Egypt's Usual Summer Woes

As has sadly become the norm in Egypt in the summer time, power outages are again an almost daily occurrence. While the government continues to bleat that they are working hard to overcome the energy shortages, it's one excuse after the next as to why the power continues to black out. Ramadan falling in the height of the summer heat this year will only further add to this electricity burden...and may end up causing state-wide unrest.

Back to Blackouts (Source Daily News Egypt)

After last year’s wave of summer blackouts sparked a public outcry in Cairo, the seasonal electricity challenges have returned to the capital in force.

On Sunday, outages spread across Cairo districts due to a fault in the electrical lines connecting stations, said an official source preferring to remain anonymous.

“We haven’t yet started to apply the energy rationalisation strategy yet,” the source explained. “Electric stations in Egypt are unable to withstand high temperatures, and must be shut down to avoid burning out.”

The source also confirmed that the new budget and subsidies plan for electricity has yet to come into effect.

“We have a fuel shortage, especially in natural gas, used by 70% of electric stations to operate due to low diesel quality,” the source said.

The source explained that the government organizes citizens into clusters based on levels of consumption, providing the basis for its distribution of subsidies. If the consumption exceeds this predefined amount, the subsidy decreases accordingly.

“The electrical load in peak hours has noticeably increased since the beginning of summer,  leading to several outages in a number of regions,” the country’s Electric Utility and Consumer Protection Regulatory Agency (EUCPRA) said in a statement, adding that it “has been careful not to cut power in any region for more than half an hour to an hour”.

For the last two years, Cairo has experienced repeated power outages due to fuel shortages. Blackouts are expected to continue during summer 2013 as the national electricity network is estimated to be overloaded by around 2,500 megawatts on peak days.

Meanwhile, operations at Egypt’s North Cairo Electricity Distribution Company (NCEDC) have been shut down, as workers entered a fifth day of strikes, demanding  the release of their 17 arrested colleagues.

The striking workers are threatening to cut off electricity to districts of Cairo supplied by the state-run company, protesting worker Ahmed Adel told Ahram Online on Friday.

On Monday, the head of the Egyptian Electric Holding Company, called on a number of endowment imams to use their pulpits to boost citizen awareness of the need to eliminate wasteful consumption.

“If we rationalize 10% of electricity consumption, it will provide us with EGP 60m in fuel daily and prevent outages suffered by Egyptians during the summer period,” he said.

“It’s disappointing,” said Ahmed Mahmoud, an architect. “I work in Maadi, and during the last period of outages, we suffered blackouts three times a day, sometimes for an hour. It severely disrupts our work.”

Meanwhile, many have laid the blame at the feet of President Mohamed Morsi, citing his strategy as the main reason for the blackouts.

Outages have occurred in various governorates throughout the country. In Beni Suef on Friday, an hour-long blackout sent residents fleeing the baking temperatures in their homes.

In Gharbia last month, the governorate’s head of electricity, Ahmed El-Meassel, had warned of an upcoming four-hour outage from 8am to 12pm due to maintenance, according to state-run news agency MENA.

Kafr El-Shiekh, Minya, and other governorates followed suit. 

Dolphin World Makadi Bay

HEPCA is on a roll at the moment with naming and shaming. I've tried to ask a few pertinent questions on the Makadi Bay facebook page (which I will not share here) about the deaths of the dolphins in their care, the conditions they were being kept in, and about their sunburnt skin, yet my questions were promptly deleted. Anyhowwwww, here's HEPCA's article. And please, read here for more information on how this entire scandal erupted.

Killing Dolphins for your Entertainment 

Arabic

HEPCA and the Red Sea community are once again caught in the middle of a dolphin captivity scandal, brought to you by none other than Dolphin World Egypt – Makadi Bay. 

On April 19, 2013 HEPCA was informed that 2 live dolphins had arrived to the Hurghada airport at about 12:30am. The dolphins were being discreetly transported to the dolphinarium in Makadi under the cover of night. Yet despite Dolphin World's attempts to hide this activity; everyone will still know that Dolphin World Egypt is profiteering of the backs of dead dolphins.  

