In this essay I’m going to talk about political and social alienation in Egypt based off an article reflecting recent happenings in the said country. The article is titled “Sinai Explodes Into Violence After Years of Chronic Poverty and Alienation” The theme portrayed in the article is mainly alienation, alongside other themes such as poverty, marginalization and violence, which clearly brings out the alienation of the Bedouins, an ethnic group in Egypt. I chose the article because the Bedouins have several characteristics which alienate them from other Egyptians. The characteristics are; permanent nomadic lifestyle, low population and geographical stretch, demographic dispersion, serious poverty and not belonging to main tribes. Their story, as portrayed in the article I chose resonates with that of Oedipus because he was also alienated from the city of Thebes as read in pages 1-57 of the book Oedipus the King.
The article I chose presents twenty masked men raiding Aqua-Sun Beach Resort. They tied up the occupants of the area and took their mobile phones away and demanded money –“four million Egyptian pounds from the owner of the resort in payment for the land on which the resort was constructed. It belonged to them” they said (Abou-Zeid, 2015). According to the owner the Bedouin raiders took everything after ransacking the whole resort. Both furniture and office equipment were also stolen (Abou-Zeid, 2015). What prompted the raid was the new assertiveness among the regions’ Bedouins after decades of marginalization, neglect and discrimination. The land belongs to the Bedouins, but the resort owners won’t even allow the Bedouins in their hotel rooms (Abou-zeid, 2015).
Terror attacks associated with the Bedouins presence in the nation have risen in the current periods, affecting safety and the nation. This has further led to the Bedouins facing difficulties in having access to social amenities such as hospitals, clean water, and subsidized petroleum prices and foodstuff, which has forced quite a number to engage in unlawful behavior so as to secure fundamental wants.
The story in this article represents alienation in the following ways; despite Egypt being an urban dynamic with a number of cities, Bedouin communities living in arid areas that are dependent on animal keeping and the nomadic way of life are still there. In this perspective the Bedouins have a number of distinctiveness which alienate them from the other ethnic groups in Egypt. They have suffered constant little investment in learning facilities, health services and transportation. They are the poorest inhabitants in the whole of Egypt. In northern Sinai, Egypt, they are rarely offered jobs despite the fact that the land is primarily theirs. The articles point out that despite the land being theirs, hotel owners in the area don’t even want Bedouins in the said hotels. Also the Bedouin women are not permitted to trade self-made ornaments along the coastline.
In conclusion, it is true that effectively interaction with the Bedouins requires one to recognize their way of life and the characteristics of their unique culture. As part of the nation, identifying legal frameworks that are quite flexible so as to help in the organization of the Bedouin community by giving out with identity documents, specific grazing zones, providing health and education service and setting up a few villages in coastline borders for the Bedouins to forestall growth policy and safety measures which aspire to stop the unlawful threats and terrorist attacks masterminded by some of the Bedouins. Through the assignment, I have learnt that alienation leaves one with a feeling of being left out and can lead to the affected party taking extreme measures so as to fit in and get recognized in their society.
References
Abou-Zeid, A. (1966). Honour and shame among the Bedouins of Egypt. Honour and shame, 3, 243-260.
Hobbs, J. J. (2014). Bedouin life in the Egyptian wilderness. University of Texas Press.
