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The tepid televised debate between two drab presidential candidates is a poignant symbol of the superficiality of the events that have transpired in Egypt over the course of the past 18 or so months.  Egypt's pompous political class -- from the candidates to the idiotic talking heads -- is utterly shambolic.    

The Solution to Democratic Chaos in Egypt

Move over Justin Bieber...

For starters, raise the voting age and ban girls from voting (it must be the manly appeal of the beard).  While we are at it, may as well ban boys from voting too, and outlaw those with brown hair and/or brown eyes, in addition of course to banning the entirely unreliable black, red or blond haired and/or blue, green or hazel eyed voters. Needless to say, the same rules shall apply to eligibility for candidacy, supplementing the well-reasoned rules for those with any non-Egyptian familial ties (no more experimentation with failures like Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, Mohamed Ali or Taha Hussein).

Strawberry Fields Forever



Perish the thought

Hold the farawla bil ishta.  The highly qualified agricultural experts of Tahrir have identified the root cause of Egypt's food problems.  The cause is not the 85 million inhabitants haphazardly living along the narrow Nile valley, the country's finite water resources, nor the distortive control and command policies that have dictated how, when, where and at what price farmers can grow and sell crops.  The cause is strawberries.

Capitalist-flavored shisha

Never mind that strawberries grow on approximately 0.00175% of Egypt's cultivated land. Never mind that the Egyptian strawberry industry is underpinned by a natural competitive advantage attributable to the country's warmth and location, which enables the delicious red berries to hit the domestic and European markets before surrounding producers can do so. Never mind Egypt is one of the top strawberry producers in the world, with products successfully marketed as far away as China. And never mind that the staple cereals that the revolutionary "experts" would like to have replace the strawberries are much more cheaply imported into Egypt, rather than seeking to re-produce the rolling plains of the American Midwest or East Asian rice paddies in a cramped river delta surrounded by an endless expanse of desert.

A Day in the Life of Egypt

Left Behind: Egypt's Hopeless Socialists

The self-appointed leftist guardians of the Egyptian “revolution” are as naïve as they are intellectually bankrupt. Their vast overestimation of their evidently limited appeal, combined with their patently inadequate political capabilities, have allowed for Islamists to manhandle the social and political scene.

Tired defenses of adverse domestic and foreign agendas are made even more redundant when the Left tries to conjure up an excuse for an economic agenda. They resist acceptance of IMF loans at a fraction of the rate of domestic borrowings, while campaigning to “drop Egypt’s debt” (note to the uniformed – Egypt already has benefitted from unmatched and massive rounds of debt relief from supposedly evil Western creditors, negotiated under the watch of Egypt’s supposedly debt-crazed past governments). They now oppose the prospect of a free trade agreement with the European Union, Egypt’s largest export market, because “local shoemakers and cobblers will be out of jobs, which will set back the economy far more than the few cents consumers save buying the foreign made shoes.”

Charm City

Baltimore, Maryland:  eclectic, electric America.

The land of Poe.

Surprise, Surprise: Obama's US without Friends

Blowing it

After blindly championing a policy of trying to look popular and ignoring the consequences of undercutting a leadership nurtured over decades, and then pursuing a hopelessly flawed accommodation with regressive Islamists, the U.S. Government finds itself desperate to find friends in Egypt.  With the years of dominant U.S. military, political and economic presence, this is nothing short of outrageous.

So what does Team Obama do next?  It carries on with its amateurish attitude of getting into highly publicized tiffs with junior ministers over peripheral issues, and acts with a chip on its shoulder through a self-defeating policy of turning international financial institutions against Egypt.   

Young Africans v Zamalek - Football (and Normality?) Returns at Last!

Egypt for too long has been in in a state of fear, mourning and pessimism.  The causes of this are numerous, ranging from the depressed economy to inflated revolutionary expectations to ominous signs of further curtailments of already meager individual rights to the worrisome stream of criminal activity.  There are some -- both of the "revolutionary" and "counter-revolutionary" variety -- who see value in chaos, instability and a general lack of normalcy.  For the rest of us, however, we want to live our lives, and life for the tens of millions of us means having our football back.

Zambia Wins! Inspiration from Humility

  

David overcometh Goliath

Against all the odds, Zambia pulled it off.  In the very country where their entire national team was killed in an airplane tragedy nineteen years ago, this undersized squad of no-names with a funky Chipolopolo moniker overcame one favored adversary after the next, culminating in the triumph over the most star-studded sides of them all, the annoyingly francophone Côte d'Ivoire.  The storyline is awesome and inspiring in its goodness, and reinforces belief in the power of sport in general, and its most beautiful game in particular. 