Just over 2 years ago in August of 2010, our community exposed another dolphinarium company holding 4 captive dolphins in a tiny swimming pool in a residential area of Hurghada. The Sharm El Sheikh based company "Dolphina" was looking to expand their business into the Hurghada region. Much of the local community was outraged by the situation and we decided to take action. A massive community campaign then ensued against the dolphinarium, which culminated in the arrival of world renowned dolphin activist Ric O'barry. 

Following our campaign, the Red Sea Governor issued a decree; which explicitly bans the import of any mammal, whether marine or terrestrial, caught from the wild. 

Yet despite the governor's decree and our communities protesting and warnings about the inevitable death of these captive dolphins; the Sharm el Sheikh based "Dolphina" continued on with no regard to the dolphins, or our community's objections.   

The establishment of dolphinariums in the Red Sea, where dolphins are sighted on almost a daily basis, makes absolutely no sense. The dolphinarium industry funds the bloody massacre that goes into capturing dolphins, as well as the inevitable demise of the poor animal once in captivity. 

Dolphin World Egypt is now dealing with the deadly consequence of holding a dolphin in captivity. They are importing two new dolphins to replace the ones that recently died while under their care, which is the ultimate end for most of the cetacean that are kept in captivity.  

 "Capture of wild cetaceans, regardless of methodology, is undeniably stressful (NOAA Fisheries 2002; Curry 1999) and animals can face as much as a six-fold increase in mortality risk in the first month after capture." (Small R.J. and D.P. DeMaster 1995. Acclimation to captivity: A quantitative estimate based on survival of bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions. Mar. Mamm. Sci. 11:510-519.)

The criminal cartels that make up the dolphinarium industry provide the funding for the brutal massacre of thousands of dolphins every year in places like Taiji. Dolphin trainers from around the world are flown to these locations every year to take their pick from terrified dolphins, which are captured in the most brutal ways. The dolphins are aggressively chased into shallow water and then encircled or trapped by boats or net. Dolphin trainers then take their pick separating desirable specimens from the rest of their pod, while the rest are brutally slaughtered in pools of their own blood. 

HEPCA and the Red Sea community have had enough and we can’t stand by silently while 2 more dolphins slowly die. We know that the 2 dolphins that were just brought into Hurghada were purchased from Ukraine and most likely originated from the Black Sea. The CITIES certificates that came with the dolphins indicated that they were purchased while already in captivity, and we've also confirmed that they made a transit in Antalia, Turkey before making their final stop in Hurghada. Egypt has fully supported the CITIES agreements, but what’s the point when loopholes still exist that allow the dolphinarium industry to continue its massacre of cetaceans all across the world. 

According to Governmental Decree 314/2010; the import of any mammal caught from the wild, whether marine or terrestrial is illegal. We are urging the governor of the red sea and minister of environment to help us put a stop to this and we need stricter legislation to ensure the protection of endangered species. 

In regards to these poor dolphins currently being held captive in Makadi; our options are limited and we are running out of time. We can’t simply release these dolphins into Red Sea waters without the potential of risking serious contamination to our local dolphin species. 

We are holding Dolphin World Egypt personally responsible for the safety and well being of these dolphins and will continue to update you with the developments. In the meantime, HEPCA will be lobbying the government to enforce a complete ban on the importing of any cetaceans into the Red Sea regions (whether they are born in captivity or not). 
 
Dolphin World Egypt - we have one message for you; NO TANK YOU!

HEPCA Names and Shames

I'm so happy to see the power of social media being put to good use in protecting the environment. It seems there have been a rising number of dive guides on facebook posing with sharks, fish, and other marine life on the decks of their dive boats. Unfortunately for them, yet fortunately for the Red Sea environment, behaviour like this is not only completely unaccepted but called out on in public. For any dive guide taking photos with animals that belong in the water, you can almost guarantee their name will make the rounds quite rapidly on facebook, ultimately ending up on HEPCA's name and shame list.

From HEPCA's page, this is an example of the
recent flurry of 'posing' pictures

Taken from HEPCA's site, read on.

Over the past few days, our supporters have been flooding our network with reports and photos of a certain dive guide named Mahamad Shabana. Mr. Shabana came up with the great idea of decorating his face book profile with unsavory photos of himself; one of which depicts him sarcastically biting into the corpse of a dead white tip reef shark.

