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Egypt Is Building a New Nile

theb1m.com

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Re: Egypt Is Building a New Nile

#51

Post by culi »

Revanche1367 wrote: post #35
culi wrote: post #15

It's practically a project of the Egyptian military who will mostly own the land. They will grow cash crops for export to gain a source of income. This will also drain the ancient and non-renewable Nubian Sandstone Aquifer. This is water that has been trapped for thousands of years. It is the world's largest fossil water system and is of immense scientific value. Not to mention the historic Nile Delta wetlands that w…

Any large government project in Egypt is a project of the Egyptian military. That’s the result of being under a military dictatorship with a fake civilian president.

A state of affairs you can thank the US for.

Besides Israel and, as of recently, Ukraine, Egypt is the biggest receiver of US military "assistance". Most military officials have attended elite U.S. military academies and the two forces work closely together.

The 2011 revolution successfully outed Hosni Mubarak (another Egyptian dictator propped up by the US). Following the 2012 elections came the 2013 coup by Sisi. Except, the US was one of the few countries in the world that refused to label this a "coup". The Rabaa Massacre marked the definitive end to the Arab Spring in Egypt

Re: Egypt Is Building a New Nile

#52

Post by jaggirs »

rzwitserloot wrote: post #36
atonse wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious as to why they aren't considering (solar powered) desalinization as an additional source of water, to pump water directly from the ocean?

Hear me out: There's a way the desert states can export and store their solar energy production cheaply, easily, at scale, without needing any rare earths (nothing that is hard to obtain / limited supply / is dirty to extract). And as part of the process, they get clean water as a side effect. Unlike e.g. export via electrolysing water and shipping the hydrogen gas which requires clean water and thus requires spendin…

[flagged]

Re: Egypt Is Building a New Nile

#53

Post by rayiner »

krior wrote: post #46
rayiner wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how it works. Egypt is not a closed country. International organizations can get in and get numbers. It's also worth keeping in mind that many European countries, and every non-European country that's now developed, went through a phase of authoritarianism or one-party rule during which the organs of state developed. Germany's and Italy's modern democratic governments date to the end of WWII, and Spain and…

Which european dictatorship left their country better off?

"Better off" is too vague a criterion because it suggests some comparison with a counter-factual hypothetical. Instead, I think it's important to observe that the modern organs of state, rule of law, etc., were developed under (pre-constitutional) monarchs and dictators in most western European countries. For example in Germany, much of the bureaucracy was developed by the Prussians and the court system was developed under the Kaiser. Germany's 1949 Basic Law did not create a state from scratch, but instead largely subjected pre-existing institutions to democratic rule.

Re: Egypt Is Building a New Nile

#54

Post by BurningFrog »

sajithdilshan wrote: post #43
betaby wrote: post #38

With a such rapid demographic growth they have no choice. The population of Egypt doubled in last ~35 years. (quadrupled in the last ~60 years)

How is that even sustainable, like housing, education, electricity, running water, etc. how can they scale those with that fast growing population

Typically, people produce about as much as they consume, so a growing population normally sustains itself.

Re: Egypt Is Building a New Nile

#55

Post by culi »

codeddesign wrote: post #45
Revanche1367 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any large government project in Egypt is a project of the Egyptian military. That’s the result of being under a military dictatorship with a fake civilian president.

What are you talking about? This is literally every single major infrastructure project in the world. In the U.S. for example, every major waterway and roadway is built by the govt (local or federal). There is even the “Army Corp of Engineers”. You can dislike the project, but take your political beaf elsewhere. Your statements are irrational.

Tbh I think your point is overstated but you do bring up an interesting point that affords me the opportunity to plug a really interesting relevant book called Standardizing Empire: The US Military, Korea, and the Origins of Military-Industrial Capitalism. It traces the origins of both global capitalism and the US military's involvement in massive infrastructure projects back to post-war South Korea. In the 50s, about 60-70% of all oceanic shipments were movement of goods to and from SE Asia by the US military. You can, arguably, thank this economic/infrastructure project for the standardized shipping container.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/-/dd8603df55055d43

Here's a good interview with the author:

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/new-books-network/patri...

