Guilty pleasures

There are lots of beggars on the streets of Maadi at the moment. I don't think the toppling of the Mubarak regime and the recent increase in their numbers are unconnected.

They don't just sit on the pavement and shake cups at you like they do in Edinburgh; they actively follow you until you around until you relent. Those who aren't begging tend to be selling something, but selling in the sense that as soon as you walk into their line of sight you are going to have to buy whatever it is (usually tissues and sweets) whether you want to or not.

Early this afternoon, I wanted to go for a little wander, print off some photos, and grab a coffee whilst I was at it. The amount of hassle involved in doing that these days is unbelievable. Once I was within a hundred yards of the mall a little girl raced over to sell me some tissues. As soon as I obliged, another two demanded the same. Right outside the coffee shop was a woman parading a severely disabled man around. (Try walking past her cries for money and not feel guilty that you're about to buy a Costa Coffee and Blueberry muffin.) I gave her something and another two girls sprang out of nowhere, one of whom shouted so aggressively at the other (for muscling in on her patch, I would imagine) that I was a little taken aback. I thought I'd escaped once away from the mall, but outside my flat a woman was begging for money to feed her newborn baby. The same happens round the corner at the supermarket.

I would normally say something like 'A fiver here and there means a lot more to them than it does to me', but fivers make the world go round here in Cairo. Short taxi trips, delivery charges, baksheesh for meter readers, small tips etc. If you don't have small change when you go shopping, you can end up waiting around for ages as cashiers rush over the road for change or another customer comes in with some. Make the mistake of getting into a taxi with no small change, and you can say goodbye to your larger notes. The value of a fiver, therefore, isn't something I measure in its monetary sense (which is only about 50p or so). Hand out all your fivers to beggars and sellers, and you've got a whole morning's worth of pain trying to get around without them.

Reading that back, it's easy to see why I might come across as a little rude or uncaring, and with a complete lack of perspective on things. It's just...when you can't go for a wee walk and a coffee without getting hassled out of your precious change, it's a bit irritating.

Anyway.

For anyone who thinks I don't paint Egypt in a positive enough light, here's a kitten with both its eyes in full working order. I'd give this little thing the entire contents of my wallet if it asked me.

Sue me.