Egyptian Aid
For nearly 30 years, the president and dictator of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, ruled the country with an iron fist. Citizens were jailed for political dissent, torture was not uncommon and journalists could be fined for opposing the government. The protests this past week have brought out the true Mubarak, when he shut down social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and closed the popular Al Jazeera news bureau in an attempt to quell the rebellion. The refusal of Mubarak to relinquish his seat and allow for immediate fair and free elections shows his unwavering loyalty to his malfeasant cronies and plutocratic government instead of the largely impoverished and disenfranchised Egyptian people. The revolution may not be of interest to Americans. However, in 2010, the U.S. sent over $1.55 billion in aid to Egypt. A vast majority of that money, about $1.3 billion, was specifically military aid. Not nearly enough was spent on infrastructure or education. The streets of Cairo are very hilly and cracked and lack sidewalks and traffic lights. Centralized planning under Mubarak gridlocked government and created an inefficient bureaucracy that halted modernization reforms. Estimates from 2005 put those living below the poverty line at 20 percent with […]
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