It is more than being an old man , it is more than being a religious man. Sheikh Hafiz Salama is from the resistance leaders in this Governorate. This man participated in all the wars that this city and Governorate had witnessed in the 20th Century starting from the Suez War 1956 till 1973 and the siege of Suez. Already his name became a national household name when he led the resistance in the siege of Suez aka El-Defersoir in 1973 He was honoured by President Sadat.
Till now the Sheikh wears his tarbush and insists that he will defend the city and the country till his last breath .
Now there is a new battle for Sheikh to lead the resistance of the Suez people in.
The Agrium battle. As you know the infamous Canadian company according to the Parliament order it has to leave Ras El-Bur and move to another coastal location.
Port Said was first suggested by the people stood angrily against this , already the regime does not want to clash more with the people there after Mubarak’s stupid economic decisions that destroyed the city economically after being a wealthy Governorate from trade.
Then there was El-Ain El-Sokhna and this time the Business men who are investing their millions in tourism projects there stood against it , already El-Ain El-Sokhna is a gateway from many Egyptians beside foreigners in the weekend.
The came the Suez name ,some wise asses said “what is the problem?? already it is highly polluted “ well the problem is that there are people in it who are fed up from the continuous pollution resulted from the oil industries in the city . They can’t host another lethal factory.
Last Friday Sheikh Hafiz led the prayer in the famous Martyrs Mosque in the city then he swore that he stood against Agrium resisting it . The Martyrs Mosque in Suez has a great story during the 1973 war that should have its own standalone post once upon time in the future insh Allah
What happened in Canadian Agrium should be taught in the business school ,when to leave in the right time.
The CEO of Agrium is still freaking arrogant and this is a lesson of itself , he should know that in the end that he is a guest and that we the Egyptians are not his nor his company’s slaves.
Again it is the mistake of the Egyptian government that is trying to please them in all possible with no regard or respect to our national dignity and self respect.
I think the best location for the Agrium factory is near the Libyan border or El Alamein in a land mines infested area. The government has to stipulate that Agrium has to remove all land mines in that area. I know that lots of Egyptians are against this factory for fear of pollution that it might cause. However, Egypt is in great need of high quality fertilizers and we can demand strict facory specifications to prevent any possibilty of pollution.
ReplyDeleteActually that's a decent suggestion. I highly doubt that the Egyptian parliamentarians are clever enough 2 suggest removal of all of those World War land mines. Is it true that many of the fertilizers imported from Egypt are of a lower grade. I did see the big bags of fertilizer when I went to visit friends on an Egyptian orchard. The owners told me they didn't spray the peach, orange, pomegranate, lemon, fig or date trees but they did use fertilizer. Could agrium be forced to make organic, ecofriendly fertilizer?
ReplyDeleteIt's up to the Egyptian government to set environmental regulations and enforce them on corporations. FYI they have updates on their site:
http://www.agrium.com/
@Hazem , first of all the area near the Libyan borders is wonderful , it is unfair to pollute it , second already there is tourism attack on this part and Egypt already signed agreements with countries like Italy to remove all those landmines
ReplyDeleteHazem we do need more organic natural fertilizers
@N.American , all the government is working to remove all the landmines , because this part of Egypt solve food problem and generate money from tourism , the beaches there are more than great, it is good that agrium is honest about its problem