Predictably, the Muqattam tragedy and the Tamim murder were the talk of the Egyptian street. “The State is weak,” Samy Nasser who works as a sales representative remarks. “People realise they can frequently force their will upon the Sate, regardless of the law. In Duweiqa—and in countless other neighbourhoods in
Architect Samy Hanna remembers the 1993 rockslide. “At the time,” Hanna says, “geologists said that limestone cliffs of Muqattam were expected to collapse again in the future. They stressed the importance of restraining population activity in order to control the damage. Nothing was ever done in this respect.”
With such little faith in the government, it should come as no surprise that some resort to conspiracy theory. A young student, Fatma Zaghloul, told Watani there were surely some “hidden hands” behind the disaster. “Of course they want the shanty town out,” she said. “Then investors can come in and build some posh buildings that would sell at a fortune each.”
And no-one expects any official would be held accountable. “Is no official responsible for the gross negligence that resulted in the disaster?” accountant Fady Farouq wonders.
If there was nothing to be happy about in the Muqattam tragedy, some saw light at the end of the tunnel in the Mustafa case. Student Gamila Ahmed sounded very happy that “finally, one of the ruling elite has been caught by the law.” But she is not optimistic. “Money will surely talk at one point and Mustafa will find a way out. He may very well flee the country,” she says. “In
While the young accountant Nash’at Sobhy wonders why businessmen more often than not ended up with scandals related to womanising, lawyer Moheeb Samir expressed stupefaction that Mustafa should have paid $2 million to kill Tamim. “Some young people,” Samir said, “who need only EGP1000 for a down payment for a flat may never be able to afford them.”