Happy People - or Sad.

[Hafiz]

Happy People.

The Egyptians are the happiest people on Earth – according to the Junta – and any information to the contrary carries a 10-year prison sentence.

Mere statistics (probably all Jewish lies) in the World Happiness Report 2018 tell another story.

1. Egypt is one of the most unhappy places on earth – 122th/156. (Human development Index 111th, GDP per head 92nd so its income rating is much higher than its actual development and much higher than happiness – looks like the 70 year hereditary rulers aren’t using the wealth to create development and happiness for all – not doing their job – or maybe they are doing their job ).

2. (And this is more important) When you compare Egypt with just places with a similar standard of living/income its probably the worst on earth. Countries with more instability are ranked higher and poorer countries with terrible recent histories of devastation and genocide are rated similar. Its ranked the same as the Palestinian Territories – which is hell on earth.

3. Its equivalent to the poor, wretched, conflict ridden for 40 years, but brave Afghanistan, considerably worse that Saudi, worse than Libya (I find that very odd given their history and current conflict), about the same as the very poor, war criminal run Sudan, worse than everywhere in South and Central America, worse than the miserably poor and totalitarian Vietnam and about the same as the very much poorer India and Bangladesh. The poor and terrorist ridden Indonesia is rated much higher. The UAE is the happiest place in the region. Therefore the world is full of poorer and very damaged countries that are happier than Egypt.

4. Egypt is ranked alongside the war devastated and totalitarian Cambodia, awful Burkina Faso and sad, poor, AIDS devastated (15%+) Mozambique.

Obviously the Junta’s achievements after their 70 years of ‘government’ are in other areas because they are not in their people’s hearts and souls. Maybe their achievements are in the bank balances of the top couple of hundred thousand and the couple of million military and police that have kept public opinion ‘at bay’.

It’s a UN report – one of the few good ones – edited by some of the greatest economists, including a Jew a Rhodes Scholar, and development experts and health experts in the world – none of whom have ever been invited to Egypt but have been invited to the Gulf and Saudi. Whilst I’m sure its all anti- Egyptian propaganda these people were properly educated, never at Egyptian ‘facilities’, and hold jobs they got through competitive professional achievement – not the 'proven' Hawass rule of genius.

Even the Vatican supports it – but al Azhar does not.

Their methodology is statistical rather than opinion based (although this is a bit unclear and worryingly) – and that is a weakness but many countries, especially Egypt, absolutely prohibit outsiders from measuring local opinion – for fear of the results.

The key measures are per capita gross domestic product (GDP), healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, social support and absence of corruption in government or business. (the last one is interesting – wonder which is the most corrupt place on earth?).

Because these are countrywide figures for Egypt they ignore that the income and health stats vary widely, more than most places, by class, income, education, region etc. Its hard to know but I therefore expect that the happiness index varies widely in Egypt on a similar basis. The report gives insufficient/little attention to unemployment in which case I suspect the real Egyptian figure is lower – maybe much lower because unemployment doesn’t just negatively affect the unemployed person but also dependents, which can be wide in Egypt, and emotionally and financially affects relatives – particularly parents and grandparents.

There is a bigger technical, academic debate about the ‘causes’ of happiness and whether its linked to a deal more than income but I don’t think debate that detracts from where Egypt stands – near the bottom – and the social and law and order problems that might lie from unhappiness in its future.

The UK is less happy than you would think. Cyprus is quite unhappy – possibly caused by Russian and UK tourists. Israel is one of the happiest places on earth and a a deal happier than the UK (that figure must include the 1/3 of the population who are Muslims/Arabs and Palestinians which confirms other independent data that they feel OK and the last thing they want is to be forced into a corrupt, mismanaged Palestinian State – not even a million od so Palestinians want a Palestinian State).

The 2018 report: http://worldhappiness.report/ed/2018/

I think its true that the Egyptian government does no surveys of public opinion either because it doesn’t care or doesn’t want to know. Clearly after 5 years of Sisi things are very bad – maybe a 50 year Presidential term will ‘fix’ it. I haven’t checked the trends for Egypt in this report over the past 5 years – they would be interesting.

Historians often make a point about revolution. That is that the French and Russian carts fell over not at the low point of repression/food prices but at a slightly later point when higher expectations were frustrated/disappointed. I’m sure the President’s office is full of well educated intellectuals who have studied this – if indeed they can actually read.

Here is some of the theory:
‘Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1856 book on the French Revolution, “The Old Regime and the Revolution”. The argument that ….old regimes fall to revolutions not when they resist change, but when they attempt reform yet dash the raised expectations they have evoked.’

Usually you need a couple of things to ‘succeed’. Organized large, popular groups alienated large sections of the middle class and passive/disorganized/alienated law and order chaps. I don’t see much of any of these in Egypt – although a little bit of the latter. Also modern technology, propaganda and modern weapons are more ‘effective’ against the masses that anything the awful Bourbons or Romanovs had at their disposal. Cultural norms of passivity/fear may also play a role in avoiding the inevitable.

Have al Ahram or the execrable Egypt Today run a story on this world UN report? If not the propaganda strategy is working well by cutting Egypt off from any objective reality - and any criticism. There are no comments from al Azhar or the Coptic Pope probably because neither care much about their people or stand up and protect them.