Bread, the (subsidized) staff of life in Egypt
By Michael Slackman
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
CAIRO: "Get out! Get back! Get back! I am not selling to you!" Ibrahim Ali Muhammad, a bread seller, is shouting at his customers. His teeth are brown and misshapen from decay, and he says the stress of his 20 years on the job has given him diabetes. He is standing behind bars, jail-like bars, shouting into a crowd that is pushing, punching, thrusting money at him.
"I already sold to you," he screamed, again, this time distracted by a young man in a blue windbreaker who swiveled on his heels and punched the man behind him.
It is hard to make ends meet in Egypt, where about 45 percent of the population survives on just $2 a day. That is one reason why trying to buy subsidized bread can be a fierce affair, with fists and elbows flying, men shoving and little children dodging blows to get up to the counter.
Egypt also is a state where corruption is widely viewed as systemic, which is also why the crowd gets aggressive trying to buy up the subsidized bread. Cheap state bread can be resold, often for double the original price.
"What has not changed in Egypt for 50 years is not going to change now," Muhammad said, though it was unclear if he meant the chaos in front of him or the cheap bread cooking behind him.
Somehow, much of what ails Egypt seems to converge in the story of subsidized bread. It speaks to a state that is in many ways stuck in the past, struggling to pull itself into the future, unable or unwilling to conquer corruption or even to persuade people to care about one another.
How do you take a broken system that somehow helps feed 80 million people and fix it without causing social disorder? That is a challenge for Egypt at large, and for this little bakery where Muhammad ekes out a living, with a cigarette hanging from his lips and an angry crowd demanding his bread.
Bread, in Egyptian Arabic, is called aish, which literally means life, rather than khobz, the word that other Arab-speakers use. The word reflects the centrality of bread here. This is a culture of bread, not rice, not meat and potatoes, not humus.
Simple, doughy round pockets of bread that look like pita bread but are baladi bread, that is, peasant bread.
"The word, applied to bread, gives this everyday element an almost mystical quality," said Hamdy el-Gazzar, author of "Black Magic," a popular novel recently translated into English. "Egypt's relationship to bread is not one of freedom, but of necessity.
Egypt started subsidizing staples like bread, sugar and tea around World War II. Then when Gamal Abdel Nasser and his military allies overthrew the monarchy, the state leaned heavily on subsidizes to maintain social order and promote a socialist economic model. When the government tried to stop subsidizing bread in 1977, there were riots. Egyptians are generally not known as explosive people, but tell them you are raising the price of bread - of life - and beware.
So the bread subsidy continues, costing Cairo about $3.5 billion a year. Over all, the government spends more on subsidies, including gasoline, than it spends on health and education. But it is not just the cost that plagues the government. The bread subsidy fuels the kind of rampant corruption that undermines faith in government, discourages investment and reinforces the country's every-man-for-himself ethos, say government officials and political experts, not to speak of bakers and their customers.
"The most corrupt sector in the country is the provisions sector," said a government inspector who asked not to be identified for fear of punishment. His job is to go to bakeries to ensure they are actually using the cheap government flour to produce cheap bread that is sold for the proper price. "There is a great deal of corruption. The amount of money in it will make anyone accept to be bribed."
The inspector explained why the system is so open to abuse. The government sells bakeries large bags of flour for 8 pounds, or $1.50. The bakeries are then supposed to sell 20 pieces of bread for 1 pound. At that rate, the baker can make the equivalent of about $10 from each sack. Or the baker can simply sell the flour on the black market for $15.
If the inspector, who said he was paid $42 a month, certifies that after three months the baker has faithfully used the flour to bake bread, the baker gets a refund of about a dollar for every bag of flour he has purchased. A baker who goes through 40 sacks a day over the three-month period gets back around $3,300 - a sum, this inspector said, that could easily be shared with the underpaid inspector (the same one who verified there were no violations).
"I am someone getting 230 pounds for a salary," the inspector said. "Say I want to feed my children three times a day and send them to government schools, to do just that, I need 1,000 pounds a month."
Abdallah Badawy Aboul Magd, the head the Provisions Administration office in Giza, said that the corruption had increased lately because the prices of wheat and other basic foodstuffs have soared. He said that in Giza alone, the governate adjacent to Cairo, there are reports of 2,000 violations a month. To try to combat this problem, he said they have begun a pilot project of separating production from distribution.
"This will enable us to force the bakeries to produce the bread using the complete ration of flour they get," he said.
