A day in the life of a human being is 24 hours long, but
when it comes to the life of a nation, a day can be several months long. And
so, there is a lesson to be learned about the people of Egypt who flooded the
streets and the squares of the nation one day last year to acclaim their now
President-elect El-Sisi as if to consummate a love affair with him … but then
stayed home in droves the next day which happened to be the day of suffrage
when they were supposed to confirm their marriage vows to him. How to explain
this apparent incongruity?
Well, you might think it was a case of cold feet gripping
the nation but you would be wrong because there is something more profound than
that. It is that the people of Egypt
have a powerful sense of their long history. They have seen modernity come and
go for 7000 years which is more than 2.5 million days long. Of course, they do
not shun what is viewed as being modern these days, but they know this too
shall soon become “old stuff,” and replaced by something else on the altar of
what passes for latest cry. And so it is with the silly act of having to stand
in line for hours on a hot day to cast a vote for someone they voted for by
acclamation only yesterday.
They had their love affair, and what they want to see now is
exciting times ahead. They know what they can do as a nation when they put
their mind to it because, of the seven to ten thousand years of human
civilization, they sat on top of the heap, on and off, for three quarters of
that time. They can do it again they believe, and in fact, have developed a
desire to get back to the top after an absence of three centuries. They want
Sisi to lead them there without being preoccupied with projecting the image of
an Egypt
that says to the world: look here, we are modernizing along Western and
Democratic lines. The people of Egypt
want to do things the way they used to do them, which is to create their own
modernity and attract the world to it. That's what it means to be on top.
They know now they have an economy that can withstand
multiple shocks inflicted simultaneously, and they know they have natural
resources buried underground that will give them self-sufficiency for several
generations to come. Added to the human capital which they represent, the
economy that brought them to this point is poised to take them to new frontiers
guided by the leadership qualities they see in Sisi. This is why they want him
to devote the minimum attention to the rest of the world, and concentrate his energies
on finding ways to unlock the potential of his own people – they, who are the
citizens of Egypt .
Like most people in the world, ordinary Egyptians do not
spend much time looking at the latest figures which are supposed to represent
the health of the economy. The people make that determination themselves from
what they see around them, and they act accordingly. What they have been doing
lately is live it up as if they sensed that the good times are about to roll
again. They are buying homes as well as home appliances and home entertainment
systems like never before. And they are using electricity at a rate that
increases by 10 percent a year – twice what the planners had expected.
This augurs well for the potential investors who might have
been eying the country already because of its large population, of its
disciplined human capital and its large pool of a well trained industrial labor
force. Strategically placed at the meeting point of the three continents slated
to form the new theater of economic activity, Egypt has once again become the
natural hub of every commerce having an international character.
For that reason, large international companies – especially
those based in Europe and North America where economic activities are expected
to slow down in relative terms – are looking to Egypt as the place where they
will go to establish themselves, and have a chance at standing up to the
current Asian competitors, as well as those still developing and promising to
become the giants of tomorrow.
And when these companies go to Egypt , they find that a number of
schools, and at least one university from back home are already there teaching
and graduating Egyptians in whatever language they came with. These would be
young men and women who know the cultures they study as well as they do their
own, and do the surrounding Arab and other cultures. When hired by a foreign
company, they fit into the culture like hand in glove, and start running the
moment that they hit the ground.