Understanding Egypt (a little)

Cairo's Blue Mosque, a smaller version of Istanbul's Blue Mosque

While mostly Muslim, Egypt is a country of many peoples and cultures, ranging from Muslim (mostly) to Coptic Christian (about 10 to 12%) to literally a handful of Jews (perhaps fewer than a hundred), most of whom emigrated to Israel in the years right after Israel became a nation.  Egyptians' origins include Africa, the Middle East and Europe, with rulers and ruled coming from all directions.  After thousands of years of Pharaonic rule, Greeks, Romans, Ottomans and Europeans controlled Egypt at various times, leaving their imprint on the history and culture of this fascinating country.

Blue Mosque courtyard, a former marketplace in the mosque

Egypt now has over 100 million people, up from 23 million when President Nasser took over in 1952 after a coup that ousted King Farouk.  Cairo has more than 20 million residents, making it a crowded, polluted and exciting place to live.  When we drove to our hotel in Giza (west of the Nile) from the Cairo airport (east of the Nile) on Saturday night, we were struck by the immense mass and density of high-rise apartment buildings that seemed to have only a few occupants in their dozens or even hundreds of units.  There are literally thousands of buildings that are barely or not occupied.  Our guide told us that farmers had sold their land and built apartment buildings, thinking that would provide them a better income.  They built the structures so close together that, in many cases, even a tuk tuk can't move in between, and people don't want to buy where they can't access transportation to their jobs.  I don't know how accurate this explanation is, but there are certainly buildings that are wall to wall against one another, with no alleyways in between and obviously very limited access to transportation corridors.
Traffic in Cairo is expectedly chaotic, much like Saigon's central traffic circle where cars and motorbikes move around and around waiting for a chance to exit onto the chosen street, complete chaos with an order known only to those who navigate it daily.  The major Cairo streets and bridges are 5 or 6 lanes wide, with no vehicle staying in its own lane.  Everyone moves like a mass of disorderly ants, with surprisingly few collisions.  The margin of safety between cars, motorscooters and pedestrians can be measured in inches.  There are no bicycles, since that would indeed mean suicide for the rider. 

the Hanging Church (Coptic)

Meanwhile, horses and donkeys pulling carts, stately camels topped by freight or people, tuk tuks, vans loading and unloading people along the sides of the road, pedestrians often burdened with large loads on their heads, motorbikes and trucks all share the roadways in an ebullient cacophony of horns, shouts, grunts and billowing exhaust.  Alongside the roads are shops and markets where Cairenes buy whatever they need for the day.
After a morning of seeing some of Cairo's most important sites, we ended our day at the U.S. Embassy for an excellent briefing on the political, economic and social environment.  As always when we visit our embassies around the world, we were very impressed with the knowledge of the foreign service officers who represent American interests abroad.
China and Russia are becoming more influential in Egypt because the U.S. has significantly reduced aid and investment, while China and Russia have increased theirs.  The Egyptian military is dominant in running the economy and is wary about the strings attached to Chinese investment.  In much of Africa, where China has been very active, the Chinese loan money to the government, which then cannot repay the loan, ceding ownership of the important infrastructure project (i.e., port or road or dam) to the Chinese.  China also brings in Chinese laborers for construction projects, rather than hiring and training local citizens.  Egypt is very aware of this behavior and has no intention of allowing control of their major projects and economy to go to the Chinese.

carved frieze showing Egyptian fishing and farming in pharanoic days

Politically, Egyptians are acutely aware of the disasters that have befallen Syria and Libya since the Arab Spring.  They will tolerate a large measure of repression in order to have stability.  The Egyptian economy, which has suffered high inflation and minimal growth since the revolution in 2011 to 2013, is just beginning to return to life.  President el Sissi has been able to open the economy ever so slightly and to reduce inflation, which robbed the middle class of half their savings when the Egyptian pound was allowed to float freely. 
When we were last here in 2011, as the revolution started, we heard people in the tourism industry optimistically saying President Mubarak would survive the protests and that life would go on as usual.  They were wrong, paid a big price as tourism virtually disappeared, and are very protective of the growing opportunities they have right now for jobs and businesses.  With some new oil and gas discoveries, there is another industry that is providing jobs and economic growth.  Green energy is also growing.  Near, Aswan, Egypt claims to have the world's largest solar field.  Nevertheless, there is so far to go before Egypt develops into an economic force, even in Africa.