In Egypt, the government has responded to the swine flu outbreak by ordering the slaughter of all of the country's pigs. Residents of one Cairo slum say the move will do nothing to protect Egyptians from the virus, even as it destroys their livelihood. Aya Batrawy reports from Cairo.
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LISA MULLINS: Egypt's response to the threat of swine flu has been extreme, some say excessive. The government has ordered the slaughter of all the pigs in the country. That policy sparked protests Sunday in a slum of Cairo. Residents of Manshiyet Nasir depend on pigs to dispose of waste and for income. The eradication of the pigs would mean the eradication of the livelihood of those Egyptians. Community leaders are talking with government officials about compensation. But Aya Batrawy reports that residents want more than just money.
AYA BATRAWY: As Egyptian police clashed with protestors, Egyptian singer Shaaban Abed Rahim released his latest single on state TV. The song supports the killing of Egypt's pigs. Rahim sings, “It's wrong for people to die because of a chicken or a pig. Nothing will happen if many pigs die. Let people live, and who cares about the pigs.†But not everyone was singing along. Hundreds of residents from Manshiet Nasir clashed with riot police Sunday. It was the first day the government came into the area to round up pigs for the slaughterhouse. Police banned journalists from the neighborhood, but residents sneaked me in through back roads and onto streets littered with trash. Most of the residents of Manshiet Nasir are Coptic Christians. They rely on pigs for their survival. For one thing, the pigs eat hundreds of tons of trash collected daily by the trash collectors. And the owners of the pigs also eat or sell their animals. One local garbage collector named Samuel says the slaughter of the pigs makes no sense.
SAMUEL: If there is swine flu, then I say kill the pigs, because before it affects anyone, it will affect my children and me. But Egyptian TV and newspapers say there is no swine flu here. So why is there a decision to kill the pigs? And when you kill the pigs, what will I do for work?
BATRAWY: Samuel is right about one thing: no cases of swine flu have been reported in Egypt. And so, some of the residents of Manshiet Nasir believed that the Egyptian government's decision to slaughter the pigs is the first step in a plot to clear everyone out of the slum. But resident Safa says she and her neighbors want to stay.
SAFA: The government keeps finding excuses to get us out of here. They said they would move us somewhere else, but people don't want to leave because those who collect trash from many of Cairo's districts are nearby. And how can someone who owns a home move somewhere else? This is our land.
BATRAWY: The government has proposed compensating residents with better housing on the outskirts of town. They have also promised compensation for each pig. But local resident Samuel is skeptical.
SAMUEL: An official will not provide me with enough to survive. An official just makes a decision and signs a paper, maybe for personal benefit or for other reasons. But I am talking about one point here – do what you want but compensate us and not with money. What will I do with that? I want to work because if I don't, we will look back and wish we had asked for something long-term.
BATRAWY: Safa stands on her roof. She looks down to see hundreds of pigs rolling around in their pens eating trash and leftovers. She sees other animals, too.
SAFA: As you can see here, the chicken is eating alongside the pigs, and it produces eggs, too. There isn't a problem. It eats and lives with the pigs.
BATRAWY: Safa sees no problem, but there may be one. Health experts say when the chickens are raised alongside the pigs there is a possibility that avian flu can mix with swine flu and create new and dangerous viruses. Meanwhile, Manshiet Nasir resident Samuel says the government is moving too fast on killing the pigs and too slowly on providing the owners with an alternative livelihood.
SAMUEL: I still have to wait for solutions and then this solution still has to be proposed to Parliament, and we have to wait for them to meet and vote before it's finally carried out. And through all of this, do we die while we wait or do I start to steal in order to feed my family?
BATRAWY: The government has ordered the slaughter of all of Egypt's pigs – and the pig owners aren't the only ones who disagree with that strategy. The World Health Organization says the killing is unnecessary because the virus is being spread through humans. For The World, I'm Aya Batrawy, in Cairo, Egypt.
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