"The challenge these mega-infrastructure projects present is that they are often pursued in lieu of projects that would bring tangible economic improvements and raise the standard of living of the average Egyptian." Al-Sisi's vanity projects
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51