CAIRO: A mere 13 percent of Egyptians are satisfied with their national government, says a Pew Global Attitudes poll published three days ago. The public opinion survey, which was conducted by the US-based Pew Research Center, included surveys of citizens in 47 different countries on five different continents. The results of the survey showed that Egyptian opinions of its government were lower than in any of the other countries included in the poll. Following Egypt was Israel, with a 23 percent approval of its national government. All of the other Middle Eastern countries surveyed in the report had government satisfaction ratings of at least 45 percent. The poll was conducted by the Pew Center in order to determine general levels of happiness among different people around the world, and was published under the title "A Rising Tide Lifts Mood in the Developing World. The report found, generally, that around the world people were expressing greater satisfaction and optimism with their lives, especially in developing countries. But Egypt only partially fit this assessment, with data that painted a somewhat paradoxical picture of how citizens see their lives and their country progressing. Egyptians, for example, are optimistic about the direction in which their country is headed. According to the survey 42 percent of citizens are optimistic for the future, and only 22 percent are pessimistic. Similarly, 54 percent of respondents believed that their children's lives would be better than theirs. But this optimism was juxtaposed with widespread discontent with the current quality of living in Egypt - only 25 percent of Egyptians are satisfied with their own lives. In this sense there was something of a contradiction revealed in the findings of the poll: Egyptians are, at the same time, dissatisfied with their government and quality of life, but also optimistic about their future and their country's future. Ania Thiemann, the Egypt analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, posited that the primary factor behind Egyptians' sense of optimism was the recently steady economic growth. "There is very deep-rooted skepticism of the government in Egypt, she told Daily News Egypt. "There has been decades of poor governance and people still feel that they have very little influence. So any optimism must be a reflection of economic factors and a growing confidence that the economy will continue to improve. Thiemann said the Egyptian GDP had grown by 7 percent since last year, and was expected to continue to grow at an average rate of 6percent for the next five years. "This growth is starting to be felt by the Egyptian people, she continued, "and it's giving them hope for the future. There's undoubtedly a growing middle class in the country, and I'm guessing it was these people that were the most optimistic in the survey. Emad Gad, a researcher with Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, echoed Thiemann's opinion. "We are seeing improvements in the economic sphere, he told Daily News Egypt. "I am guessing that these people are expecting to improve their economic situation and this contributes to their optimism. But they don't believe the government will change. Egyptians don't trust the government. In a different part of the survey, the Pew Poll revealed that 68 percent of Egyptians felt that foreign companies in Egypt had had a positive effect on the country, demonstrating that there is indeed support of greater economic liberalizations. However, American University in Cairo professor of politics, Mariz Tadros, interpreted the survey differently. She argued that the poll had probably been ineffective in measuring real public opinion, and that the optimism it had revealed was more to do with general Egyptian attitudes about the future. "I expect that what the optimism expressed is of Egyptians' religious attitudes about the future, she said. "Religion motivates them to hope, but this doesn't mean that there are any real expectations of change. I don't think that Egyptians expect the country to change substantially for the better any time soon. In Egypt, the poll was conducted using face-to-face interviews with a random sampling of 1,000 Egyptian citizens.
