The shot : Tahrir square before turning off its lights

Kodak Agfa proudly presents in video short moments of the Ramses II obelisk in Tahrir square in March 2022.

Just few seconds when Egypt’s most famous square was all lit up after its renovation in 2020.

We did not need all those lights in Tahrir square in 2020. The government spent about EGP 60 million to light it up like that at the same time we had the Golden mummies parade then.

The obelisk in the full moon in March 

This scene does not exist no longer because its lights are turned off so we can save energy or rather gas so we can export it to Europe and get foreign currency that can help us in increasing our foreign reserve and solve our endless and bottomless economic problems.

Here is how it looks now.

This video was taken from a week ago.

Last week, the Egyptian government led by Mostafa Madbouly announced its plan to reduce and rationalize energy and water consumption nationwide amidst the global energy crisis.

Madbouly said that the government is rationalizing energy in to save natural gas to redirect it for exporting and increase Egypt’s sources of foreign currency during the crisis.

The plan is to not to light governmental buildings’ facades at night “why did they light them in the first place !?”and not to light governmental buildings after the official working hours except for the service sectors “again why did they leave the light on in their offices if they are not providing service to the public?”

The government reduced the lighting of the streets and squares “Forget the fact that we need more lighting in streets and highways or the fact the streetlights are on during the morning and off during the night, what about security and crime !?”

The stadiums, clubs and sports institutions must reduce their lights or use energy-saving LED headlights and the government wanted the league to have its football matches earlier but it is hard now in the summer.

The government ordered the malls to apply the daylight-saving time settings and to close at 11 PM “We are in summer and there is a problem in malls nowadays, many shops can’t find merchandise because they depend on imported merchandise.

Chains like H&M are either empty or got old stock because they can’t get imported stock due to the foreign currency imports restrictions.

By the way, Madbouly’ s cabinet will restore back the daylight-saving time again in Egypt next year. They wanted to apply it this year, but they found it hard because of the airlines’ reservations…etc. Do you know how many times the daylight-saving time is brought and then cancelled in Egypt in the past decade!?

According to the plan applied malls and buildings should not set the central air conditioners less than 25 degrees

Now why cannot we use the solar energy to light the streetlights in highways and squares!? We can use them in stadiums, clubs and sports institutions and generate energy as well that can save the natural gas!?

Is the decision applied to New Alamein city in the North Coast too !?

The Premier says that saving 10 percent of the consumption of the natural gas pumped into power stations and redirecting it for export will bring in approximately $300 million per month.

Needless to say , I do not think that this decision was discussed in the parliament. What bugs is that we could have avoid it a lot of trouble if economic decisions have not been taken. 

I do not know which western publication used that title but yes, Egyptians are sweating and driving in darkness so our European counterparts including those who elect right wing governments can have gas because Russia invaded Ukraine!!