Egypt, the Middle East, and Elsewhere: EGYPT, a Happy Nation It Is Not

Dear friends,

Egypt defines me. People who shaped who I am as a person are Egyptians. The environment that influenced my beliefs, my feelings and sentiments is that of Egypt. I owe an enormous, impossible-to-measure debt of gratitude to Egypt, then, when I lived in Egypt and now, as an Egyptian-American.

It is therefore not a surprise nor a major revelation that I am constantly thinking of Egypt, what it would take for Egypt to be a happy nation, what would have a little Egyptian boy, like I once was, or a little Egyptian girl, like my mother once was, grow up in a happy nation, become a grown up man or woman in a happy nation and grow old, retire and look back fondly to having led a happy life in Egypt.

But then I found myself asking what is stopping Egypt from being a happy nation, why Egyptians are not happy, even the most successful of Egyptians, and one can define success any way she or he likes. It is unmistakable in my opinion that Egyptians, wherever they are, are not a happy bunch. They look at the country of their origin, see a society in which more than 35 million people earn less than $1.50 per day, and an economy with many structural challenges that suffers critical low productivity across a number of industrial and service sectors, resulting in very limited resources and ask why, how come and what went wrong!!!

My below analysis takes a stab at answering this most basic of questions: how can an Egyptian child grow up happy? This question has always been there in my mind but has taken an urgent and all-consuming nature since the 25 January, 2011 Egyptian revolution.

Basically a happy nation is a nation with a promising future. In this analysis I will touch upon the following topics. By no means are they all the topics relevant to this subject...

Human Dignity
Society Norms
Country Norms

A President
A Nation's People's Rights
A Nation's Dynamics
A Civilized Nation
Corruption, a Nation's Terminal Cancer
A Nation's Public Awareness

The Immediate Future

Human Dignity

The little boy or girl has to have the chance to live in an Egypt where human dignity is not negotiable, meaning:

The rule of law, with Sharia law only one of a myriad of possible sources,
The balance of power within the government, including the presidency, the legislative and the judiciary, as well as between the national government and province governments, guaranteeing no absolute power to any,
Freedom of speech and other expression,
Freedom of peaceful assembly,
Freedom of worship, for Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and anyone else residing, working or visiting,
Justice for all,
Equality for women, guaranteeing them their independence of men, societal respect and their right to their own paths in life,
Ethnic tolerance,
Religious tolerance, and
Safeguarding private property rights.

Currently, that Egypt does not exist, much needs to be put in place, much must be the norm and much should become modus operanda for such an Egypt. Only then, the boy or girl will grow happy and will contribute to a happy Egypt. Let us consider the indispensable pillars for a happy nation, a nation where these pillars are respected and safeguarded by its institutions, its branches of power, its leaders and its population.

Society Norms

An Egyptian friend wrote me recently "Egypt, friends, is a failed country: no law or order, corrupt judiciary system, no education, no health, very high unemployment, worst polluted atmosphere and environment, more than 50% severe poverty, rampant diseases, rampant illiteracy, rampant corruption whether state or individuals, polluted water and food, one of worst human rights abuses, one the worst dictatorship in the world, corrupt political system and politicians, etc, etc, etc, you name it. Without Hashish, thousands and thousands of Egyptians would be committing suicide each year." You will not find many informed Egyptians who would disagree with that.

Happy people, boys and girls growing up happy in Egypt can go a long way to rectify such miserable state of affairs. Happy people are industrious, productive, compassionate and motivated to do something with their lives and be of help to others.They think outside the box, they do.

Happy people embrace work ethic, they want to do more, earn more, achieve more, be more. Yes, they also want to keep more for themselves but with the appropriate legislation, regulations and taxation, they want a robust social democracy. They want a society where people much prefer to spend more time being productive than in prayer.

Happy people know how to love, how to share and how to care for one another. However, since it is guaranteed that there will be women, there will be people who are not Islamists, there will be Christians, maybe even other religions, there will be gays, it is difficult to envision such love, sharing and caring in Egypt -- not with women being treated as second-class citizen, with their rights severely curtailed, everything about them considered lewd, fulfilling their potential is a fiction; not with Christians constantly under scrutiny about their loyalty, their churches being burned with regularity, their opportunities in jobs and business limited and you are considered an infidel in your own country; and I am not going to bother talking about being gay in Egypt. How would that translate into a happy nation?

A happy nation does not have half of its population, women, and its 10% minority, Coptics, suffer unnecessarily, with their dignity, pride and future robbed from them. When this happens, survival becomes the name of the game, progress and renaissance the farthest thing from their minds, it is human nature. The only way out is to correct injustice. Then and only then, is a nation rewarded with happiness and growth.

A happy nation will not have domination of Egypt by Islamists. Having Sharia the law of the land would in effect deny Egypt of the ingenuity, imagination and creativity of its people, would de facto stop in its tracks any chance of realizing the potential of the Egyptian people, and taking full advantage of the mosaic that they are. Reason simple, under Sharia law:

There would be a demand for complete conformity.
Discipline in life, personal and professional, would cease to be a priority, survival will be.
Principles would be compromised, again for survival.
Having the sole preoccupation of a nation to be religion and by association control of women, would relegate development to the back burner, which in turn would undermine efforts to safeguard the environment, deal with pollution and improve hygiene and health throughout the country.
Putting such a premium on conformity and survival would open the door for hatred of fellow Egyptians, be they women, Christians or any other minority, and would obviate the pursuit of joy and happiness in everyday life.

Happy people have discipline in their daily lives, at home, at work and in transit. They look after their communities, street by street, building by building and not leave it to a mythical government or a non-existent owner. Happy people look with respect to their fellow Egyptians, thinking all along how much better the country would be if we worked together and not against each other, finding common ground and not focusing on differences. Happy people consider themselves at all times part and parcel of their environment, thus taking care of it as they do their homes.

