One Egyptian's dream of a brave, new, post-coronavirus world

For decades, Egypt's successive governments have neglected to provide adequate support for science and culture. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the coronavirus crisis were to lead to a change of heart and policy, asks Khaled al-Khamissi

By Khaled al-Khamissi

As elsewhere, the number of people infected by the coronavirus in Egypt is rising by the day. Although the number of cases in Egypt is relatively low when compared with some European countries, the assistant of our health minister has announced that hospitals with isolation wards are already operating at capacity.

In view of the tiny number of beds in intensive care units and the paltry budgets for health, scientific research, education and culture in Egypt, I have asked myself whether this pandemic will lead our politicians to review how public money is spent.

I have done so because the coronavirus is highlighting all that is wrong with the way we live: this crazy race to consume ever more, the undiminished, advancing destruction of our planet and the looming, human-made climate catastrophe. But can we really dream of a future where culture, the arts, education, research and philosophy form the foundations of our life? After all, that's all we'll have left in a few decades at the latest when artificial intelligence has taken over most areas of work.

What we really need

Sadly, as I write, I can hear the loud laughter that greets my naive optimism, my faith in the general awareness of politicians. And this laughter means that we will return to our old ways faster than we currently deem possible.

Factory producing protective face masks in Cairo (photo: picture-alliance/dpa/Xinhua)
Denkbar schlecht auf die Corona-Epidemie vorbereitet: "Wie besorgt sind wir alle doch wegen der knappen verfügbaren medizinischen Ressourcen. Doch für diese Bedürfnisse und Notwendigkeiten gibt die ägyptische Regierung nicht einmal das Allernötigste aus. Im Haushalt 2016/17 hat die ägyptische Regierung weniger als zwei Prozent des Bruttosozialprodukts für das Gesundheitswesen bereitgestellt, was umgerechnet lediglich drei Milliarden Euro entspricht", moniert Al-Khamissi.

Yet over the past two months, we must have realised that 90 percent of what we buy and consume has no real meaning for our lives. At the same time, each and every one of us must now know what we really need to lead a healthy life, namely medical care, places of education and adequate supplies of food and clean water.

We must also have come to realise the value of culture in our lives. At the mention of the word culture, who among us – locked down inside our homes – does not think of the books we are currently reading, or the films, the plays, the songs, the podcasts or the dances that have brightened our lives while we have been stuck inside? And how worried are we all about the shortage of available medical resources? Yet the Egyptian government does not even spend the bare minimum on these needs and necessities. Let's consider this in more detail for a moment!

Meagre investment in education and health

The constitution of our country, which was passed in a referendum in 2014, stipulates minimum expenditure on health, education and scientific research. This obligation was born out of the fact that for decades, successive governments inadequately provided for these vital sectors.The constitution stipulates minimum expenditure of three percent of Egypt's gross national product on healthcare, six percent on education and university education and one percent on scientific research – all of which is more than modest when compared with other countries. But is the government even spending these amounts? Unfortunately not. In the budget 2016/17, the Egyptian government spent less than two percent of the country's GNP on health, which corresponds to just €3 billion.

The same can be said for education/university education and scientific research, on which the government felt it necessary to spend only four percent (instead of six) and 0.72 percent of GNP respectively. In this context, the Egyptian press reported that the Ministry of Health had announced that a scientific committee comprising advisors to the ministry would be set up to decide on the measures needed to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Naturally, such announcements are greeted with ridicule and derision by Egyptians, who are well aware of the paltry amounts being spent on scientific research. We all know that we have little scientific success to hope for in the light of the miserable sums being spent on research. The situation is both distressing and deplorable.

Crumbs for culture

The budget of the entire Egyptian Ministry of Culture is at best probably lower than that of even one single major theatre in Germany or France. What's more, it is likely that almost 90 percent of this budget is spent on the salaries of those who work in the ministry. All that remains for the culture sector itself are a few crumbs.

Egyptian author Khaled al-Khamissi (photo: DW/W. Knipp)
Khaled al-Khamissi, geboren 1962 in Kairo, studierte Politikwissenschaften an der Universität Kairo und der Sorbonne. Er arbeitet als Journalist für diverse ägyptische Zeitungen. In seinem früheren Erfolgsroman "Im Taxi" lässt er Taxifahrer aus Kairo zu Wort kommen, die die politischen Missstände des damaligen Mubarak-Regimes anprangerten.

I don't like using many figures in articles such as this. But all my life, I have been asking myself a question to which I have no conclusive answer, only incredulous sadness: how could every one of this country's governments have ignored science, culture, education and health so consistently over the years and have instead focussed almost exclusively on security, armaments and construction projects, despite the fact that Egypt's soft power – particularly at regional level – has always been dominated by its cultural weight? Egypt's strength has always been our artistic and literary output, our film and theatre productions and our intellectual impact within the Arab world.

I can never recall having visited an Arab country where I didn't hear popular Egyptian songs in numerous public places, or where I wasn't asked about this actor or that author by the locals. It goes without saying that Egypt's significant cultural status has of course suffered in recent years.

The best for our planet

I must admit that during lockdown, I have often allowed myself to wallow in beautiful daydreams, imagining how wonderful it would be if we could emerge from this pandemic more reasonable and closer to our humanity.

I dream that we may stop the deadly madness of military expenditure and instead invest in our knowledge and human emotions; that we may stop destroying our planet and start consuming in such a way that conserves our resources; that we focus on what is best for this planet and not what is most profitable.

After all, could this pandemic not be the start of a more reasonable, better world – the one we neglected to build after the Second World War? Please, let us continue to dream for a little while that we will manage to do so this time, once this plague has passed.

Khaled al-Khamissi

© Suddeutsche Zeitung 2020

Translated from the German by Aingeal Flanagan