ABSTRACT
In a discussion after one of my recent public lectures I was asked by a young student to name ‘one single’ dimension in the contemporary Egyptian thinking that requires a full-scale change. My immediate answer was: ‘Complacency’. In my elaboration I highlighted the following relevant aspects:
• Any fair outsider cannot deny that Egypt made, throughout the past decade, excellent moves towards a much better economic life. Nevertheless, the inability to admit the gigantic mistakes of the 1950s and 1960s continue to impede the introduction of new systems that would undeniably make the past decade’s achievements much greater. We simply need to say, clearly, that the way our economy was structured and managed since the mid-1950s was a complete mess. Most of the systems engineered during this era ought to be replaced by systems that proved to be successful in the advanced economies.