A happy nation will therefore be the outcome at such time when above becomes the norm, and again Egypt will not have to pay, suffering and continually declining in its state of affairs.

Country Norms

A President (and all in position of authority and power)

Girls and boys will grow happy in Egypt the day they have a President who understands that the president's sole goal is to lead the country to fulfill its potential, to care first and foremost about the people - all of them. Such a president would know about life conditions in each and every corner of the country, and not rest until his/her administration put together the necessary programs and projects to improve the unfortunate conditions, day by day on a sustained basis. Such a president does not view the job as a way to feel the grandeur, amass unearned wealth and spend the rest of the time securing permanency of power so as to protect that ill-gained wealth and control of country's assets.

Egypt will be happy the day it has a President who will traverse the country on a regular basis, not being afraid or too egotistical to shed tears when seeing and learning of the abysmal conditions of life for the people. Such a President would return to Cairo with steel determination to work through the government with the legislature to explore means and ways to tackle the issues surrounding these miserable living conditions. Such a President would stay up nights thinking of what more could be done, what else is there to try, how can I do more, saying to him/herself all along I will rest when my term is up and I do not mind if I looked at the end of my term ten years older than I am. Above all, such a President would have trust in and respect for his/her people, must believe in them and never ever give up on them, while subconsciously thinking this is a sinking ship and I must bail out with as much of a fortune as I possibly can. At the end of his/her term, the President should be saying, "I did my best," and leave the country better off than when he/she began.

History teaches us that such a President must possess competency, a stellar character and soundness of mind. Such a President must have broad knowledge of government, administration, development and how progress has been achieved in modern nations, and what would it take to generate a genuine renaissance in Egypt. It is far from impossible to have such a President.

Although it was the United States President John F. Kennedy who said on January 20th, 1962, "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what can you do for your country," a President of Egypt should feel that in his/her bones, he/she should live modestly save for security detail and formal entertainment for foreign dignitaries, he/she should be walking the Egypt's districts, communities, neighborhoods and streets, crying as he/she watches the decrepit and subhuman living standards of almost half of Egypt's population and should vow not to have a moment's of peace of mind until he/she gives it his/her all. Finally he/she should say out loud to the whole nation that this is utterly unacceptable for Egypt, asking out loud how that could have happened, what went wrong. Upon leaving office, a President should be honored to have served the people. No higher honor exists.

Boys and girls will grow up happy, and Egypt will be happy when after decades of no leadership, no moral force, no common cause, and no sense of decency, their luck and fate will have it that they get a President of such quality.

I am certain that Hosni Mubarak possessed none of that, and was incapable of any of that, an average bureaucrat who gained immense personal benefit from being part of the military regime.

A Nation's People's Rights

Egypt will be a happy nation when its boys and girls grow up in an environment where:

Freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition is a norm for all of its people,
Its military is confining its activities to its sole job of protecting the country against foreign enemies,
People are protected by the rule of law from unreasonable detentions and searches,
The right to due process, freedom from self-incrimination and double jeopardy is guaranteed by the Constitution and upheld by independent courts,
The rights of accused persons afford them speedy trial thus avoiding lengthy, unexplained and unquestioned detentions,
Accused citizens are tried in civilian courts,
They are free from cruel and unusual punishment,
Their own personal rights are preserved, and
There is a true separation of power at the national level and a sharing of power between the national government and the provinces, in particular the governors should not be mere puppets appointed by the President.

These rights are never easy to achieve for a nation. It will take enormous focus and hard work and it needs to be put on the fast track, not an easy task when considering all that is preoccupying the various factions in Egypt today: talk about the military role, talk about an Islamic state, talk about elections, having yet another puppet government that lacks legitimacy and vision, as well as other chatters, talk, talk and more talk, contests over who will get the next opportunity to further rob Egypt and ignore its vital needs for a decent future.

Egypt will be a happy nation only when above rights are secured and institutionalized, and Egypt does not have to pay with suffering and a continued decline of its state of affairs.

A Nation's Dynamics

Decades of military rule have ruined the lives of Egyptians, politically, economically, health-wise, economic and culturally.

People in Egypt will be happy the day they wake up to find competition flourishing within their society, when they see women who choose to work populating the professional landscape of the nation, in government, in business and in all institutions, profit or non-profit; when they see Coptics given full opportunity to participate in the workforce, with equal access to all positions the nation has to offer in the public or private sectors; when they see Islamists, be it Muslim Brothers, Salafists, Gama'a Islamiya, get to work and give preaching a rest, or at least limit their numbers doing it and the hours spent on it, and it is my unshakable opinion that God will be happy for Egypt for it and proud of them even more. With diversity in the workforce, competition will materialize, generating stronger efforts and producing better work and solid products, and jobs will be held by more qualified people. Basically, competition will rightfully release the potential of all of the nation's natural resources.

Boys and girls will grow up happy in an Egypt where the people and the media, not to mention the government, stop asking where we are in regards modern science, technology, mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology, when the catching up has already started and the talking has ceased. This will be a true revolution, the day blasphemy and science are not uttered in the same breath.

Happiness will be there when the rule of law and a representative government based on political competition and an informed populace (see Public Awareness section) rule the day. This will propel Egypt into a much more favorable system of social and political order. Affecting a media revolution by abolishing state media and opening it to private, varied control; and in addition instituting the concepts of press freedom, press access, press accountability, would go a long way to optimize this system.

A nation-wide health care system, with both the public and private sectors participating is a must for people to be happy. It is not a mystery that being healthy and feeling fit is a prerequisite for a person's vitality and exuberance and by association a nation's productivity and dynamism.

