Égypte-actualités

As soon as I landed in Cairo, I could feel the heaviness of life, economy, politics and breath. It didn’t take long for the first Egyptian to blurt out that things were “better under Mubarak’s dictatorship than they are in the Muslim Brotherhood’s lair.” A slew of similar observations followed, mostly from poor people like a taxi driver who told me he sometimes works all day long to barely avoid sending his kids to sleep hungry. Not that life was much better before, but now they are “unbearable,” he said as he asked god’s forgiveness for wishing death over “this life of indignity!”

After spending a few days around Cairo the reality sinks in: Egypt is at a dangerously boiling point only waiting for a major explosion to occur, and its people are on edge. We’ve seen the danger and insecurity in the streets where knife-wielding gangs break into groups. The outcome can be anything between intimidation and threats until they’re paid off to leave or beating and even killing.

In other places, an intimidation of a different kind: Thousands of street vendors relentlessly and hopelessly pushing products to uninterested people.

A little girl fighting to make ends meet

In the midst of despair, I heard a girl’s voice threatening a male, “Get your hands off me. I’ll beat you up and break your arm if you touch me.”
I was shocked to find a little girl single-handedly fighting off a large man wanting to beat her up. This is no place for an unaccompanied minor to be fending off harassment, the kind Egypt has been plagued with for decades and much older and stronger women are trying to fight with hardly any success at all.

For the sake of this piece, I will refer to 9-year-old as Rajaa and I won't disclose her location to protect her identity.

Wishing for a better future

She clung to me for hours; we talked a lot during my journalistic assignment, before she herself became the subject of this column. Around me, she was polite, kind and smart. She shared her dreams and wishes: If she had 50 Pounds (about $8), she would buy a toy and sell it to a passerby.

More on: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/2013/03/26/Egypt-s-future-in-a-brave-little-girl-s-hands.html

Egypt's population is expected to reach 84 million on 1 March, or a burgeoning 92 million when Egyptians living abroad are included in the government's tally.

The local population as of 30 August 2012 was 83 million, a number that has grown 1 million in six months, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics.

The agency said 51.1 percent of the population is male and 48.9 percent female.

Cairo is the most populous governorate with 10.7 percent of the population, followed by Giza with 8.6 percent and Sharqiya with 7.4 percent. The least densely populated are South Sinai, New Valley and the Red Sea governorates, which are each home to less than .5 percent of Egyptians.

Not surprisingly, Cairo is also the most densely populated governorate with 47,097 people per square kilometer, followed by Giza with 6,070 people per square kilometer.

According to population distribution indicators, only 7.7 percent of the country's total surface area is inhabited.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm (Egypt independent)

http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/egypt-population-hit-84-million-next-month?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter