Egyptian Youth are difficult to read

by Patrick (Egypt & USA)

Haaretz, in another insightful article by the brilliant Zvi Bar-El, reports on a survey of 500 Egyptian youth conducted by the Egyptian magazine Roz al Yusuf. Though I think the survery sample size is too small to be very reliable, and I doubt they interviewed a real cross-section of American societies and asked the best-worded questions, this survey, for all its faults, is probably the best glimps into the attitudes of a segment of Egypt’s youth.

Some promising indicators:

Forty percent are troubled by the constitutional amendments approved by parliament

As opposed to the high place of constitutional amendments, only 12 percent answered that the Palestinian problem interests them, only 6 percent are interested in what is happening in Iraq, and a similar percentage said the Iranian threat concerns them. Sixteen percent said they were focused on Egypt’s domestic problems.

“Only 25.47 percent of the respondents noted that they think Israel is Egypt’s number one enemy. If we had asked a similar question 10 years ago, the result would have been a lot higher,”

80 percent of the American University students feel there is nothing wrong with traveling to Israel and everyone has the right to travel where they want. Fifty-five percent feel there will not be another Israeli-Egyptian war because of the peace treaty and also Israel has an interest in keeping the peace and that is also the wise policy of President Mubarak

A few bad signs:

Seventy-five percent admitted they would like to leave their homeland. The breakdown of countries the respondents might emigrate to is no less surprising. Only 8 percent said their dream was to emigrate to the United States.

14 percent of the respondents want to emigrate to an Arab country

Fifteen percent said they do not have a national hero, and 12 percent said the average Egyptian citizen is their true hero. Only 5.7 percent referred to the late Anwar Sadat as a national hero. His predecessor, Gamal Abdel Nasser, is only slightly more popular, with 7 percent.

One-quarter of the respondents reported that they do not read books at all. One-quarter read religious books and one-quarter read books on politics. Ten percent said that Naguib Mahfouz is their favorite writer, and only 2 percent cited the names of classic Egyptian authors such as Yusuf Edris or Ihsan Abd al-Qudus

only 12 percent of the young people surf the Internet or use a computer or other advanced technology.

what do you dream of happening in your country, Egypt, that has yet to be realized?” – 20 percent (ONLY?) answered they dream of democracy, 5 percent said finding a job, and around 9 percent said progress and prosperity.

Can’t decipher/Neutral/Inconsequential

40 percent of the American University students predict there will be another war because Israel is “a country that cannot be satisfied.” In this context, it is interesting to note the response of 70 percent of the female university students, who feel there will not be another war “because Egypt is too smart to sacrifice its sons and its capital in a war.”

About half the university students oppose contacts with Israel or want to maintain the current relationship without expanding the normalization. On the other hand, 70 percent of the American University students are not satisfied with the nature of the existing relationship with Israel, and 70 percent of the female students are satisfied with the relationship because it prevents “bad things” in Egypt.