Smart Villages and the City of the Dead

There is a reason why Western governments remain silent during the ongoing uprising of the Egyptian people. Under Mubarak's police-state labor was cheap, Egypt a land of wage slaves, an outsourcing paradise, an offshore haven and a money laundering base - in other words, an excellent place for business.

Smart Village Office Building

"Egypt's minimum wage has been 35 Egyptian pounds (6.50 dollars) per month since 1984. When bonuses, incentives and annual increases are included, the minimum monthly salary of government employees and public sector workers reaches 289 Egyptian pounds (53 dollars). Some private sector employees earn much less."

How precarious the economic situation for the majority of the Egyptians really was and is, can be estimated by recognizing that even if both parents working in textile manufactories could not raise their income above the poverty line:

Smart Village Think Tank Lounge

"Wages of most Egyptian workers are inadequate to pay for food, clothing, shelter, and education. Even with two wage earners, the typical monthly wage of textile workers, which ranges from $45-$107 a month, is below the World Bank's poverty line of $2 a day for the average Egyptian family of 3.7 people. According to the World Bank, nearly 44 percent of Egyptians are "extremely poor" (unable to meet minimum food needs), "poor" (unable to meet basic food needs), or "near-poor" (able to meet some basic food needs)."

Not three years ago Egypt received the rather questionable title of

Outsourcing Destination of the Year at the National Outsourcing Association (NOA)’s 2008 Awards held in London, beating rivals the Philippines and Romania. Hence, call centre advertisers heap praise on this business location, since "compared [...] with other call centre locations [...] Egypt is much cheaper than other outsourced locations such as Canada, Mexico and Poland, it is marginally more expensive than India".

Since 2001, the Smart Villages Company, 80 % owned by the private sector and 20% by Mubarak's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, offers a wide range of decent facilities for foreign groups providing considerably more comfort and elegance than Cairo's City of the Dead.

If you've ever visited Egypt, you know that tourist busses usually pass by the City of the Dead, leaving sun burned guests from all over the world in a short moment of horror after catching a glimpse of the poor shapes between the shadows. (click here for Tourist Info)