Putting this boy and girl as soon as they are educated and of working age to work, assisted by productivity-enhancing technologies, will ensure a constant stream of more domestically-made affordable products, products that with time will only get better, to a growing consumer base due to an employed and happier people who are starting new families, families with a higher standard of living.

Education, real and quality education from kindergarten through college and beyond makes any human being happy, any. Aside from the obvious science, technology, business, law, it is an absolute necessity to focus on history, a full account of the evolution of knowledge, how one thing followed another, what we inherited from previous civilizations, and how little a role chance played in history, hard work and traditions shaped history. History will teach us not only why nations and empires have risen but more importantly why they have fallen, the causes and consequences.

Fairly elected legislature, with a main focus on reform and putting people first, provides true participation in government.

Courts, independent and sharing in power, with the sole aim to safeguard people's dignity, ensuring equality and upholding the Constitution, helps the people to feel secure and protected from injustice.

A Civilized Nation

A civilized nation makes for a people living with freedom, dignity and productivity, leading to a fulfilling life, resulting in happy people enjoying a happy nation. Civilization allows people to live and function, jointly and cooperatively, so that they produce and experience the benefits together. A civilized nation builds on people's intelligence and rationality.

Plato saw man's true nature as rational and believed that civilized society must be organized, and civilized life conducted according to rational principles.

My own opinion is that a civilized nation is a better thing for each individual, mainly because it sets the country on the right course for development, organization, stability, security and opportunities for all. Individuals then have a much greater chance of pursuing their private interests, with a greater possibility for reducing conflict with the state, leading to reconciliation and harmony between the state and the individual. This in turn allows individuals to freely pursue happiness according to their own values, by achieving worldly success and emphasizing their spiritual inclinations. The way to true happiness, therefore, will be to ultimately reconcile morality with the interest of the individual.

At its core, a civilized nation has a far better chance to make its nation's society, its economy and most importantly its government work for the individual rather than the other way around. Boys and girls will most definitely grow happy in such an environment, furthering a happy Egypt.

Civilization, "means a society based upon the opinion of civilians. It means that violence, the rule of warriors and despotic chiefs, the conditions of camp and warfare, of riot and tyranny, give place to parliaments where laws are made, and in dependent courts of justice in which over long periods those laws are maintained. That is a civilization - and in its soil grow continually freedom, comfort and culture. When civilization reigns in any country, a wider and less harassed life is afforded to the masses of the people." Winston Churchill, 1938.

Dr. Fathi Osman, a prominent Islamic scholar living in the United States, in his article, "Toward a Muslim Constructive Role In the Contemporary World Civilization" said "civilization simply means: the comprehensive development of the human potential in all its dimensions: physical, intellectual, spiritual, moral and psychological. To achieve this potential, civilizations strive to develop, utilize, and conserve the natural resources, the benefits of which should fairly reach the whole society, and bring about positive effects on the whole world...Civilization is a collective effort by the whole society, and its benefits cannot be restricted to few individuals or be limited to certain groups. Civilization has to bear fruits to all members of society. Besides although civilization development may not affect all sides of society at the same level, it nonetheless, remains inclusive and comprehensive."

Dr. Osman quotes from the Quran and goes on to say with regard to Islam as a civilization message: "Islam aims at developing the human potential, as well as the natural resources necessary to realize this potential, through the motivation of faith in God and accountability of the human being: 'It is He who has produced you from the earth and entrusted you with development on it' (11:61). God Himself is in no need of being recognized or worshipped, but His messages to human beings have aimed to secure their own moral and material success in the development entrusted to them (51:56-58). Islam establishes faith in God on the basis of knowledge of His creation, and considers the human work in this world and the human behavior with people in it as ways of worshipping God. The Quran emphasizes the 'dignity of the children of Adam' (17:70) – all of them not only Muslims. It indicates that dignity cannot be split from securing the required good things of life. The Quran also defends the free movement of people throughout land and sea, and even through the atmosphere and space when this becomes possible (45:12-13). The human merits in all their dimensions physical, intellectual, moral, psychological, and spiritual, with which the human being is favored over many of God’s creation, have to be maintained and developed (17:70) by the individual, society, and the state in order to prove gratefulness to the grantor through developing the world with which he/she is entrusted (11:61). This can be done through the development of human relations on the basis of justice and fair treatment wherever humans live, (5:2, 30:22, 49:13, 60:8), starting from one’s own family and extending this behavior to neighborhood, society, country, and the whole world."

Dr. Osman also says "Muslims have to work earnestly and modestly to prove their role in the contemporary civilization. This will enable them to pump and infuse some moral values into its stream. They can do so, only, through their individual and social behavior, not through any superficial or empty rhetoric, and definitely not by making theoretical statements. Muslims can be a force of moral inspiration to the contemporary global civilization, which may influence all the participants in it. In this way, Muslims could become known as the spiritual and intellectual contributors to the ‘revitalization and moralization’ of the contemporary global civilization. They can do that only through true Islamic values, conscientious thinking, and productive actions."

You can fool some of the people all the time, you can fool all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. The Egyptian people know and feel that Egypt has been derailed for decades and that it is way overdue to get back on track and become a modern nation, a nation where civil rights are honored and safeguarded, where science in its specific and exact meaning and not its religious straitjacketed one, where work, freedom and human dignity, as well as social justice and political accountability, etc. are the fundamental pillars underpinning the building of a society's structure.

Boy and girls will grow up happy when civilization reigns supreme in Egypt, when laws, rules, ideas, principles, ethics, institutions, all evolve, shape, and redefine the nation's character.

Corruption, a Nation's Terminal Cancer

Corruption, the abuse of public office for private gain, covers a range of acts—theft, bribes, influence peddling, misappropriation of funds, patronage in civil service, and dispensation of state benefits. Measuring corruption is challenging because it is typically hidden, and because it is a multi-dimensional concept.

