Garbage Dreams

Garbage Dreams is a 2009 documentary film produced, written and directed by Mai Iskander. The documentary premiered at the 2009 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival, in Austin Texas. SXSW was originally a music festival, and was in fact one of the largest music festivals in the United States until 1994, when the SXSW festival came to incorporate both music and film.

Garbage Dreams follows the lives of three egyptian teenagers who were born into the Egyptian trash trade. The documentary shows to the viewer what it's like for these three teens to grow up in what was referred to as "the world's largest garbage village". According to the documentary this garbage village, which lies on the outskirts of Cairo is home to over 60,000 "Zaballeen" which is Arabic for "garbage people". The documentary shows the daily lives of these three teens, it shows us behind the scenes footage of the zaballeen community, and how in actuality they are just normal, decent, hard working human beings doing the only work they can to survive. The documentary also reveals the effects of globalization on the zaballen's trade, and how the three teens who represent a sort of microcosm of this community, deal with the impact of this issue and how it effects their futures.

Besides the SXSW Film Festival, Garbage Dreams has been screened at numerous other festivals across the United States. At the Bermuda International Film Festival as well as at the Vail Film Festival, Garbage Dreams won the awards for "Best Documentary". Mai Iskander herself has gone on to win the award for "World Cinema Best Director" at the Phoenix Film Festival, the same festival where the documentary won the "World Cinema Audience Award". Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said of the film, "Garbage Dreams is a moving story of young men searching for ways to eke out a living for their families and facing tough choices as they try to do the right thing for the plane. Mai Iskander guides us into a 'garbage village,' a place so different from our own, and yet the choices they face there are so hauntingly familiar. Ultimately, Garbage Dreams makes a compelling case that modernization does not always equal progress." The documentary has also gone on to win the Al Gore REEL Current Award at the Nashville Film Festival.

Watch the Documentary.

EXODUS

There is a new and recent phenomenon amongst Egyptian youth. Everyday vast numbers of poor desperate Egyptians are paying great amounts of money to smugglers who promise them a wonderfully successful life abroad (mostly in Europe). They embark on their journey to the new world often in vessels that are not fit for the journey, nor for the rough sea conditions. They sail through the roughest of seas and deal with unimaginably inhuman conditions, all in an attempt to live a new life abroad. A life where they are treated as humans, with rights and freedoms, and most of all with dignity.

Unfortunately, the majority of these vessels never make it to their final destinations. Many stories circulate through various news outlets, almost on a weekly basis, confirming sunken boats off the coast of Libya, smuggling rings foiled by police, families of victims demanding justice for their youth who died at sea. The list goes on, all confirming that the great majority of youth being smuggled never get to fulfill their dream. Those who make it and arrive safely, find other problems upon their arrival. They are usually greeted by the local coast guards and border patrol agencies who immediately apprehend the newly arrived illegal aliens and after background checks to confirm they are not terrorists on any of the international watch lists, the are deported to their countries of origin. According to the BBC news online website (news.bbc.co.uk), it is estimated that “almost half a million Egyptians have successfully entered Europe illegally in the last decade”, which serves to show that although people being smuggled are aware of the great risks and tremendous hazards they would have to overcome, the reward at the end of the journey (living abroad and leaving Egypt) is more than worth it to them, in fact it is seen as a risk worth taking.


The Majority of people choosing the smuggling route out of Egypt have no other options. They are usually peasants from poor and impoverished backgrounds with basic or no formal education or schooling. In effect it is desperation and hopelessness that have led them to their decision. They are not however the only class of people looking to leave their country behind. Again, according to the BBC, “it is found that 50% of students who take up postgraduate studies in Europe and the United States don’t return to Egypt.” This shows that not only are the poor and uneducated who can not find means of making a decent living in Egypt are leaving, but in fact the majority of the brightest and most talented of Egyptian pupils as well.

There are two quotes that I believe will help in the understanding of why this apparent exodus is occurring in Egypt. They are also a good way to conclude this article I believe. The first comes from a civil servant named Saeed who exclaims “My country hasn't given me anything; I've been working on a temporary contract for seven years earning no more than $50 a month. I would migrate without hesitation if I get the chance”. The second quote is from Dr Azza Koraim, a social studies professor at the University of Cairo, who says “The injustice in the workforce market gives jobs to the rich or the relatives of important people and deprives young people of the right to hope”.

A Fun & Fictitious Fable (Brought to you by the letter “F”)

Five furry and fuzzy feline friends Freddy, Fred, Fredrick, Frieda and Fareed, found themselves in an unfortunate and unfavorable fix. For the five felines had found four finger-licking, flavorful feasts. Unfortunate for the fact that four feasts for five felines was a foul fix.

Freddy, the father figure for the five-some, fabricated a fine and fair formula for the fantastic feasts the felines had found. “Four feasts for five felines is not unfortunate, but fortunate. We will all split the four feasts fairly,” proposed Freddy. Frieda, the only female feline of the five agreed with Freddy finding his formula fair-minded and well founded. Fred, Fredrick and Fareed differed with Freddy and Frieda, finding their suggestions fatuous and facetious. Fred, Fredrick and Fareed voiced flippant remarks, forcing Frieda’s face to frown.

