

Egyptian govt. wiped out pigs, cities now overwhelmed with trash - randomwalker
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/world/africa/20cairo.html

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patio11
_Speaking broadly, there are two systems for receiving services in Egypt: The
government system and the do-it-yourself system. Instead of following the
channels of bureaucracy, most people rely on an informal system of personal
contacts and bribes to get a building permit, pass an inspection, get a
driver’s license — or make a living._

While I realize the thought might not be popular in the corridors of power in
Egypt or, for that matter, the NYT newsroom, a refinement on the "informal
system of personal contacts and bribes" is a "market". Try them sometime --
they work fabulously!

Signed,

World That Does Not Wade Through Trash On Commute To Work

~~~
mahmud
It doesn't always work. The city of Napoli in Italy also has its own system of
"informal system of personal contacts and bribes" to get things done: yes, the
Mafia controls garbage collection there, and for some time it looked like
this:

<http://images.google.com.au/images?q=Napoli+garbage>

Market needs accountability and transparency. Bring the transactions to the
surface and let the offers compete.

~~~
robotrout
> let the offers compete

<http://images.google.com/images?q=Athens+garbage+strike>

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altano
I visited Cairo ~10 years ago. It was so polluted that your nasal mucus (can I
say 'booger' at my age?) would be black by midday. The entire area around the
Pyramids of Giza smelled like camel shit, to a nauseating degree. The museums
and cops were in a race to see which could be defiled faster for a quick buck.

The only redeeming quality of the entire city is Khan el-Khalili
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_el-Khalili>), which is one of the coolest
places I've ever been.

~~~
kyro
Yeah, it really saddens me. As an Egyptian, I grew up watching old Egyptian
movies my parents always had running on the tv, and still do. I would see the
Nile in all it's glory, flanked on both edges by beautiful rows of palm trees,
etc. I guess that's how it really was back then, according to the parents. But
it's not like that anymore. I've gone back to the motherland about 3 times in
the last decade and have always been thoroughly disappointed. It's dirty,
underdeveloped, etc. You drive down one block and see rundown apartment
buildings, and out of nowhere you see a marble crafted government building
that has not one blemish or crack. However, being a Copt, I do find the
monasteries to be one of the few preserved gems of Egypt, where you can see
artwork from hundreds and hundreds of years ago still in its original form
painted on huge rock walls. Other than that, and the handful of tourist spots
(museums, libraries and whatever is left of the ancient ruins), I really can't
suggest anywhere to visit in Egypt that'll give you that Indiana Jones,
culturally rich 3rd world country feel to it. Even places like Alexandria,
which are considered to be on the cleaner part of the spectrum, don't do much
for me. There are places like Sharm El-Sheikh that are great, but consider
them like the Cancun of the middle east - nothing really culturally original.

Overall, I don't enjoy visiting that country, but that's dependent on the
specific places I choose to visit. For a place that was once a leader in
philosophy and sciences, the inventor of papyrus, the builder of the pyramids,
to have devolved into what it is today is really sad.

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tlrobinson
_The pigs used to eat tons of organic waste. Now the pigs are gone and the
rotting food piles up on the streets of middle-class neighborhoods like
Heliopolis and in the poor streets of communities like Imbaba._

Um, when pigs eat organic waste, don't they usually produce _other_ "organic
waste"? Where did all of that go before?

~~~
pierrefar
Think of the pigs as lettuce->manure converters.

~~~
omouse
manure meaning fertilizer so you can make more lettuce, YUM!

------
newsdog
Another example of the kind of thinking that has made the third world great.

~~~
itistoday
Another example of what happens when supposedly rational monkeys prove to be
completely irrational and base their actions on unsubstantiated emotions.

This doesn't just happen in the third world.

~~~
teeja
As opposed to the irrational monkeys that dump their trash in the ocean? Or
shoot satellites powered by plutonium into fast-decaying orbits? Or use ASATs
to destroy satellites, then cry out for ways to get all that trash out of
orbit? Or make TV sets full of heavy metals, then provide no way to dispose of
them safely?

From my POV, there's plenty of irrational to go around. Finger-pointing is an
exercise fraught with peril.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
Why? Does one wrong make another one go away?

If it's screwed up, say so. Sure everybody is screwed up, but only by talking
about it are we able to improve.

