Our venerable Members of Parliament never cease to surprise me. I returned from a trip abroad last week to find a huge uproar at the People’s Assembly against Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni. Apparently some newspapers had reported that certain MPs had criticized him for the fact that the Geneva Book Fair, in which Egypt was selected as the guest of honor, included a photography exhibition that showed squatter areas in Cairo.
I personally attended the Geneva Book Fair, known as the International Fair for Books and Press. I participated in many of the cultural events taking place in the Egyptian wing and observed its various sections to leaf through the new releases, but despite much effort, cannot recall coming across such a photography exhibit.
There were only two exhibits: the first was a collection of Ancient Egyptian artifacts from Tel El Amarna during the Akhnaten period, which was on the ground floor; while the second comprised a collection of paintings from all over the world. This one was shown on the upper floor.
In any case, let’s assume that such a foreign photography exhibit was actually held during the Geneva fair, what does this have to do with our Ministry of Culture? Did the ministry commission it? Or should the ministry, as some MPs have suggested, have objected to the exhibit and buried its head in the sand by refusing to confess that squatters exist in Egypt and prohibit anyone from photographing them?
Although it has been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that ostriches don’t bury their heads in the sand, some people still project their own failures on other creatures. It surprises me that we do the very thing that we falsely accuse animals of doing.
According to one MP I ran into a few days ago, MPs do not deny the existence of squatters in Cairo, nor do they bury their heads in the sand to avoid seeing what they don’t want to see, but they do believe in the saying that goes: If you encounter a terrible plight, then hide it.
“This idea of keeping quiet on important issues is the root of all our plights, I replied. How could your venerable Assembly throw up its arms in horror at the publication of photographs of slums but is not horrified at the existence of these slums in the first place if they admit that they do exist?
“This is called social hypocrisy: to accept the existence of squatters, waste and dead animals on your streets, but if anyone were to take pictures of them, your venerable MPs would go on a rampage and start attacking the Culture Minister, demanding he confront not the scandal itself, but those who photograph it.
“If you claim that other MPs don’t deny the existence of slums, I continued, “then why didn’t they bring the issue up in parliament and demand questioning the officials responsible for the slums and the garbage that plague our beautiful city? Why weren’t they as outraged at these scandals as they were at the photographs?
After a brief investigation into the strange behavior of our MPs, it turned out that many of them own secret factories that manufacture the magoor (a traditional underground oven used by the fellahin in the Egyptian countryside) and hence benefit a lot from implementing the saying that goes “hide the news in the magoor. Each time a magoor is used to cover up a certain issue, the MPs end up making millions. So how could we expect them to confront those behind these plights?
But if a photo exhibit shows images of Cairo’s slums, that doesn’t really affect their business. Members of the venerable People’s Assembly can be horrified in this case because the existence of a scandalous situation is not a license to photograph it, but perhaps hiding it under one of our MPs’ magoors and attacking the Culture Minister may be the solution.
Mohamed Salmawy is President of the Arab Writers’ Union and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo.
