Tag: cairo

Qale’t el-Kabsh slum residents demonstrate in front of parliament

Posted on By 3arabawy

Today, Qale’t el-Kabsh slum residents took to the streets again in downtown Cairo, demonstrating in front of the parliament in el-Qasr el-Eini Street.

I was in downtown around noon, when I received unconfirmed news that new clashes broke out between the slum residents who still haven’t been compensated by the government for their burnt down houses. The unconfirmed news also included the killing of a woman by the police. I was also told the slum dwellers were going to carry the woman’s body and demonstrate in Tahrir Sq.

I waited for roughly half an hour in the square, without witnessing anything, but then I assumed may be the protesters decided to try demonstrating in front of the parliament like last time. I started running to el-Qasr el-Eini St, and indeed the traffic had come to halt as a group of slum residents managed to assemble in front of the parliament.

The police was PANICKING, and tried to disperse the reporters and the curious citizens who approached the crowd. But then they left the reporters alone.

It turned out no one was killed. A woman had been severely injured by the police while protesting earlier in the day in front of the Red Crescent relief building, where the local municipality should be receiving the requests for the compensations and the alternative housing schemes. Frustrated by sleeping in the open air day after day since she lost her house, the woman started shouting, so she was attacked by the police, who beat her up. Blood covered her dress. After going into a coma, the residents thought she died, so they vented their anger at the police and government, and marched with her body in El-Qasr el-Eini St, till they assembled in front of the parliament.

The residents accused the local municipality of corruption. “Only those who pay LE5000 as a bribe receives the government-provided alternative housing,” said one of the demonstrators. The same figure was repeated to me several times by other demonstrators.

There were State Security and Qasr el-Nil Police Station officers present. They were taking down the names of the women present in the demo, claiming they will look into their cases and make sure they were prioritized. Some of the women volunteered their names, but others refused saying the police wants to find out their names only to take their men as hostages, like they did before.

Qale't el-Kabsh Slum residents protest in front of parliament تجمهر منكوبي قلعة الكبش أمام مجلس الشعب

I’ll upload more video clips later.

EgyptAir flight attendants demand improving work conditions

Posted on By 3arabawy

More than 100 flight attendants with EgyptAir showed up at their association’s headquarters in Heliopolis, to demand improving their work conditions.

Egyptian Flight Attendants Association رابطة مضيفي ومضيفات الخطوط الجوية المصرية

In a stormy meeting with their union representatives, the flight attendants complained from abusive treatment by their bosses:

1-The attendants demanded increasing the value of their health insurance, and to make it include work injuries and diseases not covered by the current one. They are also demanding they see this insurance contract EgyptAir has with Misr Insurance, which the management insists on keeping its documents secret!

2-Those who lose their flight licenses for medical reasons, are transferred to desk jobs, with 50% loss in income. The flight attendants want that changed.

3-The attendants are also charging that management is infested with corruption, and that “flight managers” are chosen according to their personal contacts with senior managers, not according to a specific work regulation or experience.

There will be another meeting for the association on 29 May, where union officials promised they’ll get back to the attendants with answers from the management regarding their demands.

There are between 2000 to 2,500 flight attendants with the govt-owned carrier EgyptAir. The union officials in today’s meeting were not welcoming to the presence of the media, and refused to allow journalists to photograph inside the room. We had to stay outside and follow the meeting through the window. The union officials told the attendants also that they insisted on keeping today’s meeting limited in numbers, though hundreds more wanted to attend, so as not to “disrupt work in the company, and not to stir troubles with the security.”

One of the things I thought was extremely interesting was one flight attendant who stood up during the meeting, shouting angrily at his union officials saying: “If we want to get our rights, we have to act as the textile workers.”

Police clash with slum fire victims

Posted on By 3arabawy

Here’s a video of the clashes that happened between the police and the residents of Qale’t Kabsh slum, who were demonstrating in Tahrir Square last week demanding compensation from the government after their houses were burnt down.

The government did find an alternative housing for only 100 families last Monday, resettling them in El-Nahda neighborhood, Madinet el-Salam. On the same day, Central Security Forces raided the slum again, and rounded up roughly 70 men, and took them in two prison trucks, throwing one group in the desert on the Cairo-Suez road and another near Tora, south of Cairo. They were warned if they demonstrate again, “they’ll be taken behind the sun,” according to a leftist activist who is in touch with the slum community leaders.