November 2009

As Keith already wrote, Cairo is a smoggy, crowded and chaotic city of nearly 20 million people.  Seeing trash on the sidewalks, while unfortunate, is not unexpected. Nor is it all that different from the city sidewalks back home in Philadelphia.  Outside of the Center City District, which imposes a quasi-governmental tax on local businesses and residents to fund a force of workers who keep the sidewalks clean, Philadelphia’s sidewalks are often strewn with litter, including, of all things, chicken bones.  With so many people, high unemployment rates and little money to spare, keeping Downtown Cairo trash-free is clearly not a high priority for the government.  It’s hard to throw stones when home is the quintessential glass house.

Then we arrived at the Great Pyramids of Giza, often at the top of the list of the Seven Wonders of the World.  There, in the sand that surrounds the Pyramids, we spot a crushed plastic water bottle.  Then another.  And another.

Trash along the side of the horse trail to the Pyramids of Giza

Candy bar wrappers, broken glass, cans, papers and plastic debris.  It’s everywhere you look, and it’s a shame.  Here is the primary driver for tourism in Egypt, visited by millions of tourists each year and a huge moneymaker for the Egyptian economy, and it is completely filled with trash.  Not only do we have to crop out other tourists from our photos, but the trash that seems to fill the bottom of nearly every shot.  The other tourist sites around Egypt don’t fare much better when it comes to the proper disposal of litter.  I don’t recall seeing chicken bones on the sidewalk next to the Liberty Bell, do you?

But it gets worse.

Walk along the boardwalk in Dahab, a beach resort town on the Red Sea that is popular with divers and snorkelers.  On any given morning you will see the hotel and shop owners sweeping up the trash along the pathway.

Onto the beach.

And eventually into the sea and the coral reef, the reason that the divers and snorkelers are here in the first place.

There are trashcans along the boardwalk and signs asking people not to improperly dispose of their

Notice the "Please No Rubbish Here" sign...

garbage.  But the beach seems like an easier place to dispose of the litter that accumulates.  While diving and snorkeling, the beauty of tropical fish and corals is often disrupted with stray plastic bags and broken bottles floating in the clear waters.

I understand that Egypt is a poor country and most people are struggling just to get by, let alone get educated about the environment and do something to preserve it.  The concept of sustainability, rooted in terms of the resources that will be available to future generations, doesn’t work when the struggle is about surviving the day today.

Maybe I am just a product of an over-sanitized American culture that most of the rest of the world can’t afford to duplicate.  Maybe I completely internalized the “Give a Hoot” commercials from my childhood and am programmed to be appalled by litter.  Regardless of the environmental impact, actively destroying the natural assets that are at the core of one’s own livelihood just doesn’t make economic sense. No reefs, no divers.  No divers, no businesses.  No businesses, no jobs.

Am I just a spoiled American experiencing culture shock?  Am I missing something that explains why it is acceptable to litter at the sites of ancient wonders and world-class coral reefs?  What can I do as a tourist to promote values of sustainability in the places I travel?

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