That’s Cairo! Not Egypt! What about the rest of the country? We are not complaining, WE are trying to put into action changes which will benefit our own small community here on the West Bank of Luxor, which is most definitely not Cairo! Without money it is difficult but the small changes we make we hope will become bigger ones in the future. And it would help if the Governors of Egypt realised that we exist to; that might help!

In more ways than one, to be sure. But if that is the case then we have a very long wait here in Luxor. Think I’ll just get on with my own plans for improvement. It might be quicker. 😛

I agree, it is very much up to the people themselves to create change for themselves. I don’t know much about Lower Egypt but here in Upper Egypt the poverty is so high that it is nearly impossible for people to dig themselves out of it.
Add that to very archaic social customs and beliefs and it feels like we are living in a culture of abuse and oppression. I live in a large village and I see how little power people have to change anything in their lives. If you have no access to money it is very difficult to move out of the poverty trap. There are so many issues! And yet people are striving to live a ‘modern’ life with beliefs which are hundreds of years old. It just doesn’t work.
People put themselves into debt for thousands of pounds just to marry off a daughter, or build a flat for their son, which then leaves them penniless. So much money is spent on medicine and doctors that is completely unnecessary. Education is not what it was 30 years ago and illiteracy is rife. I think it will take many more years than 15 to heal all that needs to be healed here.
The people that seem to become successful here are the ones who can bring money in from outside, such as building wealth in Saudi Arabia then bringing it home. But even then their families eat it up!
The moral fibre of Egypt is filled with holes. Children are brought up with no clue as to what is right or wrong. They are given no boundaries, they are not taught that actions have consequences. They are not taught to be responsible but to rely heavily on handouts from the government.
If they are disempowered from the day of their birth, how can they ever know responsibility?
There is a long, long road ahead and I think it will take many, many years to heal the psychological wounds in this country.
On a positive note though I do see younger people, with more education, trying to make changes, especially in Cairo. I hope that desire for change starts to flow into Upper Egypt. I think personally though that revolutions only breed revolutionaries and that education around how to take people out of poverty etc is probably that better way to change the country. Education is really the key!
I don’t have a lot of faith in Governments but I do have hope for the people of Egypt, that they can find their power and take it back in the right way, through changing themselves. But that will time and money and an open mind.
In the meantime I try here in my own small way, taking our family in a new direction, which is a laborious process, but little by little. ‘Small seeds’ as they say…