People who either abhor corruption or take it as a given will never be performing at their best, they will hardly be loyal to their workplace or to anything they are responsible for. Any populace around the world, if believing corruption is rampant through government and institutions will not be happy or impressed with government programs or projects, their support will be insincere leading to more failures than successes. They will do their jobs with the end result of dysfunctional outcome and output.

According to Transparency International's corruption perceptions index 2010 (10 = least corrupt, 0 = most corrupt) Egypt scores 3.1, and ranks 98 of 178 countries.

In the World Bank report, December, 2011, World Bank Country-Level Engagement on Governance and Anticorruption, An Evaluation of the 2007 Strategy and Implementation Plan, the following two findings were indicated as regards its borrowing countries:

Public Sector Reform - Low civil service pay was a pervasive problem and imposed major constraints on development efforts. Civil service reform faces a complex political economy, impeding public management support for civil society, service delivery and the investment climate.
Focus on helping countries make tangible and time-bound governance improvements.

Daniel Treisman, in his paper The Causes of Corruption - A Cross-national Study, April, 1998, writes "Different theories associate cross-national variation in the extent of corruption with particular historical and cultural traditions, levels of economic development, political institutions, and government policies." Treisman writes "Three factors were found to be highly significant in predicting countries’ relative level of perceived corruption: (i) GNP per capita, (ii) federal state structure, and (iii) British heritage. The association between economic development and lower corruption is not a surprising result, and federal structure and colonial heritage variables are important determinants of relative corruption levels even among the richer countries."

Theisman elaborates on a number of explanatory variables:

"If a low level of economic development may cause corruption, corruption itself can also impede development.
"Rapid modernization may create opportunities for corruption, yet excessive corruption might itself prevent rapid modernization.
"A large or intrusively regulatory state may create opportunities for corruption, but corrupt officials and politicians are likely to swell the size of the state in order to increase their spoils.
"Similarly, high pay may reduce the incentive for corruption, but corrupt politicians may decide to award themselves high pay.
"Openness to imports may constrain corruption, but corrupt officials may themselves create barriers to imports.
"Electoral competition and other aspects of democratic systems may expose corruption, but corrupt officials may restrict electoral campaigns and stifle democracy.
"Finally, political instability may enhance incentives (or reduce opportunities) for corruption, but corruption may itself prompt public protests, challenges to the incumbent regime, even external invasion—in short, political instability."

I believe that corruption is a self-perpetuating phenomenon in Egypt, and new enforceable and enforced regulations are needed to break the cycle. However, such regulations will never happen unless and until Egypt manages to put ethical people in charge.

Theisman's theory of the four causes of corruption:

"History and Culture - The suspicion that competitors are getting ahead through corrupt acts and that regulatory officials will impose predatory sanctions if not paid off may make a business strategy of keeping one’s hands clean seem counterproductive. At the same time, the lack of trust and civic engagement may increase the supply of corrupt services by reducing the danger to officials of being exposed and punished. Societal organizations to monitor and protest abuses will be weaker.
"Economic Development - Both the demand for and the supply of corrupt services may be greater in less developed societies.
"Political Institutions - Various conjectures link the supply of corrupt services to characteristics of countries’ political systems and state structure. Democracy is sometimes thought to increase the cost to officials of corrupt transactions, reducing the supply. The institutions of a free society—free press, secondary associations, etc—may make exposure more likely, as may the practice of electoral politics. Particular legal systems may also offer private businesses greater protections from predatory officials.
"Public Policies - Whatever the nature of political institutions, it is the policies actually adopted by those in power that determine the extent of corruption. In economies with extensive state regulation, greater opportunities for venality exist."

Henry Kissinger once said, “Corrupt politicians make the other ten percent look bad.”

Charles Kenny, Senior Economist, World Bank, in his World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4099, December 2006, Measuring and Reducing the Impact of Corruption in Infrastructure, examines the extent and impact of corruption in infrastructure in developing countries using existing evidence. He writes "A low-end estimate suggests that the financial costs of corruption in infrastructure investment and maintenance alone in developing countries might equal $18bn a year. There is considerable evidence of widespread petty corruption in the area of infrastructure connections as well as larger-scale corruption to gain construction contracts and licenses and even to change regulatory and policy practices."

Kenney writes "Evidence for the relative costs of corruption impacts suggests that a sole focus on bribe payments as the indicator of the costs of corruption in infrastructure is misplaced. Bribes that are paid in order to win contracts for well-selected projects that are subsequently well-constructed are less damaging than corruption which skews spending priorities or lowers construction standards. In Indonesia, one estimate is that each dollar stolen from road construction reduces economic benefits from the road by $3.41. Ten percent additional project costs due to corrupt payments cannot account for the negligible macroeconomic returns to public investment in Africa, but expenditure diversion and poor construction related in part to corruption might.

"Such findings suggest priorities for infrastructure anti-corruption research and activities in projects. Evidence on the extent of perceived bribery is only to some degree related to actual levels of bribe payments, and the level of bribe payments are a weak proxy for the development impact of corruption. A focus on inputs and outputs might provide better evidence of weak governance and high corruption in infrastructure, and in particular on the development impact of these problems. Such a focus would involve an evaluation of budgeting priorities and project selection procedures as well as the quality of construction of selected projects at the sectoral level."

I will conclude this section on Corruption, a Nation's Terminal Cancer, with Toke S. Aidt paper in the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Volume 25, Number 2, 2009, pp.271–291, Corruption, institutions, and economic development.

Aidt writes "Corruption, understood as ‘sale of government property for private gain’, is a persistent feature of human societies."