It is hard to assess actual corruption since corrupt practices are not regularly reported. In a prominent survey that ranks 180 countries by their inhabitants' "perception of corruption," Egypt fell in 2007 to No. 105 from No. 70 the year before.
The Egyptian government has received high praise for its economic changes. Foreign investment has risen sharply, and the World Bank said that gross domestic product grew a healthy 7 percent last year.
But there has been virtually no trickle down, so instead of making life on the streets more stable, the statistically strong economic performance has only made people even more annoyed. A study done this year by a consultant to the Human Development Group of the World Bank lent credence to the widespread feelings of discontent, concluding that overall poverty in 2004-05 "was back to almost the same level as it was in 1995-1996."
"In sum, almost 14 million individuals could not obtain their basic food and nonfood needs," the report noted.
So they fight for cheap bread. They begin gathering outside the bare one-room bakery at about 11 a.m. everyday except Friday, the day of prayer. Over the course of an hour, 14-year-old Mahmoud Ahmed managed four trips to the window. His job, he said, was to ensure a steady stream of bread for a nearby food vendor, who then resold it in sandwiches. It appeared the baker let him push his way to the front to get bread before others. Was there a deal going? Mahmoud would not say.
Down the road, five blocks away, Muhammad Abdul Nabi, 12, was selling bread, the same kind of bread, from a makeshift table for more than double the price of the bakery. There was no line.
Nadim Audi contributed reporting.
Thursday 17 January 2008
Tuesday 15 January 2008
In South Carolina, a bid for black women's votes By Katharine Q. Seelye Tuesday, January 15, 2008 c/o IHT
In South Carolina, a bid for black women's votes
By Katharine Q. Seelye
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
CHARLESTON, South Carolina: Juanita Ramsey, a retired administrative assistant, was standing by her front door in her largely black neighborhood here. As she pointed to the homes of her neighbors, she identified them by political preference:
"Obama, Obama, Hillary, Hillary, Hillary," she said. "And my aunt over there, she's for Hillary."
Ramsey, 59, is supporting Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. She likes him, she said, but she is also tired of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and her husband, Bill Clinton, the former president.
"Hillary and Bill, we've done that," Ramsey said.
The Democratic presidential primary here, on Jan. 26, will be the first test of the candidates' strength in a state where blacks are expected to cast more than half the Democratic votes. Significantly, perhaps a third of those voters will be black women, like Ramsey.
Both campaigns have been conducting intense drives for their votes, believing they will play a central role in deciding whether the Democrats ultimately nominate a white woman or a black man for president.
Interviews with about 50 black women, here and in Loris, a rural town in the eastern part of South Carolina, suggest split views but some growing support for Obama. The interviews were conducted just as racial questions were intensifying in the news media about whether Clinton and her husband had made insensitive comments and whether the Obama campaign had fanned the flames.
But many of the women said they were basing their views on other concerns. Some said they thought a man should be stronger than a woman. Many also panned the moment before the New Hampshire primary when Clinton briefly teared up when she was asked about the rigors of the campaign.
But as the checkered politics of Ramsey's neighborhood suggests, there is a reservoir of support for Clinton. Several women who said the economy was the most important issue to them said they planned to vote for her, and most said they loved Mr. Clinton. (Only one woman mentioned former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, the third leading Democratic candidate, and that was because she had seen his television commercials.)
In North Charleston, Marvetta Perry, 46, who owns a beauty salon, said her customers were so divided between Obama and Mrs. Clinton that she would not publicly discuss her own choice for fear of alienating half her clientele. "I have some who are voting for Obama and some who are voting for Clinton," she said. An Obama sign hangs in her entryway, and Clinton literature is on the table.
Even as black women are choosing sides, many said they were still undecided. Scott Huffmon, a political scientist at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, said that while polls suggested Obama was winning the black vote, so many black women were undecided that they could influence the outcome.
"If Barack Obama captures the undecided black female vote, he will win the race," Huffmon said.
Ramsey said the racial politics of the moment was troubling. She said the Clintons were engaged in "character assassination" and would make a lame attempt to deny it.
"The tighter the race, a slip of the tongue, they'll apologize, 'Oh, we didn't mean to say it,' " Ramsey said. "One thing, they're saying Obama smoked the herb. Well, Clinton did, too."
Also working against Clinton here is a conservative, religious streak among black women. Many cited their biblical beliefs in saying they would vote for a man over a woman.
