Egypt's big headache

Submitted by Rebecca Moulds (United States), Jan 29, 2008 at 22:44

Yasser Arafat must have been smoking something if he thought he could turn Gaza into another Singapore. Harry Lee (better known as Lee Kuan Yew) cleaned up Singapore the only way that worked:: tough laws that were upheld, Changi Prison full of political dissidents, and a determination to come into the 20th Century.

The ethnic Chinese, which make up the majority of the population of Singapore, are a very proud and hard-working people, and Singapore fought long and hard for its independence from Malaysia. I have been to Singapore over 40 times, stayed for months at a time, have Singaporean friends, would move there in a second. That place works.

Hosni Mubarak is no Lee Kuan Yew either, and the state that Gaza is in seems to be Egypt's fault. and the fault of shoddy leadership by Hamas. The Muslim Brotherhood have a lot to answer for; they are still politically active in Egypt and a source of no small irritation to the Egyptian government. That Egypt should absorb Gaza is a joke, but a sad joke, because Egypt is so overpopulated now that it just couldn't support millions more. When I lived there (1996 - 2006) it was said the population of Cairo was really 20 million: of that, 2 million Sudanese, Ethiopian and other African refugees, 2 million mixed population in Ma'adi, the suburb I lived in.

Of course, Gaza is not that close to Cairo, and Cairo is expanding into New Cairo, 6th of October City, and other megalopolises in the Sahara. But the real sore point is that the USA pours millions of dollars into Egypt annually, and for what? Subsidized bread flour and other essentials. From my vantage point, Egypt is a mess, and Gaza in even worse shape. It seems that no one wants Gaza and the Palestinians who live there, and that's a great pity. The so-called "leaders" of Hamas will have a lot to answer for on Judgment Day.

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