The Solutions Of Poverty In Egypt Sociology Essay

The author says “A quarter of Egyptians are now living in poverty, according to new statistics which show the proportion steadily climbed over the last 12 years of toppled president Hosni Mubarak’s rule” (Hussein, 2012). But what are the causes of poverty in Egypt? Political issues, immature behavior from the Egyptians contribution to this poverty, some geographical conditions was a main reason in Egyptian poverty, also the government was responsible for poverty. However, there are three main causes of poverty in Egypt government, education, and Geographical causes. Government, The first main cause for corruption is the Egyptian government. Hosny Mubarak’s regime was autocratic that was hidden behind the blanket of democracy, faking to people justice while stealing from them all their moneys. The taxes were served for the higher institution leaving the poor poorer and the rich, richer. Former Hosny Mubarak chose business people who knew nothing in politics to run ministries and lead people’s live to what it is today. For 30 years Egypt has been suffering from poverty due to a system ran by bribery and injustice thus, leading to 21 percent of poverty in Egypt.

Education, The second cause of poverty in Egypt is the education. As education was held by a corrupted ministry, advanced knowledge was not transferred to students. The number of illiteracy in Egypt is high people are afraid to send their children to school to learn faulty information. Other people are unable to afford the school’s expenses. Education in Egypt does not meet the market demand of employment whereas it is transferred through old traditional way which does not help the student to actually discover or know his/her potentials. National schools are not well equipped, private schools not everyone is capable of paying the expense.

Geographical causes remain the third cause. As Egypt is a very big country the author says “About 95 percent of Egyptians live along the Nile-on less than 5 percent of Egypt’s territory” (Geographic, 2004). There are 5 percent of population far from the source of life “Nile River” making them unproductive and not calculated in the GDP of Egypt. Those 5 million people are in the face of poverty. They do not have many facilities or options to gain money knowledge or even good medicine.

Poverty has serious effects on the society well being, people’s education & health. Poverty’s affects society’s well being making children who grow up in poor areas lack many of the needed facilities that any child’s right deserve to have, instead children grow up to sell on streets, where they should be learning or socializing. Unlike those who are financially stable children grow in a safer community where children are more educated. Poverty due to corruption damages the society’s balance creating a huge gap between the rich and the poor where both deserve equal rights, the poor’s are never reached & are never treated in fair by the government.Poverty second effect is education, making students ditch schools to sell tissues on street to gain money for their family, the family too take their children out of school to work and generate more money for the family, thus leading to a higher rate of illiteracy “While those children living in absolute poverty cannot afford basic education, those in relative poverty are forced to dropout half way into their elementary or middle schooling. There may be many reasons for dropout, ranging from inability to pay fees for further education to shouldering family responsibilities” (Naik, 2010). As education in Egypt is the way to have a better life in the future so, since some people do not have money to pay for education, so their children’s miss the school consequently. When he/she become an adult to enter the workforce they are not capable to find a good job which will help them to live a normal life. As the author relates “The relationship between poverty and education also works the other way round, with lack of education being one of the most important causes of poverty in the world” (Naik, 2010). The third thing affected by poverty is the health. The author says “Around one-third of the total number of deaths in the world – which roughly amounts to 18 million people every year, are attributed to the diseases of poverty” (Naik, 2010). Since those who live in poverty do not have enough education only this but also new born babies who are born in poor places have a low weight because of low nutrient level.

As state, all points are related to each other, each point affects the other point. As mentioned before, the previous regime was one of the main reasons of an increasing percentage of poverty in Egypt, whereas in the 25th of Jan 2011 a revolution was fired up by the Egyptians due to high level of corruption that Egypt was living in for 30 years. Revolution for true democracy is the only solution to uproot poverty and rescue Egypt from it as the author relate “When people took to Egypt’s streets in January 2011, they were bound together by a deep hatred of the Mubarak regime rather than a common vision of what demands for “bread, freedom and social justice” (Tadros, 2012). The advantages of this revolution are that it will purge Egypt from the previous regime. It will help people learn better to find jobs with their good qualification not with their authorities, relation, & bribery. The disadvantages are that the revolution true effects will be seen on the long run. It needs time and patience, it needs a lot of teamwork and unity to pass the first phase that will take couple of year. After that poverty will end and each citizen in Egypt will live a decent life, the life a human deserves. The percentage of poverty will decrease. Another solutions implemented in Egypt to fight poverty is Micro financing where some banks give a small amount of money to help them to start their projects and pay this money back after a year without a financial benefit. The advantage of the micro financing is that it helps the youth people to work, achieve their dreams and to fight poverty and have a chance to live a decent life but, the disadvantages of the micro financing is that some people goes to jail because they do not pay the money back to the bank in it is time. Also this idea needs an educated people to know how to manage and fulfill their project. In my opinion there are many solutions that can help Egypt to solve the problem of poverty. The first solution is employment generation which will help to decrease the percentage of the unemployment and the percentage of poverty because they found a good job. The second solution is that there should be a transparency in government spending to make sure that no one will steal money. The third one is that the government has to pay her debt which will help the country to be economically stable so that the financial situations for each person will increase. The fourth is to make the rich pay more taxes and the poor to pay less because it is not fair to make the poor and the rich pay like each other so that will help to make the economic situation equivalent in Egypt. Seek to the self sufficient economics which will help the county to develop and the minimum rate of salary for each person per day will increase. Also the government has to be involved with social institutions to help her in fighting the poverty by funding poverty fighting programs like the United Nation. The last solution is that the government has to be near to the poor people not the rich only they have to talk to them encourage them not to neglect them.

In conclusion 30 years of corruption made Egypt reach a devastating state of poverty resulting nearly for quarter of the population to reach poverty. The economy is not stable, the basics needs are not met, and yet people are still struggling for survival to meet their basic needs of food, shelter and health. Egypt had reached such level of poverty due to a corrupted system under Mubarak’s regime people were silenced, tortured, robbed & had no voice to demand their rights. People were terrorized under the Mubarak’s authority. Leading to education corruption, Egypt did not want people to learn, not to outcome the government. Children grew with wrong knowledge of history and basic knowledge compared to the international accepted standards. Making adults from all ages almost illiterate in the market of qualified employment, only serving to the corrupted government that does not provide the right facilities to its employees nor rights. There are also another 5 million from the percentage of people in poverty living away for the centre of production, the Nile River, make them outcast from the society. These people are afraid to be tortured from Mubarak’s regime and his forces nor are they able to produce or are able to live normally. With all these corruption and poverty, people’s health is no longer stable 18 million people yearly are attributed to diseases due to poverty and lack of medical supplements or care facilities that people could afford. The financial statuses of the families are low which makes children dropout of school to raise money for the family or are forced to do so. Poverty affected Egypt’s well being making the rich richer, and the poor poorer creating a miss balance between both poles, which increased the level of theft. Parents where are no longer able to pay for their children’s neither education nor health needs. Poverty brought Egypt to the lowest level of disgrace. The only solution was to explode in revolution, people demanding their basic rights from food, knowledge, and ethical rights, even though a revolution was started. It takes years to change 30 years of corruption that stroke Egypt life from its roots. Egypt needs to stay united in the face of poverty, education system should be renewed and new knowledgeable children grow to drive Egypt towards the light & liberty. Life will then grow in Egypt and stand skill against poverty and injustice. This dream will be achieved only if people stood strong and united against corruption. The change begins from the inside out.