As another light goes out I am reminded of the extent to which Cairo is a modern day Gotham in all its gory glory. It is dark, hopeless, scary, sad and beaming with negativity and injustice. This year, it has only been getting darker. We keep losing those whom are the brightest and most full... Continue Reading →
Do you believe that competition is a prerequisite for progress? That humanity will continue to develop and evolve in the absence of a self-serving mind-set or a perpetual desire to outdo? Can a cooperative greater good themed mindset be the next big thing? Would it be sustainable? How would the change come about? We would... Continue Reading →
Take your first impression and acknowledge that it is probably wrong. She is not the girl you see nor the girl you perceive. Take a moment and look beyond the facade of bravado and indifference. Give it a chance, she will smile, if you are really lucky she will let you in. If all you... Continue Reading →
This is for me. I would have loved to claim that it was for him. Or for all of you. Yet this is for me. To cope. To believe. To survive. Bassem Sabry is dead. You have all heard. The tragic news has spread across social media like wildfire and has depressed friends, fans and... Continue Reading →
At the end of 2006, Time magazine declared the reader, the individual, the average Joe; the Man of the Year. It was a testament to the overwhelming growth in user-generated content that took the world by storm during that year. Social media platforms were empowering individuals, like me and you around the globe to become... Continue Reading →
Updated! Since Nerro asked. Here is my take on http://www.youm7.com/News.asp?NewsID=1149794 While I think it is nice that the business community is excited about contributing I have some concerns about the format. 1. As far as I can tell, it is a privately set up fund. I am yet to hear any commentary from the transitional government in... Continue Reading →
I am writing this because I bumped into the very talented Tarek at an entrepreneurship forum and he asked for my 2 cents on things. The following lines are not based on any scientific nor quantitative analysis and are instead the musings of a former economist. In the following months the foreign exchange situation will... Continue Reading →
This is not at all a recommendation to buy, quite the contrary, the book is an alarmingly disappointing read. Intrigued to buy by the fact that events unfold in our beloved Cairo only to discover that Somerville has spun the tale to unsuspecting readers such that Cairo is an "exotic" and dangerous primitive place with desert and... Continue Reading →
My TEDx day-view 🙂 I am indebted to the organising team for their passion and the attendees at the BA for making my day in my city by the sea unforgettable. Your individual feedback was heart warming and extremely touching. For those interested in the actual slides, they are downloadable here: The Economics of Life - Inji Amr... Continue Reading →
Ever since I'd seen the Crisis of Credit awareness video & I have been obsessing about & dreaming of doing a series of similar videos in Arabic explaining economic concepts to the non-economists & making the newspaper headlines relevant to the average citizen. I've been in the search for a cooperative & collaborative cartoonist for... Continue Reading →
You know your job is taking over your brain when the most memorable quote from a murder mystery is one about the economy. Here you go: The idea that Sweden's economy is headed for a crash is nonsense. . . .You have to distinguish between two things--the Swedish economy and the Swedish stock market. The... Continue Reading →
MOF has issued a powerpoint summary of the revised Egypt 2011/2012 budget. You can go through it here. Meanwhile, blog post deferred till I can update the presentation to reflect changes in the budget.
So the twitter timeline yesterday and my budget awareness session the day before were filled with one question. Where do the Suez Canal revenues go? They don't appear anywhere on the budget. So I took the question to the Ministry of Finance. Their responses are as follows: Suez canal revenues are balance of payments revenues,... Continue Reading →
To whom it may concern, I'm giving an economic awareness session on Sunday the 26th at Tahrir Lounge (5 El Bostan Street, Goethe building downtown) at 6 pm. The session is entitled "Egyptian government budget, jargon, values and possible implications". Session is targeting the non-economists and will basically be an introduction to the concept of... Continue Reading →
I've FBed it, tweeted it and blasted it in my own car stereo and those of friends. Only thing remaining is blogging it, so here it is, lyrics and all 🙂 غنائية يوم ما الشعب إتغير غناء فاطمة سعيد موسيقى مصطفى الحلوانى كلمات مصطفي أبوجمرة كنا بنشوف الطريق مفيهوش طريق و السما فوقنا رصاصى والامل... Continue Reading →
So Zeinboia gives me the heads up about an invitation from the ministry of finance to discuss the new budget proposal with Dr. Samir Radwan and his advisers. Apparently invitation was made to some of the youth coalitions and some of the twitter economists. I had whined on twitter all morning about wanting to attend... Continue Reading →
I've been asked to offer my 2 cents quite a bit, so here, all my cents in one post. I am not claiming there is an absolute truth when it comes to economics, yet this post is about what I would do if I were calling the shots to steer this economy to a safe... Continue Reading →
Following the Jan 25th revolution and the explosion of civil society initiatives and social activism, I have taken a personal interest in improving the information availability and transparency in the market regarding operational NGOs and initiatives. To this end, this blog post is the first of a series of posts shedding light on successful existing... Continue Reading →
For those of you interested in awareness and gender issues, there is a Harassmap team brainstorming session this Saturday. The organising team is honoured to invite you for a meeting at Rebecca Chiao's place next Saturday 26th of March 2011. The meeting agenda will include discussing marketing strategies for Harassmap, new slogans & new approach...etc.... Continue Reading →
For those of you adamant on investing in the stock market, some words of advise from one of the most prestigious economics and financial economics professors at the AUC. (I don't have explicit permission to cite her name, so out of respect opting to maintain her anonymity). While she agrees that at the end this... Continue Reading →
Ramblings of the Disoriented Mind 