"A man is stronger," said Clara Vereen, 61, a hair stylist in Loris. She said she respected Clinton but "if a war come, a man should tell us what to do."
A glamorous picture of Obama and his wife, Michelle, beamed from the February cover of Ebony magazine, lying on a nearby table. "He's educated," Vereen said. "He's got what he's supposed to have. Why not give him a chance?"
Huffmon said that black voters here were reassured about Obama after he won the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3.
"Iowa showed that whites will support a black man," Huffmon said. "Some of the soft support for Hillary has been bleeding as African-Americans realized that Barack is viable even among whites."
For Obama, South Carolina is an important bridge connecting his proven support in white rural states and his potential support in big urban states that will vote on Feb. 5. For Clinton, the state is somewhat less vital strategically, but it remains a test of her own appeal — and that of her husband, the so-called first black president — in the face of the possibility of an actual black president.
"South Carolina, while very important to us, is not make or break for our campaign," said Jay Carson, a spokesman for Clinton.
Still, several women said Clinton was the best choice for working women, for the disabled and the elderly.
"She's willing to help people," said Nyeshia Green, 19, a parking attendant in Charleston.
Doretha McCallum Lee, 44, who does volunteer work and was having her hair done at Eclipse, in Loris, also said she liked Clinton.
"I think she'll be good for the people," Lee said.
Anesia Wilson, 34, who owns Eclipse and was spraying Lee's hair, is also with Clinton. "I don't think Obama is ready yet," Wilson said. "He's not ready to be a leader." She also admitted to some concern for Obama's safety. "Look what they did to Martin Luther King," she said.
Vereen had been reluctant to vote for Obama because she feared that giving him a higher profile might endanger him. But that concern has ebbed.
"I've been listening, and I even listened to him on 'Oprah' when he said, 'I ain't scared,' " Vereen said. "I would love for him to be president, and I'm not scared, so scared. I'm really trying to focus on what's good, what he'll do good for us."
Those who said they were undecided rendered a fairly harsh judgment on Clinton for the moment in New Hampshire when her eyes briefly went moist and her voice cracked.
"If Hillary is going to be president, she's got to toughen up," said Beverly Patrick, 49, the owner of Patrick's salon in Loris. She shook her head as she buzz-cut the silver dome of Mae Helen Johnson, 70, a home-health nurse.
"You can't get up there and cry," Johnson said.
Patrick said, "You've got to hide that," adding, "You've got to keep that in."
On the east side of Charleston, Marylee Aiken, 74, who has retired from the mailroom of a local paper company, said she was also turned off by the emotional moment.
"She had this breakdown, and if she's going to break down, you don't need this burden on you" of being president, Aiken said. She added that she was surprised by Clinton's quick pivot from tearing up to attacking Obama. "I don't know what got her pepped up so quick," Aiken said. But she was skeptical about it.
Outside a post office, Patricia Greene Edwards, 54, a schoolteacher, said she was sympathetic to Clinton's emotional moment.
And yet, Greene Edwards said, she has still not decided whom to support. She said she wished she could combine the best of Obama and the best of Clinton into one package.
By Katharine Q. Seelye
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
CHARLESTON, South Carolina: Juanita Ramsey, a retired administrative assistant, was standing by her front door in her largely black neighborhood here. As she pointed to the homes of her neighbors, she identified them by political preference:
"Obama, Obama, Hillary, Hillary, Hillary," she said. "And my aunt over there, she's for Hillary."
Ramsey, 59, is supporting Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. She likes him, she said, but she is also tired of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and her husband, Bill Clinton, the former president.
"Hillary and Bill, we've done that," Ramsey said.
The Democratic presidential primary here, on Jan. 26, will be the first test of the candidates' strength in a state where blacks are expected to cast more than half the Democratic votes. Significantly, perhaps a third of those voters will be black women, like Ramsey.
Both campaigns have been conducting intense drives for their votes, believing they will play a central role in deciding whether the Democrats ultimately nominate a white woman or a black man for president.
Interviews with about 50 black women, here and in Loris, a rural town in the eastern part of South Carolina, suggest split views but some growing support for Obama. The interviews were conducted just as racial questions were intensifying in the news media about whether Clinton and her husband had made insensitive comments and whether the Obama campaign had fanned the flames.
But many of the women said they were basing their views on other concerns. Some said they thought a man should be stronger than a woman. Many also panned the moment before the New Hampshire primary when Clinton briefly teared up when she was asked about the rigors of the campaign.
