Hajj Ahmed's Home-Coming

It is not the individual environmental footprints man is imposing on nature that is threatening, it is the rate at which these changes are happening that is drastic. It simply hinders life from adapting.

Man is imposing so many changes on nature, they might seem simple and stand alone for each of us, and we might belittle their importance to relieve our conscience. But reality proves us wrong all the way as we get into the cycle of changes that are interconnected, affecting us all in different ways in our different places.

It is the day of the Moslem big feast `Bairam', and `Hajj Ahmed' is sitting in his huge 4 X 4 car. The tires are eating up the asphalt road from Cairo to El Quarra Oasis. He has decided to go back to his home town to visit his old father `Sheikh Hassan' and his other

relatives who still live in the secluded oasis embedded in the far away Quattara depression in the Egypt's Western Desert.

`Hajj Ahmed's' homeland has been isolated from the rest of the world for thousands and thousands of years. The people of the oasis live inside a great fortress they had built for the protection of their village on top of a small hill. The inhabitants were always 250 – 300 in number maintaining a simple life, growing olives and dates, and keeping some sheep, goats and chicken.

The women did some embroidery and handicrafts out of palm leaves. And that was all about El Quarra, the peaceful oasis.

`Hajj Ahmed' set out for El Quarra at 6 o'clock early in the morning, leaving the suffocated seventeen- million- people Capital. He drove 900 km along the Mediterranean coast and south to Siwa Oasis. On the way he recalled many memories of the past. He remembered that day in 1961 when he had said good bye to all his family, relatives, and friends in El Quarra and migrated to Cairo.

He remembered dealing in old newspapers at the beginning of his career so that he could keep a shed over his head and have a bite to share with his wife. He worked day and night for years, until he saved enough money to start his small printing workshop, now a famous

Cairo printing house.

He started by buying the paper from the old neighborhood El Fagala, but with more and more orders he contacted suppliers from South America to provide him with paper made out of Amazon rainforest wood. His business was well established and he led a comfortable life full of luxury.

Twenty years later his son graduated from a top -notch foreign university in Cairo and was officially an engineer. He became `Hajj Ahmed's' pride and joy and `Hajj Ahmed' decided to open a small air conditioning factory for his bright son.

The business grew more and more and the son, `Omar', has been dealing in air conditioning for cars, storage refrigerators, and refrigerating vehicles. And of course for the operation of his business the son ordered a fleet of pick ups, lorries, to transport his production.

Today in the late early 2000s the fleet has to race across Cairo, the city buzzing with people, cars, motorbikes and old busses. It seems that there's a cold war going on between the 17 million people of Cairo and the city.

The question now is: Who will finish up the other first; the city or the people?

`Hajj Ahmed' remembered `Omar' his son who fled the hot, suffocating summer of Cairo and went to visit an old college friend in England.

Then, `Hajj Ahmed' surrendered to his fatigue of the long journey. He decided to stop at his brother's house in Siwa Oasis, spend the night there, and resume his journey the next day.

His brother `Mohamed' was so happy to see him and arranged a nice meal and setting for them to catch up on what had happened during all those years. His brother didn't look too happy.

`Mohamed' explained that life was not that comfortable anymore. He said that ever since 1969, when this foreign oil company came to the oasis looking for oil in the deserts near by, and after three - four years of stringent digging they could only find a fountain of sub-surface water spurting out of the newly dug well. So, they gathered their equipment and left.

Twenty years later the government remembered the story of the foreign company and the water they had discovered. The army moved in and started building a new water factory bottling the ancient underground water and shipping it to Cairo people to quench their thirst. Another year passed and more investors from Cairo came and everybody wasracing to get more water out of the grounds of the oasis.

With that race going on Mohamed and other farmers noticed that their agricultural produce was getting weaker and weaker. Thesub-surface water had become saltier and saltier and was not anymore suitable for irrigation. The soil had become too salty for growing most of the

crops. Mohamed's olive field was in a bad shape and the business of exporting the famous Siwan olives and olive oil to European countries was dying, along with Mohamed's family dream of a good life.

`Hajj Ahmed' was depressed at what he was hearing and felt bad for his brother and family. They had tea and decided go to bed.

The next day `Hajj Ahmed' resumed his journey of another 250 km north east of Siwa Oasis to his final destination. At first he saw nothing but extremely arid surrounding, with almost no vegetation. Now he saw, more and more vegetation on the road and knew he was climbing

down the escarpment of El Quarra Oasis. The gates of the old fortress and the lush palm trees greeted his eyes.

He enters the oasis goes around looking for `Sheikh Hassan' his father and sees nothing but long faces under the strong hot sun of the summer. He goes to his father's house and finds him looking older then ever. `Sheikh Hassan' is now in his nineties, but has always

looked much younger than his age. Now it seems he had suddenly aged with wrinkles embedded in his dark long face, around his eyes, across his forehead, and down his cheeks.' Hajj Ahmed' is concerned by the sight of his father but is distracted by the huge celebration the village men have made for him. He had brought lots of toys and sweets for the young ones and was giving them out to the children, who were pushing each other and struggling savagely to get anything.