Islamic Patriot Bonds: Another Band-Aid Solution

The Pound is sinking

After maxing out on internal borrowings that are crowding out domestic lending capacity and issuing sovereign bonds at junk rate yields, the economic brain-trust has come up with another novel solution:  trying to sucker Egyptians living abroad into lending them money at below market rates.  While appealing to patriotism and religion (they will be “Islamic” bonds; i.e., effectively exactly the same as non-Islamic bonds, only the interest coupons are instead deemed as rental payments), the missing feature is the fact that Egyptians – whether within Egypt or residing abroad – are not suckers.  They, like any other investors, will conduct due diligence and invest where returns are in line with what the market dictates.

The Jellyfish of Port Said

The events that unfolded at the Masry-Ahly match were tragic and depressing, even if unfortunately not totally surprising. The subsequent reaction has been outrageous. Keep politics out of sports. Revolutions, counter-revolutions, phantom revolutions or whatever the hell else they are, they do not belong in or around a game that brings passion and pleasure to tens of millions of Egyptians who simply want to support their team for 90 minutes and forget about their daily struggles. Your battles can be fought in parliament, esoteric constitutional debates, talk shows, tweets, street demonstrations or wherever else. Leave the rest of us alone.

Small-Minded Defeatism of Washington

It is understandable, if not terribly illuminating, to see some uninformed, unorthodox and outright silly analysis of a normally relatively sedate topic, once the matter becomes publicized at the highest level by this highly politicized White House.  As such, much of the wacky views about what to do with Egypt -- ranging from tying the country to a global jihad to sugar-coating clearly anti-modern Islamists as Jeffersonian democrats -- can be dismissed as part of the expected Beltway reaction. 

What is far less acceptable, however, is when leading experts of Egypt policy in Washington can offer so little in terms of a constructive approach for putting Egypt on a modernist path of reform in this time of transformation.  The central assumption of the CSIS's Egypt in Transition:  Insights and Options for U.S. Policy is that the United States has a very limited role in Egypt and, as such, can basically not do much apart from watching on the sidelines and occasionally making a point here or there.  The assumption is inaccurate and leads to a dangerous conclusion of inaction. 

The World Cup Mission and the Revolution

Egypt has qualified to participate in just one World Cup soccer tournament since 1934.  This, notwithstanding the country having a highly talented player pool, one of the oldest soccer federations, largest populations  and most passionate fan bases on the continent.  The reasons for this failure are educational in observing the ebbs and flows of events in Egypt since last January. 

Awaiting greatness 

Like the mass demonstrations of Tahrir, there is real energy, passion and potential in Egyptian football that can make an impact, but there is also chronically haphazard organization, unstable leadership and a tendency to allow emotions to overtake performance holding things back.  There is always a "what-if" feeling about how some young star or group of players could have been great, but for being ill-nurtured by the surrounding chaos.  The forty day league stoppages to allow a group of junior players to prepare to play a friendly match, ad-hoc club decisions to pull out of tournaments, nutty decisions to grant “exclusive” licenses to televise matches to half a dozen stations, and players bowing in prayer after scoring goals on handballs or breaking down into uncontrollable bouts of tears after an adverse decision or insult from the even more emotional crowd, have all contributed to a record of underachievement. 

Orwell Would be Proud

Egypt’s interior ministry says “heavenly coincidence” Jan 25 anniversary, police day come together

Cause is Effect.  Effect is Cause.

Ammu Kamal

Today, Egypt lost one of its good souls.  May the good Lord reward him for his life of generosity and kindness. 

The IMF and Egypt - Helping Egypt Help Itself

In all of the desperate grasping for how Egypt can be saved from the abyss of an impoverished, Islamist tyranny, the long overdue turn of the Egyptian government to the International Monetary Fund presents an opportunity for the world to help Egypt help itself. Apart from plugging a hole in the country’s finances – caused largely by haphazard decision and indecision of the successive interim governments over the past year – IMF-linked structural reforms offer an avenue for sustained change in Egypt.

Egypt's Team

Of the People.  By the People.  For the People.

Rabbis Not Welcome: From Abu Hasira to Jesus to Tyranny

Another Jewish Rabbi in Egypt

The decision to cancel the annual celebration in the Nile Delta of the 19th century Jewish rabbi Abu Hasira is troubling.  Though there are certain, justifiable concerns with securing an event attended by a few hundred orthodox Jews in an obscure location (even if those concerns are exaggerated, given the long-standing presence of the festival and participation of Muslim Egyptians in it), the fact of the decision being driven by, and celebrated as a victory for, the "revolutionaries" speaks volumes about the motivations of the purported national liberators.  All concerned with freedom of religion and thought, should take note. 

Obama's Egypt: An Exclusionary Christmas



Copts

Even when he tries to appear accommodating to a Christian community whom he has dangerously undermined through his wrong-headed policies, he gets it wrong.  In offering Christmas greetings to Coptic Orthodox Christians, President Obama is specifically excluding all non-Orthodox Copts also celebrating Christmas on January 7, and reinforcing the very prejudices that he claims to want to help Egypt overcome.  Copts are Egyptians, and Egyptians are Copts, not just Orthodox, and not even just Christians.  All are celebrating the birth of Jesus.  

