Pre-Meeting Notes
Issues
Government by Santa Claus
Created jobs in government
Inflation
Supress opposition
Privatize by corruption
Army owns factories
Surplus of government workers, buracracy, inhibit private growth
A buracrat is only doing something if he stops something from happenings.
Then accepts cash to let it happen. Slows and adds cost to emerging business needed
to create productive jobs.
Population.
Our guide says 57% of Egypt's population is under age 25 and 37% under 15. I assumed life expectancy had to be low to magnify the effect of youthfulness. But life expectancy is 70.1 for males and 75.4 for females, about the same as the U.S. in 1980.
Next question, why so many young? A thought is the infant mortality survival must have increased and birth controls have not yet adapted. U.S. is about 20% under 15 and 34% under 25. They have double our young. Unemployment 9%. Likely to get worse.
My observation is that excess youth population coorelates with willingness for violence (civil unrest) and to go to war (international solution to domestic problems). Humm?
American Issues
US Aid -- $1.3 B military; .25 B economic
Palestinian rights
Who is who?
FJP - Muslim Brotherhood party
Salafis - religious party
Wafd - largest liberal party, 8%
SCAF - armed forces party
Hamas -Sunni, elected goverment of Palestine.
Fatah - Yasser Arafat's party, militant for Palistine.
Class The moderator made much of the 5,000 year history of Egypt.
The video made much of tending to our shared goals with Egypt
My Questions?
What ARE our shared goals with Egypt?.
The class did not answer that question. I can think of archeology and tourism. And custodianship of the Suez Canal, but that is mostly a European interest .
Why does not oil money support Palestinian State? But is Shariah Law.
Do we want that?
URL: http://www.manorweb.com/creative/2013/2egypt.html