Garbage Dreams

There is a religious group in Egypt called Coptic Christians. In Cairo many of them literally live in what people call a recycling community but what most other people would call a dump.

I am not sure what the inhabitants call it but the lady leading the tour said their belief in an afterlife is critical to their tolerance and resilience in what can be only described as unacceptable conditions .

In the midddle east one is constantly reminded of the luck of location of birth.

These Christians make their living transforming waste into blankets, paper and other things which they sell to the wealthy as far away as New York and to me.

Is this what is meant by the term compassionate capitalsim?

At one time people were paying them extra to save shampoo bottles. These bottles were then filled with counterfiet shampoo and resold. This affected the bottom line of the multi nationals so through a conuslting agency they put a stop to this practice.

We were all relieved to see this co-operation.

When we the western tourists tried to take the Christians photos many of them would wave a finger. Most people in the west would not like peole from the east taking pictures of them going about their daily business.

No one likes to be patronized and dignity is a human right.

This poverty tourism is problematic.

At the top of this community was the largest church in Africa. It was carved into a limestone cliff and needless to say spectacular. One man from Poland has carved images and sayings into the cliff over the last twenty years.

I'm sure if you google "Coptic Christian Cairo" images and information will appear.

After that we went to the "City Of the Dead" which is on a cemetary. It is surprisingly quiet and the squatters stay out of site on Friday which is their Sabbath or the day of rest here.

In order for me to get into Gaza i need three levels of USA clearance and an invitation from the other side so an Americain who works for the government informs me.

The day finshed with dinner on a large boat on the Nile. I had an interesting conversation where the plight of the Palestinians was discussed and how Zionism continues to influence the region in ways that are unimaginable.

Cairo is beautiful, the people are people and all who can, should see it before they die.