Friday, May 18, 2012

Day 2


I should start by updating about the end of day 1.  We played water polo (our team won, likely due to professor hamad) and then had an expert in Egyptian Microfinance speak with us.  Development economics is my favorite subfield, and I know our professor asked this specific speaker in to interest the economics majors.  She was wonderful and gave a great history of Egyptian micro finance.  She talked about how it is mostly provided by NGOs to groups of women.  The women-group-lending makes up 70% of micro finance here.  Individual finance and privatization are beginning to become a trend, but its still in the first stages.  

Most interesting was the amount of success this country has had with Microcredit.  The default rate for group lending is almost zero, and the graduated system allows for eventual financial inclusion for the active poor.  Also heartening was that the evils of privatization have not reaped havoc on poor Egyptians yet.  They have a lack of trust and a general disadvantage here, unlike in the Punjab province of India where they have created unhealthy lending habits and even lead to the suicides of some farmers.  I'm glad Egypt's industry is fairly successful.  

Today was Friday and we went to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities.  Our tour guide, Achmed, who is an Egyptologist, gave us a brief description of Egyptian history while we drove to the museum.  There were two regions in Egypt- upper kingdom and lower kingdom.  The ancient history begins around 5000 BC if I remember correctly and is divided into 30 dynasties with 3 periodic kingdoms.  The museum was mind-blowing.  There were so many statues and hieroglyphics; i'm astonished Achmed was able to memorize where they all came from.  Most well known is the tomb of King Tutankamun (sp?).  He ruled from the age of 10 to 20 and had the most treasure in his tomb.  He was buried in four sarcophaguses, the inside one made of solid gold.  We also saw several mummies, including the mummy of King Rameses II and several animal mummies.  Even a Gazelle, which was cool for me to see.  

It was unbearably hot today and by the time we left the un-airconditioned museum I was so hungry I thought I was going to fall over.  Luckily, we went to a wonderful restaurant and had Koshery-- a traditional Egyptian working class, vegetarian, lunch.  (pictures below).  It definitely blew American food out of the water.  

After lunch we did a little shopping and returned to the hotel where I napped, and then listened to a participant of the revolution tell his story.  It was so neat to hear from someone that was on the ground on January 25-28 and to hear him talk about Friday of Rage when they stormed through the bridge into Tahrir Square and drove out the police.  This lack of security resulted in a need for Egyptian men to guard their neighborhoods every night all night for looting.  It was wonderful to hear about the solidarity and faith/energy of the young Egyptians.  

Lastly, we had seafood (again, blows American food out of the water) and discussed the best outcome for the Egyptian elections-- how will they measure the success of the revolution? I believe that if any member of Mobarak's former regime, such as front runner Amr Moussa (sp?), wins protests will again break out.  Its a sad truth that it may take Egypt a very long time to become the consolidated democracy it desires.   I will follow Amartya Sen and say that to measure success in Egypt the people must be equipped with the freedom of choice.  To choose the paths of their lives- no level of poverty or social class should stop any one humans development choice.  

Tomorrow we see the step pyramids.  

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