A tragedy unfolds

I came to Egypt for a holiday at a time of tension. I was under no illusion that I was going to witness history in the making as I would not have been foolish enough to come to Luxor had there been the same level of unrest as in Cairo. 

But what I was not expecting was to bear witness to an event which had it taken place at any other time would have drawn the world's press here and would have almost certainly have drawn condemnation from all sides. I have seen what I have to say at first hand, and have checked out the facts from three different people who confirm what I saw.

I took a horse-drawn Caleche this morning who was to take me to Karnak temple, on the outskirts of town. En route, the driver, who spoke bad English started to tell me the story of houses falling down and people being killed. I didn't quite understand the detail, but thought the gist of what he was saying was that in the Folie de Grandeur that is Governor Sarag's master plan for Luxor, many houses have been demolished, much to the fury of the locals. Where the people dying came in was for me unclear.

Sphynx Avenue in the making

As we reached a crossroads en route the driver once again starting saying 'people die…people dead' and pointed up the road towards a bridge. I could see a vast crowd had gathered on the bridge and were staring over the edge. There were a lot of police and ambulance vehicles there as well.

I asked someone standing near what had happened and he explained. 

An entire block of flats has collapsed killing many people and trapping many more. `The number of dead appears quite high. I have heard 11…Karren, the English lady I have got to know gave me a figure of more. There are also many in hospital.

We progressed up to the bridge - which was on our route. There was debris everywhere, the building effectively collapsed onto the flyover. I stopped the Caleche to take a look, and saw the building totally in pieces which each floor impacted on the one below. There were a couple of men standing on the rubble directing an digger as by now this looked a search for bodies rather than any survivors.

Down below there were a swathe of policemen keeping crowds back, and on the side were standing a large group of women and children in great, great distress. It was an unbearable sight. 

http://www.france24.com/en/20110212-egypt-building-collapse-kills-13

I wanted so much to do something, but what. Money ? I would have been lynched. Sympathy? At this precise time in Egypt if could well have been misconstrued, and  so I got back into the Caleche and carried on…but my heart wasn't into the idea of doing a great deal.

The story, and this is only what I have heard said by three difference people, is that the man who owns the building wanted to add some sort of facility to the bottom floor - a coffee shop, a shop? I don't know - and decided to take 3 supports for the floors above out to make room. Maybe he was a believer in levitation, but whatever he thought he was doing…it clearly didn't work and now many people have died as a result.

I don't know. Is it right to drive through an ambitious and frankly rather absurd plan for a town which involves the destruction of many homes….to achieve what? An Avenue of Sphynxes from Luxor town to Karnak temple for the tourist trade, when people are living in homes that can be subjected to a man's whim of adding something to his house without the relevant authority, plans or expertise? I cant be.

I have often thought a new development in a place where the old and decaying has become an eyesore as a good thing, much to the fury of some of my friends who prefer the perfectly reasonable tenet of why change what ain't bust, but the sort of grandiose plan for this town is compete madness, when an event like what happened last night can occur with what appears to be frightening regularity.

Karnak I have to admit is a place I have not been to before. Simply because of the number of tourists there on any day. I asked at the ticket office how many people they normally have on a good day. The answer was 6000…sometimes more! The place is normally heaving.

An how many people had passed through the gate today at 1 pm? Twenty two !! Shows exactly where Luxor is at the moment.

I don't pretend to be some sort of closet Egyptologist. In the same way I love classical music, opera in particular, but if you asked me the plot of Aida for instance I could tell you very little, despite having seen it all over the world 101 times... apart form the fact that a lot of it takes places at Thebes ! That probably marks me down as some sort of philistine (there's a joke there somewhere….) but well…that's OK! 

So I am not going to be able to repeat here all the ins and outs of who built what, for what reason, why and how much it cost!  I bagged myself a guide who took me on a fascinating tour of over 1 1/2 hours. I learned all sorts, saw the 2 other Cleopatra's Needles (The Brits stole that one….and Egypt would like it back please!) saw amazing carved doodles made by children over 2000 years ago (though do we know they weren't doodles doodled in say 1862….! I don't know) and generally allowed myself to be enthused by all that was around me.

I came out having understood a little of why Luxor terms itself an open air museum. I also came out looking like a beetroot having been in the sun all that time !

Returned to the hotel and loafed for the rest of the afternoon, mainly sitting on the balcony, reading Tony Blair's autobiography and having my shoes polished by the little fellow downstairs in the lobby!

I have never had a particular problem with Tony Blair. I don't consider him to be the out and out crook he is accused of being and have had that view only reinforced by what I have read so far. He is an intelligent, thoughtful, clever man….and there was one small part of the book that caught my eye in relation to what Egypt is living through now. He says -

The most combustible combination politics knows is a people faced with a choice between an undemocratic government with the right idea, and a popular movement with the wrong one.

Hmmm…. my view is that he could yet be proved right when it comes to what has been happening here. The people of Luxor have had Mubarak's resignation forced on them by the young idealists of Cairo.

A few hundred thousand in Tahir square is not a true representation of a people of 80 million and speaking to the people in the coffee shop this evening, they are increasingly frightened as to what is going to happen in their lives. They don't care about the lofty ideals of democracy…most of them couldn't even spell the word…they care about the food in their tumtums and how they are going to pay the bills.

Shoe shine boy at the Winter Palace

This evening I went out for dinner to the wonderful Haseem restaurant I went to the other night. Brilliant barbecued chicken, tahini, a fabulous salad, some wonderful spicy aubergines and tomatoes and la piece de resistance for pudding..a sort of pancake made out of a sort of leaved pizza/filo base, folded over, and roasted in the oven. It is then spread with butter and dipped in milk…..revolting!

I am afraid yours truly here made them do another for me.... and then spread it with honey and drizzled lemon over it, sprinkled it with a few mint leaves and some icing sugar…..they were rather alarmed!

I asked them to wrap it up and took it over to the coffee shoppe where Karen, Simon and assorted Egypto-gannets had devoured it within about 20 seconds….it was that delicious! I think we may have started something!

I also smoked my first ever Shisha pipe! Filled with apple scented charcoal it was absolutely delicious…..I felt like i was a real Egyptian.

But back to the dreadful events in the town. It appears 15 people died with about 30 in a serious condition in hospital. Agonisingly there are apparently people trapped under the rubble and speaking to the rescuers by mobile phone. It is just too awful.