Egypt : striking while the iron is hot

Abstract

The Egyptian dream of building a new society is being frustrated by the many ailments of the government, the relations, the society and the economy of the country. The present obstacles at present are population growth and the discrepancy with production, the bureaucracy, the difficulties with relation to the State of Israel, and the search for the integration of the Islamic fundamentalists within a democratic picture of Egypt, if any. As the main underlying problems of state limitations are being met by the quest to privatize and to open up more to foreign investment, the growing disparity between supply and demand in the areas of basic needs is still an acute one. Additionally, population distribution has contributed its share of problems. It is not much a problem of birth control than a problem of pressurizing population dislocation on socio-economic and political structures. The threefold dilemma had been triggered in 1967 as a result of the exodus of residents from the Canal cities to the Nile Valley, carried on due to internal labour migration prospects, and is expected to manifest itself on a wider scale due to the problem of returning migrants to Egypt from oil-producing countries when the infrastructures once needed in order to combine oil-production with a good standard of living are now almost complete. One possible solution has been that of encroaching on the desert and with constant studies at local universities scrutinizing the viability of such projects, these enterprises are likely to succeed as they already have with the Sixth-Of-October City, Tenth-of-Ramadan and Sadat: three out of the many brand new desert cities.