The Italian weekly "Venerdì" greeted me good morning with the most disturbing news of the recent days:
"Egypt's interim ruler, the Military Supreme Council , decided to give the go to the construction of the super bridge to connect Sinai to Saudi Arabia, the bridge reportedly will be the longest bridge on earth. The mega project that will cost five billion dollars, and was laying dead in the office of the ousted Mubarak for over thirty years, now will see light and will finaly connect pilgrims and traders from both sides of the Red Sea."!
It seem as if we will never learn from our past mistakes, by which we allowed a political choice to put the chains of submission firmly around our necks for centuries from the Suez Canal to that bridge, the identical pharaonic projects set to weaken our economic strength and social cohesion for generations.
We can't forget the high dam and the damage it caused to the environment, to the population (the Nubians are still Egyptians) and of course to the economy. Nor should we neglect the distructive consequenses of another icon of dictatorship as the Toshky valley, which gave away almost for free hundreds of thousands of feddans to foreign speculators, but most dangerously demolished our relations with the rest of the Nile waters contenders, thus paving the way for Israel to dictate its strategic agenda in Africa and to control the sources of the eternal river.
Both projects have sucked billions of dollars in loans and interests converted automatically into long term debts with no actual return, we still lack enough electric energy which bills weigh heavy over the egyptian family's already strained and suffering budgets; and the never born valley didn't provide forests of fortunes or millions of new jobs.
What strikes the most is the fact that none of such absurd political caprices, passed through a popular referendum, nor have been debated upon experts and intellectuals, or even took its chances in the parliament. But the cherry on top of the pie is that the actual ruling body, who functions only by interim, and as though should not decide strategic decisions. The council should never be allowed to impose not only a long term political agenda, but any political agenda.
We should always remember who impowered that council.
We can't forget the high dam and the damage it caused to the environment, to the population (the Nubians are still Egyptians) and of course to the economy. Nor should we neglect the distructive consequenses of another icon of dictatorship as the Toshky valley, which gave away almost for free hundreds of thousands of feddans to foreign speculators, but most dangerously demolished our relations with the rest of the Nile waters contenders, thus paving the way for Israel to dictate its strategic agenda in Africa and to control the sources of the eternal river.
Both projects have sucked billions of dollars in loans and interests converted automatically into long term debts with no actual return, we still lack enough electric energy which bills weigh heavy over the egyptian family's already strained and suffering budgets; and the never born valley didn't provide forests of fortunes or millions of new jobs.
What strikes the most is the fact that none of such absurd political caprices, passed through a popular referendum, nor have been debated upon experts and intellectuals, or even took its chances in the parliament. But the cherry on top of the pie is that the actual ruling body, who functions only by interim, and as though should not decide strategic decisions. The council should never be allowed to impose not only a long term political agenda, but any political agenda.
We should always remember who impowered that council.
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