It seems that the annexing of what used to be the refined Maadi district by the governorate of Helwan, where iron and steel plants and public slums thrive, was a disaster on many levels.
In addition to the greed of the new district council staff and their easy-going attitude when it comes to cracking down on sidewalk encroachments, there are other infringements in a variety of different areas. Some of them are related to public taste, which, in other countries would receive the gravest punishment.
One dark night, the residents of Maadi were struck by ugly lights strewn over the trees lining the Corniche, which were overhung by colored lamps like those used in common street weddings. The lights were red, green or yellow, and they’re kept on from dusk till dawn. Some of them flash like nightclubs lights. This eternal celebration begins from the Constitutional Court building till the end of the Maadi Corniche.
At the beginning, the residents of Maadi thought that the lights marked the inauguration of one of the boat restaurants on the Nile.
“There’s no harm if it’s just for one night, they thought, but then they discovered that this false celebration was one of those “One Thousand and One Arabian Nights celebrations that used to go on for 40 days and nights despite incessant official requests by the residents to end them. But there is no such thing as official requests because the new city council neither responds nor reacts. If you go to the district council building itself you’ll probably find employees busy quarrelling as they divide the spoils of the pavements they sold to encroachers.
The other encroachments on public taste which the people of Maadi recently encountered have been the gigantic advertisements across the Corniche at the three entrances to Maadi. All over the civilized world, there are criteria governing the placement of billboards. Such huge billboards cannot be placed along the Nile.
It would be great if city coucil officials would visit Paris to see what the French have done with the Seine’s promenade, or go to London to see what the British have done with the Thames especially at the Embankment area where a Pharaonic obelisk is erected, not an ugly commercial advertisements.
The existence of these gigantic advertisements, which we had never had before, and which compete with the pavements as a crucial source of income for the district council, is an extreme assault on public taste.
Urban planning professionals should have been consulted on this, not the employees of the city council in the district best known for its factories and slums. I’m not even asking the council to take the residents’ opinion as it’s done all over the world, because I know that here people have no value. What matters most is to profit from the new sources of income for the employees of the city council.
Since the people have no power to change anything, they can at least boycott the products or services advertised on these ugly boards which disfigured the three entrances of Maadi and which are now starting to spread in the main squares of what used to be a refined district.
I call on all the inhabitants of Maadi who have sent me complaints about these unacceptable infringements on public taste, to boycott all the products and services advertised in those ugly boards, and to rally the rest of the inhabitants or those who are concerned about the beauty Cairo, to contact the owners of these ads and tell them that they will boycott their products until they stop advertising for them that way which does not show any respect to the citizens they want to win over.
The governorate to which this district, which is no longer calm nor refined, now belongs, should put an end to the encroachment on pavements and the mushrooming of garbage piles and the assault on public taste.
Mohamed Salmawyis President of the Arab Writers’ Union and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo.
