Celebrating delusions of grandeur

There has just been a celebration of the first anniversary of the opening of the Suez Canal extension, which they claimed falsely to be a “new” canal. The event saw the new Ferdinand de Lesseps standing arrogantly on the presidential yacht, El Mahrousa, surrounded by his soldiers, guards and entourage, inspecting his delusional projects that do not generate any profit or benefit for the Egyptian people. Instead, they cause them huge losses.

This extension cost over $60 billion and, at the time it was built, de Lesseps v2.0 claimed that it would generate $100 billion in income for Egypt. He even claimed that it had already paid for itself. However, the canal’s revenues have fallen over the past year, more so than in any previous year. This exposed the income lie and so the Sisi government has banned the previous norm of a quarterly announcement of canal revenues.

Building the extension to the Suez Canal has been a disaster for Egypt’s economy, as dollars were withdrawn from the banks, thus affecting the foreign reserves in the Central Bank. This led the latter’s chairman to resign after admitting the effects during a press interview, which was a direct cause for the decline of the value of the Egyptian pound. The pound is continuing to decline and US $1 is now worth 13 Egyptian pounds.

To make matters worse, Sisi de Lesseps said in his television interview that he constructed this “canal” in order to boost the morale of the Egyptian people. Imagine if $65 billion was spent in order to raise your spirits; would it lift the state of chronic frustration and depression which affected you after witnessing the negotiations with the Central Bank in order to get $12 billion; the crazy increase in everyday prices; and the government’s announcement of the increased cost of electricity and water in preparation for the complete lifting of state subsidies?

The unprecedented deterioration of the Egyptian economy is caused in large part by the disaster known as the new Suez Canal; the same project which they continue to “celebrate” and see as a great accomplishment achieved in just one year. They have delusions of grandeur.

There is a popular saying that we shouldn’t air our dirty laundry in public, so perhaps it would have been better to have let this anniversary pass without too much fuss; maybe the people of Egypt would then have been able to forget this disaster that has caused them so much misery and led to an unprecedented decline of their currency.

It was not to be, however, because the new de Lesseps wanted his pictures taken on board El Mahrousa. He is deluded but still wants the people to live within the mass delusion that he has put together since his military coup in 2013. At the time he claimed grandiosely that, in the future, we would see Egypt on top of the world. Today, though, just three years after his coup, Egypt is the laughing stock of the world.

“Allah does not promote the work of the evil-doers.” This is a divine law. Hence, no matter what the new de Lesseps does, he will only bring about destruction and devastation. Unfortunately, this does not affect him personally, but it does affect Egypt, which is on the verge of failing. Who will save the country from the demented and delusional general?

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