Orascom/Sawiris at it Again

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Hafiz
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Orascom/Sawiris at it Again

Post by Hafiz »

We all know that mere mortals can’t own land that abuts the Nile and thousands of buildings have been bulldozed in the past few years, including in Luxor, in pursuit of this ‘law’.

At the same time ariel photographs of Cairo show scores of clubs, mainly military ones, in breach of the law which have not been bulldozed.

It also seems that if you are a corrupt corporation, and one which funded the Tamarod 'movement' which 'led' to the downfall of Morsi/death of democracy, you can own what you like close to the Nile. In addition if there are poor residents of such land then just **ck them off. Even the al Ahram article contains enough information to give a stink to this story.

“Orascom Development has regained possession of Amoun Island in Aswan, which it says it owns, in cooperation with the Egyptian General Company for Tourism (EGOTH), it said in a statement to the bourse on Tuesday.

"The issue of the ownership of the neighbouring islands of Amoun and Qelada, located in the Nile, triggered controversy after videos circulated on social media in November showing clashes between residents on Qelada and Orascom-hired private security guards, who were asking the residents to leave the island. Orascom was not able at the time to begin its planned construction work. (This is identical to the eviction of thousands of poor people from the area surrounding the Orascom ‘World Headquarters’ building north of the museum and on the Nile in Cairo)….

EGOTH, owned by Egyptian government through the Holding Company for Tourism And Hotels, said in a statement in November that it owns Amoun Island, with its chairwoman Mervat Hataba explaining that there is a partnership between EGOTH and Orascom to develop the island and to build on it.

She asserted that Orascom Development does own Qelada Island via a registered contract.(how can you own land via a contract doesn't the title to the land, in this case in the central titles office, need to be altered to reflect a mere contract)

Hataba said that the joint projects on the islands should have been built ten years ago; however, a number of Nubian people opposed the project and obstructed the development.

Samih Sawiris, CEO of Orascom Development, said in November during a phone call to the Al-Qahera Al-Aan programme on Al-Hadath channel that his company had bought Qelada Island from the heirs of Antoine (doesn’t sound like the first name of a poor traditional owner) Qelada before 2011, with the aim of building a project on it. According to him, the Qelada family had owned the island for more than 70 years.

He said that the evacuation by the security guards came under the approval of the state and with an order from the prosecution. (does this mean that the state delegates police powers to Orascom)

He explained that Orascom and EGOTH were going to build hotels on Qelada and Amoun.

Sawiris claimed that after the 2011 revolution and the unrest that followed it, some people claimed ownership of the two islands, and ever since Orascom and EGOTH have been having trouble implementing their projects.

He has called on the government to intervene as a mediator.

Minister of Public Business Sector Hesham Tawfik said in a statement late November that the ministry will be coordinating with the Ministry of Interior to evacuate the islands, to enable Orascom to build their hotel". http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent ... -cont.aspx

As if the poor Nubians haven’t had 70 years of misery and dispossession.As is the Sawiris family hadn't bled all parts of Egypt white and engaged in dreadful corruption - for which they were never jailed.

EGOTH is the government holding body for its tourism assets - eg the Winter Palace. To describe it as incompetent and corrupt is insufficient. In 70 years it has done no more than just sit back and allow its partners do as they wish, and to watch many of its hotels fall down. In this matter to think that they would be co-developers with Orascom in any active sense is delusional.

A fair assessment of this matter is possibly that its the theft of a public asset and theft from the poor - not that there are any divisions in Egypt between public and private assets - they are all in the same hip pocket or part of the unearned braid on midget Field Marshall bloated chests.


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