WEBVTT

00:00:00.204 --> 00:00:03.296
You understand? 
There's nowhere without corruption in this country.

00:00:03.481 --> 00:00:05.536
Local Rule and the Right to Housing

00:00:05.721 --> 00:00:07.186
- Shabramant, Giza

00:00:07.186 --> 00:00:11.575
Where does corruption come from? From the minor officials who can get the job done for you.

00:00:11.760 --> 00:00:14.776
The minister might issue a decision and those under him don't enforce it.

00:00:14.776 --> 00:00:17.104
They say, 'sure, sure' and fill out the paperwork.

00:00:17.104 --> 00:00:21.106
But the reality? Someone pulls you to the side and asks for money and that's it.

00:00:21.106 --> 00:00:23.736
The minister doesn't know, no one knows.

00:00:24.244 --> 00:00:31.738
What do they do? The come, take some money, eat, order a drink, have a nescafe, and leave.

00:00:31.738 --> 00:00:35.939
That's what the municipalities do here, nothing more.

00:00:36.293 --> 00:00:39.055
- Old Cairo

00:00:39.055 --> 00:00:43.562
We're the ones who built it, because it's our area. 
So the place looks nice.

00:00:43.562 --> 00:00:46.680
We got a permit from the governor 
and everything else we needed.

00:00:46.680 --> 00:00:50.015
But an engineer at the municipality 
made things difficult for us.

00:00:50.215 --> 00:00:53.758
He wanted 5000 EGP to get the shop license.

00:00:53.758 --> 00:01:01.894
It's a bribe, basically. If we had to pay that money to get the license itself, fine. I'd pay.

00:01:01.894 --> 00:01:03.754
But this is just a bribe.

00:01:04.354 --> 00:01:05.706
- Nabi Daniel Street, Alexandria

00:01:05.706 --> 00:01:09.692
No one told us anything. 
The police showed up suddenly at 3am.

00:01:09.830 --> 00:01:14.381
They searched through everything, 
tore the place apart.

00:01:14.381 --> 00:01:17.324
Our shop has been there since 1974.

00:01:17.324 --> 00:01:19.014
They should give us a license to be here.

00:01:19.014 --> 00:01:22.375
My father has been here for 60 years. No one can come move us now. It's not right.

00:01:22.852 --> 00:01:25.141
- Residents of Imam Al-Ghazali St., Imbaba, Giza

00:01:25.141 --> 00:01:32.247
We're protesting in front of the governorate building because the sewage plant lines are falling apart.

00:01:32.293 --> 00:01:42.683
So now there is water saturating the sand under the houses, causing the houses to sink and collapse.

00:01:42.683 --> 00:01:46.413
We called the officials at the plant, they said they don't know anything about it.

00:01:46.413 --> 00:01:49.205
They refused to come and 
said they wouldn't do anything.

00:01:49.205 --> 00:01:52.081
We called the head of the municipality; 
it's as if he doesn't exist.

00:01:52.143 --> 00:01:57.140
The governor has known what's going on for a year now, since he became governor.

00:01:57.278 --> 00:01:59.990
He's known since the first houses on the street collapsed, and hasn't done a thing.

00:02:00.790 --> 00:02:02.815
- Haj Abu Ahmed, Kawm Ghurab, Old Cairo

00:02:02.969 --> 00:02:06.176
We're not just up to our knees in corruption, it's worse than that.

00:02:06.176 --> 00:02:09.732
Don't get me started on the municipalities. They're the most corrupt places in the world.

00:02:09.732 --> 00:02:13.112
Do you know the people on the municipality board here?

00:02:13.112 --> 00:02:17.616
Yes. Any member of parliament, if he wins, he puts two of his relatives on the board.

00:02:17.616 --> 00:02:18.417
They recommend them?

00:02:18.417 --> 00:02:20.913
Of course. The NDP.

00:02:20.913 --> 00:02:22.862
- Eng. Ikrami, Former Youth Member, Al-Waili Local Council.

00:02:22.862 --> 00:02:28.880
I was a member of the Al-Waili local council, in a subdivision called Sarayat.

00:02:28.880 --> 00:02:32.751
They forged an address for me. I was in an area I didn't know anything about.

00:02:32.751 --> 00:02:37.540
I didn't know anyone there. All I knew was the member of parliament.

00:02:37.540 --> 00:02:43.300
That was the first time I'd seen something like that, the first time I witnessed elections being forged.

00:02:43.300 --> 00:02:48.168
There would be someone standing next to you with a piece of paper, telling you which numbers to mark.

00:02:48.706 --> 00:02:50.452
Inside the council?

00:02:50.452 --> 00:02:54.017
Not just inside, on top of the box itself, 
holding the paper.

