Traffic Problems In Egypt

Egypt's Praetorian Guard problem

Because the pro-democracy activists who triggered the January 25 protests did not expect that it would lead to the ouster of Mubarak, they did not feel the need to draft reform plans. These were not revolutionaries, simply idealists.

Since the mass uprising the reform movement has been running blindly into the transitional period and is at least partially responsible for the confrontation with the now ruling military council, the Praetorian guards. There are two problems in common for states in democratic transition. The first is deciding what to do with the old regime figures. How will Egypt extract justice from the Mubarak family, Omar Suleiman, Habib Al-Adly, Ahmed Ezz, etc. who clearly carried out or supported human rights violations and denied the Egyptian people the basic rule of law?

Secondly, many countries in transition including Egypt are faced with the task of reducing the military’s role in politics and government. The establishment of a new relationship between an elected civilian government and a corps of professional military officers is historically the harder of the two issues. Turkey’s case is relevant here. For over 80 years populist democracy has been suppressed by the military complex known as ‘deep state.’

Studying states that attempt to transition from autocracy to democracy shows that not all attempts at democratization succeed. Last week Cairo hosted visiting scholars from the Arab Turkish Conference of Social Sciences who spoke about Egypt’s future.

The consensus among these analysts is that Turkey is no model because it is still in transition, its press is not free, its citizens unequal, the state is still pervasively involved in the lives of individuals. Egypt needs to stop oversimplifying Turkey’s complex and at times dire political history as a desirable model simply because its outcome seems to be positive.

Right now it seems that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is hoping that Egypt will try to forgive and forget the old regime. But the protesters in Tahrir Square are showing they won’t, which decreases SCAF’s legitimacy every day.

We can only guess why the iconic figures of the Mubarak regime haven’t been prosecuted and punished let alone the hundreds of officers complicit in the killings that took place during the uprising. While the SCAF might not be willing to prosecute Mubarak and company, it doesn’t mean that a future government or a future president cannot or will not. However if the prosecutions don’t take place soon they might never, as was the case in many other democratizing countries like Chile in the early 1990s.

Traffic Accidents in Egypt | Foreign Policy Blogs

Traffic accidents in Egypt continue to be a major problem as over 30 people have been killed and scores injured on the roads just this month . Official estimates place the number of deaths resulting from road accidents in Egypt at around 6000 to 8000 per year with tens of thousands of injuries. In August 2008, the government began to implement a new traffic law in an attempt to alleviate some of Egypt’s traffic problems, including banning the use of cell phones without headsets, requiring taxi drivers to wear seatbelts (which they usually only do when they see a policeman, and even then often just sling the belt over themselves without securing it), and fines for driving on the wrong side of the road. It is not clear after driving around the streets of Cairo that the new law has had any real effect.

Traffic problems in Egypt are a result of human error but also of legal and physical deficiencies. Poor urban planning and poorly maintained roads lead to congestion, speeding, and dangerous conditions. Licenses can be bought with bribes meaning a lack of driver education, and many vehicles are not properly maintained. There is overcrowding on public transportation and especially on minibuses, which are often packed to the brim with passengers and driven by young, inexperienced drivers.

In December of last year, a speeding, overcrowded bus plunged into a canal in the town of Minya, south of Cairo, killing upwards of 60 people. It was one of the worst traffic accidents in recent Egyptian history. A quick look at Egypt’s daily newspapers reveals a steady stream of accidents at about a rate of 1-2 per month at least in the past six months, resulting in not only injuries but often deaths. And these are only the accidents which are reported.

Egyptians are of course upset about traffic conditions and the state of transportation in their country and some of the blame should surely fall on their own shoulders–after all they are the ones driving the vehicles. But this issue also points to larger problems such as government negligence, or its inability, to properly take care of its citizens and keep them safe on the roads. The government has made an effort to provide a stronger police presence on certain major highways, but the patrols are limited and the egregious disregard of the law has made its implementation difficult. Corruption, as usual, is also a problem. For example, the new traffic law stipulates that drivers must carry reflective “stop” triangular signs and first aid kits, but there have been problems supplying these to drivers, some news reports claim , as a result of “businessmen vying to supply them and in the process make a healthy profit.

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