Ive been
here in Egypt for nearly two weeks now and Ive ridden all the way up to Cairo
(arrived today). And Ive seen some of the monuments of the earlier Egyptian
empires that spanned at least three thousand years… certainly longer than any
of the Western empires and on par I think with the Eastern empires of dynastic
China. It’s a long and illustrious history but Egypt’s eminence seems to have
pretty much come to an end as of about two thousand years ago…Yep, I think
Egypt is “taking a break” from empire and eminence! And as Ive been riding
North and visiting the monuments of Egypt’s past and seeing the country and
interacting with the people of today, Ive been thinking also about Egypt’s
present… and for the most part Ive been very unimpressed!
I have to
say Im very impressed with the monuments but very disappointed with most
aspects of the present day country and people… My initial impression is that
Egypt bears a very strong resemblance to Argentina… The country seems to be
particularly disorganized with people much preferring to sit around and talk
and smoke rather than do anything productive or useful… And worse than that,
when they do do something it seems that they only ever do it for them-selves…
If they buy a drink or food or cigarettes then they just throw the waste in the
street. You cant find a wall anywhere that is not facing the street front and
doesn’t reek of urine. People double park their cars anywhere any time
regardless of the traffic they block from flowing or the cars they block in. In
pretty much every place I stay the floors are dirty and the rooms un-cleaned
since the previous occupant left, and the maintenance of the buildings is
pretty much zero! Its as if no one gives a “rats ass” about anyone but
themselves and they blithely go about their lives actively making life harder
for their fellow Egyptians…
But of
course there are significant mitigating factors here too (just as in the case
of Argentina).
The first
point Id make is that (like Argentina), the people here are incredibly sociable
and their culture is thus quite different in its priorities compared to my own
culture… They really like to engage each other and it takes time and that seems
unnecessary or frustrating to someone from my culture when in fact it builds
social accord, and strengthens the country in social aspects. So there is a
strong case for arguing that it is a strength rather than a weakness.
The next
thing is of course the recent political upheavals… And I have to give the
people of Egypt my honest congratulations on managing to oust a dictator of
several decades… That is an incredible achievement and something all Egyptians
can feel very proud of… But the down side is that when there is a power-vacuum
in a countries politics it leads to quite a bit of turmoil and political
instability for a few years (and possibly many). And that’s where Egypt is at
the moment. And one of the major side-effects of that instability for Egypt is
that tourists stop visiting because of their understandable fears… And Egypt
has had a very big tourist industry for many hundreds of years, and so when all
of a sudden, many tens of thousands of Western tourists stop visiting, and stop
spending many millions of dollars….well, it really hits the economy very hard
and tens of thousands of Egyptians suddenly find themselves without jobs!! And
guess where Ive been spending most of my very brief time here… yep at tourist
destinations where the local economy has been hit hardest. So it is quite
understandable that the people Ive been interacting with have been showing
signs of “low motivation”!
And so
Ive been struggling to find a balance with Egypt much as I think Egypt is in
fact struggling to find a balance with its self… As Ive said Ive seen lots of
behaviors that suggest people “just don’t care” about anything, but in many
ways that’s a response to an entire field of business that has just evaporated
and left them without income and without hope… And then there are other people
from the same sector who are desperate and see me and the very few other
tourists as the only source of available income. These people become incredibly
intense in their efforts to “help” me in any way at all in order to get money
out of me… But when you are subject to the constant badgering by every second
person on the street, and they just refuse to hear the words “no thank you”,
Well Im sure you can see how this very quickly gets pretty much every remaining
tourist regretting their choice of holiday destination this year. J And then there are the ones who are angry and hate
the rich foreign tourists who begrudge spending every dollar even when they
have so much and we have so little etc. And then there are also a whole group
of people who, even though they are desperately short of money, have no jobs and
are seeing their whole way of life swept away, but they are still incredibly
hospitable and generous and refuse to take money from you for a cup of tea they
insist you drink with them… All in all, it’s a very challenging situation for
everyone involved!
And so,
as I say there are significant mitigating circumstances and I really do have
sympathy for their situation… But even given these significant factors Im
pretty sure that a lot of the “unpleasant and unproductive” behaviors I first
mentioned were well and truly entrenched long before the current political
situation arose… I really think that most Egyptians don’t care a jot about their
environment, and don’t care how much trouble they make for someone else if they
get what they want themselves… and I don’t have much sympathy for these
attitudes.
And so Im
left with both strong dislikes and strong sympathies. I find I really like some
aspects of their social psyche and really dislike others… Its an interesting
place all right!
