Al-Wafd opposition newspaper yesterday invited Palestinian writer Faisal Abu-Khadra to air his grievances over the power-struggle between the Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas on the one hand and the Islamist movement of Hamas on the other. The frustrated Palestinian appeared to be appalled that in their quest for seizing power in the Gaza Strip, “the Palestinian rivals have relegated the collective interests of the Palestinian people, who are enduring the unendurable”. “Abbas was dragged into such a scandalous power struggle when he took advice from unqualified and inefficient advisers to compel Hamas leaders to hand over Gaza to the Palestinian Authority and to apologise for the coup they launched [about three years ago],” the Palestinian writer said

. Hamas leaders were identified as poorly functioning politicians lacking a vision of the Palestinian reality with its crucial local, regional and international dimensions. “The breakaway Hamas is using a jarring tone of voice. Its leaders are confused whether to tuck their heads under the wing of Arab countries or seek help from the Ayatollahs in Iran,” added the Palestinian writer. Conspiracy against local drug firmsEgypt's Ministry of Health was accused of conspiring with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to bail out giant international drug companies, which received a stunning blow as a result of the global economic crisis. Needless to say, swine flu is at the centre of the alleged three-way plot discussed yesterday by Lamis Gaber in Al-Masry Al-Youm independent newspaper. The ministry's contradictory statements about the dimensions of the threat of A/H1N1 led Gaber to smell a rat. She related how “receiving the signal from the WHO, the Egyptian Ministry of Health rushed hysterically to warn the nation against swine flu. We were told that pigs should be culled; otherwise the virus would be modified, become uncontrollable and even more ferocious.” She asserted that the Ministry of Health had 'deceitfully' declared to the agitated nation that mass graves had been planned for the inevitable victims of the fatal disease.However, after pigs had been culled and huge quantities of masks and Tamiflu had been sold, the Ministry of Health decided that swine flu was a very weak and inactive virus, which could be safely tamed with aspirin, lemon juice and regular hand washing. Recycling garbage, creating jobsMeanwhile, Thanaa Hamed of Al-Gomhuria described recycling garbage as a job-creating industry, which could significantly help reduce unemployment in Egypt. She called upon the Government to pay more attention to plans previously drawn up to achieve this goal but not acted upon.“Recycling garbage, which litter streets everywhere in Cairo alone, could provide no less than 120,000 jobs.” The writer substantiated her suggestion by quoting a study carried out by the Institute of Land and Water, which estimated the amount of garbage dumped in the city's streets every morning at 15 tonnes.“The institute's study showed that recycling and sorting out one tonne of garbage provides eight jobs.” The media were urged to support Hamed's call to implement “such a national project and help young people have a different vision of the value of work, irrespective of its kind or technicalities”.Irresistible daydreams Fulfilled rights and duties in connection with citizenship, and a constitution, which fully guarantees the principle of equality among citizens, irrespective of their faith, colour or social status, were daydreams writer Wassim el-Sisi could not resist. Writing in Al-Masry Al-Youm yesterday, he envisaged a better status for the Egyptian women, in which their intellectual potential and education would be their sources of attraction more than their gender.Soliloquising, the writer continued: “I am dreaming of a day, in which the Egyptian women would be no more economically dependent on the husband.”The visionary also expected the Egyptian women to expel, through the ballot box, half of the male MPs and then occupy their seats in the Parliament. The writer's rosy dreams included wisely planned stimulating education, which could bring about creative minds. A kind of slaveryIn his daily column in Al-Gomhuria, eminent sheikh Abdullah el-Nagar, of Al-Azhar (the highest Muslim institution in Egypt), cautioned that a dirty, profitable business must have been behind the curious increase in private orphanages, springing up in Cairo and different provinces.Refusing to accept that the self-proclaimed philanthropists behind these charity projects were pious faithful, the writer regretted that the human rights of vulnerable inmates in these places were abused. Comparing these places to institutions for slavery, the Muslim cleric said: “People running private orphanages are profitably exploiting the miserable situation of orphans under their authority. Poor and weak children kept in these places are also victims of sexual abuse.” Even more appalling allegations were made, when the writer refused to rule out suspicions that orphans could be used for peddling in human spare parts. According to him, gangs involved in organ transplants in society have planned that private orphanages should act as storehouses replete with human spare parts all the time. “The Egyptian authorities concerned should tighten up their control on these places to protect weak children from crimes planned by cruel and callous owners of private orphanages,” el-Nagar appealed. Extremism andincompetence Meanwhile, the tragic death of Egyptian-born German Marwa el-Sherbini, 32, at the hands of a German extremist in a Dresden courtroom led veteran journalist Mohamed Fouda of Al-Messa evening newspaper to warn that anti-Islamic extremism in the West has taken very serious dimensions. He described the performance of the German police as “outrageous” and inquired: “Why did the German police in the courtroom refuse to intervene and protect the Egyptian family when the killer began to stab the mother to her death and seriously wounded her husband?” He was also enraged that when the German police had decided to react, too late nonetheless, they shot the wrong person. “It is ridiculous that the German police, who are supposed to be highly-trained and efficient, misaimed their guns and shot the husband.”Egypt missing out Abdullah Abdel-Salam of Al-Ahram semi-official daily was upset yesterday that Egypt was missing out in global endeavours to have a share in Iraqi trade and oil propositions. “Two days after the withdrawal of the US troops from Iraqi cities, the French premier, leading a high-level team representing big French companies, landed in Iraq to sign trade and oil exploration agreements,” he said. “British and Chinese companies also outbid the Egyptians and managed to sign trade and oil agreements with the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.” The Egyptian Foreign Minister was rebuked for limiting his task to “diplomatic talks and cliched suggestions about Iraqi unity and the common destiny” shared by Iraq and Egypt. “Unlike their foreign counterparts, the Egyptian foreign diplomats did not regard it more appropriate and astute to help spur trade and economic relations with the Iraqi people,” the writer concluded.