Egypt: Progress, Hope and Uncertainty (Part 1)

The recent revolution in Egypt came out of the blue for most of the world as most of us remained completely unaware of injustices that have plagued the country over the past century or so of “independence”.

Though it would be a lie to say that fiscal conditions were the sole instigator of violence, economic factors undoubtedly helped aggravate the sentiments cumulating to uprising. Perhaps the biggest problem has been President Hosni Mubarak’s effecting isolation of Egypt from the world despite its strategic location for trade alongside the Suez Canal and near the center of Eurasian trade markets. Instead, the government has left aside or failed to utilize about $17 billion in US aid, Suez Canal dues and tourism which has continued to flourish without any basic national infrastructure. In these ways and others, extra income flow has been stifled especially at a time when recession has severely crippled agriculture and the foundation of the economy in the region.

Furthermore, the odd sort of socialism employed in Egypt worsens the problem. Little has been done to combat rising food prices, which have caused nourishment to require about 40% of the average family’s income; the US in comparison only uses under 20%. Large public ownership and government review of investment projects have made obtaining funding for any entrepreneurial venture extremely difficult. To make matters worse, corruption occurs regularly, almost as an accepted part of life. All of these practices have gone unchecked for decades, with no end in sight. That is, until the so called “Days of Rage”.

I don’t want to go into the details of the revolution itself as much as I want to share my reaction to it and its definite significance. When I first heard of revolts in Egypt I automatically shrugged it off as yet another conflict in the Middle East, where support would soon crumble to the government. The only Interesting part was that the news first reached me via a YouTube video. But the next day as I picked up my iTouch and went to YouTube to catch up on the day’s featured and top viewed, sure enough, the screen was literally dominated by videos of protests. Pages and pages of them and as I watched them, I couldn’t help but question my earlier assumptions.