Long lines and frustration in Egypt

One of the features of post-Tahrir Cairo is the appearance of long lines, most dramatically the long lines of large lorries and minibuses that are stretched out periodically, and increasingly in recent months, along the sides of roads and highways waiting for hours, often all night, for diesel fuel. Sometimes, driving on the Ring Road out to the American Universitys new out-of-town campus, I have counted more than 50 vehicles stretched out along the highway; when most are large lorries it makes for a dramatic scene. It is a scene repeated across the country because there is a shortage of diesel fuel. 

Essam Al-Haddad, who is President Morsis senior adviser on foreign relations and international cooperation, says that the new Minister of Supply, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB ) who replaced the previous (and non-MB) minister in a fairly recent cabinet reshuffle, estimates that nearly 30 percent of the total government subsidy that keeps all fuel costs, including diesel, down, was being supplied to virtual phantom gas stations over the past few years. The supplies would then be exported and sold abroad according to the advisor. Criminal charges are being brought against some of the suppliers, according to Al-Haddad. But some of the fuel is also siphoned off to be sold at a significantly higher cost on Egypts diesel black market. The problem has to do with corruption and the collapse of security from the earliest days of the Tahrir Uprising 

Aside from anger which spilled over last week when many minibus and lorry drivers blocked the Ring Road as well as another highway, the periodic reduction of commercial road transport impacts the price of food which is delayed getting to the market. It also lowers the productivity of workers who depend on the vast fleet of minibuses to get to work. 

Fuel shortages (which also means power cuts, usually at night) and the resulting black market are also part of the reason for long lines forming in front of those bakeries in poor neighborhoods that buy subsidized wheat (more than half of which is imported) from the government at a startlingly low price of 160 EGP for a wholesale sack that sells in the market for 2,826 EGP a price that keeps going up. The price is rising due to global commodity costs and the declining value of the Egyptian pound. 

The bakers buying subsidized wheat sell a single flat loaf for five piasters, which in dollar terms is less than a penny, to all comers. Thats part of the problem C anyone willing to stand in what have become long lines, can buy as many of these heavily subsidized loaves as they care to, and they are allowed to buy regardless of their level of income. Many of those who keep chickens in the city, along with farmers in the countryside, feed their flocks with subsidized bread C it is cheaper than standard chicken feed. At the same time,You Can Find Comprehensive and in-Depth carparkmanagementsystem truck Descriptions. owners or employees of thousands of street stalls and small shops selling fava bean sandwiches that most basic staple of the Egyptian diet, also line up for the subsidized loaf. Many of these bakers, to increase their low profit margin calculated by the government at two to three EGP per subsidized sack, have over the years cut back on their production to divert part of these subsidized supplies to sell to free market bakers (who sell a flat loaf for 50 piasters) at a mutually attractive price lower than the market price, given the wide margin in pricing. Some of these bakers also reduce their production costs by adulterating the wheat. 

Meanwhile, rising unemployment propels more people to stop buying from the free market bakers and to join the line at the subsidized bakers, meaning longer lines and increased demand. Nearly a week ago hundreds of these bakers in the industrial city of Helwan as well as some of the poor neighborhoods in the southern suburbs of Cairo staged a one-day strike, closing down their bakeries to protest the shortage of subsidized fuel which has increased their production costs and demanding the right to raise the price of the subsidized loaf from five piasters to 25 piasters. 

The following day the bakeries reopened but hundreds of bakers stormed the Ministry of Supply in protest and did so again Tuesday. This time the protest is against government plans to end the subsidy, eliminate the two tier system of subsidizing the cost of wheat and substitute in its stead, a rationing system using a smart card for each household based on proof of low income and which will set the limit to the number of loaves sold to a customer by a determination of the size of the household.Find the best selection of high-quality collectible lasercutter available anywhere. Machines that can read the smart cards will be supplied to the bakers.Shop the best selection of owonsmart for Men. If it works, the government says this would save Egypt 11 billion dollars a year. 

Up front the Bakers Federation is threatening a nationwide bakers strike, shutting down production of subsidized bread if the government does not back down.Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. And the government says it will take legal action against any bakers that do so, since a stop in production will threaten the security of the people. A Ministry of Supply spokesman says that negotiations with the Bakers Federation are actually underway; the new loaf will sell for 35 piasters but those who qualify for the smart card will still pay only five piasters per loaf and will be able to buy three loaves of flat bread per family member. Short term, the real issue is how much the government will pay the bakers to cover their real costs per loaf and that is the issue at hand for negotiation. 

In the long term the real issue is whether smart card rationing will work. Is three loaves of bread per person per day sufficient for millions of households so poor that bread makes up an incredibly high percentage of the food consumed? And how will the millions of the urban poor who work as day laborers or street peddlers provide proof of the amount of their income given their lack of fixed income? And what of those people who do not hold a government issued ID card, which would qualify them for an existing supply card that already rations a quota to each household for necessities C cooking oil,You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap inside your parents. rice, etc.