Over the past many months much has been said about the nation’s financial situation, including its demise and verge of bankruptcy. However, one who walks the streets and roads of Cairo is left to wonder if State funds really are diminishing or improperly used and distributed.
The past few months have been witness to rising prices with subsidy cuts, lack of fuel, electricity cuts, and negotiation of loans and economic policies that will affect the population, mostly the poor, as an attempt to cut spending, regain capital into the country, and tools to support the ailing economy. More recently, due to lack of fuel, and the approaching scorching summer, official announcements have been reported that all households will experience power cuts, twice a day, four hours each time. Additionally, to cut on electrical usage, portions of the Cairo International Airport will shut down during the summer months.
Citizens are dumbfounded and unable to comprehend such policies and moves daily as they roam the streets or tune to the daily evening news.
Street lights are lit during the day and off by night. Governmental buildings are left lit after operating hours. Presidential Palace walls, and many others belonging to governmental institutions and missions, bearing graffiti and signs of opposition to the regime are continuously repainted to cover said opposition. A drive on the Suez/Cairo Road will reveal no less than three LCD billboards powered day and night with no less than three to four air conditioning units from behind at all times. While it has been argued that such LCD screens are powered through generators, it becomes more astounding to learn that the majority of hospitals and medical facilities do not have electric generators, eminent for use during electricity cuts. Public funds are spent on prosecuting and investigating journalists and television personalities for opposing or mocking the President and the Brotherhood. And the list goes on, leading to the question, “Is the nation really low on funds?”
If the economy is in a rut, wouldn't the government, in the interests of its citizenry, find ways to minimize unnecessary and useless spending? Should air-conditioned LCD billboards line up roads while you intend to expand and extend power cuts? Is there enough funds to paint walls every week, post protests, and keep governmental buildings fully lit post operating hours, but unable to continue subsidies to the poor? The rhetorical questions are endless, but must necessarily be addressed, because the answers to them will show that the nation’s biggest economical problem is mismanagement by the appropriate authorities, who ought to be accountable to the citizens.
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