Thoughts on the Third World

Editorial Note: The thoughts in this article are musings more than opinions. I do not mean to imply that the US is as restricted as Egypt, only that we are not as free as we like to think we are, or as people in other countries might think we are. I'm glad I'm American!

Today I'm reminded that I live in a third world country. It's surprising how quickly one learns to overlook the donkey carts, trash piles, and freshly butchered animals. These are things I see everyday on my walk to and from the metro.

I was reading some statistics about Egypt. With over 10% unemployment, 20% of people living in poverty, and less than 60% of the women being literate, it's a tough place to live. In a country of over 80 million people, the workforce is only 21 million, and there's still unemployment.

In class we talked about democracy and freedom of the press. It was kind of depressing to realize that a pure democracy is as idealistic as pure communism. Not to say that Egypt and the US are the same, but people are self-serving no matter what kind of government is in place. Even with so-called freedom of the press, each country has its own bias when it comes to reporting events. One could argue that the news in the US is also censored/filtered/restricted. The difference is in who is doing the censoring. For Egypt, it's the government. For the US... perhaps it's advertisers or PACs. Regardless of who does the repression, people are recieving highly filtered news. So much for free press.

The more I'm here the more I realize that in this highly traditional society, things are done to be self-sustaining. The traditions exist in order to keep things the way they are (one definition of tradition!). So Egyptians are always saying things need to change and in the next breath saying things will never change.

I work at and attend a school that caters to the elite, if only because they can afford it. Everyday I walk by a family who lives in a one-room shack and eats their dinner on the side of the street. It so happens that across the street from them is the Adidas building, all shiny and black. On the same street are brand new Mercedes. My students talk about the need for education reform. The current education system ensures that they get a job and not let new people into the upper class. I occasionally drive by a beautiful building - always a government building or a mosque. Why aren't the government and the religion helping create decent housing? Egypt's GNP has been growing at a healthy percentage rate for years, yet unemployment is high, the income per capita remains low, and inflation seems to be out of control. Why?

Things here are a paradox.