Egyptian women typically work at home or in agriculture. Photo: DruhScoff (flickr)

An increase in the number of working women in Cairo is giving rise to a new niche within the local security industry: female bodyguards, or "lady guards."

In this part of the world, the mixing of single men and women is highly discouraged. So, according to the Christian Science Monitor, Egypt's leading security company has created a new division of "lady guards" to help these wealthy women feel more comfortable while being guarded.

The Falcon Group, as the Egypt-based security company is known, is pioneering a new model of protection that both signals and supports the rising status of women here. Falcon’s female-guard unit, the first of its kind for women clients, is creating an empowering new career for its employees while capitalizing on the demands of an increasingly conservative society.

These newly trained lady guards say they feel empowered by their work. Amine, a twenty year old "lady guard", tells the Jakarta Globe that "her work has given her a sense of power and status in a country where women often fall victim to male discrimination or harassment."

Photo: AdamCohn (flickr)

Cairo's trash-filled neighborhoods are the proud home of nearly 70,000 Coptic Christian zabaleen people and the majority of Egypt's pig population.

For decades, the zabaleen have earned a living off of collecting trash in Cairo's slums. In an average day, the zabaleen collect almost 6,000 tons of trash. Food scraps make up more than half of the trash and are fed to the pigs. Most of what remains is then recycled by zabaleen men.

Even though there are no reported cases of swine flu in Egypt — and you can't catch the virus from contact with pigs — the government has decided to slaughter all of Egypt's pigs as a preventative measure. Some think there there may be ulterior motives behind the mass slaughter as well. The New York Times reports that the government claims that getting rid of the pigs would force the zabaleen to clean up their neighborhoods.

The Egyptian government has promised to humanly butcher the swine according to Islamic law and freeze the meat. It is uncertain whether or not this meat will be consumed by Egypt's non-Muslim population. In compensation they will pay about $180 per pig.

Pigs importance goes beyond money for the zabaleen community. Along with the income their meat brings in they also play an important role as a cleaning crew of sorts, and the zabaleen feel targeted by the government. The Coptic Christian zabaleen are a minority in Egypt — 90 percent of the population is Muslim. Since it is against Islamic law to eat pigs, the zabaleen question whether or not the mass-slaughter in the name of swine flu is merely a disguise for religious motives.

More pigs are being slaughtered by the day and the zabaleen continue to plead with the government to not destroy their livelihoods. Ayman Saed told the BBC that when the government officers took his pigs it felt "as if they were killing me."

In a last ditch resort to save their pigs and their livelihoods, The New York Times reports that the zabaleen are now trying to get the government to let them keep their pigs on farms outside of they city. The zabaleen could cart out the organic waste to the farm and keep making a living off of collecting trash. So far, the government hasn't come around.

A Palestinian man looks out towards destroyed buildings following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City. Photo: Amir Farshad Ebrahimi (flickr)

A stated aim of Israel's military strikes in Gaza was to destroy underground tunnels between Egypt and Gaza because they're used by Hamas to smuggle in weapons.

But Gazans argue that there are two kinds of tunnels running from Gaza to Egypt: militant and civilian. Hamas-controlled tunnels are "supposedly steel-ribbed and large enough for a car to pass through," according to Time. And unlike civilians, who dig in plain sight of the Egyptian border security and Israeli surveillance aircraft, Hamas members are more secretive and obscure about the location of their tunnels.

Gaza's civilians claim their tunnels are necessary. Israel essentially sealed Gaza's borders to everything but humanitarian aid after Hamas took control of Gaza in June 2007, making the tunnels the only means for transporting everything from medicine, cement, chocolate bars, and even lion cubs for the zoo, according to Time.

"It's a lie to say that we use these tunnels to only bring in weapons. We're bringing in the ordinary stuff that keeps Gaza alive. If the Israelis opened the border crossings, we wouldn't have to be doing this," a Gazan resident tells Time.

According to the New York Times, the tunnels are also a primary source of income for some 25,000 young men. Tunnel diggers can earn $100 for every meter they dig — making the tunnels one of the biggest sources of employment in the territory. And they were back to digging as soon as the truce was signed.

