Uk Copts
16 May 2009

A reign of brash, impulsive imprudence


   Gamal Abdel Nasser

When I look back in time about what happened to our dear Egypt, some times I feel tears in my eyes. Poor Egypt was hit by a series of incompetent impetuous rulers.

They acted more like pubescent minors who did not know how to handle themselves in the bush of power and politics.

 Most of the time they toyed with the power they acquired in an irresponsible manner. As a result the successors to Nasser were a product of his foolish choices that brought nothing on the country but devastation.

To cover for their incompetence and ignorance, they proudly advocated that ability is not a cherished quality in a man, only loyalty counts. As a result, we had a government of ignorant sycophants who would say anything to please the ruler rather than give him prudent advice.

The argument was a loyal man will learn over time the required abilities while an able man may not become loyal to the regime. Thus Egypt was cursed by a cadre of incompetents whose decisions were hurting the country day in and day out.  No one cared about what this foolishness would do to the future of the country.

What triggered these thoughts in my mind an article about what is happening in Luxor. That the heritage of the ancient Egyptians is being assaulted by the increase in humidity in the tombs and is endangering the one source on income that brings to Egypt something close to five billion Dollars every year.

The fact is a brash Nasser was playing awkward with the West who did not like his dance of threats and treason, recklessly expressed improper opinions On the Head of State of the USA. He showed the public that he can speak impolitely about President Johnson at the time and about Eugene Black who was the head of the International Monetary Fund. He wanted them to finance the construction of the High Dam and when they expressed their qualms about the project he threw a tantrum.

What the imprudent president did not know is that President Johnson had in front of him at the time a study by Arthur D. Little – the most prominent consulting firm in the world - expressing serious doubts about the profitability of the venture.

A matter of fact the study that costed America at the time some thirty million Dollars expressly asserted that the project would entail a loss of between ten percent to fifteen percent. Most people thought of the project as a construction project. The A. D. Little study treated the project as an economic investment project. They included in the picture the implications of constructing the High Dam.  There findings were confirmed later on by the realities of what is happening now in Egypt as a result of going ahead with construction.

The study predicted the followings;

1 – The erosion of the land in the northern Delta.

2 – The increase in salinity of the land in the Northern Delta.

3 – That most of the silt will accumulate behind the dam instead of being carried down to enrich the arable land in the Delta.

4 – They expressed qualms about the subsequent effect on the migration of Sardines.

5 – They correctly predicted the rise in the water table across the country and expressed their qualms on the effect of such an incident on the safety of the foundations of the  existing structures.

6- They also predicted that the size of Lake Nasser will continue to expand and flood additional land and eventually some of these inundated areas will be shallow enough to allow increased evaporation of water given the prevailing  temperature in the area.

That the increased perimeter of the lake will increase the loss of water through increased seepage in the sand This is bound to decrease the amount of water flow to Egypt. That by the year 2070 the flow of water in the Nile will not be enough to satisfy irrigation needs as well as sanitary needs of the population.

This last point is very important indeed, at least from the point of view of the Islamists. If the water supply will not be adequate for both agriculture and human needs some use will have to be curtailed. The people will have the options of planting to eat, or curtailing some human use of water like ablution for example. Which in turn would mean neglecting prayers. The Imams tell us that neglecting prayers is tantamount to apostasy and this would be an incredible devastation  to the faith of the public.

The only solution we can suggest now to this dilemma is for Egypt to get  it self a nuclear reactor to fill the void of electricity and to leave the High dam open to stand as a testimony to the foolishness of our beloved Nasser who thrusted the country in several ventures all of them proved to be failures.  Hopefully we should learn that ability has its value and that loyalty is good but not without ability.