At least in US diplomatic and military channels, the Egyptians are well known for disavowing even the most conspicuous facts when there's any chance of embarrassment. The obfuscation and denial are bewildering to most Western minds.
I got to see this during the Obama administration when he (POTUS) was committed to establishing a more stark transactional relationship than the Egyptian government was used to with America. President Obama had made up his mind to impose a precipitous demarche until his conditions were met. The complicating problem was the Egyptian government wasn't inclined to recognize the problems POTUS was pressuring his US Ambassador to address. In looking at the totality of Egyptian history from the 1700s forward, our counsel at the time was that we should be increasing engagement, not terminating it, based on the security situation. We prepared my boss at the time (now Secretary of Defense) to go salvage what we could (within our authorities) of the American government's relationship with the Egyptian government because of the strategic implications. We were successful.
I hope this (my cultural observation in the very first paragraph) doesn't spark internet outrage amongst hypersensitive cultural guardians. I'm simply sharing it as an observation, akin to something like "Americans have a skewed sense of proportion and tend towards excess" or "Germans can sometimes place an inordinate value on punctuality such they lose sight of a more important matter at hand".
My point?
I think it's reasonable to expect that Egypt as a whole will maintain a drift towards pretending something(s) didn't happen rather than taking broad corrective action, especially across a recreational activity. I suspect an industry wide campaign to modernize their safety practices will only happen if the central government makes it a priority. That very well may happen given Egypt's economic dependency on tourism but I haven't heard anything to make me optimistic. I'd rejoice at being proven wrong.
Please don't construe this as "no safe boat or crew can be found in Egypt" but instead that one has to work extra hard to ascertain if the business in mind takes the expected steps for safety that are routinely found in other countries.
I got to see this during the Obama administration when he (POTUS) was committed to establishing a more stark transactional relationship than the Egyptian government was used to with America. President Obama had made up his mind to impose a precipitous demarche until his conditions were met. The complicating problem was the Egyptian government wasn't inclined to recognize the problems POTUS was pressuring his US Ambassador to address. In looking at the totality of Egyptian history from the 1700s forward, our counsel at the time was that we should be increasing engagement, not terminating it, based on the security situation. We prepared my boss at the time (now Secretary of Defense) to go salvage what we could (within our authorities) of the American government's relationship with the Egyptian government because of the strategic implications. We were successful.
I hope this (my cultural observation in the very first paragraph) doesn't spark internet outrage amongst hypersensitive cultural guardians. I'm simply sharing it as an observation, akin to something like "Americans have a skewed sense of proportion and tend towards excess" or "Germans can sometimes place an inordinate value on punctuality such they lose sight of a more important matter at hand".
My point?
I think it's reasonable to expect that Egypt as a whole will maintain a drift towards pretending something(s) didn't happen rather than taking broad corrective action, especially across a recreational activity. I suspect an industry wide campaign to modernize their safety practices will only happen if the central government makes it a priority. That very well may happen given Egypt's economic dependency on tourism but I haven't heard anything to make me optimistic. I'd rejoice at being proven wrong.
Please don't construe this as "no safe boat or crew can be found in Egypt" but instead that one has to work extra hard to ascertain if the business in mind takes the expected steps for safety that are routinely found in other countries.
