Wake up Egypt, Viceroy Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi is delusional

In what is already a celebration of legendary proportions, upon which tens of billions of dollars were spent despite a massive national budget deficit, Egypt’s new Viceroy, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, emerged in his military uniform, studded with medals and badges, which impress himself as well as others, for the opening ceremony of the latest Suez Canal extension. He and his misguiding media insist on calling it the new Suez Canal even though there have been six other extensions that previous Egyptian leaders have built. During King Farouk’s reign in 1949, a map for the Suez Canal extensions was made and it included this extension. Indeed, the first extension of the Suez Canal was completed during Farouk’s rule, but the July coup prevented him from completing the others.

Later, during Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rule, another extension was completed, and Sadat opened four more, one of which was 41km long; longer, in fact, than Al-Sisi’s. Another was opened during Hosni Mubarak’s reign, but he saw no need to have an opening ceremony for it, even though he was the first to have such an event for a new bridge or tunnel. At the time, the extension was opened by the prime minister and no bells or whistles were brought out for it. That’s what makes the current, unprecedented media frenzy even harder to swallow; we have seen one journalist describing the extension as a more impressive feat than the pyramids, and another calling it an achievement surpassing the building of the Aswan High Dam. As for the dishonest religious figures, the Minister of Awqaf (Religious Endowments), who is loyal to the security services, likened this extension to the digging of the trench during the battle fought in the time of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). You couldn’t make this up.

Everyone involved has competed in spreading falsehoods, lies, misguidance and fraud to the people in order to please Egypt’s new viceroy, who is delusional enough to want to make himself out to be a legend at the expense of the poor, hardworking people of Egypt who are being fooled by him and the misleading media that he controls. They are being tricked into believing that the extension will generate huge profits and that the sky will rain silver and gold. However, all of the international studies conducted and published in the major specialist media all agree that this project is futile and will not generate any profits for Egypt. On the contrary, it will harm its national economy at the moment, as world trade is suffering from an economic recession and global financial crisis. The studies also show that even before this extension, the canal already accommodated far fewer ships and shipments than its capacity, so there was no problem with the passage of vessels and there was no waiting time for them that would warrant or require this extension to be built.

Even one of the most prominent and largest economic news agencies in the world, the Huffington Post, wrote that the world does not need the $8 billion Suez Canal extension. America’s Bloomberg believes that there is no economic feasibility for the new expansion which aims to increase capacity, and it will not increase the canal’s revenue or commercial traffic.

This is the biggest con yet by Al-Sisi of the unconscious Egyptians who are being sold dreams and delusions. They have been sold such delusions from the beginning by the viceroy, starting with the kofta pills that will cure Hepatitis C and AIDS, and including the projects to build one million residential units for the youth and a new capital city. All of these delusions have gone with the wind and have been all but forgotten. Wake up Egypt.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.