Old `Sheikh Hassan' looked upon the yard from his window with sad-angry eyes. He was sad that the children of his village were so deprived to act that way, and felt great anger and humiliation that he, the wisest and oldest amongst his people, could not keep poverty and hunger away from them.

The women prepared a meal of skinny chicken, macaroni, potato, rice, green olives and sun-baked bread celebrating the arrival of the rich `Hajj Ahmed', the son of their chief.

Father and son sat together in the corner and `Hajj Ahmed' asked his father about his health, his brothers, and the village. He asked him why the people looked so tired, hopeless and frustrated. `Sheikh Hassan' told him it was a along story, it all had started seven years ago when rain stopped falling and they had to live in draught for many years.

The fields were dry and many crops couldn't survive the longer summers of extensive heat. Also, with the big hole in the sky the guy on television is talking about the snakes stay longer parts of the year hibernating avoiding the hot climate, leaving field rats finish up the weed, and corn crops.

After many complaints on part of the farmers the government came in and gave out some pesticides for the farmers to use. Farming went better for a couple of years but now it's gone sour again. The dealers in Cairo refuse to buy the crops from El Quarra claiming that they contain too much chemical substance to be exported, and what's even worse is that the soil has been damaged, and the farmers are now at a total loss of what to do with the land and how to make a living.

With that, `Sheikh Hassan' looked down in sadness and ordered some tea after the meal. Children were playing around in the community hall, curious at this stranger. `Hajj Ahmed' smiled kindly in spite of his sadness at what he was hearing, and remembered his son `Omar' who used to play in this hall many years back when they came to visit.

Meanwhile, `Omar' was having a cup of coffee with his British Egyptian friend at a café. `Michael' spent college in Cairo, but then went to live in England with his mother. He stared a business in the UK raising cattle.

`Omar' asked how things were going and `Michael' said things were not going very well. At the cattle farm things were going from bad to worse with this mad cow disease.

He told him the feed for animals they imported from developing countries became scarce and expensive. `Michael' had to find an alternate to feed coming from countries with draught, and from countries where the floods resulting from molten glaciers. One way out was to mix animal feed with parts of dead animals. Now he can't sell his produce anymore. He is forced to execute all his cattle and faces the possibility of leaving the UK bankrupt

`Omar' is saddened by the news and tells `Michael' that things are bad in Egypt as well. These were tough times and they will defiantly pass. `Omar ` himself was having trouble at work. He had received a huge order from a fisherman in the Fayoum Oasis for refrigerating

vehicles to transport the fish caught by the fisherman in Qaroun Lake. `Omar' invested a lot of money in making those vehicles and equipping them when he heard that his client from Fayoum was held in court and was declared officially bankrupt.

The newspapers stated that the lake had been filled with agricultural wastewater for more than 20 years and that more minerals andchemicals were responsible for the slow reproduction, and eventually for the death of the fish. The fisherman's debts accumulated, and his creditors took him to court. Now, `Omar' doesn't know what to do with the vehicles he had prepared and equipped, and has been waiting for the completion of this deal to settle his own debts.

His last hope was the partnership with `Samy', their other college mate, who opened a small hotel in `Sharm El Sheikh' resort. Back in the 1980s, `Samy', being a scuba dive instructor, decided to move to `Sharm El Sheikh' permanently, open a small hotel and operate a diving center to provide boat tours in the Red Sea.

At the time, `Sharm El Sheikh' was booming with tourists from all over the world who came to the Red Sea to enjoy the sunny weather and the rich coral reefs. Over the past four years, more and more concrete hotels invaded the entire coast. The political situation in the region destroyed the business. Further more, the corals and the entire underwater eco-system was greatly damaged by ships and hotels dumping their waste in the sea. The reefs are turning into ashes, the fish are dying, and so are the businesses.

Now, "Omar's" only hope is to get his main business back on it's feet after this last stroke and to sell some of his villas in the northern coast to avoid jail.

Back in El Quarra, `Hajj Ahmed' and his cousin `Mustafa' went for a walk and `Mustafa' started telling his story:

After the problems with the soil in El Quarra, `Mustafa' and other farmers gave up on the land and decided to look for revenue elsewhere. They moved north to El Dabaa on the coast, where they found an area full of Acacia trees. They used the Acacia to produce charcoal to sell in the city. Others went hunting for export purposes

Things went well for a while, then the Acacia trees became fewer and overgrazed, and did not satisfy the demand of the charcoal market. The men then went into fights about who owned which tree and many killings happened, total unrest prevailed in the nomad community and some had to leave. 90% of the community which relied on capturing wildlife faced the same problem with desert animals: snakes, foxes, geckos, lizards, wild cats and even gazelles were scarcer and scarcer.

The hunters are currently obliged to decrease their hunting activity or move and roam the deserts again in search of a good spot to live and make a living.

Before, `Hajj Ahmed' could respond or show his sympathy, he received a call on his mobile phone from `Omar's' Mother. Their son had had a heart attack and was in a London hospital. He was notified that the license for his air–conditioning business had been cancelled because he did not meet the international environmental standards of the industry.

The phone slipped from `Hajj Ahmed's hand and the voice of the grief-stricken mother calling for her husband was coming out of the mobile phone……..

Fiction

12 Aug 2003