Svineinfluensa

26/5-2009

Dårlig mave er blevet skiftet ud med halsbetændelse. Jeg glemte at slukke for min aircondition i nat, og det må jeg nu tage konsekvenserne af. På arbejde er der konspirationsteorier om, at det er svineinfluensa. Det skyldes, at både Buchi, Sandra og jeg, altså hele gruppen der var oppe og se svinene i "Garbage City", ligger syge med ondt i halsen og småfeber. Det er ikke en teori, der er meget i, men nu meget sjovt alligevel. I den forbindelse kom jeg i tanker om, at jeg kunne dele den artikel, som jeg skrev om svineinfluensa og det ægyptiske regimes efterfølgende beslutning om at slagte alle svin i landet, med jer:


The uncertain future of Christian pig farmers in Egypt

Due to the outbreak of the H1N1-virus (also know as the swine flu) which spread from Mexico in April 2009 and the following decision of the Egyptian president Mubarak and quick approval of the Egyptian parliament on April 29. to slaughter all 300.000 – 350.000 pigs in Egypt the CIDT sent on May 7, and 13, a team of researchers, consisting of Cornelis Hulsman, Jonas Rye Nielsen, Buchi Liu, Sandra Heijden and Asger Toft Johannsen, to the area of Muqattam, also known as “garbage city”, located just North-East of Cairo, to find out what impact the matter has had and will have on the pig farmers and people in the area.


International amazement
After the decision of the Egyptian government to slaughter all pigs in Egypt there has been some unrest among Christians. Sunday May 3. clashes between Christians living in Muqattam and police forces occurred, when workers from the Egyptian Health Ministry and police came to slaughter pigs in the area. 5 young men were arrested. Further clashes are lightly to occur if police forces enter the area again.

Egyptian and international newspapers have published articles questioning the motives behind the slaughtering. International experts from organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) called the decision unnecessary since there is no evidence that the flu spreads from eating pork or being around pigs. Further they point to the fact that no case of H1N1 has been recorded in Egypt. The Egyptian authorities, on the other hand, have during the last years been criticized for not being prepared in cases of emergency. A worldwide outbreak similar to this one occurred in 2003 when the bird flu was recorded in the country. Since then 23 Egyptian citizens have been diagnosed as having died as a result of the disease. This makes Egypt the country in the world experiencing the fourth highest death toll in connection to the bird flu. As a reaction the government, in 2006, slaughtered 25 million birds within 6 weeks. Because of the criticism of not doing enough to avoid the bird flu to spread in the first place, it took three years for the authorities to act by slaughtering the birds, the recent reaction to the swine flu might be seen as the Egyptian authorities trying to avoid another pandemic like the bird flu and to show the international community that Egypt is ready to cope with such crisis. Another aspect could be the regime being worried for Muslim reactions towards Christians if the swine flu came to Egypt and coursed a pandemic. Muslims consider pigs unclean animals, and pigs believed being reason for deaths could cause many tensions between Muslims and Christians in the country.


An easy decision?
Another element which could have influenced the decision of the president to act like he did in this case is the fact that the group of pig breeders is very small compared with the group of people holding birds. Only Christians eat pork and the group of pig breeders is significantly smaller than the scope of bird holders, thus the slaughtering of the pigs was considered only to concern a small group of people in Egypt. With the bird flu it was different. When the regime took the decision to slaughter 25 million birds in 2006 they knew that the impact, that the slaughtering would have on the entire community, would be much larger and pressuring the regime significantly more. That decision was thereby also considerable harder to make. The chance for a larger uproar in this case is thereby not likely because of the limited amount of people effected by the culling.

