In the New York Times today, there was an article about a mural painted in the Manshiyat Naser district of Cairo. It did not mention the people by name, the Zabballeen, but did refer to them as the trash collecting mainly Coptic community.
The quote is from a third century bishop that says, "If one wants to see the light of the sun, he must wipe his eyes."
The article also says that this area was chosen for its distance from the bureaucratic center of the city. Beyond the article's "Aw, isn't that nice?" factor, I thought it was important to point out this as a current example of the Egyptian state still unable to penetrate all layers of the Egyptian society.
With help of the local neighborhood residents the artist, eL Seed, was able to circumvent any apparatchiks that would have stood in his way should he had chosen a more centrally located/richer area.
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