruption in Egypt a bit further. It says Egypt's State treasury lost around 39 billion Egyptian pounds over the past months because of administrative and financial corruption. “The Government has also lost 231 million Egyptian pounds because of mismanagement in natural gas exportation,” the report adds. It even paints a grim picture of the medical conditions of Egyptians. It says one quarter of the population in Egypt suffer blood pressure, 9 million Egyptians suffer hepatitis C, while 10 per cent of Egyptians suffer diabetes. “The Government made this situation possible by its bad policies,” Sabir said. “These are just some of the results of the policies of our Government,” he added.
