Prelude: conversation in a Cairo taxi

Prelude: conversation in a Cairo taxi

– Orginal title:
Vincent Battesti et Safa Dahab (2011), Prélude : conversation dans un taxi du Caire,
in Battesti Vincent et Ireton François (dirs), L’Égypte au présent, Inventaire d’une société avant révolution, Paris, Éditions Sindbad - Actes-Sud, coll. La Bibliothèque arabe, p. 15-28 [ISBN 978-2-7427-9780-6].
PDF File: https://hal.science/hal-00954280

– See this book L’Égypte au présent, Inventaire d’une société avant révolution.

– Abstract:
This is the translation and transcription (with Safa Dahab) of a discussion recorded unexpectedly in a taxi in Cairo, February 15, 2007. I was seating in the backseat of a decrepit specimen of the indefinitely fleet of black and white taxis of the capital. The taxi took another client, as often happens, who moved to the front. The conversation began between the client and the driver and lasted ten minutes in the usual traffic jams rumor.

And all of the Egyptian society is reviewed during this discussion between strangers ...

– The first lines:

The following text is the translation and transcription of a conversation recorded impromptu in a Cairo taxi on February 15, 2007. I was sitting in the back seat of a decrepit specimen from the capital’s indefinite fleet of black and white taxis. The driver picked up another passenger, as is often done, who got into the front seat. A conversation ensued between the two men and lasted ten minutes, amid the usual noise of traffic jams.

Taxi Driver:
Qasr al-‘Ainy street is still terrible! Honestly, what a traffic jam!

Taxi Passenger:
When you’re fasting and you don’t want to bother, forget this street!

Taxi Driver:
Yes, it’s nerve-wracking.

Taxi Passenger:
Not only that, it’s a waste of time!

Taxi Driver:
[Sound of horn.] What’s going on? I have no idea.
The guy, he comes out of Dar el-Hilal and takes the street of the ministry like it’s nothing!
Salah Salem, sir! Salah Salem street! I swear, I used to be scared to take that street. When a customer asked for Salah Salem, I’d say: ’And you escort me back, brother?’ I was scared of it! And now, it’s jam-packed both ways!

Taxi Passenger:
Let me tell you something even more incredible: even the Alexandria highway is jammed!

Taxi Driver:
Yes, I know.

Taxi Passenger:
The Alexandria highway through the desert!

Taxi Driver:
And the agricultural road too! I’m telling you, I don’t understand this traffic jam story. We’re told there are a lot of immigrants who have come to Egypt. How can people come to live in a country like this?

Taxi Passenger:
I’ll tell you frankly that because of these immigrants, God will punish us. People in Iraq were extremely hospitable to Egyptians. You understand? The Egyptian, there, had more rights than the Iraqi citizens themselves.

Taxi Driver:
Ah! Did you know there’s even a ‘izba [farm] in Tantā called Saddam Hussein’s ‘izba [farm]? Did you know that?

Taxi Passenger:
No, I didn’t know...

Taxi Driver:
I saw it on TV last week. They were mourning the death of Saddam Hussein.

Taxi Passenger:
In short, they were extremely hospitable to Egyptians. And when Iraqis came here to Egypt [because of the war], our respectful system [the government], “respectful” isn’t it, refused to grant them a residence permit for more than a year.

Taxi Driver:
Well.

Taxi Passenger:
And why? Just like that!

Taxi Driver:
Egyptians went to Iraq, they came back with money.

Taxi Passenger:
That’s what I’m telling you: for no reason! We don’t know what to do anymore...

Taxi Driver:
They can’t help it, note that!

Taxi Passenger:
Who “they”?

Taxi Driver:
It’s the United Nations, I’m telling you, who ordered [the government]!

Taxi Passenger:
Ordered what?

Taxi Driver:
The United Nations ordered not to grant immigrants a residence permit for more than a year so they go back to rebuild their country.

Taxi Passenger:
Rebuild what?

Taxi Driver:
“I am free and I am happy and I want to live here! I don’t want to go back to that country! I am free and I stay where I want!”

Taxi Passenger:
But it’s insane. There are people who leave, who emigrate to America, and they’re not asked anything, right?

Taxi Driver:
No.

Taxi Passenger:
So, it’s insane. The sheikh of al-Azhar, that kind of dirty, dirty... a dog is better than him!

Taxi Driver:
Yes.

Taxi Passenger:
What did he say? He said, two days ago, that Palestine, Jerusalem, is for Palestinians alone to defend, that it doesn’t concern us.

Taxi Driver:
How’s that?

Taxi Passenger:
The son of...

Taxi Driver:
How dare he say something like that, Muslims and Christians defend Palestine together!
He’s a donkey, he works for the government. He has nothing to do with religion and morals.

Taxi Passenger:
Tomorrow, the son of a dog will be dead: what will he say to God? that “Hosni Mubarak told me to say that”?
(…)

(Read the full story here (in French))