Egypt is predominantly  Moslem , you all know that.  Egypt has Christians, the biggest group are the Copts, but there are other denominations.  A small group of Copts are the Zabaleen.   Who are the Zabaleen and what does all have to do with Egyptian politics and economy?  

Zabaleen basically pick up all the rubbish, or garbage.  They have done this in Egyptian cities for centuries.   What they also do is use the organic material to feed their pigs.  They raise pigs and sell them on an as needed basis.  The service they provide is incredible.  Daily pick up and no charge.  They basically recycle pretty much all the material.  

For some time now, part of the modernization and continued corruption of Egypt by the Mubarak dynasty, they have wanted to take away that work from the Zabaleen and give garbage contracts to corporations that will do the service for a price.  Trucks sold by European companies, contracts, charges etc.  Of course the reasons used are sanitation, public health.  Instead, they should be looking for a way to help the Zabaleen enter into modern methods and sustain their way of living.   

So, what an excuse, the swine flu.  Now the Egyptian government wants to slaughter the 300,000 pigs owned by Zabaleen for the prevention of the swine flu.  The original decree was that the Zabaleen would be compensated for the pigs, but now they are saying that since they can sell the pigs, they will not be compensated.  

The Zabaleen sell pigs one by one.  They are not butchers and have no refrigeration or a system to sell the pigs.  So, it's impossible to sell pigs slaughtered en masse.  Not to mention the danger of cholera.  

Also, at this time Egypt is in the midst of many worker strikes.  What a great time to create an artificial enemy, the Zabaleen to distract from the strikes by numerous sectors.  

Yet, what do Western eyes see:  1.  The little piglets ,or 2.  The fellow OS blogger  who thinks this is a brilliant move to protect the Christians.  

First of all the Zabaleen are being scape goated and the means of survival are being taken away by the tyranny that is Mubarak, our best friend in the Middle East.  The government knows that this is not a solution, but they will use it to manipulate public opinion.  They will use it as the reason to eliminate the living of the Zabaleen.  

In the name of modernization and in the name of public health two wrongs will take place and we in the West will applaud:

1.  An impoverished minority will lose the means of sustainability, methods that date back centuries.  Modern companies will do the work with trucks and contracts, kick backs to government officials.  The west will probably give loans for this modernization and they will get to sell the trucks.  There will be ribbon cutting ceremonies and tv coverage talking about modernization.  

2.   Mubarak is using the swine flu hysteria to distract from his political problems, the strikes and general dissatisfaction by the Egyptian people with the economy and the policies.  Pigs, the symbol of the unclean and non believers will be used to redirect frustration with his regime.  

Next time you look for fanatic Isalmists, look at the regimes that we support and how they manipulate and oppress their people.   

You see when you reduce the middle east to the binaries we know, just religion, you miss the layers of economic and political nuance that complicate the issues in those countries.  Then we can justify supporting their dictators, because we convince ourselves that the dictators are good for the people and ultimately good for us.  

Whenever you see an easy binary, look underneath.  See all the layers and look at them once in a while from the point of view of the people living in that nation, not just "our interests".   

UPDATE: Here is an Egyptian bloggers collection of strike pictures.  Not much coverage in the world news.  3arabawy, is a leftist blogger from Egypt, his photography is incredible.