A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Multiple Takes, Pro and Con, on Egypt's "New Capital" Project

Since Egypt announced its plans for a new administrative  capital in the desert east of Cairo, I posted a piece by Khaled Fahmy questioning the project as well as a response defending it. Here are a range of other opinions, from mocking to laudatory, across the spectrum.
David Sims, a Cairo-based urban planner, has spent years cataloguing the failures of Egypt’s satellite cities, culminating in last week’s well-timed publication of his latest book – Egypt’s Desert Dreams: Development or Disaster? Sims leans towards the latter.
“It’s just a bunch of crazy figures,” he says. “The scale is huge, and there are questions like: how are you going to do the infrastructure? How are you going to get the water? How will they move all these ministries?
"In other words, I think it’s just desperation. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of it, but I rather doubt it.”


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