Egypt is in the grip of a complex and multifaceted crisis. The country is like a sick person who refuses to admit his ignorance and resists or attacks anyone who tries to open his eyes to the nature of his illness. Three thinkers can help us understand the nature of the crisis. Malthus, Marx and Weber lived in different historical periods, but all of them found their countries facing complicated problems and each attempted to analyse these and to propose solutions. The first, the Englishman Thomas Malthus, warned that the inability of resources (food, in particular) to keep up with population growth would cause famines and wars in the future. Although technology has helped to solve part of the food supply question Malthus raised, in some countries the population problem has nevertheless had long-term impacts. From a sociological perspective, the crux of the problem is not population growth per se, but rather the fact that this growth occurs primarily among that segment of the population that is least capable of raising and educating its children. Upper Egypt, for example, is home to 18 million people or about a quarter of the total population of Egypt, although Upper Egyptian births account for about 41 per cent of the annual birth rate (about two million). I once lived in a 12-storey block of flats in which the bawwab (porter), who lived in two rooms on the roof, had eight children. Two were above school age, so there was no question of their receiving an education. From an economic perspective, every pound spent on family planning yields a saving in public expenditures, directly and indirectly, of LE134, and a saving in direct costs of LE44. Every new-born child receives an approximately LE4,500 share of the total allocations in the form of subsidies, grants and social services in the national budget. There is little doubt that Egypt faces a population peril that is no less dire than the other threats confronting it. In 1980, the country's population stood at about 40 million. Today, it stands at 90 million. If this rate of growth continues unabated, the population will reach 160 million in another 30 years. In other words, in 30 years' time, we will need twice the number of schools, hospitals, roads and universities that we currently have. And this will not be so we can progress, but rather only to keep us from falling further behind. It is also important to bear in mind that Egypt is not a country rich in natural resources like China and India. China, in particular, only began its economic revival after adopting its one-child policy in a bid to halt population growth. Karl Marx, our second authority, focused on the question of social justice, even if he never used that term in his work. Egypt definitely suffers from problems relating to gross disparities in income and wealth and the attendant rise in impoverishment and the domination of one class over another. Addressing this problem requires policies to promote social integration that do not hamper economic growth and that are accompanied by sound population control polices. At the same time, resources need to be invested to train Egyptian people in a manner conducive to a better future. This brings us to our third writer, the German sociologist Max Weber, who can help us to understand why our government bureaucracy is so weak and why many decisions regarding the allocation of resources — which is to say, decisions regarding who should get what and when — have been wrong and not conducive to returning the fruits of development from the summit to the base. We must realise that the problems we face are deeply ingrained and are apparent in every crisis we face. I recently wrote about Hani Al-Messiri, who has just resigned as governor of Alexandria, for example. Al-Messiri was the chairman of the board of a prominent multinational company, yet he failed to manage Egypt's second-largest city. Nor would he be the only one to fail. Even if we brought Angela Merkel from Germany to do the job, she too would fail in Egypt. The same thing would apply to the most competent administrator in the world. This is because we have never attempted to face the truth about ourselves. We are a people suffering from a “crisis of conscience” or of conscientiousness. We sense this at every moment in our daily lives. People abroad live by a certain moral code, and they do their jobs as best they can because it is their job to do so. A civilised ethical system has taught them to respect work, and it has taught them to abide by their consciences. In Egypt, we could have a thousand revolutions. We could replace Mubarak, replace Al-Sisi, replace a thousand rulers, yet nothing would change if we did not overcome our crisis of conscience. As things stand, the bribe-taker is an average citizen. The litterer is an average citizen. The functionary who makes it his job to obstruct the wheels of government and the welfare of the people is an average citizen, and so is the teacher who will not teach his students in the classroom so that he can force them to pay for private tuition instead. The engineers and architects who obtain false building permits are average citizens, and so is the doctor who leaves the public hospital to open his private clinic, the policeman who sits at his desk cursing the thieves that have run rampant in the country, the merchant who monopolises goods and jacks up the prices, the taxi driver who tampers with his meter, and the microbus driver who raise fares on a whim. All these are average citizens. It is easy for us to blame the government and our system of government. But it is hard for us to confront the truth about ourselves. When, as is the case in Alexandria, 80 per cent of the buildings that are supposed to be four storeys high have become 20-storey apartment blocks, you begin to wonder whether there is a government in the world that could deal with all these violations. Is there any country in the world that has succeeded on the road to progress with a citizenry that has no respect for the law? This analysis is based on what is to be learned from the experiences of many other countries. We are putting up buildings and knocking down people. The Egyptian is his own worst enemy. There will never be a developed Egypt without developed Egyptian citizens. We cannot have a new Egypt without new Egyptians. There will never be a serious Egypt without serious Egyptian men and women. The government has its problems, and the people have theirs. This is not the time for each to blame the other. This is the time for everyone to realise that we are all responsible and that everyone must bear his share of responsibility. The writer is a professor of Political Science, Cairo University.