Concerning the decision of the president to order all pigs culled some people point to the decision as being rushed and not thought through. This point is being stressed by looking at the swiftness with which the decision was made. The illness just became international news on April 21, and on April 29, it was still unknown what had coursed the disease. Egypt is the only country in the world which has decided to cull all it's pigs. The decision to do so was made before international experts had identified the source of the outbreak and determined how the disease spreads. The determination of the president in concern of showing Egypt's readiness in cases of emergency has thus backfired. By making a fast decision the president wanted to go up against previous criticism, but instead of silencing critics the decision brought new ones, because it was rushed and thus made on a weak basis. An issue which therefore has been subject to international amazement is the fact that there has been no reaction following the news of experts saying that the disease does not spread through contact with pigs or by consumption of pork. This has further fueled the rumors of the culling being sectarian. The WHO further stressed that killing all the pigs on the basis which it is done is a waste of resources and should not be done. UN commented that if the disease does not spread from pigs then why should the pigs be killed?

Some critics have as well focused on the presence of pigs in Egypt stretching all the way back to the time of the Pharaohs. They consider the culling, and thereby the removal, of pigs in Egypt a setback for Christians and an attack on Christians identity in Egypt. Coptic media have as a result focused on the culling being sectarian and a result of the regimes Islamicisation of Egypt.


“Garbage City”
Whether the reaction of the Egyptian government can be seen as a way of pressuring the Christian minority in the country or as a way to show the international community that Egypt is ready to act in the case of crisis does not change the fact that many Christian pig breeders have to face problems if the pigs are slaughtered. On this account we decided to go to Muqattam to hear what the people in the area have to say about the situation and to hear how the priest of the area, Father Saaman Ibrahim, handles the situation and what he thinks is the best thing to do right now. The role of a priest in such an area is very important in complicated situations because he acts as both a priest and an official negotiator at the same time. This is due to the fact that there are no other politicians or representatives to speak on behalf of the Christians in the area.

The area of Muqattam is in english known as “Garbage city”. Approximately 150.000 people live in the area. It is known as “Garbage city” because Christian garbage collectors live there. Cairo is estimated to have around 250.000 people involved in garbage collecting, and Muqattam is therefore an area containing a large amount of them. Following the collection of the garbage it is sorted into piles of different materials. The materials are afterwards shipped to China for recycling. The remains of food found in the garbage is used to feed the animals in the area and thus also the pigs concerned.

Most people open their eyes wide when they come to the area the first time. One quick understands why the area is known as “Garbage city”. The streets are covered with garbage, inside the houses piles of bags containing garbage, waiting for shipment, fill the rooms and on the rooftops there is either more garbage or goats in small fencing feeding on leftovers of food. The smell is overwhelming and is hanging heavy in the streets. It reminds of the smell you get if you put your head down a trashcan and take a deep breath.


Who are rich or not?
There are some rumors concerning the garbage collectors and pig breeders. One of them being that all garbage collectors and pig farmers are rich. Most people are unaware that there are more than just garbage collectors in the area. Another group in the area connected to the garbage, which is considerably smaller, consist of the people who receive and sort the garbage and sell the materials for shipment to China. They earn a fair amount by doing so, but this does far from mean all people in the area of Muqattam being rich. Most garbage collectors struggle to keep a living. The third group in the area is the group of pig farmers. They are as well earning just enough to keep a living. None of the families we talked to had anything to do with garbage collection anymore and depended entirely on the raising and selling of pigs. None of them had savings in case of a pandemic, disease among pigs or other unforeseen expenses which, most likely, would have been the case if they had any money to save.


A message of peace
Before we went to Muqattam Cornelis had tried to call the church to arrange a meeting with father Samaan Ibrahim, but the phone number had been changed and we had to go to the area without an appointment. However Cornelis is known in the area and he was able to arrange a meeting with father Samaan Ibrahim after all.

When we were invited to enter to talk to father Samaan Ibrahim he was busy talking on the phone. As mentioned before 5 young men were arrested four days earlier and since he acts like the leading authority for people in the area he was trying to arrange the right legal help for the young men. After a little while we had the opportunity to hear what he thinks about the situation and hear what impact the decision to cull all pigs has for the community in Muqattam. He stated: “Now after the problem of slaughtering pigs, on which people used to make their living, about 52000, their source of living is not there any more. We call for how to help people live after the removal of their livelihood. We pray and you pray and whoever can help those people, would be appreciated, to complete their lives”. It becomes clear that he considers the slaughtering of the pigs a big problem for the people involved in raising pigs in the area. He mentions that he estimates the number of people involved in pig farming to be around 52000 thousand people. This means that one third of the people living in the area would be in danger of facing unemployment at ones if all the pigs are slaughtered. The culling of the pigs is not a fast process. There are only two butcheries in Egypt suitable for slaughtering pigs. They only have the capacity to slaughter around 1200 pigs each day day. Culling all the pigs in Egypt will therefore take several months.

