Woah. I'm the worst blogger ever.
It's been how long?
Well, I'm not going to make any more empty promises. But since posting photos seems to be the greatest problem, I'm just going to link my flickr account, and you can browse at your own convenience.
Since we've missed so much, I'm just going to talk about Egypt.
Egypt is completely different from the Western world. Sure, they have a lot of the classic American hallmarks- malls, Hollywood movies, American music, McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King and the like. But that doesn't change anything. For various reasons, maintained buildings are the gross exception, and 50% of the people have no education. Tourists can't walk anywhere without being constantly harassed by swarms of people trying to hock their wares for "just 5 pound just 5 pound just 5 pound no harass 5 pound fine alabaster 5 five pound nice scarf welcome to egypt 5 pound." Many of the things we take for granted simply don't exist in many areas. The toilets on the trains, for example, consistently have between 1 and 4 cm of urine on the floor- and rest assured- you don't want to sit on that seat- You don't even want to touch it with a ten foot pole.
Egypt is also hot. Like 37 degrees in the shade hot. And it's not even summer yet. The kind of poverty that exists in Egypt is on a scale unimagined by those of us from Western countries. Like many poorer nations, the rich are relatively numerous, and very rich, and the poor are even more numerous, and much poorer, and the middle class hardly exists- and where it does, they are trapped between the two camps of a constant class war. The rich blame the poor for their own poverty, and the poor have (despite what the rich say) no easy means to escape from the cycle of poverty.
As part of the result of the economic situation (and, as many have postulated, a result of the middle eastern culture on the whole), greed is the catchword of any exchange in Egypt. In Egypt, you always count your change as soon as it has been handed to you, because they WILL cheat you. In Egypt, as a tourist especially, but not only, many people view you as little more than a walking dollar sign. They prey on the tourist's ignorance of just how little money an Egyptian needs to live, hoping that the tourists will foolishly fork over a tip or price that would be acceptable in the U.S. or Europe.
I hate to gripe, but such is Egypt.
The hot weather, truth be told, was a nice break from Germany, and as much as many of the most famous monuments were really not as impressive as you might think, the history of Egypt is absolutely spectacular. The Egyptian museum was a showcase of 5000 years of history.
5000 years of history- another point on modern Egypt. I have come to the conclusion that a nation that defines itself in terms of its past has no future. The previous regimes in Egypt (a hardline socialist/communist government followed by a nationalist regime) have defined Egypt in terms of the history of a people that no longer exist, in a time that has left little more than stone monuments. The problem with this attitude is that it leads to the attitude that the nation has already been proven, and has no need to continue to do so- which leads to hopeless stagnation- and stagnation eventually leads to decline. Egypt did not have the windfall of oil that so many other Arab nations did, which in many ways could make whatever Egypt makes of itself more lasting and meaningful, but on the way there, Egypt will have more difficulties. Egypt is suffering many of the growing pains that other nations such as China, Argentina and India have already begun to endure. Cairo's population is exploding on a completely unsustainable scale, and Cairo traffic is the stuff of nightmares. After less than 2 hours in Egypt, Naoko and I actually got into an accident! No one was hurt, but it was an object lesson. In most areas of Cairo, there are no traffic signs, and where they do exist, they are completely ignored. Many areas have dirt roads or asphalt so old that an uncautious driver would almost certainly scrape bottom. Many cars are so old that the clouds of soot they leave behind them are completely opaque for metres. A three lane road often has as many as 5 lanes of cars. Traffic violations observed by local footsoldiers can be overlooked for as little as 2 or 3 Egyptian pounds (0,27€ - 0,41€; $0.39 - $0.58 CAN; 40¥ - 59¥)
And the footsoldiers! There are police EVERYWHERE. And the army is even more omnipresent. You can scarcely watch television in your apartment without a footsoldier observing you. The most impressive and beautiful modern buildings excepting mosques are in fact the MINISTRY FOR DEFENCE and the MINISTRY FOR POLICE and the ever notorious EGYPT TOURISM AUTHORITY.
