NYT article on working poor in Cairo
Great article (as well as a video and slideshow) which gives a snapshot of the lives of Cairenes and their sense of the role of government in their lives.
In Arab Hub, the Poor Are Left to Their Fate
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Published: New York Times, March 1, 2007
CAIRO, Feb. 23 — Ali Mezar has spent his life fishing a narrow, muddy patch of the Nile in this, one of the most crowded cities in the world. But Mr. Mezar has little contact with urban civilization. He sleeps in his boat, makes tea from the dirty Nile water and on good days earns a few dollars.
Not far away, on the shoulder of a busy avenue, Karim Sayed, 21, herds sheep and goats matted with urban filth. He spends his days staring into oncoming traffic, hoping to make a sale before the police move him or confiscate a sheep.
At the city’s edge, in a packed neighborhood built entirely by its residents, Mina Fathy and his neighbors fix sewerage, water and electricity problems on their own because they say the government offers them virtually no service in such functions.
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