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.

• Patrick Kingsley in The Guardian: "A new New Cairo: Egypt plans £30bn purpose-built capital in desert." I had earlier noted that it would be interesting to hear David Sims' comment on the plan. Kingsley asked him:

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.”

• Amira Howeidy in Ahram Online: "Egypt's capital: Art Deco to desert skyscrapers."

• Mostafa Mohie in MadaMasr: [Interview with Yahia Shawkat]:  "Egypt's New Capital: A city for investments or for alleviating overpopulation?" An Arabic version of the interview is also available.

• Sonia Farid at The Atlantic Council's EgyptSource:"Egypt's New Capital: The Promise and the Illusion."

• Yasser Elsheshtawy at the Dubaization blog: "Obsession (or, Why the new, new Cairo is not Dubai)".

• CairObserver:"Nasr City was once Egypt's new capital, but things went wrong."

• Middle East Eye: "Doubts raised over achievability of Egypt's 'new capital'" [Note: Middle East Eye has been characterized as sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood.]

• Sarah Carr at her blog Inanities:  "Progress."

• Zeinobia at Egyptian Chronicles: "My Two Cents about Egypt's big Economic Conference."