ABSTRACT
This Chapter attempts to describe how the ordinary Egyptian sees life and the changes that he has had to face, whether he is a peasant or town-dweller, rich or poor. All developing nations are by definition changing and it is the individual, either alone or within a family or larger group, who has to deal with change and who reacts by adapting or sometimes by clinging more firmly on to the familiar and the traditional. Some changes are planned by modernising leaders, others happen through force of circumstances, but it is always the individual who may accept or reject change despite the urgings of government or leader. Western countries have had centuries to absorb ‘modernisation’ and the changes it can bring in all aspects of life such as the growth of secularisation, the weakening of family ties, different moral attitudes, the changing status of women, and despite the length of time involved tension and disruption have been unavoidable. Developing countries are having to accelerate the pace of change, some to an almost intolerable degree. Egypt has in some ways been more fortunate than her neighbours in having met and absorbed change earlier than they and yet there remain as elsewhere countless problems to overcome.