Who is advising this guy?   

Why Egypt Still Has Hope - Reason #2



Re-nationalization: A Cotton Pickin' Mess!

Egypt's white gold

Buried under the endless commentary of the recent violence in Egypt (but not lost on investors), a decision taken by an administrative court to annul the sale of shares of a then state-owned cotton ginning company threatens to cause far more lasting damage than any demonstrations, election results or political figurehead. Taken within the context of an already toxic mix of a fiscal crisis, unstable leadership and the urge for short-term, populist policymaking, this decision (still hopefully to be overturned) sets the stage for complete economic chaos. 

The ruling itself is based on vague allegations of an undervaluation of assets and even more vague allegations of corruption, and follows a troubling trend of similarly statist edits from imprecise, activist judges (encouraged/directed, no doubt, by military insiders seeking to reassert their total control over the private sector, incompetent interim governments, as well as misguided activists in their fanciful mission against the bourgeois). Left totally unanswered are questions of how to redeem shares held and traded by the wider public and workers (who as per most Egyptian privatizations, were granted a significant stake of floated shares as an incentive to participate as part owners in their company), and the impact on creditors. Egypt's reeling stock market is being further damaged, and the uncertainty of the decision further undermines the already compromised credibility of the country's investment climate.

Why Egypt Still Has Hope - Reason #1

Buy Egyptian?

 

Not to be confused with the evil import

If the latest gimmick to jump start the dormant Egyptian economy is a sign of things to come, then we are in big trouble. No matter how many bags of kebab-flavored Chipsy (owned by Pepsico) are munched, nor colorful galabaya are purchased (typically with imported, short-staple cotton, since higher quality long-staple Egyptian cotton is used in higher end goods that are exported and produce much more value added), the “Buy Egypt” campaign will do nothing to address the structural deficiencies in the economic system. 



Mmmm

Worse, the campaign is a reflection of the quick-fix, delusional and autarkic thinking that looks to isolate Egypt from the global economy and create artificial markets, when it is precisely the opposite that is needed. Whether it is flawed ideas of disavowing foreign borrowing, fanciful and regressive notions of food self-sufficiency or grand, national schemes to create dead-end jobs, all of this is stifling the country’s potential and delaying badly needed reform.   

Brothers in Arms: Team Obama and the Muslim Brotherhood

Ughh

Senator John Kerry’s recent high-profile visit to the ostentatious new headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood (query the funding source) is the latest in the continuing outrages of the Obama Administration's placation of regressive Islamists. Never mind that the lower house election cycle in Egypt is only one-third complete. Never mind that secular forces naturally allied to U.S. ideals of civil and individual rights are being suffocated by religious demagogues of whom the Muslim Brotherhood are the patron saint. Never mind that U.S. attention and recognition remain decisive factors on the Egyptian political scene. The head of the Salafist party - supposedly distinct and separate from the supposedly moderate Brotherhood party - synthezied it all quite well: "[t]he American administration's contact with Islamists is a sign of victory for us." 

Message to Egyptian Revolutionaries: GET REAL!

So the experiment of populism has produced an unsurprisingly miserable outcome.  No need to whitewash the result through tortured reasoning about the differences between backward and even more backward brands of political Islam, the allocation of distant minority votes or trying to make sense of the idiosyncratic voting system.  Whatever feel-good factor was generated by the relatively high voter interest and participation, the landslide victory of the Islamists is a blow to the cause of the betterment of a progressive Egypt.     

This result should not be a surprise.  It is virtually exactly the same result as that of the constitutional referendum from last March.  The vote simply is a reflection of what Egypt has become over the past sixty years – a country lacking in economic growth, lacking in proper education, lacking in cultural openness, and a country that is highly susceptible to the corrupting influences of a paternalistic state and even more paternalistic and manipulative religious clergy.  The result is also unsurprising because it stems from an ill-considered process of political transformation driven by street demonstrations, Twitter feeds and idiotic political televangelists that cornered the ruling authorities into following quick-fix solutions to protect what will always matter most to them – maintaining a pliable status quo wherein they always come out on top.  And the result is unsurprising, because the brain-children in the White House fatally comprised the standing of secular forces in the region by naively (Team Obama is too ignorant to have done so intentionally) aiding-and-abetting the intractable rise of the Islamists.    

Get used to it

What is surprising, annoying, depressing and ultimately most damning to the cause of a progressively transformed Egypt, however, is the reaction of a wide spectrum of the self-appointed guardians of the defunct Egyptian “revolution.”  However well-intentioned and passionate, the ostrich-like vision of liberal activists to the trying circumstances surrounding them has been detrimental to the good cause.  The majority vote of the Egyptian populace will not be won during this election cycle, and it could not have been won.