I've been really remiss in my posting to my blogs lately but it's really hard to type with one arm tied to one's body. My shoulder surgery is slowing me down. I am, however, still able to wander the net reading interesting articles. This is an interview with Mai Iskander who created a film about some of the young men in the zebaleen culture here in Cairo. One of the points that she brings up is the fact that the garbage of Cairo is roughly 50% organic and this organic waste was fed to the pigs that the government slaughtered a few months back. Not having pigs has caused the closure of a number of shops where Cairo residents could buy pork products, which is an inconvenience, has cost the zebaleen considerable income, which is a tragedy...but what I want to know is what is happening to the organic waste of roughly 15 million people? And in this summer heat? EWWWWWW!
copyright 2009 Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
4 comments:
I've nothing against pigs, or people who want to grow them, or who want to eat pork. But, don't you think growing those animals , or any other cattle for that matter, right in the middle of the 15 million people or any other densely populated cities constitutes a serious health hazard?
In my humble opinion the government failed trial after trial to move pigs barns out of Cairo, have pushed them to use the chance of swine flue and crack down on them, which is the wrong way to handle it, but it could have been worse if some disease have broken out.
Since the pigs weren't living "in the middle" of 15 million people and most of our diseases come from the people (including so called swine flu which isn't a pig disease at all), I'm not all that impressed. Most of the zebaleen didn't keep large quantities of pigs...those were on farms outside the cities and they also got slaughtered. Nope, in my book the government totally dropped the ball on this one. Rather than dismantle a good recycling program, tweak it to make it work better.
I had this same worry as soon as I heard of the slaughter! What about the garbage? Those who have not lived in Cairo, might not 'get it'. Many of us outsiders live in places where our garbage is neatly and reliably picked up once or twice a week, probably with another pick-up day for recycling and yard waste removal. This is (unfortunately) not the case in Cairo... it is a costly process... and there are millions of people, therefore tons of garbage, and where does it go? Someone has to pick it up, and something has to be done with it.
I somewhat agree with your first commenter... I admit that I would NOT want to live next to a pig farm, even a very small holding with a very few pigs! They really and truly stink! Cow manure is like roses in comparison, even when pigs are well kept! But, if the choice was that, or piles of rotting garbage, flies, roaches, rats, cats, dogs, carrion birds (ie. bird flu, rabies, disease and pestilence)... I'd choose the smelly pigs.
I sure hope the situation is resolved - and fast - for the health of all who live in Cairo.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8185844.stm
I suspect that things will get worse before they get better but I'm immensely happy to have my goats and chickens to do my very light weight recycling.
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