We just have one question for you Mr. Shabana; what planet are you living on?

Mr. Shabana has single-handedly destroyed his reputation, as well as his possibility of ever working in the Red Sea diving industry again. We're already coordinating with the coast guard and CDWS to make sure that he will be prohibited from working as a dive guide in the Red Sea.

We would like to close off by saying that this whole incident is indicative of a serious and growing problem within our community. It is becoming blatantly apparent that there are still tourism stakeholders that are not carrying out their responsibilities of properly educating their staff on the importance of environmental protection. These same stakeholders are profiting from the Red Sea resources and the least they could do is ensure that their guides are completely aware of the need for protecting the Red Sea.

Month after month we are receiving these troubling reports and we are dismayed that such ignorant activity is still taking place.

The good news is that our community has proven time and time again that we are perfectly capable of dealing with the challenges facing our precious environment. It no longer matters who continues turning a blind-eye towards the destruction and depletion of the majestic Red Sea.

We will not.

We would also like to thank every single person who took the time to report this incident, and a special thanks to Mostafa M. Elabd from blue o two.

Cattle Trade Cruelty Exposure Needs to Reach Far Further

To anyone who's worked in animal welfare in Egypt, the shocking new allegations of abuse that has caused a halt in live exports from Australia to Egypt is not new news. Even in this blog I have covered stories that have exposed the shocking treatment of the animals sent via live export, most recently with the cattle that were stranded in the Suez Canal. In this one incident alone over 2500 cattle perished. Yet live exports continued.

Tonight, ABC news is promising a report that will "expose the live export industry in Egypt" and hopefully work towards putting a stop towards the process. I hope that it works towards opening the eyes of many individuals, but I'm sure I don't stand alone when I say "It's about bloody time." You can read / watch more about their report here, but be warned, it's very graphic.

I'm also fairly sure that I wouldn't stand alone in saying Hey ABC, while you're at it, check out the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and their "teaching practices" too would you?

To coincide with the horrific exposure of cruelty with cattle, 3 American black bears mauled each other to death fighting over a male. Al-Ahram reports it as though it was an 'everyday' situation that just got out of control, after all mating season is just around the corner. What's overlooked is the fact the bears are kept in cages - not even enclosures; cages - far too small, and are left all day with people poking and prodding at them with sticks. Occasionally people may spear some food to the end of said stick, and taunt the bears hoping to get any reaction. But of course, they were just fighting over the male, no external circumstances to impact their stress levels at all. (see My Experiences at the Giza Zoo for more detailed descriptions and photos of how the bears at the zoo are kept.)

Finally, as though this wasn't enough, animal activists learned that DESPITE the death of two dolphins in the Makadi Bay Dolphinarium, another 2 have just been imported. Dolphins in Makadi Bay have been subjected to a host of inhumane actions, from skin blackened as a result of sunburn, to being unceremoniously ripped from their natural habitat and transported half way around the world, to spending weeks in a RESIDENTIAL pool in the desert, to now being made do circus tricks for their dinner.

I hope and pray that with the current exposure focusing on the live export trade in Egypt, that other outrageous acts of human cruelty and lack of animal welfare is also called to light. It's not only the cattle trade that's steeped in blood.

From SPARE'S facebook page

Women Only Buses To Launch

Say what you want about this move, whether it shows a lack of moral ethics or what have you in the society, I think this is actually a positive change in Egypt to at least give women the opportunity to travel with the worry of being groped - one major reason I avoid microbuses (well that and their erratic driving :p)

Source.


Egypt's moderate Islamist party has introduced a transportation facility only for women to curb sexual harassment.

Still in the experimental phase, the idea has been implemented in two areas in the city, Gulf News reports.

The microbus called 'transportation that respects women' picks up female students from in front of Cairo University and women from the corner of Abbas Al Aqqad Street, in the upper-middle class neighbourhood of Nasr City.

The strong Egypt party founder Fatma Badr who has taken the initiative of launching a safe transportation means for women, said that female commuters find it very difficult to travel safely, while making way into the crowd to find vacant seats, adding that the microbus will provide for a respectable and safe transportation service for women.

