Opinion: Take a look at the good news in the Middle East
Published: Oct 1, 2014 10:23 a.m. ET
The Egyptian people crowdfund a new Suez Canal
Bloomberg
Yes, there is good news coming out of the Middle East. Amid the reported horror, we have a story from Egypt that is not only reassuring, uplifting, and hope-inspiring, but also remarkably clear in what it says about Egyptian Muslims.
Those who follow events in Egypt know that there is a new Suez Canal planned. To finance the project, we have just witnessed one of the most impressive crowdfunding campaigns ever undertaken, and so I feel the world should hear more about it.
There has been talk of developing the existing Suez Canal area for decades.
Former President Mohamed Morsi talked about it, but it remained just talk. His successor, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, recently announced the surprising goal of adding a second channel, and appears to be making it happen. The “new” Suez Canal, a 45-mile addition, would eliminate a one-way bottleneck that modern ships experience, and is expected to increase daily traffic from 25 ships per day to over 90.
Yet digging a new channel is not cheap. The project cost is nearly $9 billion. The Egyptian government planned to seek funding through multiple channels. The first phase was through investment certificates sold to Egyptian citizens, then to foreign investors. Beyond that, the plan would likely have involved international partner nations and lending agencies.
Politicians who claim to be religious don’t speak for religion, not in Egypt and not in America.
But then something amazing happened.
Like a Kickstarter campaign on steroids, Egyptians purchased in their local banks more than enough certificates to fund the entire project — in eight days.
Born and raised in Egypt, I am proud of this astounding achievement, but a bit sad that it has not been more widely reported.
But perhaps unreported news is better than poorly reported news. In another example of overlooked good news, we can look to portrayals of the ousting of Islamist president Morsi and its aftermath.
Once in power, el-Sisi first raised taxes, and food and fuel prices, and commenced an expensive anti-terror campaign against militant Morsi supporters. You might assume that getting popular support from members of the public might be tough. After all, look at what raising taxes slightly did to U.S. President George H.W. Bush’s bid for re-election.
