Region | Egypt
Egyptians turning bread crisis into comedy
"Have you heard the latest joke?" This question has invariably been posed in the Arab world's most populous country since anyone can recall.
- By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
- Published: 00:16 March 29, 2008
- Men at a restaurant in Cairo. From the 1967 war to the recent subsidised bread shortages, Egyptians are famous in the Arab world for cracking jokes about their problems.
- Image Credit: Reuters
Cairo: "Have you heard the latest joke?" This question has invariably been posed in the Arab world's most populous country since anyone can recall. You hear it almost everywhere: at coffee shops, workplaces, in taxis and even during heated arguments.
No wonder, then, that the Egyptians are known as people of jokes. They become more sarcastic in hard times. The latest joke in circulation is about long queues outside bakeries selling subsidised bread.
It runs as follows: While on his way to visit the Smart Village (a Silicon Valley-like project near Cairo), Prime Minister Ahmad Nazif notices long queues on the streets. "What are all these queues about?" the Prime Minister asks his escorts. "About buying bread, Sir," he is told. "Do Egyptians still have money despite all these price rises?" he replies.
Bread shortage
Over recent months, this country of 76 million has been suffering from an acute shortage of cheap bread, blamed by officials on illegal trading in subsidised flour on the black market. Around 10 people have been killed in fights in bread queues in some parts of Egypt over the past three weeks.
The government of President Hosni Mubarak says that it spends around $2.7 billion (Dh9.9 billion) annually in bread subsidies alone. Around 40 per cent of Egyptians are believed to be living under the poverty line.
"The main purpose of jokes is to give vent to bottled-up feelings and help get adapted to bitter realities," said Abdul Wahab Al Messiri, a noted researcher and a political activist.
"Egyptians often wield the weapon of jokes every time they face a crisis," Al Messiri, the coordinator-general of the protest group Kefaya (Enough), told Gulf News. He is currently working on a book about jokes in the lives of the Egyptians.
In his view, jokes are one form of protest. "In the aftermath of the naksa (the displacement of Palestinians after the Six-Day War in 1967), the Egyptians - shocked at their defeat by Israel - cracked jokes about their army so much that the then president Jamal Abdul Nasser appealed to his compatriots to stop their jokes because they demoralised the army," said Al Messiri.
Nasser's successor, Anwar Al Sadat, used to start his day by reading a report from the intelligence service on jokes told by Egyptians, according to Al Messiri.
In contrast to the jokes of the 1960s and 1970s, Egyptian jokes now mostly focus on everyday hardships.
"One joke is about a poor man who stumbles upon a magic lantern. He rubs it, and when the genie comes out of it and asks the man about his dearest wish, his answer is: to get some loaves of bread," recounts Al Messiri.
"The genie disappears for many hours. Impatient, the poor man rubs the lantern again only to be reprimanded by the genie for causing him to lose his place in the long queue."
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