ABSTRACT
Egyptians are seen as industrious, warm, welcoming, and agreeable. The need of living closely together on that narrow strip of fertile land seems to have made them so. Egyptian tolerance, patience, or apathy slowly giving way to a creeping mood of repressed resentment, anger, and rage. Egypt had a parliament long before all European countries had established one. At the time between the two world wars, a wealthy middle class had put the country on the first promising steps of industrialization, and women had been participating in public life since the early 1900s. Egypt remained a key player in the Arab world and—of course—also in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Diplomatic routine, we were blind even to some negative repercussions this routine was bound to have in the Egyptian public. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is organized as are most such international institutions. International civil servants work in the secretariat of the organization.