Aidt's abstract: "Many scholarly articles on corruption give the impression that the world is populated by two types of people: the ‘sanders’ and the ‘greasers’. The ‘sanders’ believe that corruption is an obstacle to development, while the ‘greasers’ believe that corruption can (in some cases) foster development. This paper takes a critical look at these positions. It concludes that the evidence supporting the ‘greasing the wheels hypothesis’ is very weak and shows that there is no correlation between a new measure of managers’ actual experience with corruption and GDP growth. Instead, the paper uncovers a strong negative correlation between growth in genuine wealth per capita—a direct measure of sustainable development—and corruption. While corruption may have little average effect on the growth rate of GDP per capita, it is a likely source of unsustainable development."

Aidt concludes: "Does corruption, then, sand or grease the wheels? While corruption in a very narrow sense can be seen as a lubricator that may speed things up and help entrepreneurs get on with wealth creation in specific instances, in a broader sense, corruption must be considered as an obstacle to development. This is so for a number of related reasons. One is the fallacy of efficient corruption: the cumbersome procedures that corruption is supposed to help overcome may be created and maintained precisely because of their corruption potential, and substantial real resources may be devoted to contesting the associated rents. This leads to pure waste and to misallocation of resources. There is also a fallacy of composition lurking: undisputed, but isolated, instances of efficiency-enhancing corruption at the microeconomic level cannot be taken as evidence that corruption can be efficiency-enhancing at the macroeconomic level.

"Quantitative evidence from field studies and surveys points to substantial costs of corruption. Corruption is a significant hindrance for sustainable development. Much more work is needed to establish how robust and causal the correlation between corruption and the growth rate of genuine wealth per capita is, and to construct better measures of genuine wealth."

People in Egypt are unhappy because they know that the causes of corruption are abundant, that the impact of corruption has devastated the country and that there is a great and critical need to deal with the cancer of corruption that has permeated all strata of society. They also know that many officials are constantly seeking an unfair advantage over their peers, leading them to corrupt behavior. This is manifested through bribery, extortion, embezzlement, nepotism and other means. Considering that the extent of corruption in Egypt today is so pervasive, where in few years a government employee could amass millions of pounds, people know that they are the ones paying the price. People are desperate to see:

A government that is stable, and can govern, meaning a government that is not corrupt, inefficient, unresponsive, or secretive, basically ineffectual and corrupt.
Transparency of government rules, procedures and objectives, with free access by citizens to public information, to ensure budgetary and administrative oversight, confront corrupt officials and safeguard national resources.
Transparency as regards the budget of the Egyptian army, full financial transparency and subjecting it, as well as all government budgets, to the principle of accountability.
Corruption's fundamental causes, poor incentive structures and inefficient systems are dealt with, starting by keeping Egypt's resources and revenues inside the country and used for these purposes and not to enrich the few in power.
Meritocracy rule the day in Egypt's public sector.
Government officials apprehended and punished for corrupt behavior.
Government officials allowing policies that allow for greater oversight, which would help to assure that power were balanced and no one person, as was the case with Hosni Mubarak, has monopoly on power and thus making all of the political decisions.
A government that is at the core ethical and set up to manage the state affairs and not have theft and neglect its main characteristics.
A parliament that is capable, focused and determined to improve the way government works so that corrupt behavior is punishable and opportunities for corruption are limited by law.
Most of all, corruption thoroughly diagnosed as to Egypt society's germane reasons, and mechanisms deployed for gradual improvements leading one day to a full elimination of corruption in Egypt.

A Nation's Public Awareness

Boys and girls have no chance of growing happy, the Egyptian people have been unhappy now for generations, feeling, if not outright knowing, that they have been fed misinformation, useless information, lies, innuendos, and most of the time no information at all. They know they have been treated like the affairs of their country are none of their business, they have been told over and over again, just eat, smell the fresh air (actually quite polluted), live in peace and be happy. They have been treated like there is no hope for them to improve their understanding and their grasp of the facts of life, they have been kept on the other side of knowledge maliciously or insouciantly.

The Campaign

Real and sustained progress is impossible without cultural awareness through an enlightened national public awareness campaign. It is time for an awareness campaign the likes of which Egypt has never seen, at the grassroots level. It is time for the government, institutions and the media to embark on such campaign, to invest in the people, treat them with respect and trust in their capacity.

To galvanize the efforts of all concerned parties, it cannot and should not be business as usual, a drastic step has to be taken, a nation's state of knowledge change has to take place. Egypt cannot wait passively for illiteracy to go down or for the overhaul of the education system, a Ministry of Public Awareness must be established. Any question about adding to the bureaucracy or where would we get the manpower from should be easily dismissed by indicating the ludicrousness for Egypt to have 1.2 million working for the Interior Ministry's security apparatus, instead of investing these resources for the critically-needed upgrade of public awareness. Such campaign will not be for a year or two, it will take some time, decades if must, a government ministry will best positioned to carry it out all over the country. The ministry will be at the national, province and local levels.

The campaign will draw assistance and support from every corner of the Egyptian society, from the intellectuals, the educated, the cultured, the doctors, the engineers, the lawyers, the accountants, the novelists, the writers, etc. It will deploy all tools known, including focus groups, townhall meetings, educational stickers that will be distributed across the nation with slogans that explain the concepts of freedom, social equality, and democracy; it will be constant and long-term.

The Egyptian people are entitled to awareness. The power of awareness will give the people the basic knowledge necessary for their effective participation in the political development of Egypt, helping it move to a true democratic society.

The end result should be a complete remake of what constitutes the Egyptian adult, a general awareness of the facts of life, modern and progressive life. This must start now since it could take generations to happen, and I am talking here about reaching every man and woman in the smallest of villages, communities and areas. It is people who can ask, in fact demand, for a better life, for respect and trust from their governments. One has only to consider developed nations around the world from the far East to the far West, all of them have as their common denominator a citizen who has basic knowledge of what's going on and a basic understanding of the favorable way forward, for example Japan, Singapore, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France, England, Germany, US, Canada, Australia, Austria and on and on.

