Are we really this bad or are they exaggerating?

Question

I see lots of people here in Egypt category saying horrible things about their experiences in Egypt.About beggars, hasslers and so on.
The image they are depicting is awful to me. Is it true ? Or do they have malicious intentions ?
If it is true , then how can we change that ?If it is not, then why are they doing this ?
Is it really necessary for people to spread hatred like that ?

Donia F.
Yes. Yes. I agree the street boys are so yukeeee. They should be collected from the streets , be given showers, and then we should buy suits for them , and send them to Russia to learn ball room dancing. So when they come back to beg in the streets , they won't hurt neither my eyes nor ur precious eyes.They will dance and make everybody happy.
You are right. The government has to collect them or do something. The last time I went to these poor areas, Foofoo, my little poodle had a psychological trauma . I had to take him to Paris for one month to recover.
I hear there is a re-make for the hit t.v series "Bakeeza & Zaghloul" . They already got Zaghloul but they are casting for Bakeeza.
Give it a shot

Male 24,
I am not one of the 5% you were talking about. I am actually one of the poor people who are so annoying and bugging to the tourists.
I look at the poor people and I understand , Before you blame them for what they do, blame the government for not providing them with a decent means for living.
There are many tragedies out there, that sometimes I feel that Crimes are logical in these situations.
About your problem. I am sorry for it. It is just a part of the common consideration that we all lost. We suffer from a lack of a big tough system that applies to ANYONE and which everyone must abide by.
If there is tough police who goes there immediately and prevents them from doing it, they wouldn't have done it .
Maybe the police gets paid , or what , I don't know. Allah knows better

Answer 1

Good question No body and the answer is yes yes,
yes we are bad and yes they are exaggerating,I may haven't too much to say after all opinions you already had,but if beggars are that bad,still all tourists and when I say all I mean 90% of them,feels how friendly Egyptian ppl are,and the fact we all know quit well that we love foreigners ansd we tend to spoil them even if they are our employees so why don't we mention the full part of the glass???

Answer 2

Dear No body,
the truth is, unfortunately, yes.
yes Egypt's going through a rough time;
people are getting worse mainly because of hunger and poverty, yes the government is squezing the people and leaving the country in its worse condition ever,
yes the free voices are supressed and yes we have the third most inhumane torturing prisons after guantanamo and some other place I don't recall..
True that some might not be honest about the facts they spread but you know? I have a totally different point of view:

Whoever wishes to mess around in Egypt, would rather keep us unaware of his develish plans than know that our beloved country is falling apart, right?
I believe that whoever's messing around in our country isn't the one exposing the horrible facts, but mostly loving, patriotic individuals. If I knew a horrible fact, I'd spread it and hope we fix it together not the other way round. and I think you would, loyalty-wise.
So the 'malicious intentions' option, I don't think so..

And if it's true, well, the odds are pretty reassuring actually. As you may have noticed, many of Egypt's youth now realise what's going on and have a very good background on politics and also I guess the percentage of well- educated people is on the rise.
What I'm getting to is that my answer to 'how can we change that?' is wait.
Me, you, the people who answered this q and a bunch of other Egyptians do know what's happening around and don't really like it. A great deal of us want a change and it's the educated, aware side of the people.
Be one of them and don't worry, it's soon that those youth will bring Egypt to it's glory again.. Egypt will be back on it's feet, will be strong, glorious and galmourous as ever soon enough.
Just work and wait.

Answer 3

Dont be discouraged. Not everyone can see the same thing it is about their perception of life. yes Egypt has beggars etc, but what country does not??? I love Egypt so much even the beggars!!!

People spread ugliness because they feel better about themselves. Some people can not be truly happy until others are miserable.

Do not worry, Egypt will withstand this very small amount of people saying terrible things. Contrary I hear and read all the time about how beautiful Egypt is and the people are so friendly and wonderful. :-) that is the truth and that is what we need to hold on to

Answer 4

No, we r not exaggerating, we just don't want to believe the truth.

Right now, its 2:30 am, i am home and there is this casino (kabareit) which is playing loud music until now, so I am not able to sleep. This casino starts from about 1:00 am and finishes (hasab el tasaheel)! maybe 3:00 am, maybe 4, sometimes 5!!

and before they begin, there is another club that makes wedding parties from 9 till 12, with loud music also and so..

of course i tried the police before, did not work, nothing happened.

yess, i hate the country!! just want to make a point here, all of us here who know what internet is and r well educated and stay chatting and on yahoo answers before we sleep, we r living a completely different life than the rest of the 95% of the people.

want to know the country, go to a poor area, but not very poor or else u will be kidnapped!! take a taxi and speak with the driver, look how his life is and how that if u got him to talk to u and tell u what he is suffering from, he will not shut up until u leave.

he will tell us he is suffering from his boss, from the passengers, from the police, from the traffic, from the politics, from (mawakeb el wozara), from dirty water he has to drink, all sucks.

Answer 5

one of the big obstacles in tourism development (besides bad transportation routes and traffic generally) is beggars and hasslers at touristic points. They are very annoying, i get annoyed and provoked for just watching them do that to a poor tourist.
If you read any pamphlet for tourist (printed to advise the tourist and give him tips in each and every part of the world) in the Egypt section, you'll find several repeated issues (in different languages);
1. how to deal with beggars, hasslers?
2. "Bakshish" is an egyptian invention and you have to deal with it. coz it's a tradition.
3. how to make sure you are not being ripped off by any seller, taxi driver, etc..
You are not Cairo resident, so you can't imagine how awful is this till you go and see it for yourself.

Answer 6

Are you serious? Go hang around the grounds at the pyramids and WATCH how some of the locals -- especially those with horse stables -- immediately jump on foreigners and try to hustle them.

It happens at every major tourist spot. It's a pain in the *** and makes the whole experience unnecessarily negative for many tourists.

Answer 7

amaizingly and unfortunatly its true,, but what i hate about it is when an egyptian keeps writing awful things about egypt and life there and how much they hate it.. where did the loyalty to your home go...

about what caused this alot of things mainly ignorence and the denial of the moral problems and moral gap which is growing which is the main reason for hasseling foreigners

1 thing which i was truely amaized by it does cairo smell.. i never noticed that does any 1 ?

Answer 8

give me baksheesh & i will tell you!!beggars are a big fact!!we must face it!!there must be officers& guards in the streets to protect people!!specially girls!!they r increasing everyday!!specially the street boys!!they r so rude!!they must be collected from the streets!!because they behave strangely!!specially when they see foreign girls!!i hope the governament can do something!!

Answer 9

Nope, exaggeration.
One bad experience and they throw everyone in the same bucket.

Answer 10

I'VE NEVER BEEN THERE, BUT I KNOW USA HAS IT'S SHARE OF BEGGERS, KNOWN AS PANHANDLERS, AND HUSTLERS. GUESS WHEN PEOPLE ARE VACATIONING THEY DON'T WANT TO BOTHER WITH SUCH AND YOU CAN'T BLAME THEM.