Things Fall Down.

[Hafiz]

Things Fall Down.

It happens often, no one seems to learn, no one gets punished, government agencies are always innocent and things go on. Not learning from mistakes seems to be an Egyptian thing. Having millions of people in government regulation – none of whom do their job for more than 3 hours a day, provides little of the basic control one usually expects in a country that claims to be controlling – its very controlling where it suits itself.

A 5 story building has fallen down in Manshiyet Nasser (which is behind/east of the badly planned and UN and Aga Kahn funded Azhar Park. Al Ahram states that 10 were killed – I’m certain the figure was higher. This area is relatively new so the building was, at worst, 30 years old. If one described the street system in the area as rational – you would be a fool. The government designed it, their mates made millions out of it and it’s a mess. http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent ... kills.aspx

Anyone who has concrete evidence on this suburb and its buildings please post.

Will any government person be held to account – absolutely not. Will a builder be accountable – that will depend on whether the developer is still a connected person.

Will the Government of Egypt adopt rational needs based, technical effective, town planning – Never. Control is everything and those in power are perfect. Its like Stalin’s Russia and Cairo is more of a mess now than the mess it was 30 years ago. The military characters in power for 70 years claim their planning skills are exceptional – I suspect that their military skills are a bit better than their civilian skills but both are irrelevant because I assume that both are deplorable.

I have been preparing a post on the planned cities and might log it in the next few weeks. The 30 year plan on new cities is worse than laughable – a complete waste of 10’s of billions and a failure to deliver anything much for ordinary or poorer people.

An aside. Old 19th century Cairo is full of 4-7 story buildings. These are now well over a century old. I'm not aware of any that have fallen down. Why is it that technologically primitive and not well maintained past can always keep buildings up but a Military, Socialist, Democratic Republic with advanced technology can't? According to the current leadership the 19th century past was decadent, Jewish and colonial - but what they did worked - unlike current arrangements. Old photographs of Cairo portray a beautiful city of well designed buildings (and trees). Its now so ugly that no one would bother to take a photograph. Alex is worse. Central planning works - if the planners know what they are doing and if they want to meet human needs - rather than the needs of the Pharaoh.

[Major Thom]

They say they have planning authorities and regulatory authorities when it comes to building, its getting these authorities to get off their backsides and work, to integrate fire regs. etc. At the moment anything could happen 54321................