The campaign should strive to simplify and inform about all above topics and related facts and issues. However, the initial focus should be to tackle the following a nation's four make-or-break issues:

Religion
Women
Information access
Elections

1. Religion

a. The imagery to the right and similar ones should be heavily used to strikingly contrast the position of extremists and the dire needs of the communities.

b. Author and Journalist Dr. Abdul Rahman Mohammed AlAyoub's writing about the President of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi's call to boycott Christmas in all of its celebratory traditions. Dr. AlAyoub asks the Sheikh not to stop there but also issue an all-inclusive fatwa prohibiting the use of products and all inventions created by Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and Jews because they are infidels and enemies of God. Dr. AlAyoub points out that the fatwa should include all technologies and the Internet (enjoyed by the Sheikh as much as anyone else). The Internet that the infidel, Bill Gates, the enemy of God, helped deliver what it is today. Bill Gates, the founder and owner of Microsoft, one of the world's richest, if not the richest, who achieved his wealth thanks to his genius, and not by stealing the wealth of whole nations, as is the case of the bearded elders of the desert, who if it were not for the oil they would have remained desert nomads, herding camels and donkeys. And you Sheikh al-Qaradawi, owner of "Islam Online" website, through which you issue your fatwas, asking God to destroy the Westerners who destroyed the Muslim and Arab nations, is it not time to shut down your site, the site that if it not for Bill Gates and other infidels like him you would not have been able to own or use to use. And while we are at it, do you know that the invention of this "strange" creature called a plane is due to the Wright brothers, these Christian infidels.

c. The Muslim Brotherhood's promise to the Egyptian people that they will boycott anything and everything that originates with the Jewish people after the elections. The extreme irony, the lack of logic and the sheer ignorance of that position should be pointed out repeatedly in such regards. A good example to use is the following response by Dr. Abdel Messeh, a pharmacist, who out of the kindness of his heart, offered to assist them in their boycott as follows:

"Any Egyptian who has Syphilis must not be cured by Salvarsan discovered by a Jew, Dr. Ehrlich. He should not even try to find out whether he has Syphilis, because the Wasserman Test is the discovery of a Jew. If an Egyptian suspects that he has Gonorrhea, he must not seek diagnosis, because he will be using the method of a Jew named Neissner.
"An Egyptian who has heart disease must not use Digitalis, a discovery by a Jew, Ludwig Traube.
Should he suffer with a toothache, he must not use Novocaine, a discovery of the Jews, Widal and Weil.
"If an Egyptian has Diabetes, he must not use Insulin, the result of research by Minkowsky, a Jew.
Egyptians with convulsions must put up with them because it was a Jew, Oscar Leibreich, who proposed the use of Chloral Hydrate.
Egyptians must do likewise with their psychic ailments because Freud, father of psychoanalysis, was a Jew.
Should an Egyptian child get Diphtheria, he must refrain from the "Schick" reaction which was invented by the Jew, Bella Schick.
"Egyptians should be ready to die in great numbers and must not permit treatment of ear and brain damage, work of Nobel Prize winner, Robert Baram.
"They should continue to die or remain crippled by Infantile Paralysis because the discoverer of the anti-polio vaccine is a Jew, Jonas Salk.
"Egyptians must refuse to use Streptomycin and continue to die of Tuberculosis because a Jew, Zalman Waxman, invented the wonder drug against this killing disease.
"Egyptian doctors must discard all discoveries and improvements by dermatologist Judas Sehn Benedict, or the lung specialist, Frawnkel, and of many other world renowned Jewish scientists and medical experts.

"In short, good and loyal Egyptians properly and fittingly should remain afflicted with Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Heart Disease, Headaches, Typhus, Diabetes, Mental Disorders, Polio Convulsions and Tuberculosis and be proud to obey the Muslim Brotherhood boycott."

d. Benjamin Franklin, an infidel by Islamists' beliefs, whose inventions include bifocal glasses and the iron furnace stove, a human being who dedicated himself to the improvement of everyday life for the widest number of people. There are hundreds of examples of innovators whose inventions are enjoyed by Islamists the world over, such as Thomas Edison (who invented the light bulb), Alexandar Graham Bell (telephone), all also considered infidels.

e. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple computers and a pioneer of the personal computer revolution, a product of a Syrian Muslim sperms, kept his beliefs to himself, was an honorable human being by any standard, contributed mightily to our world, will be received by an impressed God.

That is not to say that there have not been Muslim innovators and inventors throughout history. It is to say that all religions, all types of people, have contributed greatly to mankind. No one has the right to call anyone else an infidel and trivialize their contribution.

Muslims have distinguished themselves not only as theoretical scientists and scientific thinkers, but also have contributed through innumerable inventions to the growth of the modern sciences.

The first watch was made by Kutbi, a renowned watch-maker of his time.
Giralda or "The Tower of Seville," was the first astronomical observatory in Europe. It was built in 1190 A.D., in the Spanish town of Seville, under the supervision of the celebrated mathematician, Jabir Ibn Afiah.
Muslims have made lasting contributions to the development of medical science. Al-Razi (Rhazes), Ibn Sina (Avicenna), and Abu Ali al-Hasan (Alhazen) were the greatest medical scholars of mediaeval times.
Jabir Ibn Hayyan (722 CE - 815 CE), is unanimously considered as the founder of chemistry.

In light of the above, the campaign must highlight the undeniable fact that Muslims the world over are enjoying the fruits of similarly religious people of other faiths who have embarked on cultural change to join the modern world and develop. These societies overcame their fear of novelty, they examined their practices and experimented with new ideas. They not only survived but thrived.

