Egypt and the stick of ‘dynamite blast’

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At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, the Arab countries were divided – according to my understanding – into four geopolitical regions; The Gulf and the Peninsula and they were happy in their own spiritual desert world.

Then the countries of North Africa, in their colonial world, being the backyard of Europe, and the third of those regions are the Levant states, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, the most mobile, and the fourth and final region is Egypt which was followed by the Sudan.

The Levant was at that time, and perhaps still is, a repulsive region, from which many emigrated either because of famine or in search of better living opportunities, or mostly to escape from the Ottoman oppression that everyone, especially Christians and Shiites, were living under, as the Turks used them in forced labor and in the front ranks of the Ottoman armies, most of them did not return back to their families.

This pushed a number of non-Muslim and non-Sunni minorities to fortify themselves in the rugged mountains, away from the long hand of the Ottoman governor.

The citizens of the Levant in that period, especially in Lebanon and Syria preferred to migrate to three destinations; North America, South America, and Egypt which were preferred by those who did not want to go far from their homelands in the mid-19th century and the beginning of the twentieth century, when Egypt was prosperous and a destination for innovators in many fields, so the brothers Bishara and Salim Takla migrated to Cairo.

In about 1860, they later issued from Alexandria (157 years ago) the newspaper “Al-Ahram”, which, along with “Nasser and Heikal,” became the most famous daily in Arab history.

Beshara Wakim, Naguib Al-Rihani, Farid Al-Atrash, Asmahan, Al-Nabulsi, Badia’a Masabni, Nour Al-Huda, May Ziadeh, Gerji Zaidan, and large numbers of adventurers and job seekers migrated to Egypt in the same period, or shortly afterwards, as Egypt was famous for its agricultural and industrial progress.

It was also a source of enlightenment, from which various press, cultural and literary publications were published. Her film studios were also producing a range of feature films and documentaries.

Egypt also presented to the world, the Arab in particular, with a number of giants in philosophy, literature, law and politics, such as Taha Hussein, Ali Abdel Razek, Abdel Qader Al Mazni, Abbas Al Akkad, Makram Obaid, Mustafa Al Nahas, Al Sanhouri and others. In its two cities, Cairo and Alexandria, large Greek and Italian communities have been living for many decades.

Then came the hurricane with the advent of the military to rule in 1952, and the stick of dynamite exploded, with its officers severing Egypt’s connection with its past, and Gamal Abdel Nasser’s reckless decision to nationalize all non-Egyptians property, including apartments, buildings, homes, factories, farms, shops, and successful and wonderful projects, and handed them over to officers in the army and police.

They either managed it or used it as a residence, so they wreaked havoc and everything beautiful and useful collapsed with time, and the innovations dried up with the death of the last giants of the period before the 1952 coup.

The inability of the leadership since that day to put an end to the massive annual population increase played another dangerous role in its current difficult situation.

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By Ahmad alsarraf

This news has been read 20916 times!