Tuesday, March 7th, 2017—major protests and demonstrations erupted in several cities across Egypt, including Alexandria, Minya, Desouk, and Cairo’s own Imbaba in response to the government decision to stop accepting several types of the government issued ration cards for subsidized bread.

As the protestors clashed with police, a social media hashtagانتفاضة_التموين#

surfaced, providing the spontaneous demonstrations with an unofficial name the Intifadha al-Tamween, or “Bread Uprising” 

The Egyptian word for bread, ‘Aish, is the same word for “Life” in Egyptian Arabic. This linguistic illustration poignantly realizes the centrality of daily bread as a dietary staple of every Egyptian household.

Cornelis Hulsman, Drs., Editor in Chief Arab West Report, comments on these events:

“This is not the first time Egypt has seen bread riots. During the Presidency of Anwar al-Sadat, there were bread riots in 1977, much larger in scale than those now. I suspect that the impetus behind Sadat’s unexpected trip to Jerusalem was the poor state of the Egyptian economy and the need to establish peace in Egypt’s economy.”

In the midst of the ongoing economic crisis in Egypt, the lack of a day’s bread can be absolutely disastrous for poor Egyptian families.

“Sadat had to make peace with Israel in order to improve the Egyptian economy” Hulsman recalls, observing parallels with the current political and economic situation in Egypt. “Al-Sisi, like Sadat, has to focus on improving the Egyptian economy. In the midst of this economic crisis, the government has to be pragmatic, pragmatic, pragmatic. We have to survive, and that is economy.”

The riots come in the midst of a pivotal time for Egyptian relations with the EU, with Egypt poised to strengthen its relationship with Germany and the rest of the Western European bloc. Hulsman recently met with a high level Egyptian Government official who observed: “Trump is on one line with al-Sisi when it comes to combating terrorism. After Merkel’s visit to Egypt, and recent talks with the governments of France and Britain, we are all looking to see what Europe can do to help strengthen the Egyptian economy”

“Unfortunately, it seems the Dutch are lagging behind”, Hulsman lamented.

Egypt needs more international support for  the Egyptian economy to recover.  Of course there are internal bureaucratic and other flaws that need to be dealt with, but if we wait until these flaws have been dealt with, it could be too late to prevent an economic meltdown which could have disastrous consequences for Egypt and the world at large.

March 9, 2017

Matthew Sparks

Head CIDT database project

References:

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypt-bread-riots-hundreds-take-streets-after-subsidies-cut-715780862

https://egyptianstreets.com/tag/bread-riot/

Photo: https://breakurfast.wordpress.com/2011/10/30/egyptian-pita-aish-baladi/