| Lots of blahblah, here are the paragraphs of interest, showing Egypt's increasing economic desperation. |
Mahmoud Short RoundAhmadinejad said he anticipated that many of the eight to 10 million Iranians who holiday abroad every year will start coming to Egypt.
However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package...
the sight of Iranian women, should they choose to wear the traditional Shiite cloak known as a chador, is likely to anger Egypt's ultraconservative Salafis -- Sunni Moslems who follow a doctrine similar to that of the Wahhabi movement in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face....
Despite the friction, Egypt needs the tourism.
| So the first tour group will come to see the pyramids and Tahrir Square, watch the belly dancers, eat Egypt's traditional bread with lentils, and vainly try to keep their womenfolk from being interfered with by gangs of Egyptian men -- as they are wont to do these days -- and that will be the end of that. |
Continued turmoil in Egypt has scared away tourists and foreign investors, pushing down foreign currency reserves to less than $14 billion and forcing Cairo to turn to oil-rich Gulf states for loans and handouts.