00:02:54.017 --> 00:02:57.379

As if it's totally normal. You put down the paper, hello, goodbye, and that's it.

00:02:57.518 --> 00:03:03.122
When the results came out, of course the people they wanted to win won.

00:03:03.153 --> 00:03:06.563
The 4--no, 5--who won were from the NDP.

00:03:06.655 --> 00:03:10.492
They were like, "well that won't work. Five from the NDP. There has to be one from the opposition."

00:03:10.566 --> 00:03:12.563
In the end they said, here, we made someone from the Wafd win.

00:03:13.148 --> 00:03:15.318
What should the role of the local councils be?

00:03:16.164 --> 00:03:18.050
- Dr. Khaled Abdel-Halim, Director, Local Development Watch, Ministry of Local Development

00:03:18.050 --> 00:03:21.508
Local councils are supposed to manage five things.

00:03:21.508 --> 00:03:23.975
(1) local transportation, roads, and sidewalks, 
(2) street lighting,

00:03:24.114 --> 00:03:30.688
(3) trash collection and sanitation services, (4) security, traffic, and firefighting,

00:03:31.288 --> 00:03:45.956
Item (5) is local unit support. This is for things related to the unit itself, for example administrative supplies, computers, or furnishings.

00:03:46.187 --> 00:03:55.654
They can also create social programs, for example, offering loans to female heads of households or other programs or campaigns.

00:03:55.654 --> 00:03:58.922
They have a budget for things like that.

00:03:58.922 --> 00:04:03.687
Those are the five items. Other than that, they can't allocate funding.

00:04:03.687 --> 00:04:10.752
How much of the government budget goes to the local councils?

00:04:10.752 --> 00:04:17.234
It used to be 8%. In recent years they started talking about decentralization and it went up to 10-15%.

00:04:17.295 --> 00:04:22.004
We're not trying to say that the ministry isn't important. It's very important.

00:04:22.004 --> 00:04:25.410
But the ministry has to be given the powers to do its job.

00:04:25.410 --> 00:04:29.063
It has to have the employees and be restructured so it can play this role.

00:04:29.063 --> 00:04:33.207
If you're going to shift to decentralization, you have to take from the powers of the service ministries.

00:04:33.207 --> 00:04:38.908
Ideally, what is done with the remaining 85% of the budget would be decided at the local level.

00:04:38.908 --> 00:04:46.406
Now you have entities which might help limit crises, or they might make them worse.

00:04:46.406 --> 00:04:49.002
Or maybe they don't do anything.

00:04:49.417 --> 00:04:51.582
Local rule is a fundamental part 
of the right to housing

00:04:51.582 --> 00:04:57.867
If one really wants to enter political life, the local councils play an important role.

00:04:58.482 --> 00:05:00.050
- Sheikh Jameel, Saint Catherine, Sinai

00:05:00.050 --> 00:05:04.137
It used to be that the municipalities just talked, and didn't do anything.

00:05:04.137 --> 00:05:09.987
But in the coming period--don't tell us the village is too far out, too far away.

00:05:09.987 --> 00:05:12.102
Don't tell us the people are too far from the main roads.

00:05:12.102 --> 00:05:15.157
No. They're citizens. They have the right to live in dignity.

00:05:15.157 --> 00:05:17.241
They have the right to road access.

00:05:17.241 --> 00:05:20.715
They have the right to have electricity 24 hours/day, like anyone else.

00:05:20.776 --> 00:05:22.549
- Ahmad Al-Aqra', Bir Um Sultan, Al-Basateen

00:05:22.549 --> 00:05:25.940
The local councils were supposed to be the ones overseeing things. It was the opposite.

00:05:25.940 --> 00:05:27.554
But that was before the revolution.

00:05:27.554 --> 00:05:37.588
We'd love to say that now after the revolution everything has changed. That there's oversight now.

00:05:38.916 --> 00:05:41.275
Participate - Watch - Claim your rights

00:05:41.706 --> 00:05:43.805
- Popular Committee for the Defense of the Revolution, Imbaba

00:05:43.805 --> 00:05:48.419
We want to send a message. We haven't blocked the roads or done anything wrong.

00:05:48.419 --> 00:05:52.591
We came to claim our rights. We're here because of the houses that collapsed on top of our heads.

00:05:52.591 --> 00:05:53.472
We'll give them a week.

00:05:53.472 --> 00:05:55.069
We'll give them a week to get started.

00:05:55.069 --> 00:05:59.139
Maybe it'll take a month, a year to complete. The important thing is they start, and continue, the work.

00:05:59.524 --> 00:06:02.077
Did you claim your rights?

00:06:02.077 --> 00:06:05.378
Local Rule and the Right to Housing, Part 2. Series on the Right to Housing Initiative