Morgan Williams, Gabr Fellow. June 17th 2013

“Egypt is at a critical junction in its history. The problems confronted by its people on a daily basis are structural, entrenched, and long-term. The fragility of the countries social, political, economic, and environmental systems is being perpetually weakened by mismanagement, daily power outages, fuel shortages, ongoing threats to water security, economic stagnation, political short-sightedness and the slow deterioration of public moral. The leaders of today are forced to balance short-term crisis management with these long-term fundamental imbalances, and in so doing, further inflate the social, economic, and environmental vulnerabilities that threaten the national security and sovereignty of generations to come.
Fortunately, the complexities faced by the Egyptian people are not unlike those being confronted by other global societies in the east and the west alike. However, it remains to be seen if the heavy reminders an of Egyptian stick-to-itiveness and attention to detail that gave birth to mathematics, astronomy, engineering, and complex medicine over 6,000 years ago can be channeled into developing the next great Egyptian society with the help of their friends.
I do not doubt that the success of Egypt will depend on supporting the optimism broadly shared by a young and vocal generation of Egyptians. An optimism that is secular, educated, forgiving, socially just, and unafraid of taking risks and trying things differently. A generation that is represented by those I've been so very fortunate to grow close to and begin collaborating with during my short time in Egypt as a Gabr Fellow.”