A government study at Cairo and Monufiya universities have shown that about 68 percent of the women have been subjected to physical and verbal harassment.

According to the report, while Egypt's first women-only taxi service that had started in July 2011 was welcomed by some, others said that this service encouraged more discrimination against women and proved them to be 'second-class citizens'.

The report further said that some women activists and university students have accepted and appreciated the female taxi service, where the taxi is driven by female drivers and caters to only the female commuters, who would otherwise find it very difficult to travel by a traditional private taxi.

While the female taxi service has proved to be a success in a number of Arab countries such as Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Lebanon, some women's groups, feel that the idea of women-only transport would bring about gender segregation.

The head of the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, Nehad Aboul Komsan has strongly criticized the women-only transport service concept, stating that the 'moving cages for women' would marginalize women in the patriarchal society and would prove to be detrimental to Egyptian women's progress so far in the position they have been striving to achieve, the report added.

Born of the Pyramids, Rocky's Story

As followers of my blog are already well aware, I was heavily invested in animal and equine charities throughout much of my time in Egypt. While in Hurghada I was privileged enough to meet one of the most incredible horses that I have ever met. His courage was completely unparalleled, and he touched the lives of many people. 

Unfortunately Rocky fell victim to gravely unfortunate circumstances and human neglect. His passing impacted me more than I realised at the time, and I immediately made the decision last summer to immortalize his story. In doing so, I hoped to be able to effect change in the equine community in Egypt. Although there are a great deal of animal charities that are working in the area, so few are able to actually tell the situation as it really is for many animals, as it's impossible to try and document that for everyone. 

I took the liberty myself, and in doing so "Born of the Pyramids, Rocky's Story" was born. Told through the perspective of Rocky, I delve into the hidden aspects of the life of working equines in Egypt, both the good and the bad. A common misunderstanding is that it is sheer cruelty and neglect that cause much of the suffering caused by the equines, but this could not be further from the truth for certain individuals. I leave no stone un-turned in my attempt to expose just this, all told through the eyes of the incredible Rocky. 

For every copy of the book that is sold, I will be donating a percentage of the proceeds towards animal charities that strive to make a difference in the life of working animals in Egypt. I am hoping that the book really takes off and that Rocky's legacy will end up helping other equines in unfortunate situations in the country. 

Available online through Kindle and Smashwords, share this story far and wide and give the equines of Egypt a voice that can finally be heard! 

Authorities to Consider Ending Inhumane Animal Control Practices

If only this were the first time they were to say this. I believe since I started actively paying attention, this must be the third time that putting an end to the shooting and poisoning campaigns have been 'mulled over,' with the Government saying they will initiate TNR programmes. The end result is activists get really excited, then there's a mass poisoning campaign, which is blamed on "individuals" and not the government, and so the cycle continues. One can hope however, no animal deserves to die the inhumane and cruel death that ingesting strychinine causes.

Source

The General Authority for Veterinary Services is considering putting an end to its practice of poisoning and shooting stray dogs, and instead adopting sterilization as a method of reducing their rate of reproduction, as recommended by the World Organization for Animal Health.

The Agriculture Ministry has so far impeded efforts to adopt castration as a form of population control, as it claims it is too expensive to implement, with a cost of over LE200 per dog, ministry officials said.

The state currently either shoots stray dogs or poisons them with strychnine, a drug that has been banned internationally. Human organizations have long objected to these practices, as well as the government’s failure to control the amount of garbage in the streets, which also leads to a higher presence of street animals.

Official sources estimate that there are more than 1 million stray dogs in Egypt, concentrated in the informal areas of Cairo and Giza as well as the areas around the Manzala, Burullos, Edco and Mariot lakes

The cost of poison to kill the animals as well as anti-rabies vaccines for humans represents a state expenditure of over LE100 million per year, sources say.

Dina Zulfikar, an animal rights activist, said that the General Authority for Veterinary Services has held three meetings to discuss adopting the sterilization method of population control, which they hope to launch in May of next year in Cairo and Giza with the help of around 100 veterinarians, activists and authority staff.