I do not think that the Egyptian Regime nor the national council for Childhood and motherhood headed by the first lady saw that coming.
Do you remember that food diary of the Guardian’s reporter he had written from Cairo from couple of weeks ??
Well another two Guardian reporters made one hell of a report that caused a lot of Stir in Egypt , making the regime so so angry.
Dan McDougal and photographer Robin Hammond showed the western reader the cost of the luxury Egyptian cotton products they buy from Harrods and Neiman Marcus
The Child Labour in the Egyptian cotton field
In the photo is Abdel Rahman ,a 6 years old kid working in cotton fields
Also here is another shocking photo slideshow to the West
Look I must explain something , first of all this is not new thing , Egyptian Children in the country side whether in Nile Delta or in Upper Egypt work in fields , they always work helping their parents in the fields , especially in the cotton fields .
Nor it is something strange thing to find underage teenagers and 
children working in baladi “local” upholstery shops to make cotton mattresses and pillows
Of course I do not need to tell you that this something common in third world countries.
Their poor families instead of begging or breaking the law send their kids to work and learn a profession that provide them with few money helping them to live especially nowadays.
Families in country side for several reasons have many children :
- To create some sort of clan.
- Sometimes to have boys .
- Some ladies believe having many children can prevent their husbands from re-marrying again as they can’t afford another economic burden of sustaining another house.
- Most of them use those kids to support the family economically.
The last point unfortunately became the main reason nowadays due to the hard economic situation and the fact that the Government speaks all the time about the low class but does not anything to help it in real life.
I know that the civilized west refuses the idea of having children work from early age , especially when they work in hard conditions , I agree with that ; it is unfair to use Child labour but on the other hand we must put in our consideration the reason why their families make them work instead of learning and enjoying their childhood , it is not because their families do not want to enjoy their childhood on the contrary but again it is because of the economic situation , bad economic policies of the Government ,which unfortunately pro-western one .
For God Sake some families make their children drop out schools because they can’t afford its expenses.
In these hard days I think it is better to make those children work in Cotton fields and upholstery then in prostitution and human trafficking .
Anyhow back to the Guardian’s report , the report caused a lot of anger from the Government side , first it made the first lady appears like a liar with her campaigns against Child Labour .
Second it showed as if the Egyptian Government supports this labour ,well it does not support nor it minds ,it does not care if any 80 years old woman working in collecting worms from Cotton !!??
Of course the Egyptian government issued a stupid statement saying that it is conspiracy against our famous Egyptian cotton !!
despite the fact the Egyptian production of cotton decreased in a very fearful rate because of the ministry of agriculture decisions.
Back to Mama Suzanne , it is so silly to speak about Childhood day and night and keep saying to the low classes to educate and let their children to enjoy life ,if these classes can’t find money to feed them !!??
Zeinobia you know that I like to read your posts and opinions but this one I find myself strongly disagreeing with you. Let me quote you here;
ReplyDelete"I know that the civilized west refuses the idea of having children work from early age , especially when they work in hard conditions , I agree with that ; it is unfair to use Child labour but on the other hand we must put in our consideration the reason why their families make them work instead of learning and enjoying their childhood , it is not because their families do not want to enjoy their childhood on the contrary but again it is because of the economic situation , bad economic policies of the Government ,which unfortunately pro-western one"
My dear friend as much as we blame our government(S)for not implementing the right plan(S), we have to blame ourselves for considering birth control as "haram" and against islam which is not and that having more children as a source of strength for the family and will make a poor family a rich one.
In 1937, Wendell Cleland, a professor at AUC in Cairo, presented a study and concluded that Egypt was already overpopulated, as he estimated that the country could provide an adequate standard of living for 12 million people, but already had more that 16 million people. Funny isn't it?
You can read about his study and plan if you google his name.
My point is that our problem is not what policy should we follow whether pro western or pro eastern, It is how we follow and implement them.
Real democracy is the real answer.
Dear Mr.Hazem , by the way I do not defend here or justify but I brought reasons which I think why those families love to have some many kids
ReplyDeleteIt is not about haram or halal coz here we are dealing with social taboos
we should blame the government because it did not do anything to them , how can they trust and obey the government when it tells to have birth control where as it does everything against from raising prices to harasse them in their living
yes we blame ourselves but what are the alternatives we have when we got this corrupted government and regime that steals the money of the people and their rights
you have to educate people in better ways , but you do not spend money on high quality education that would open minds ,because opening minds can lead to a revolution
it is like a closed circle