Ordinaries in action

Late Thursday night (2am), my friends and I are cruising in the streets of Heliopolis in search of a famous sha'aby Kebab place. Have you noticed how all the gas stations have the Grade 90 gas back in the pumps again? Are you following what's happening with Air Traffic Control officers? Questions that popped up while we were cruising, lost in the streets of Heliopolis.

A couple of months back, the government started to reduce the Grade 90 gas from gas stations, limiting it to only a few gas stations that service this popular grade of gas. I complained back then as to the way the government was doing this. Officially lying about it, saying that gas prices are not increasing, while they are gradually replacing Grade 90 gas (for 1 pound) with Grade 92 which costs 1.4 as much.

Today, oil service companies are doing it the right way. They are placing ads in newspapers about the benefits of the higher grade gas, ecnouraging people to use it instead of the lower grade. Today, all gas stations are serving Grade 90 gas again, along side with the higher grades. Aha, what happened?

Ordinary people might've actually caused the shift back. I don't know the numbers, but it could've been around 1 in 5 gas stations that was serving Grade 90 a couple of months back. That one-in-five gas station had long lineups of cars patiently waiting to get their cheap gas. I for one would go into a gas station and ask, do you have 90. If the answer is no, I'd drive away. A guy I know drove into a gas station, asked for 90, got a No answer, so he asked the attendant to pump 1 Litre only! The attendant was astonished, "why just one litre?!". The driver responded, "so that I can drive to the next gas station and fill it up with grade 90"!

Foreign companies extracting oil from Egyptian soil have an agreement with the State that the government takes 50% of the extracted oil, and the other 50% is sold by the companies to the government represented by the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC). EGPC has been giving those oil companies a hard time paying them for the 50% they buy (as in not paying at all), causing those companies to sell our valuable natural resources abroad, and the government doesn't seem to care. Maybe EGPC should bring its funds from abroad where its being invested in other countries and pay those oil companies, and maybe the government should reduce its spending and cut down on its theft. But no, the most logical solution is to raise the gas prices and have the ordinaries take the burden.

There are many arguments as to why gas grades as well as prices should increase, and I would tend to agree with most. Yet, I was pissed at the way the government was doing it, and as long as I have an alternative, I will go for it. And apparently, so did everyone else.

So, that was the drivers in the street. What about those managing our air space, Air Traffic Control officers? They went on a semi-strike again. This one lasted for a few days which costed Egypt nearly 30 million USD in flight delays and cancellations.

AlAhram Weekly has the story. A couple of months back, Air Traffic Control officers took action, by organizing a sit-in and slowing down air traffic, in demand of higher wages and better working conditions. They requested to meet with Mubarak (the kind-hearted president) to satisfy their requests, which their incompetent beauracratic superiors are incapable of meeting or making any untraditional decisions (in a story I heard, they sent a memo to the President while he was in his Presidential plane via the air traffic channels requesting to meet him). None of their demands were met back then, and instead disciplinary actions were taken against eight of the strikers.

Last week, the air controllers went back on strike in support of their colleagues, slowing down air traffic in a number of airports, causing pilots to stay in the air for extra hours, risking shortage of fuel, potentially resulting in disasters. Many airlines have cancelled flights as a result of the chaos. The air controllers strike has cost Egypt millions of dollars, but the government would not listen nor negotiate a few extra pounds increase in their salaries. They'd rather hire foreign workers with atleast 10 times the locals' salaries than listen to the demands of ordinary Egyptians.

The Minister of Aviation threatened to hire foreign air controllers, and has already fired some of the strikers (he even called for them to be 'legally executed' in that Ahram piece). AlAhram newspaper (Arabic version) has portrayed the air controllers as reckless and irresponsible (which one must admit is kind of true, but must ask why they would go that far), and disloyal to the country.

There you go, ordinary Egyptians in action! Now, back to follow the real deal --the Judges in action.