Update from Egypt.....

Judi and I have been here for more a little more than two years now, from five months before the revolution until now.  We have a team of 10 workers here from North America plus three Egyptian staff people.  We work exclusively with Egyptian church partners, the Coptic Orthodox, Coptic Evangelicals and the Episcopal Church.  They all have very impressive service programs serving Egyptians in a vast variety of ways - and serving both Muslims and Christians without any discrimination.  The government, however, often restricts the churches from serving in communities that do not have a strong Christian presence in that particular area.  

Especially outside of the major centres, there is often tension between Muslims and Christians, although some communities enjoy good relationships between religious groups.  In an earlier period, in the 1950's, Cairo was a cosmopolitan centre with large Jewish, Greek and Italian communities.  All has changed, first with Nassar's expulsion of many of these people, then with Sadat's policy of promoting Egypt as a Mulsim country, then with Mubarak's corrupt regime and now with the Muslim Brotherhood presidency and the growing salafi power.  Once a land of mini-skirts, Egypt is now a land of nicobs (burhkas).

Egypt continues to be a very unstable place politically, with more demonstrations happening every few weeks.  While we have a new president, there are serious battles over the writing of a new constitution and no new parliament yet.  All of this is ultimately because there is no real social or political tradition of power sharing, no national identity that makes Egyptian citizenship the primary political reality, no educational basis for critical thinking skills for the vast majority of people and not even literacy skills for nearly half of the population.  This country is a long way and many years from forming a functioning democracy.  The Islamization of the country continues, even as increased westernization also occurs.  Liberal, educated Muslims, Christians and other moderates who favour a "secular" state are very fearful of the future.  Conservatives think that a "secular" state means an atheistic state.  Gobs of money go to the military, a largely independent country within a country, while education languishes.  Of course, Egypt was invaded by Israel in 1957, 1967 and fought the 1973 Yom Kippur war with Israel to gain back the Sinai, so the military also enjoys respect here, although that was greatly compromised by the behaviour of the military following the revolution.  

There is a lack of national, political identity here.  I think of myself as a Christian first but, politically, I am a Canadian.  Many people here, especially conservative Muslims, but others as well, do not have those distinctions and loyalties and this greatly hampers political progress towards a democratic state.

Part of the fall-out from all the military money and the mismanagement and corruption of the previous regime is that public education is in terrible condition with underpaid teachers who often barely teach at all, opting for private tutoring after hours to try to make enough money to live on.  Many students are functionally illiterate, even after going to school for eight years or more.  Private education abounds but is inaccessible to the majority.  This low level of literacy and education also hampers the political process, as so many people have not been trained in the critical thinking skills needed to evaluate policies and people. 

The economy is in very rough shape.  Tourism, one of the economic mainstays, has almost completely disappeared since the revolution.  There has been high inflation, prices doubling over the past 8 years, and the unemployment rate has increased greatly since the revolution.  Egypt fell to #113 on the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) in 2011.  Nearly half of the country lives on under two USD per day and about the same percentage are illiterate.

Crime, especially theft, is much more common.  Judi had her purse snatched in broad daylight a few weeks ago here in Cairo and that was disturbing.  Two men on a motorcycle raced past her and grabbed it off her shoulder.  It has become a common occurrence.  Our office was broken into last spring, with considerable loss, and my travel case was stolen off a train last winter (a man grabbed it and jumped off the moving train!)    General violence is also higher and the harassment of women, always a problem, is also greater than ever.  The deep-rooted decency of society has been eroded by years of political neglect and corruption and now by desperation.  Western embassies issue warnings to their citizens on a regular basis, to the point that we wonder whether or not to pay attention.  We continue to move about Cairo and some parts of the country with relative freedom but with lots of caution as well.

It seems that almost all young people want to leave Egypt.  At the same time, almost all Egyptians are fiercely loyal to their Egyptian identity, especially Christians, who see themselves as the original people of the ancient, culture of the Pharoahs.  However, lack of economic activity, political instability within Egypt and in the region, increasing knowledge of life elsewhere and the growth of large Egyptian communities in Australia, Canada, the U.S. and Europe are all factors leading many to emigrate.  

The Christian church here is much stronger here than we could have imagined.  About 50% of all the Christians of the Middle East are in Egypt.  About 10% of Egyptians are Christian, 90% of those Coptic Orthodox.  Since Egypt's 83 million people are mostly jammed into the narrow Nile basin and delta, churches appear everywhere.  There are probably more than 2 million Christians in Cairo alone, a mega-city of 22 million.  Again, churches abound here and are over-flowing with worshipers for multiple masses on the weekend.  The last two Coptic Popes, whose reign spanned a combined 53 years,  were very committed to young people and the youth of the churches are usually well-informed and devout.  Monasteries and convents are strong and growing.  The five remaining candidates for the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox church are all well thought of and the selection procedure has been extremely exacting.  This will be completed soon.

The future?  People are very hesitant to predict anything very specific but political academics and social observers are quite pessimistic about the foreseeable future, given the lack of political cohesion, religious tension, biased leadership, lack of political alternatives and unhelpful outside interference in the region.

A prayer list for Egypt would include:

1- peace in the region

2- immediate action from the government to demonstrate that they understand that they must be fair and equitable for all citizens

3- peace for the country so that tourists would return (#s 1&2 probably necessary for this to happen)

4- a commitment on the part of the government toward education for all its people

5- leadership from the government and the Islamic majority to promote religious tolerance, understanding and a national, Egyptian political identity

Thank you for all your support, prayer and interest in what is happening here.