Well, I'm not going to make any more empty promises. But since posting photos seems to be the greatest problem, I'm just going to link my flickr account, and you can browse at your own convenience.
Since we've missed so much, I'm just going to talk about Egypt.
Egypt is completely different from the Western world. Sure, they have a lot of the classic American hallmarks- malls, Hollywood movies, American music, McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King and the like. But that doesn't change anything. For various reasons, maintained buildings are the gross exception, and 50% of the people have no education. Tourists can't walk anywhere without being constantly harassed by swarms of people trying to hock their wares for "just 5 pound just 5 pound just 5 pound no harass 5 pound fine alabaster 5 five pound nice scarf welcome to egypt 5 pound." Many of the things we take for granted simply don't exist in many areas. The toilets on the trains, for example, consistently have between 1 and 4 cm of urine on the floor- and rest assured- you don't want to sit on that seat- You don't even want to touch it with a ten foot pole.
Egypt is also hot. Like 37 degrees in the shade hot. And it's not even summer yet. The kind of poverty that exists in Egypt is on a scale unimagined by those of us from Western countries. Like many poorer nations, the rich are relatively numerous, and very rich, and the poor are even more numerous, and much poorer, and the middle class hardly exists- and where it does, they are trapped between the two camps of a constant class war. The rich blame the poor for their own poverty, and the poor have (despite what the rich say) no easy means to escape from the cycle of poverty.
As part of the result of the economic situation (and, as many have postulated, a result of the middle eastern culture on the whole), greed is the catchword of any exchange in Egypt. In Egypt, you always count your change as soon as it has been handed to you, because they WILL cheat you. In Egypt, as a tourist especially, but not only, many people view you as little more than a walking dollar sign. They prey on the tourist's ignorance of just how little money an Egyptian needs to live, hoping that the tourists will foolishly fork over a tip or price that would be acceptable in the U.S. or Europe.
I hate to gripe, but such is Egypt.
The hot weather, truth be told, was a nice break from Germany, and as much as many of the most famous monuments were really not as impressive as you might think, the history of Egypt is absolutely spectacular. The Egyptian museum was a showcase of 5000 years of history.
5000 years of history- another point on modern Egypt. I have come to the conclusion that a nation that defines itself in terms of its past has no future. The previous regimes in Egypt (a hardline socialist/communist government followed by a nationalist regime) have defined Egypt in terms of the history of a people that no longer exist, in a time that has left little more than stone monuments. The problem with this attitude is that it leads to the attitude that the nation has already been proven, and has no need to continue to do so- which leads to hopeless stagnation- and stagnation eventually leads to decline. Egypt did not have the windfall of oil that so many other Arab nations did, which in many ways could make whatever Egypt makes of itself more lasting and meaningful, but on the way there, Egypt will have more difficulties. Egypt is suffering many of the growing pains that other nations such as China, Argentina and India have already begun to endure. Cairo's population is exploding on a completely unsustainable scale, and Cairo traffic is the stuff of nightmares. After less than 2 hours in Egypt, Naoko and I actually got into an accident! No one was hurt, but it was an object lesson. In most areas of Cairo, there are no traffic signs, and where they do exist, they are completely ignored. Many areas have dirt roads or asphalt so old that an uncautious driver would almost certainly scrape bottom. Many cars are so old that the clouds of soot they leave behind them are completely opaque for metres. A three lane road often has as many as 5 lanes of cars. Traffic violations observed by local footsoldiers can be overlooked for as little as 2 or 3 Egyptian pounds (0,27€ - 0,41€; $0.39 - $0.58 CAN; 40¥ - 59¥)
And the footsoldiers! There are police EVERYWHERE. And the army is even more omnipresent. You can scarcely watch television in your apartment without a footsoldier observing you. The most impressive and beautiful modern buildings excepting mosques are in fact the MINISTRY FOR DEFENCE and the MINISTRY FOR POLICE and the ever notorious EGYPT TOURISM AUTHORITY.
posted by Unknown at 21:51
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