"If Israel keeps the borders sealed off, we'll keep digging and only Allah can stop us. Let the Israelis drop their bombs. Without the tunnels we can't survive anyway," says Aymad, a tunnel digger. "And if a bomb catches me underground, well, they won't have to dig my grave."

Under the proposed plan, these men will be eligible for stock. Photo: Richard Messenger (flickr)

Poor people are not your stereotypical stockholders. But Egypt’s ruling party has proposed a plan to distribute stocks of publicly owned companies to all Egyptians.

Anyone over the age of 21 will receive coupons they can exchange for shares. Rich and poor alike would be invested in the stock market.

There are doubts as to whether distributing stocks to all will change who profits in the end. Previous privatization efforts have been "marred by claims of corruption and nepotism favoring the government's well-heeled backers," reports The Associated Press.

Gamal Wafa, an engineer at a factory that was privatized three years ago, was doubtful about the plan, voicing common concerns that the country was being sold off to foreign investors. ‘Everything will fall in the hands of the rich, (Gulf) Arabs or foreigners, and the rest of the nation will only serve as doormen.’

About 80,000 taxis roam the streets of Cairo. Photo: P!ndaro (Flickr)

In an attempt to clean up the streets of Cairo, new traffic laws have been put into effect earlier this year.

Egypt will no longer renew licenses of taxis older than 20 years, which, according to Reuters, "may be the majority on the clogged, polluted streets of Cairo."

Drivers of antiquated vehicles have three years to replace their vehicles.

Older model taxis are blamed for Cairo's crash-inducing summer smog and traffic congestion (because they break down so often). For a country where one out of five people live on less than $1 a day, some say such drastic changes are unrealistic.

“I don’t understand how they expect us to live,” notes Mahmoud, a Cairo-based taxi driver. “It's not like we make a ton of money to go out and buy a newer car.” Ahmed, also a cab driver, agrees: "This is oppression," he says pounding the wheel of his 1972 Fiat 124. "They will slaughter us! How will I feed my kids?"

Egypt's Minister of Finance, Youssef Boutros Ghali, agrees: "Developing greener technology in all countries is costly, we don't have the money or the resources to spend on improving the environment. We have more pressing problems."

But other Egyptians are trying to persuade their fellow citizens that stringent environmental policies are worth the price. "From a financial point of view, the cost to improve the environment is a direct cost, but the benefits are indirect," says Samir Mowafi, general manager of Egypt's Regional Center for Environment Protection. "People don't consider the environment in their future because the benefits are intangible in the long-term."

Many Egyptians are less optimistic that the rule of law will govern on the streets of Cairo:

"It won't work for sure," says Adil Abdel Rahman, 48, a driver of a Soviet-era Lada. The police, he said, would likely target only the poor for fines, allowing the rich to dodge responsibility."Everyone plays with the law here," he said.

Indeed, as The Huffington Post's Brian Pellot observes, "going green here is typically pursued if and only if such developments produce a different shade of green: financial incentives."

Children working in the Stung Meanchey Dump in Cambodia. Photo: EB78 (flickr)

Have you ever wondered what happens to the garbage after you leave it on the curb?

In developing countries, trash from the cities is commonly picked through by the poor and unwanted members of society. These trash pickers go by many names: the Zabaleen in Egypt, pepenadores in Mexico, and ragpickers in India.

These people rely on trash for their livelihoods. They spend hours sorting through these huge piles of rancid waste by hand. For them, almost everything is reusable. Organic materials are used to feed their livestock; recyclable materials are washed and resold. Indian ragpickers make only 100-150 rupees ($2.50-$3.75) for eight hours of sifting.

These overlooked members of society perform an important service for the rest of the population. In Delhi, ragpickers "represent almost 1% of Delhi's total population and handle about 20% of the city's enormous daily waste," according to Paul Colombini, who created a website on which Delhi recyclers can tell their own stories. It is estimated that these ragpickers save the city 600,000 rupees a day in trash disposal costs.

Though this work is dirty and smelly, they take pride knowing the invaluable service they perform.

We don't like attention. Rubbish is never attractive and we're quite happy carrying on quietly ... but our work supports a whole industry that's virtually invisible to most people.