- Other Issues
- May 10, 2009
- 18 minutes read
Swine Flu and Politics in Egypt
Is
Since the recent outbreak of the swine flu (H1N1) virus, each of the world”s countries have implemented different policies in trying to combat the further spreading of the epidemic. On April 29, the World Health Organization (WHO) classifies the virus under a level 5 pandemic alert meaning that “the virus has caused sustained community level outbreaks in at least two countries in one WHO region. At phase 5 a pandemic is considered imminent.” The term “sustained community transmission” means that the virus has passed from one person to a second person and then to a third.
Recommendations Ignored
The WHO, a United Nations coordinating authority on international public health, has published on its website some guidance for dealing with the virus. On comparing these advised strategies and the wildly divergent policies various countries have adopted since the virus”s outbreak, one can”t help but follow world news in complete disbelief.
These are dangerous times, be advised, especially if you are traveling to
Many other countries have decided to stop importing pork and its products from some
The WHO points out that, at this point in time, there hasn”t been any confirmation of transmission between pigs and humans. This statement remains in conflict with one sole unconfirmed case of human-to-pig transmission. In
How can we then make sense of
Since it is mainly Christians who raise pigs and consume pork in
The Wrong Reasons
Talking to a few of the Christians, however, one realizes that this view is not an absolute consensus. Ramez Girgis, a Coptic Christian whose chicken farms were affected by the on-going bird flu, is of the viewpoint that “the government saw a golden opportunity in the swine flu epidemic to do what it wanted to do a long time ago, which is get rid of the pig-farming in the slums.” He told IslamOnline.net (IOL) that what worries him the most, though, is the fate of the huge daily amount of organic waste that the slum pigs used to consume everyday.
Another Coptic Christian, Eshak Fikri, felt that the swine flu epidemic was overblown by the Egyptian government. The pig culling decision, he told IOL, doesn”t affect him much because he simply doesn”t eat pork since the dirty environment pigs are raised in make them carry all kinds of disease.
The official position of the Coptic church is that since this epidemic will have an effect on all Egyptians, then pig culling is what has to be done. The Coptic church, thus, takes the safest position preferring not to question the motive or effectiveness of the government”s action.
Another point of view is that the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Products was trying by implementing this radical decision to hit two birds with one stone. First, this is an opportunity to redeem its slow reaction to the bird flu viral outbreak in 2006. Despite countrywide mass bird culls, the bird flu has caused 26 deaths in
Second, this is a golden chance to regulate the chaos in the Egyptian pig farming industry, and to start a new industry which conforms to more healthy standards. Currently, both the chaos and unhealthiness stem from the fact that a large portion of pig farming in
Even though the government has allowed the farmers to sell the slaughtered animals as pork, it comes as no surprise that workers in the pig-farming industry strongly oppose the governmental plan. Their reasons for this are quite simple. Not only will the massive market supply of pork decrease its price, but also these workers will have to find a new way to make a living if they agree to slaughter all their pigs at once.
Let”s also not forget the hygienic pig farms which are already operating outside of
The Egyptian government seems to be in need of either paying a more satisfying compensation to the pig farmers for their pigs and livelihood, or simply declaring its goal behind the culling and working hard to achieve it by cooperating with pig farmers not by forcing them into it. If the real motive is creating more hygienic pig farms, then culling the pigs in the name of a swine flu precaution is simply misinformation which will cost the farmers, their industry, and the government a lot of money.
* Youssef Faltas