It’s the economy
Bloodshed and revolts have filled Egypt’s streets since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. But the root of Egypt’s hardships is economic. A majority of Egypt’s population lives in poverty with high unemployment and incessant corruption.
The Middle East Institute conference on Egypt last Friday included a panel, moderated by Woodrow Wilson Center and U. S. Institute of Peace Joint Scholar Robin Wright, focused on meeting the needs of the Egyptian people. The discussion featured Hossam Bahgat from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, Mirette Mabrouk from the Atlantic Council, Jawad Nabulsi from the Nebny Foundation, and Diane Singerman from American University.
Bahgat said progress can only be made with structural political reform, rather than a merry go round of regime changes. This merry go round began with the ouster of President Mubarak in 2011. After Mubarak’s fall, the mililtary took charge. Then the Muslim Brotherhood won elections, which brought a form of Islamic democracy, nonetheless theocratic. A year later, frustrated with Morsi and the Brotherhood, another popular movement swept them from power, with the Army playing a crucial role. But there is a clear lack of accountability and reform in the Egyptian government.
Nabulsi said that helping the average Egyptian gain economic stature is the way to win the Arab Street and ultimately the region’s hearts and minds. A participant in the first Egyptian revolution, he and a group of fellow revolutionaries started the Nebny Foundation, which works to improve the lives of Egyptians following the uprising by promoting, educating, enabling and empowering youth to actively participate in shaping Egypt’s economy. While the political parties might be working towards building a new government, none of them have the answer to how they are going to change the lives of the everyday Egyptian. By living in Manshiyat Nasser, one of Cairo’s biggest slum neighborhoods, for three days every week, Nabulsi has developed a keen understanding of what it would take to help ordinary Egyptians and their families.
Nabulsi also described two aspects of life in Egypt that worsen the nation’s economic struggles—the war of interests and the war of politics. The war of interests involves people whose financial welfare lies in keeping the current government structure. These people are content with widespread corruption and poverty. The corruption involves such acts as teachers filing phony police reports on people who undermine them by building schools that provide cheaper education. The political war, on the other hand, is a conflict of branding. In Egypt, many people are written off because they do not have the “right” political values and affiliations. Many businessmen and government officials refuse to work with Nabulsi because of his political ideals.
The Egyptian peoples’ anger with the current situation is clear, with many Egyptians in the audience expressing dismay at the state of their homeland. Mabrouk said that the Egyptians will only become angrier in the future, with much hardship ahead. With 25 percent poverty in urban Egypt and a mind-boggling 70 percent poverty in the rural areas, the country has a lot of hard work in its future. But first, many participants said, there must be political stability before the economy can be improved. Singerman said the path towards political stability starts with democratization, reform and elimination of the widespread corruption in local governments. Until this corruption is quashed and the huge gap between the lower class and the upper class is bridged, Egypt will remain in its current state of despair and volatility
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The economy, exacerbated by climate change – http://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2013/05/spring-thaw-role-climate-change-natural-resource-scarcity-play-arab-spring/#.UjbrJH_fKSo.
Waiting for corruption to be dealt with in any society sounds like just an excuse to do nothing. It would be interesting to hear what Mr. Nabulsi suggested as measures that might help the ordinary Egyptian. With too many people, too little land and not enough water (even before the countries to the south build their dams) to make feeding the country possible, it will take some real creativity to put the country on its feet. But discouragement is a luxury for foreigners.
Meanwhile, back in the Balkans, another former KLA leader has been found innocent (for the third time, in his case) of committing war crimes during Kosovo’s war for independence. He and his former associates were being re-tried after the only witness against them had committed suicide while in witness protection in Europe, causing the original case to be thrown out. The charges were based almost entirely on a “diary” the witness was supposed to present, but it turned out that, as the court found today after the retrial, “much of Zogaj’s diary had been “fabricated”, parts had been written by someone else and that his testimony was “contradicted by other evidence.”
The most interesting part of all this is who put together this amateurish artifact. The handwriting experts consulted should have been embarrassed to take their fee. (One of the newspapers provided some sample pages a few months back.) Why the prosecutor bothered to bring a case based on quite obviously manufactured evidence is another question that needs asking, but probably won’t be.
Thanks for this concise and positive report from the panel for those of us unable to attend in person. The question that occurs to me is – will the state *allow* for the positive reforms envisioned by individuals such as Nabulsi / groups such as the Nebny Foundation?