The campaign must bring to bear in a simple and folksy way the following:

Enlisting the village elders and leaders, by starting with them, engaging them in discussions about poverty, ill health, ignorance, lack of information, misinformation, fear of what the next day will bring, their dignity and honor constantly being challenged for lack of providing for their families.
Information about other religions.
Information about Islam, the Islamic scripture (the Qur’an, the Hadith and the Sirat Rasoul Allah), and how it has been misinterpreted for generations for socio-economic-political agendas.
Explanation of why the various interpretations, explaining that the majority of Muslims find reading these texts laborious and many merely recite them not knowing what exactly they are reciting because Arabic 1400 years ago is different if not totally foreign to Muslims around the world today.
The cumulative damage of illiteracy.
Information about the true position of Islam in regards the veil, the higab, and the burka, a position that contradicts what they have been fed for so long.
Other interpretations of Islam such as those of Tarek Heggy, an Egyptian liberal intellectual, and one of the most quoted Arab thinkers on the Internet.
Explanation that most of the laws defined by Sharia find their basis in the Hadith, not the Qur’an.
Explanation that other nations, other people have high morals and ethics, the source of which is not Islam and that these nations have done actual good. Examples, specific and focused evidences must be provided, identifying in the process the myriad of values, virtues and practices that make for unique social lives all around the world.
Build on above point by indicating that successful societies have managed to reform their traditions and habits to accommodate the scientific, technological and highly diverse world we live in.
Explain reform, a rational examination of our lives, avoiding excessive reliance on traditions and finding ways and means to improve it, dealing with ignorance, fanaticism, intolerance, and facts of life.
Effective participation by mainstream news media, which has a huge impact on public opinion. It must be encouraged to provide a more balanced and nuanced view on religion as it relates to national and global affairs.
The secular state is for all members of the society, you can be religious, a fanatic, even an extremist, you are free to be who you want to be, but a secular state ensures fair and impartial laws that will prevent you from being a menace to society, turning into a terrorist as regards people who are not of the same belief.
Religious extremists' attitude, focusing not on country or people but the afterlife and not really for Islam's sake but for the most part to use religion as a business, a lucrative business that for the most part affords them a comfortable standard of living. They perpetuate in the process the myth that all other nations can have the few measly years on earth, we Muslims will have eternity after that.
The ultimate irony that God is going to be more approving, more proud and giving priority to Heaven to all man/woman-kind who achieved and made life better for their families, their communities, their nations and their world. It is certain that Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Isaac Newton, Madame Curie and the likes, as well as billions of hard-working people worldwide will have the admiration of God way before any Islamist who does not do much but wash and pray five times a day, dropping everything else, negatively effecting productivity and efficiency.
God will not look at what religion you are, how dark your zebiba or how long your beard, it is what you have done in your time living. Were you helpful to and tolerant of fellow humans? Were you productive? Did you make things happen for your family and community? were you principled doing all of that? After all, that is why God put us on earth. If God wanted us only to worship him he would have kept us at an arm's length and had us do just that.
Basically, being pious and following the Islamic teachings is not going to impress God, not if we as Muslims continue to bring up the rear of humanity, suffering the lowest per capita income. That cannot be God's wisdom to have this happen to Muslims, to bail out losers and pull them out of their misery, no logic in that.

2. Women

Women have long been at the center of friction between secular rule and religious interests. To unleash women's power, allowing their much-needed all-around contribution to life in Egypt to take place, a tradition of patriarchy must be dealt with. Such tradition has held women for ages in mental or even physical bondage. The best way out is for women to be their own agents of change, setting the pace for their own liberation from inhibiting norms. Women need to continually challenge the interpretations of the Quran and women’s role in marriage and society.

That is precisely why the campaign must not spare any tool in its kit, exert all possible energy to address the issue of women. Wherever it takes place, whatever the audience may be, the positive impact women can have on a village must be made simple, clear and definitive. The concept behind the immense gains a village can make if women are treated as equal, given the opportunity to explore their imagination, turn into reality in collaboration with their life's partner. Just like men, women can be spouses, parents, and workers.

The campaign should explore ways to work with women everywhere to organize peaceful demonstrations, enlisting the help of progressive men. Women asking for gender liberation should be encouraged and assisted by the ministry at its three levels.

Women should challenge the men and sheikhs who ask them to wear the veil and niqab for chastity and decency, then are silent in the face of the aggression and physical brutality they sustained in Tahrir Square and elsewhere.
Women should demonstrate without wearing these masks, they should speak up and demand that they be heard, trusted and respected.
Women should challenge the many misinterpretations of the Quran, the outrageously unjust fatwas and the many erroneous myths and misleading sayings about women that have gained legitimacy only because they have been repeated for centuries.

3. Information Access

Critical in complementing above campaign initiatives, securing ways to increasingly improve the flow of real and relevant information to the vast majority of people, if not all.

4. Elections

All that has taken place in elections for decades, including current ones, must be covered in the campaign, including:

The construct and organization of the 19 March, 2011 referendum.
The fraud of the parliamentary elections at the hands of the election workers and the judges.
People being offered ballot boxes.
Judges and workers in polling stations instructing people on who to vote for.
Judges and workers giving unstamped ballots to Christians in heavily Christian polling stations in order to invalidate their votes.
About half a ton of correct ballots, with votes for the Egyptian bloc, found thrown in the streets in Heliopolis, Ghamra, Shubra, Zaitoun, Alexandria, Suez and many other districts.
The amount of reports of fraud and legal injunctions submitted against these elections.

If as we might expect the government does not take up such an obviously-needed program, the revolutionaries must organize enough forces to raise Egypt's public awareness to an acceptable level, and be fully prepared that it may take years before any results materialize.

