When democracy began in America....
nobody told me about this...!
Just going back a few posts - I don't think tourism generates quite as much as 80% of GDP but it still generates a significant amount of money - 11.8 billion dollars in 2009 (GDP for 2010 was around 500bn) - but I assume that would be revenue generated purely by tourism in terms of hotel rooms and dive trips and museum entry tickets and the like, and doesn't include the rest of the service sector that has to be there to provide for the tourists.
One thing for certain, it employs a lot of people. Moreover it employs a lot of people that would have very few job prospects otherwise. Illiteracy remains high in Egypt, but that's not so essential if you can wield a mop or a spanner, or fill a tank with some degree of expertise. What other options to these guys realistically have?
The MJP do indeed speak of a secular approach to government, and have appointed a token copt and one woman to the party... which might not seem much to the politically correct western world - but it really wasn't so long ago that women in Europe and America were not allowed to vote, and black people couldn't even use the same toilet as whites, never mind run the whole country. One woman and one copt in government is therefore significant progress.
However, the political party does not necessarily speak for the entirety of it's following and one loose analogy as an example would be Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, who came to the negotiating tables in the 1980s/90s whilst hardline IRA splinter cells were still busy bombing the United Kingdom.
When non-Muslims hear "Sharia Law", they do indeed associate those words with the extreme practice of - for example - the Taleban, with whom we have become quite familiar thanks to the News-Corp sponsored "war on terror". It will depend on how far the MJP are willing to go when it comes to implementing these laws with respect to foreigners. No bacon is one thing, but forcing all women to cover up would probably have serious implications for business.
Since the party themselves probably aren't quite sure exactly how it would play out, the likelihood of the average Egyptian farm worker - who probably doesn't know a thing about tourism, and doesn't really care either - understanding the wider implications of the enforcement of Sharia law in Sharm El Sheikh is minimal. He just went and voted for exactly what he wanted - a party he has common ground with, and who he hopes will look after him better than the last lot.
I sincerely hope that Solly's last point is indeed the case for the future - if the elected party doesn't come up with the goods, have a revolution-by-ballot-box, and vote for somebody who will.
Cheers
C.
