Following our earlier story on Mubarak’s culling of Egypt’s pigs, primarily owned by Coptic Orthodox Christians, recent reports show that the streets of Cairo are filled with uncollected rubbish. This is due to the fact that Zabbaleen, Coptic Christians who go door to door collecting rubbish, used to feed the organic scraps to the pigs they kep, which they would eventually slaughter and eat when fattened.
The Zabbaleen occupy the Muqattam district, also known to the locals as Manshiyyat Naser (‘Garbage City’), an area of cemeteries and home to St Sama’an’s Church. Also known as the ‘Cave Cathedral’, St Sama’an’s is the apaprently largest church in the Middle East with seating for 20,000. I noticed at the time that the Zabbaleen were complaining they would be deprived of their livelihood by the culling, but I didn’t notice they also pointed out that no-one would collect the rubbish when the pigs were gone. Perhaps the government thought the international contractors they’ve engaged to collect garbage would be able to cover it, but Cairenes are used to having garbage collected from their door, not the street, and the Zabbaleen are apparently piling the rubbish they collect next to public bins that can’t be picked up quickly enough.
Michael Slackman ‘A Little Late, Egypt Discovers the Flaw in Killing All Its Pigs‘, The New York Times (19/9/09)
