
A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt - danso
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/tales-trash
======
kumarski
"In 2009, during the worldwide epidemic of H1N1 swine flu, the Ministry of
Agriculture decreed that all Egyptian pigs had to be killed. There was no
evidence that pigs were spreading the disease, but the government went ahead
and slaughtered as many as three hundred thousand animals. Some Egyptians
believe that the decision was driven by a desire to appease Islamists, who had
become outspoken critics of the regime, and supposedly hated pigs even more
than they hated Mubarak."

wow.

~~~
gaius
Also see [http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/05/05/us-afghanistan-
pig...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/05/05/us-afghanistan-pig-
idUSTRE5444XQ20090505)

------
PhantomGremlin
For those debating about reading the article:

I read it in its entirety. It's quite long, but it has some fascinating
vignettes into life in Egypt. Topics covered include garbage collection and
recycling, politics, marriage and divorce, and the roles of males and females
in Egypt.

~~~
bramjans
Very interesting read indeed, a very thorough insight into life in Egypt. I
especially liked the relationship part, the female oppression and dominance at
the same type. Seems almost like a paradox through the eyes of a westerner.

------
Balgair
What a great little vignette on a part of our modern world. The clash of
tradition, politics, love, and garbage. My family owns an auto repair shop and
I could just feel the clothes that Sayyid wears on my skin again (grease and
salt, similar, but not the same as his). My father also deals with most strata
of society and Sayyid's observations ring true to me as my father's words:
'Assholes have all manner of 0's on their bank slips'.

------
JSeymourATL
> The government played no role in establishing this system, which worked
> remarkably well. Social scientists often cite it as a success story among
> developing-world megacities... Brilliant!

------
jessaustin
_One year, we couldn’t buy bottled water for months, because the plant that
produced the water somehow caught fire._

Ouch. A way to _know_ one lives in the developing world.

~~~
ramgorur
please come and visit michigan.

~~~
jessaustin
Please confirm, is bottled water unavailable for months at a time in this
benighted place? What do they do about Wal-Mart, which claims to be able to
supply bottled water at all times in 118 different locations in a place
they're calling "michigan"?

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BorisMelnik
no one suspects the social engineer that is illiterate and wears shoes 2 sizes
too large

------
andrewfong
Anyone else reminded of the garbageman from Dilbert?

[http://dilbert.wikia.com/wiki/The_Garbageman](http://dilbert.wikia.com/wiki/The_Garbageman)

------
Fuzzwah
I scroll down past the opening photo so the 1st line of text is at the top of
my browser window and settle in to begin reading and then the header scrolls
down to cover the top 3 lines of text.

Hate.

~~~
TrainedMonkey
Side project idea, chrome or firefox extension that takes text and pictures
from popular news sites and removes all the distracting bells and whistles.
Now that I think about it, something like that probably already exists.

~~~
DanBC
Readability?

[https://www.readability.com/](https://www.readability.com/)

~~~
JetSpiegel
I would rather have something local, not send a list of everything I read to
some server somewhere.

~~~
jholman
Ah, then you want Readable.

[http://readable.tastefulwords.com/](http://readable.tastefulwords.com/)

~~~
JetSpiegel

         Evernote has acquired Readable!
    

Hmmm, let's check Firebug's Net tab

    
    
        http://readable.tastefulwords.com/log.js?rand=0.8736547357568928&url=http%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Finformation-technology%2F2014%2F10%2Fborked-belkin-routers-leave-many-unable-to-get-online%2F&options=%5B%5B%3Dtf%3A%20quote(Palatino%20Linotype)%2C%20Palatino%2C%20quote(Book%20Antigua)%2C%20Georgia%2C%20serif%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dtfm%3A%20quote(Courier%20New)%2C%20Courier%2C%20monospace%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dtfh%3A%20quote(Times%20New%20Roman)%2C%20Times%2C%20serif%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dts%3A%2018px%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dtlh%3A%201.5%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dbw%3A%2030em%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dcb%3A%20%23F5F5F5%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dct%3A%20%23282828%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dcl%3A%20%230000FF%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Dta%3A%20normal%5D%5D%5B%5B%3Db%3A%20blueprint%5D%5D&customCSS=&_=1412717055539
    

I'll stick to Color Toggle [1] then.

1: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/color-
toggle/...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/color-
toggle/?src=search)

~~~
TrainedMonkey
Good stuff on firebug research. I am however, not sure how switching between
color modes helps with messy layout.

~~~
JetSpiegel
It doesn't, but if you uncheck "Let pages override this settings", all the
backgrounds will be the same and the effect is quite similar.

