Egyptian food cart vendors say OWS is nothing like Egypt’s “Arab Spring” uprising…. Annoyed they are being driven out of business by OWS freeloaders, begging for free doughnuts.
Even as Occupy Wall Street protesters are decrying the grip of big business on America, they are causing angst for some small business that are well within the 99 percent: The New York food carts and tourist stands that surround Zuccotti Park. And while the occupation has been compared to the Arab Spring and Tahrir Square, the mostly Egyptian kebab cookers and breakfast sellers who are losing their livelihoods aren’t too sure.
Zizi Elnagouri, a voluble native of Alexandria, Egypt, has spent five years selling pastries on the corner of Cedar and Broadway. She whirled her hands as she spoke, flapping her apron to make a point. “From the beginning of this, we lost all our business,” she lamented. Elnagouri took matters into her own hands, venturing out into the square to tell the occupiers “we are out of business.” Some were glad and others sympathetic. But Zizi was shocked. “I couldn’t believe they were American. Do you see how they look? What they are wearing? I don’t believe. This must be the Third World!” Zizi is accustomed to well-fed New Yorkers in suits, not people begging for free doughnuts. “Sometimes they buy coffee … it depends on who gives them money. I feel sad for them. It’s hard for Americans to start the day without coffee.” But although she said the destitution in the square reminded her of the Third World, the occupation didn’t strike her as another Tahrir. “We were fighting for a big, big thing: for life, to eat, against a giant snake that would kill us.” Unsurprisingly, she employs a smart breakfast metaphor: “Here, they’re not fighting to eat, say, regular bread, but … special bagels or something.”
Magdy, who runs a halal cart and grins when he gets nervous, asked that his last name be kept anonymous; he was afraid for his operating license. Magdy moved from Cairo two years ago and, in his opinion, “all this is not much like our revolution.” Magdy had a question for me. “Are these people for real? Do you know?” I asked him what he thought. “I don’t know. I have no idea what these people want. But they aren’t buying.” Business has “not been good” since the occupation came to town. As we spoke, an occupier came up and started yelling slogans outside. He rolled his eyes and turned away.
Shame on you, Mata!
Dealing in facts.
How dare you?
You’ve just got to heart these noble demonstrators. They are so self-sacrificial! They are acting for the 99%, they tell us. What they want is as yet undetermined. But they want it now.
And the plight of the food vendors is not at issue. The food vendors have to be sacrificed for the greater good. Isn’t that what we are always told? The Greater Good requires it. And the Greater Good requires that these noble unwashed demonstrators be fed, at public expense, until they get what they want, and then forever after.
Start cutting off their welfare checks and see how long the demonstrations last.
Won’t take more than a day for everybody to go home.
LOL, mathman…. just wait until it gets cold, and then have to be sheltered at the public’s expense… adding to the law enforcement overtime… as well.
Yeah… doing a lot of good, they are.