On Aug. 18, over 200 Egyptians
blocked a major highway in Fayoum, southern Cairo, with burning tires and
barricades to protest daily power outages. The blackouts began in early August
at the start of Ramadan, the holy month for Muslims, when temperatures in Egypt
can climb to 100 degrees F and above. The blackouts are especially punishing
for Muslim Egyptians without air conditioning during this time of religious
observance, which includes doing without water during the daily fast.
Power outages and water
shortages are now frequent occurrences throughout the country.
The lack of electricity for 15
days in the village of Bassioun led the residents to file complaints with the
electricity minister and the governor of Gharbyia. The residents also
threatened to protest in front of the governorate headquarters if the power
outage continued.
The lack of cooperation of the
government and local authorities to provide such basic supplies as electricity
and water provoked the protest. The working people and poor of Egypt have also had
to put up with shortages of cooking gas and bread, and monetary inflation. In
addition, the two-week blackout has spoiled stored food, greatly impacted
bakeries and restaurants, ruined electric equipment and led to increased road
accidents. The Mubarak government promised to provide more electricity
utilizing the Aswan Dam’s hydroelectric plant. Pres. Mubarak also met with the
oil and electricity ministers to discuss the outages.
Meanwhile, protesters have been
met by police repression and dispersed. The government has also claimed that it
is the people and not the government that is to blame for the shortages of
water and electricity.. Government rhetoric has gone so far as to accuse shop
owners of wasting electricity by lighting Ramadan decorations and to demand
they be unplugged. Commentator Osama Heikal, who writes for Al- Masry El Youm,
observed that the government is blaming the people for its own failure to
communicate and provide for the people.
The Egyptian government, an
ally of the United States and second biggest recipient of U.S. aid after
Israel, having adopted neo-liberal economic policies, has failed miserably to
meet the needs of the Egyptian people, such as education, jobs, housing, health
care and basic necessities. The renewal for an additional two years of the
28-year emergency law that allows the government to arrest activists,
opposition leaders and journalists without due process, has also provoked great
anger among the Egyptian people.