After talking with Father Samaan Ibrahim he invited us to stay and listen to his sermon the same evening. The sermon of a priest can be decisive in hard situations. The people often depend on the priest to find out what to do in situations like this one. If the priest is not clear about how people should act it can lead to further escalations. We gladly accepted his invitation.

The church service started at 19.00. Once we got there we found around 1000 people. Among those people was a considerable number of Muslims, most recognizable by the scarfs that the women were wearing. This showing that there is sympathy for the pig farmers to find amongst Muslims as well. Once the sermon began the number of people present can be estimated to be around 3500-4000 people. The message that Father Samaan Ibrahim wanted to give the people was one of peace and not rebellion. He urged the people not to go with anger but to have faith in goodness and never to give up hope. An important message in concern of prevention of further clashes with locals and police forces.


"Without the pigs we will die"
Since we came unannounced to the area we were not able to see the pig farmers on May 7. Many of the pig farmers have hidden their pigs for the police not to be able to find them when they come. We therefore were asked to come back the following week to talk to the farmers and other people connected to the industry in the area. Thus we went back to the area on May 13, to hear the farmers point of view.

When we talked to the farmers it became clear that the major aspects for the farmers in this case are those of compensation for their loss and their future perspectives if they cannot hold pigs. We wanted to know if the authorities have decided to give the involved pig breeders a fair compensation. A fair compensation would show that the regime feels responsible for the loss of the Christian pig farmers. We were told that the authorities, to begin with, had not planned to give compensation for the culled pigs, but that they now had changed their decision. Now compensation will be paid in the way that a culled pig entitles the owner of 50 LE. Under normal circumstances the prize for a kilo of pork meat is six LE. An average grownup pig weights around 60 kilos, this means that the prize a farmer can get for his pig normally is 360 LE. This gives the breeders a loss of 310 LE for every pig slaughtered. Further comes that they loose the possibility to breed pigs when the pigs are culled. Unemployment in Egypt and the question of fair compensation for the loss and future perspectives concerning work means a lot to the pig farmers. The unemployment rate in Egypt is estimated to be higher than 25 %, so most of the pig farmers are worried about finding work if they cannot raise pigs.

The families we talked to in Muqattam had an average size of 20-25 people. We were told that around 1500 families are directly involved in pig breeding, that means that more than 30.000 people in the area can be categorized as pig farmers. As father Samaan Ibrahim stated an additional 20.000 people are in one way or another also involved in the pig farming in the area and they will also be affected by the culling of the pigs. When we talked to some of the pig farmers on May 13, they all stressed that the only source of income that their families had were the pigs. One of the persons we talked to put it directly and stated: “This was our only income”, stressing that they have no alternative to pig breeding. Another man, who was in the middle of loading his pigs on a truck for slaughtering, went as far as announcing: “We will die without the pigs”. The same man further added that the school in the area charges 3000 LE for a year of teaching but that he now did not have the money to pay for his children's education the forthcoming year, so they would not be able to attend school and should now help earning money instead of. This shows as well that the families often have no savings for such times. When asked if they have received any kind of help social or economic they all answered no. “we have received no help at all, and we don't know what to do now”, a woman from one of the families said.


An uncertain future
The situation of the pig farmers is a really tough one. When the pigs are gone they will have no source of income left. They receive little help from the authorities which clearly shows from the insufficient compensation that the pig farmers receive. The pig farmers thereby don't just face standing without future possibilities to continue their livelihood but further have to cope with loosing everything they have fought for the last 10-15 years in their efforts to obtain a reasonable standard of living. They have, in general, no savings and there seems to be no political willingness to reach a solution to the difficult situation. Unless the president decides to draw back his decision to continue culling all the pigs, the farmers have nowhere to turn.