Re: Egypt Is Building a New Nile

#56

Post by alephnerd »

cherryteastain wrote: post #25
alephnerd wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And there was no guarantee that Egypt would have reached this point today in 2026. A decade ago, the safer bet would have been that Egypt would collapse just like it's then developmental peer Syria. The fact that Egypt is at this point today is a testament to the fact that it's has robust enough state capacity that it was able to execute on projects. > better-off Eastern European countries like Czechia from 1990 Czec…

Syria had an extremely destructive civil war and one of the worst collapses in living standards ever of any country (measured by however you want to look at it - HDI, GDP/capita...) Meanwhile Egypt was overtaken by Vietnam and performed similarly to peers like Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Algeria, Philippines. Egypt's and Sisi's performance is decidedly average.

And if you remember 2010-13 Egypt was also on the verge of collapsing into a civil war like Syria and Yemen yet didn't. That took a Herculean amount of effort.

Re: Egypt Is Building a New Nile

#57

Post by culi »

culi wrote: post #8
kristjansson wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd suspect it's a transcript of a video on his (excellent) YouTube[0], hence the repetition. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/@TheB1M

It's a great channel if you don't care about any degree of technical debt and wanna see someone glaze over human rights violations in order to celebrate mega projects. I'd at least highly recommend the DeArrow extensions to de-clickbait this channel's titles. As much as I criticize the channel, I admit I can't look away

I meant depth* not debt. Too late to edit but to embarrassing to not address.

Re: Egypt Is Building a New Nile

#58

Post by rayiner »

cherryteastain wrote: post #21
alephnerd wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

State and financial capacity is much stronger in Egypt today versus previous attempts. Egypt's developmental indicators have finally caught up to where the CEE was 5-10 years ago but with a better demographic profile, and Gulf and Asian capital and technology partners are much more hands-on.

If you look at UNDP historical HDI data [1] you will see that Egypt barely caught up with the HDI levels of poorest Eastern European countries like Moldova from 10 years ago and is still well behind the HDI levels of better-off Eastern European countries like Czechia from 1990 . [1] https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/human-development-index#/in...

Yeah, Ottoman rule sucked.

Re: Egypt Is Building a New Nile

#59

Post by kristjansson »

lazide wrote: post #48
rzwitserloot wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hear me out: There's a way the desert states can export and store their solar energy production cheaply, easily, at scale, without needing any rare earths (nothing that is hard to obtain / limited supply / is dirty to extract). And as part of the process, they get clean water as a side effect. Unlike e.g. export via electrolysing water and shipping the hydrogen gas which requires clean water and thus requires spendin…

Have you ever dealt with metallic sodium? You are dramatically underestimating how dangerous it is at scale. Hard no.

I do love GP's excitement about the energy potential of violent exothermic reaction upon contact with water ... and the proposal mere sentences later to ship industrial quantities thereof on creaky old ships

Re: Egypt Is Building a New Nile

#60

Post by a34729t »

dyauspitr wrote: post #39
a34729t wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, Egypt and Mexico made major reforms to their water usage in the past and succeeded. Compared to India, which failed abjectly.

India relies on groundwater and its strategy has been to use the monsoons to replenish the groundwater under the Jal Shakti Abhyan. The monsoons come like clockwork so it’s a solid strategy.

No, it is deeply stupid strategy, because groundwater is being depleted much faster than it can be replenished:

"We reviewed 160 journal articles, along with supplementary data and reports from GW, agriculture, and meteorological authorities. Our focus was on GW depletion in India, with particular emphasis on GRACE satellite data, in situ observations, and the influence of hydrogeological conditions, anthropogenic activities, and climatic disturbances. GRACE observations reveal significant depletion, particularly in Eastern Uttar Pradesh at 7 cm/yr rate from 2002 to 2022, while localized in situ data highlight Punjab as the most rapidly depleting area, with a rate of 46 cm/yr (2003–2012)."*

*https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S23528...

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