Egypt – What Happened? A Rant

As travelers from North America, we’re well aware that our standards are different.  Not better, just different.  Ok, maybe sometimes better, but we try hard to keep an open mind.  It’s not easy and often we have to remind each other to only observe and not to judge.  As a change of pace, for this post, we’re breaking our rules (again) and going to sit in our easy chair and armchair quarterback the best we know how.   And, we’re breaking the 11th commandment again as well by comparing.  This time the Egyptians are on the hot seat... 

In the 5000 years since the early Egyptians rose to greatness, the once impressive, innovative society seems to have lost it’s way and is now far from being great. Modern Egypt as compared to Ancient Egypt - What the heck happened?

From our previous post, you know that we had a fabulous time in Egypt. We loved everything ancient and even though it was temporarily off limits, the waters of the Red Sea.  We’re happy that we went.  This post is about the things that we found to be not so glowing. Frankly some of present day Egypt left us speechless.  Be warned; we are on the proverbial soap box for this one….

It’s hard not be wowed by the ancient Egyptians. For the era, they were a very advanced society. Their architectural inventions, their artwork, the way they engineered the sandy barren land to produce food, their creativity in worshipping their gods and goddesses, their development of hieroglyphics for telling stories and communicating…. A civilization to behold.

  

 

What happened? In our opinion, Egypt could be so much more. With it’s natural resources, control of the Suez canal, “free” elections, and tourist industry; it could set the bar high for the rest of Middle East and, for that matter, the World just as they did way way back when. Centuries ago, they established their culture with such gusto but it seems they aren’t able to keep any kind of pace with progress. In fact, current Egypt is lagging, by a long shot.

The architecture is boring, dumpy, ugly; functional at best. The glorious temples and mammoth tombs have been mostly surpassed with boxy, mundane, hurry-up construction. We found one shining exception, the Alexandria Library.  The library is a glimmer of the ancient greatness with a contemporary twist. It is a unique structure and has a sense of the pride that we think Egypt could have once again. It was designed to look like the rising sun and to harness the sunlight by filtering it just the right amount to light the interior. We hope that Alexandria and the rest of Egypt uses it’s symbolism to emerge to glory once again.

Their lack of concern for the environment is condemnable. Oil is cheap and abundant so there is no concern over how many cars are on the road or for controlling emissions and pollution standards. The air around Cairo is disgusting. It’s like Los Angeles in the early 70s. The technology exists to have clean skies. Why aren’t they using it?

 

And the litter…..don’t get us started. It’s really awful; some of the worst we’ve seen in the world. How could they dump their trash in the Nile? Don’t they realize that the world reveres their river? Or that it feeds them? That it is their light (literally and figuratively)?  Maybe the Egyptians of the 3000s BC were litterbugs too. In those days people’s waste was more like compost.  These are the days of plastic and toxins and the present day Egyptians haven’t changed their disposal methods. Way too many people still dump their rubbish (plastic and petroleum based products) in the river, on the side of the road, down a ravine.  And nobody seems to mind.
As a suggestion; why not pay the unemployed a fair amount for every kilo of liter they pick up. The streets and river would be clean and they’d have some spending money.  

And it’s a pathetic shame the way they treat their work animals. What happened to the reverence they paid to them once upon a time?  It’s hard for us to look at the camels, horses and mules that are beaten and underfed. Please, if you go to Egypt and pay for any service that involves these beasts of burden, pick ones that are treated with respect. If you see someone beating their horse, take a carriage ride with someone that doesn’t use a whip. If you see ribs and hip bones, choose another animal and, if possible, tell the abuser why you’re not selecting them. We don’t understand why this problem is so rampant when the animals put food on their table and clothes on their backs.   Fortunately, there are good samaritans that try to educate people on how to treat animals.  But we have to ask, why does a society, especially one that had such an illustrious beginning have to be taught how to treat helpless creatures?  We were so relieved when we met one veteranian that provides free healthcare to any donkey or horse that is in need.  Thank goodness, some people take advantage of his services.  

 

Has corruption at all levels always been the prevailing cultural norm? Were the pharaohs and nobles on the take the same as today’s leaders? Did working class Egyptians from long ago expect handouts like they do today? We learned that the pay is so dismal that most of people working at the tourist sites expect a few coins for doing nothing but pointing the way to an obvious site. Even the ones with automatic weapons do it! It’s called Baksheesh. Everyone seems to have their hand out.

Through our conversations with our guides and other locals and by listening to the news, it’s well known that the highest government officials are on the take. So, we’re sure that it’s a systemic problem.  The leaders are teaching the rest of Egyptian society how to behave.  We’re guessing that this pervasive corruption is the root of many of Egypt’s issues. If the high ranking officials didn’t keep so much for themselves there would be more then enough budget to address our complaints.

Most local Egyptians don’t blink an eye at this stuff so this is definitely just a soap box moment for us.  From our interactions with local people we learned that the corruption worries them, the environment and pollution don’t bother them, the animal cruelty is just the way it is and, in general, most people are too poor to think about architecture and design.      

We’re stepping off the soap box now.  We’re retiring from being quarterbacks.  Thanks for this indulgence.  Although some of what we’ve seen isn’t pretty it is all so interesting.  Even with all of our moaning and groaning we are so glad we included an ancient Egyptian adventure on our itinerary.