THE NEW YORK TIMES – OPINIONATOR: CAIRO — The former president of Egypt was not the statue-building kind, or else we’d have already seen a few Baghdad-like images of marble icons being brought down by jubilant masses after his abdication on February 11. (Come to think of it, I wish we had a few statues to bring down.) But after three decades of rule, and with a particularly auspicious name — Mubarak means “blessed” — the number of buildings, roads and projects named after him is impressive; and as Egyptian society is endeavoring to repair the damage of his corrupt regime, it’s a different task altogether cleaning up the expressions of the blessed one’s megalomania.
For instance, the subway station underneath Ramses Square, Cairo’s most important transportation hub and home to the capital’s train station, is actually — and confusingly — named after the ex-president. There’s the Mubarak “axis” (a highway) and the Mubarak Bridge. There’s at least one Mubarak street in every city in Egypt. There’s a Mubarak Educational City in the suburb city of the 6th of October, and a Mubarak City for Science and Technology in the Mediterranean city of Burg El Arab, whose stadium is also called the Mubarak Stadium. And according to the Ministry of Education, there are 388 “Hosni Mubarak” schools, 160 named after his wife Suzanne — and one named after his son (and former president-to-be) Gamal Mubarak. >>> Mohamed El Dahshan | Tuesday, March 01, 2011