But as the checkered politics of Ramsey's neighborhood suggests, there is a reservoir of support for Clinton. Several women who said the economy was the most important issue to them said they planned to vote for her, and most said they loved Mr. Clinton. (Only one woman mentioned former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, the third leading Democratic candidate, and that was because she had seen his television commercials.)
In North Charleston, Marvetta Perry, 46, who owns a beauty salon, said her customers were so divided between Obama and Mrs. Clinton that she would not publicly discuss her own choice for fear of alienating half her clientele. "I have some who are voting for Obama and some who are voting for Clinton," she said. An Obama sign hangs in her entryway, and Clinton literature is on the table.
Even as black women are choosing sides, many said they were still undecided. Scott Huffmon, a political scientist at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, said that while polls suggested Obama was winning the black vote, so many black women were undecided that they could influence the outcome.
"If Barack Obama captures the undecided black female vote, he will win the race," Huffmon said.
Ramsey said the racial politics of the moment was troubling. She said the Clintons were engaged in "character assassination" and would make a lame attempt to deny it.
"The tighter the race, a slip of the tongue, they'll apologize, 'Oh, we didn't mean to say it,' " Ramsey said. "One thing, they're saying Obama smoked the herb. Well, Clinton did, too."
Also working against Clinton here is a conservative, religious streak among black women. Many cited their biblical beliefs in saying they would vote for a man over a woman.
"A man is stronger," said Clara Vereen, 61, a hair stylist in Loris. She said she respected Clinton but "if a war come, a man should tell us what to do."
A glamorous picture of Obama and his wife, Michelle, beamed from the February cover of Ebony magazine, lying on a nearby table. "He's educated," Vereen said. "He's got what he's supposed to have. Why not give him a chance?"
Huffmon said that black voters here were reassured about Obama after he won the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3.
"Iowa showed that whites will support a black man," Huffmon said. "Some of the soft support for Hillary has been bleeding as African-Americans realized that Barack is viable even among whites."
For Obama, South Carolina is an important bridge connecting his proven support in white rural states and his potential support in big urban states that will vote on Feb. 5. For Clinton, the state is somewhat less vital strategically, but it remains a test of her own appeal — and that of her husband, the so-called first black president — in the face of the possibility of an actual black president.
"South Carolina, while very important to us, is not make or break for our campaign," said Jay Carson, a spokesman for Clinton.
Still, several women said Clinton was the best choice for working women, for the disabled and the elderly.
"She's willing to help people," said Nyeshia Green, 19, a parking attendant in Charleston.
Doretha McCallum Lee, 44, who does volunteer work and was having her hair done at Eclipse, in Loris, also said she liked Clinton.
"I think she'll be good for the people," Lee said.
Anesia Wilson, 34, who owns Eclipse and was spraying Lee's hair, is also with Clinton. "I don't think Obama is ready yet," Wilson said. "He's not ready to be a leader." She also admitted to some concern for Obama's safety. "Look what they did to Martin Luther King," she said.
Vereen had been reluctant to vote for Obama because she feared that giving him a higher profile might endanger him. But that concern has ebbed.
"I've been listening, and I even listened to him on 'Oprah' when he said, 'I ain't scared,' " Vereen said. "I would love for him to be president, and I'm not scared, so scared. I'm really trying to focus on what's good, what he'll do good for us."
Those who said they were undecided rendered a fairly harsh judgment on Clinton for the moment in New Hampshire when her eyes briefly went moist and her voice cracked.
"If Hillary is going to be president, she's got to toughen up," said Beverly Patrick, 49, the owner of Patrick's salon in Loris. She shook her head as she buzz-cut the silver dome of Mae Helen Johnson, 70, a home-health nurse.
"You can't get up there and cry," Johnson said.
Patrick said, "You've got to hide that," adding, "You've got to keep that in."
On the east side of Charleston, Marylee Aiken, 74, who has retired from the mailroom of a local paper company, said she was also turned off by the emotional moment.
"She had this breakdown, and if she's going to break down, you don't need this burden on you" of being president, Aiken said. She added that she was surprised by Clinton's quick pivot from tearing up to attacking Obama. "I don't know what got her pepped up so quick," Aiken said. But she was skeptical about it.
Outside a post office, Patricia Greene Edwards, 54, a schoolteacher, said she was sympathetic to Clinton's emotional moment.
And yet, Greene Edwards said, she has still not decided whom to support. She said she wished she could combine the best of Obama and the best of Clinton into one package.
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