An Oddball Week in Cairo

Years from now when I look back upon our time in Egypt, I will recall the odd events of this past week. This has been a week where the entire interim government unexpectedly resigned, where soldiers took the place of striking bus workers, and where an elderly Army doctor held a press conference to announce he had found a cure for AIDS and Hepatitis C. Even by "National Enquirer" standards this had been a curious week in terms of the stories grabbing Egyptian headlines.

Outgoing Egyptian Prime Minister, Hazem Al Beblawi.
Photo by World Economic Forum, CC license.

On February 24th, aging Prime Minister Hazem Al Beblawi gave a televised speech announcing that he and his interim government had resigned. In the July, 2013 wake of President Mohammed Morsi's ouster, Beblawi and the 30 other cabinet members, the heads of Egypt's various Ministries, hastily assumed office. Seven months later, they are leaving. In a Kennedy-esque, farewell speech, Beblawi stated, "it is time we all sacrificed for the good of the country. Rather than asking what has Egypt given us, we should instead be asking what we have done for Egypt." No real reason was given for the resignation other than a vague nod to a "need for new blood.' Given that over one thousand people have died in protests since Beblawi assumed the role of Prime Minster, this was perhaps a unfortunate turn of phrase. Never really popular with the public, Beblawi has been criticized for the harsh crackdown on protests and for mismanaging the economy. Recent nationwide strikes among public sector workers and an ongoing energy crisis have swelled the number of government detractors. However, none had demanded the government step down, so the resignation came as a surprise. Beblawi will quickly be replaced as Prime Minister by the head of the Ministry for Housing, while many of the other cabinet heads will continue on in a stewardship role. The new government will be Egypt's sixth since the Arab Spring Revolution of 2011.

Supporter of Field Marshal el-Sisi.
Photo by montager, CC license.

Meanwhile, current Defense Minister and First Deputy Prime Minister, Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is still waiting to announce his candidacy for president. The popular general did not comment on the government resignation, this despite his membership in the cabinet. Egyptian media outlets have speculated for month's about el-Sisi running for president. With presidential elections tentatively scheduled for April, the "Quiet General" still has yet to announce his intentions.

This week the Army was called upon to assume a rather unique task, that of driving the city's buses. Thousands and thousands of public workers, public transport workers included, took to the streets this week in what they hope will be the beginnings of a general strike. As a result, some members of the Army were called upon to maintain the nation's rickety public transport system. Striking workers included bus drivers, trash collectors, and even some doctors and dentists. They want an increase in the minimum wage. Egypt does have a minimum wage currently set at 1200 Egyptian Pounds per month. That is about $170. However, the minimum wage only applies to a fraction of Egypt's public workers. The law does not apply to any worker in Egypt's private sector. Many Egyptians earn less than $100 per month. In a country where per capita GDP is about $3000 and where an estimated one in four Egyptians lives on less than $1.65 per day, the striking workers feel a moral obligation to have their demands met.

So the government resigns, a wildly popular general has no comment, and members of the nation's military assume the roles of bus drivers. Although these headlines in and of themselves would make for a pretty interesting week, the biggest oddball headline came from Major General Ibrahim Abdel-Atti. He is an Army doctor and the head of a cancer treatment and screening center here in Cairo. This week, the aging general held a press conference, announcing that he had found a cure for both AIDS and Hepatitis C. In a presentation given to reporters, General Abdel-Atti showed a short film that explained the "miraculous" procedure. He explained that the procedure simply involved transfusing a patient's blood, removing all traces of the virus, and then pumping back in the healthy blood. Simply, really. "I will take the AIDS from the patient and I will nourish the patient on the AIDS treatment. I will give it to him like a skewer of Kofta to nourish him," he stated. Although Egypt has a low prevalence of HIV infections, the WHO estimates that Egypt has the highest rate of chronic Hepatitis C sufferers in the world; about 5.5 million out of a total population of 85 million.

It has indeed been a week of strange headlines. Meanwhile, a Cairo police officer was killed yesterday morning, the latest in a series of drive-by shootings targeting local police. There were also more fatalities in Egypt's restive Sinai. Much like school shootings in the United States, these headlines and others like it were relegated to the second and third pages of Egypt's broadsheets.