Many Egyptians now are frustrated and depressed about the country. Others are thinking of leaving it. No one can see a good future here in Egypt.
We decided to gather a list of 5 good FACTS that have happened for the past few years that are expected to grow and improve. Here is a list of stuff already happening that would turn Egypt to a better country.
1. Entrepreneurship in Egypt
Already the startup scene is shaping awesomely. With startup hubs as the Greek Campus and Flat6labs, mentors, angel investors and the entrepreneurs themselves.
Two startups raised $3 million dollars in the past few months, namingly Yaoota and Wuzzuf.
Bey2ollak expanded to Saudi Arabia. Rakna won an award and is the buzz of the week startup.
Uber and Careem gained an enormous momentum last few weeks in Cairo despite the criticism from Taxi drivers. Souq.com reached $1 billion dollar evaluation.
Come on? Where do you find a country with so much growth ?
2. Sports in Egypt
Just this week, Farida Osman almost broke a world record in swimming. In a country with limited resources, I see this as a point forward.
All these neglected individual sports are coming back. New sports are emerging as kitesurfing, cycling and jogging all over Cairo. Cairo runners (obvious name) have turned to a youth movement with each event attended by thousands.
Second, how many crossfit camps are out there now? I stopped counting! Sports are booming.
3. Arts
And by arts I mean, literature, poetry, music and art. I do not mean those ugly government statues but art galleries and art classes and photographers! Have you visited ArtSmart gallery? Did Nadim give you an art class?
Have you seen Aisha’s or Hatem saleh’s photoshoots? And these are just on top of our minds.
A surgeon I know wrote a novel called Aliah a few months ago and now is a best seller. How many writers have emerged in the last few months.
How many bloggers are now international figures? I can name a few as Sandmonkey, Arabist, thebigpharoah, etc..
The entertainment scene too has new blood with video bloggers. Bassem Youssef is a famous example of a self made blogger who has been known as the Egyptian Jon Stewart (who is Jon Stewart?)! Hesham Mansour, Egypt’s funniest man, started on Twitter and then made his own show “El 3elm Wal Emaw”. And the list goes on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0RpFH8phOQ
In music , Now we have hundreds of sounds and even carnival music (folklore) compared to the days when we only had Amr Diab and Mohamed Mounir. Even their comeback duet was not received with much appreciation.
4. The roads in Egypt
Well definitely the roads are much better than the past years. The NA Mehwar, ring road and CAI-ALEX road are much better with higher speed limit. Expect more roads next year with the new direct road to Marsa Matrouh and new Alamein road. There is also the new Terminal at Cairo Airport (not a road, but it counts).
5. Solar energy
Maybe it’s too rely to judge but we have three friends who started solar energy companies and doing great. Providing sustainable cheap energy is difficult but they have come along way now. Perhaps, Karmsolar are the most successful in the market, have won tons of award and are the first company to provide off the grid solutions. Expect more development in the energy sector and more solutions to this global problem.
You can see a trend in all the above, that the Youth are taking over. The youth ARE the future and they will make a better future for them and the country.
If you can think of other things that can be included in the list , leave it in the comment section below.
Did you guys check your sourced photos the “crossfit” bootcamp one looks like it’s from “the bootcamp” not crossfit two completely different entities
Really, please send us the right picture link if you have one.
Thanks
The food scene in Cairo 🙂 That’s booming for sure!
Hi Amal! It was great to read this article and even greater to see your name here. Love what you and all the artists are doing to elevate the vibration of Egypt and create a habit out of Positivity, Creativity, Innovation and Belief! XO, Shereen Eltobgy (writing to you from Atlanta)
There is the downtown Cairo project renovation of all the old buildings run by the city of Cairo. The Ismailia real-estate company is also “pitching in” buying up old buildings and refurbishing them, while a private sector project, it’s still nice to see the city putting on a new “face”. Then there is the exceptional D-tour tour of downtown Cairo by the amazing Ahmad Al Bindari. That guy is a national treasure.
Awesome 🙂
We saw what Ismailia were doing and met the great Karim El Shafei at the time. There are architectural masterpieces in downtown that need to be preserved. Perhaps you should read our post about renovation of downtown Cairo
https://www.elmens.com/featured/see-the-new-downtown-cairo/
Really ? You forgot to mention the banning of Bassem Youssefs show and blatantly mentioned his show in the list as one of the positives ? given that suppression of free speech is egypts biggest negative ?
These are all negative things and there are more than those mentioned. The article is looking at the positivity. Our generation needs some positivity and reality to move on. Have a lovely weekend bro.
There is also the new wave of healthy/clean food products that started to reach famous and big super market chains! (Tabi3y, aquaponic farm…etc)
I can also think of the new alternative and adventure-oriented travel entities that organize trips inside and outside Egypt to extraordinary destinations!
Now you’re thinking positively. There are good stuff happening and we need to remind ourselves of them or we will break down
Respect..
All my respect for this article, for pushing towards positivity, and above all, for appreciating the effort made by thousands in this country to make it a better place. Thanks a million 🙂
Thank you Marwa. We TRY 🙂
Great article! It’s nice to see encouraging news amidst all the negativity! Keep up the good work, people need to keep hope in the future alive.
Thank you Inji. We Try 🙂
#thisisegypt campain is a gr8 project for tourism marketing it inky needs support from the government
All that is really great , but we can not ignore the deteriorating ROE $ V LE.
On the other hand, exports are still being stopped almost intentionally by those governmental employees and bureaucratically powered engines.
Unless we can achieve positive results in this specific field , we will never manage to feel a real true progress in our economy .
You are very right ya Ashraf. Perhaps within all the darkness, there might be a ray of hope 🙂
Hi again, may we know the names of the other solar companies? I wish to buy small solar cells for my house. Where can I do that?
try My Solar 0114 020 8888 . Tell them you were referred from ELMENS 🙂
Thanks!
Have you heard of the maker movement in Egypt with all makerspace spread around Egypt and the big event maker faire Cairo that will be held in Greek campus on the 26 of march