The Immediate Future

Egyptians are acutely aware of their rich history and their country’s domination of the Middle East over many centuries, under different faiths, empires and dynasties.

Egypt must become a happy nation, for if the Egyptian people are not happy soon, they will continue their de facto nonparticipation in the nation's affairs, their prevailing status as observers. Egypt will continue to have the 1%, 2%, maybe 5% of its people looting the country, engaged in conspicuous consumption and outlandish living with nation building the farthest from their minds, and the rest punching the clock, doing their work with little mind and heart in it and basically looking for the afterlife, the eternal life. Egypt will continue its descent into a docile, non-consequential and poor country. The people have to be invested in the country for the nation to progress and have a proud future.

Egypt’s socio-economic descent in the last 35 years is due mainly to a state of discouragement, disillusionment, low morale, no incentive to produce, no desire to excel, what for! It is high time to turn around the culture of death, where poverty, humiliation and despair are the norm for the 95% of Egyptians and have Egyptians live with hope for dignity, fulfillment and happiness. It is high time for the levels of oppression, suppression, and coercion over the past six decades to subside, giving way to the intellectual inventiveness that a rich and multi-dimensional cultural milieu that Egypt’s Islamic, Arabic, and Mediterranean heritages can once again give rise to.

The 25 January revolution must therefore continue. It must be a revolution that will truly bring in a totally new way of life like the French revolution (king out, republic in), the Russian revolution (Czar out, communists in) and the American revolution (England out, the founding fathers building the United States), and other real and credible revolutions. The 25 January glorious revolution is a good start but is a far cry from a true and effective revolution.

Remember that the US was nothing, it was a colony for England, made of desperate immigrants who were the poor, the tired and huddled masses of Europe, etc. Then came the founding fathers, men such as John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington who were true political leaders, great statesmen and most unique characters who understood freedom, separation of church and state, work ethics, patriotism, bravery, the sanctity of life, etc. and the rest is history.

Egypt must produce such men and women, they are there indeed but Egypt deserves a break for such men and women to take charge. In fact, considering the lack of dignity, social and country norms in the country today, it probably is a good idea to stop all of this shouting for and chatter about democracy and concentrate on unearthing a leader who has restoring Egypt's glory as a deep passion.

Such leader will embark on finding other leaders to work with him/her in setting the country on the right course, putting together a constitution, government, parliament and institutions that would usher in the necessary norms for a nation to prosper. We know it is high risk, we know the proven track record of the 1952 revolution (actually it was more like a coup!), and we know that power corrupts, but Egypt must yet again take a chance, what else is there to do. One never knows, look at the many countries around the world that managed to turn the corner, it could happen. These countries all had in common leaders who were passionate, competent, with an iron will and had in mind but one thing: how to make their countries a happy place to live.

Not unlike George Washington, such a leader of Egypt, working not for himself, his family or his cronies, but for Egypt and only for Egypt, will upon leaving after one term have Egypt on the course already successfully traversed by modern nations the world over. Freedom, democracy, prosperity and the pursuit of happiness will become a regular jargon in Egypt. This is the desirable and natural progression, and as Napoléon Bonaparte said "rien n'est impossible" - nothing is impossible.

The question today is not if Egypt should strive for progress, it is that if it stays the current course or turns into an Islamic nation, its survival would become at risk. It is in my opinion a certainty that it would slide down into a nondescript nation. Happiness would be a mirage.

Conclusion

Egypt, a happy nation! Well, there is so much at stake in the coming period in the life of Egypt, many worlds within Egypt are colliding at this moment, the Islamists, the progressives, the illiterates, the revolutionaries who want a happy Egypt and the people who are resigned to the status quo of the nation's affairs, want to live in peace and put food on the table.

In my opinion, I see three rival nations within Egypt:

one that does not believe in our world and is basically treading water until they get to the afterlife, the eternal life where they can get everything they missed out on on earth,
a second one that sees a way to join in with the modern world that is conditional on preserving intact Islamic and Arabic laws, traditions and norms, basically inventing a new path to modern life, an unrealistic, insincere and unworkable concept, and
a third one that is advocating major reforms all across the board (Islam, a term-limit president, power sharing, civilian government, civic institutions, the security apparatus, the military, the judiciary, the media and deal sustainable blows to corruption) that would allow Egypt to become a modern nation.

I hope against all hope that the third nation emerges from that epic struggle for survival that is currently taking shape in Egypt. My heart is burning and is threatening to burst to see a modern Egypt, where its people are happy for their thirst for a decent, clean and fulfilling life is being quenched.

I have confidence that the Egyptian people's genuine soul and high spirit, as well as its will honed over centuries of civilization, will carry the day. Their passion for life will win out, I know, I am an Egyptian. I write this to you, my dear friends, on this, the last day of the most remarkable year in Egypt's modern history.

I close by saying that the day Hassan, in the seven-minute video below, can grow up happy, we all will know Egypt's future is in good shape. Since the interview is in Arabic, I will summarize it here... Hassan, 16 years old, is one of the revolutionaries at Tahrir Square. Look at this Egyptian valiant boy who, despite getting nothing but poverty and oppression from his country, talks about his hopes and dreams, and his willingness and readiness to die for Egypt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gocb7E8SW5Q&mid=55

Egypt needs all of its Hassans to be happy and have a future worthy of its name.

Hussein

http://husseinamin45.blogspot.com/ - Egypt and the Middle East: Analyses of the situation in Egypt, the Middle East and other topics of interest.

Dr. Hussein Amin / د. حسين أمين

hussein.amin45@gmail.com
"When someone shares something of value with you, and you benefit from it, you have a moral obligation to share it with others."

Sunday, January 1, 2012

EGYPT, a Happy Nation It Is Not