Dumbfounded

I'm sad for the future of Egypt. This week the Egyptians that I attend school with, the ones whose families represent the upper crust of Egyptian society, disappointed me on countless occasions. These young Egyptians, the future leaders of this country, show up late for meetings and for class, they disrespect professors, they look for the easy way out when it comes to any type of assessment, and they have very little regard for social responsibility. In a developing nation the combination of these characteristics amongst societies elites lay the ground work for revolution. 


My thoughts on this subject started about a week ago as I worked on a project for my Arabic literature class with two Egyptian students at a coffee shop. Every twenty minutes they would get up, step outside and light up a cigarette. This is typical of AUC students. The majority of them smoke and they smoke a lot. The typical AUC student, as I've described before, wears designer clothes while holding a cigarette in one hand and a blackberry in the other. They use foul English and Egyptian words, saying things that most Americans wouldn't say. These students are more concerned with consuming international media and discussing it with their friends then completing assignments or even going to class. 


The Egyptians in my classes often show up late, sometimes more than 20 minutes into the 85 minute class period. Their tardiness has no real reason as I often see the late students chatting with their friends on campus before class. When they enter class they often ask questions to the professor, subtly receiving all the information they missed as the rest of the class listens to the professor re-answer questions. When the professor talks about exams the first question the Egyptian student asks is "how long is the exam?" usually followed by "what's going to be on it?" These questions aren't unusual in American Universities but the complaints that follow are. When one of my professors responded that the length of an essay was irrelevant as long as it answered the question a student asked if he could respond in a sentence. The professor told us that years ago students would fill whole test booklets to answer a single question, an Egyptian student scoffed at this and asked "you don't expect us to do that right?" Many of these students have no real desire to learn. They go to school because their parent's tell them to and because their friends are there. It's a social gathering place and nothing more for many of them. 


I've walked through the streets of trash cities in Mexico and through slums of Kenya. Crushed plastic bottles and garbage line the streets of these places making them acceptable places to dispose of future waste. AUCians follow this rule on their $100 million campus. They throw trash on the
 ground, leave it on tables, and throw their cigarette butts anywhere but the trash can. Some students tried to start a recycling program at the beginning of the semester but it epically failed. Nobody cared. When it comes to the poor in this country, most wealthy students pretend they don't exist. They don't take public transportation with the common folk and certainly don't travel to any of the lower middle class areas. When I tell them some of the places I've been they act surprised that I've returned alive. They have no intention of bettering their country for the common man. These students know little outside of the wealthy bubble they live in. 


I don't mean to speak in generalities and make it seem like every Egyptian student acts this way. Many don't. Many are good students and go on to do great things for their country. The problem is that many of these students have very high potentials and squander them. They fail to realize the importance of an education in self development and don't realize that literally millions of Egyptians would give everything to have the opportunities that they enjoy. These students need to realize that they are very important to their country and that if they don't change their country won't change. My Arabic told us he requested to no longer teach Egyptian students because of some of the reasons I've outlined and what's more he is weary about his daughter potentially attending the university in the future. In the past 20 years the literacy rate of Egypt has improved from about 55% to about 71%. That seems great except Egypt has one of the lowest literacy rates in the Middle East and North Africa and this rate has been stagnant for almost a decade. This new generation of rich Egyptians differs so much from the promise of the one that came before them. The message I'm trying to convey here is that the privileged youth of this society fail to realize the responsibility that accompanies their position in society and until they realize what they have, until they seize the opportunities that are given to them for gains other than their own, this country is on a path to ruin. I'm sad for this country but I can't do anything. The change here needs to come from within, they need to want it.