“Four of us are forceful and formidable unfeminine felines, while only one is a frail and feeble faint-hearted female. Furthermore, I haven’t feasted in a fortnight, so how is fifty-fifty a fair formula?” demanded Fredrick. Fred and Fareed showed favor to Fredrick’s pontifical remarks.

Fred was a fat feline and Fareed was a filthy and foolish one. Fredrick forever fathomed Freddy’s father figure role was a far finer fit for him rather than Freddy, and furtively fancied it for himself. So, this foul federation of the three foxy felines formed no surprises for Freddy, the front-runner of the five [formerly] fellow felines.

Frieda figured she would forgo her fraction of the feast for a far less fraction, having faith that if this would rectify the fix the felines were in. The Foxy Federation of Fredrick, Fred and Fareed agreed and the fractions of the fancy feast were given out. Frieda found herself with a feeble fraction of the feast, but felt fortunate to still have her feline friends. Freddy was not fulfilled but felt that lawfulness amongst the friends had been finally found. But you can never, not for a fraction of a second de-emphasis the ferocity and fierceness of greed. Fred the fat feline flattered and fawned Frieda in a fox like manner, then suddenly filched fragile Frieda’s fraction, doing so after fortifying his own fatter fraction far from the reach of his fellow felines. Freddy became furious and force Fred the fatty to return what he has filched from his fellow feline friend. The fatty refused, and a fiery and fervent fight broke it.

Faraway from the ferocious fight, a foul, fiendish, and frightening foe was approaching cautiously. Faster and without fickleness, the foe forced his way closer to the feuding former friends and forced them to fear him. Fearing the fangs of this formidable foe, the felines all forfeited their feasts, fearful of a foul fate. Their foe took their feasts and fled faraway forever. The five furry and fuzzy felines were left without their food.

“This forlorn and foul fix has forced us to fear our foes, forfeit our food and finally, act unfavorable towards one other, friends” said Freddy. It would be another fortnight before the furry felines would find any food to feed on, and when they did, it was a fraction of the feast they found a fortnight before.

Friends fortified together are more formidable than the foulest and most ferocious of foes.

It’s a jungle out there – it’s every girl for herself

On a hot and still summer afternoon, sun is shining intensely, pollution hanging in the air like a cloud of dark sinister smog, eerily waiting for someone or something to happen. Finally heading home after a long day filled will meaningless errands one after the other, I decided the best action would be to take a taxi cab back home, thinking it would be the easiest and fastest of options. Standing at the corner of a nameless street I waited for a cab, which passed or at least matched my very selective “cab-picking” criteria. It had to be relatively new, air-conditioned and with an elderly driver as to avoid as much random chatter and conversation as possible. Fifteen minutes, and seven cabs later I had found my desired cab. I made my way in the back seat and prepared myself for what I was convinced would be a long and painful journey back home.

Twenty minutes had passed and we’d traveled what seemed to be no more than ten kilometers at most. So far the cab driver didn’t say anything, and the air-conditioner was still working. Everything appeared to be going to plan. Then, suddenly and without warning the cab driver mentioned something along the lines of “it is hot today, isn’t it?” I chose not to respond fearing this small question would be the tip of a conversational iceberg. I pretended to be busy doing something on my mobile phone and hoped he would think I neglected to hear him, and since the question was not important, , he would act as though he never even asked and the sweet silence momentarily lost would once again prevail.

My plan had worked, or at least that’s what I thought. Half way through our journey home I witnessed an incident where two young male teens appeared to be verbally harassing a younger female teen. I was shocked and disappointed, I looked to the driver and noticed that he was also witnessing the same incident and was slightly shaking his head in silent disapproval. Without thinking and with good intentions I said, “Boy it’s really hard being a female in this society nowadays, I mean it’s like a jungle out there – it’s every girl for herself”. The cab driver pulled out his mobile phone and pretended to be performing some urgent and serious task on it. “Very well played, sir”, I said. The driver turned to me and smiled. Sweet silence would prevail for the remainder of ride home.

I never intended to be rude, or hurt the driver’s feelings, but that must have been the way my actions were perceived. When he returned the gesture I had made to him a little while earlier I understood how he felt. How arrogant and stuck up I must have seemed. Like I too good to talk to a lowly cabbie. This experience taught me (the hard and embarrassing way) to be more humble.

We as a society or on an even more general scale – as human beings – tend to distinguish ourselves from other’s based on quantitative criteria like intelligence, wealth or social status. My experience with this cab driver taught me that there is something to learn and values to gain from all peoples, from all walks of life. At the very least if they are rude or not well mannered you are learning how not to act. The cab driver I was discussing earlier could have easily made a foul or rude remark when I had made my comments to him, and he would have had somewhat of a right to do so, but because of the way he chose to convey his message I learned a great and valuable lesson, which I may not have had he acted in another way.

There is always a positive to be taken from all individual and sometimes seemingly meaningless experiences. We do not live in a jungle, we are human beings and we should start treating one another as such.