George Rebane 

[The following piece was submitted as my monthly column in The Union.  It appears today 15 May 2010 in the newspaper's print and online editions (here).  I also do a bi-weekly radio commentary on KVMR FM 89.5.]

We just returned from a trip to the eastern Mediterranean during which we had a chance to see four different cultures in operation.  Visiting Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt gave us a look at how people in some fairly ancient lands live in the modern world.  We also saw how they respond to today’s turmoil in the financial markets and cope with the Islamist movement that uses terror as its prime weapon against the west.

To be clear, all four countries have tourism in their top GDP producers.  All of them are in various kinds of financial straits.  And each would be badly hurt were Islamists successful in disrupting their tourist industry.  For that reason you see a lot of guns in the cities and tourist venues – and I mean lots of guns.  Every official from the rookie ‘tourist policeman’ to what appear like administrators with clipboards are packing serious heat.  The most ominous are the athletic looking men in suits with bulges sticking out at awkward angles.  These guys carry the latest compact sub-machine guns and mingle in the crowds.

But it must be working, because the last busload of tourists in Egypt was machine-gunned several years ago.  It seems that everyone from the Mafia to Interpol is co-operating to keep the killers at bay.  Tourists are properly viewed as walking wallets that spook easily.

Before I get to the culture stuff, I want you to know that the trip was terrific, including the visits to all the ancient ruins and historical sites.  But I’m not going to bore you with the stuff you can see on some tourist.com.  Instead, here are a few thoughts about differences between two secular Islamic countries – Turkey and Egypt.

Turkey has about 75 million people almost all of whom are Muslims.  It is the surviving rump of the great Ottoman Empire which finally fell after they backed the wrong side in WW1.  It became a republic in 1923 and, given its record of picking winners, stayed out of WW2 until after Patton crossed the Rhine in early 1945 – at which time it joined the allies against Germany.  Subsequently, with appropriate US aid, Turkey became a strategic partner in the west’s successful effort to contain the USSR.  However since the wall fell, money sent to Turkey has dwindled to a trickle.

The Turks come across as a no nonsense people.  They are rightfully proud of their progress on all fronts as their government liberalizes their economy and society.  In recent years they have sought to enter the EU, but looking at what Greece and others are doing to that union, they are starting to rethink this.

While sitting on a bench in a shopping bazaar, a merchant saw me and came out to talk.  Instead of the expected come-on for his merchandize, he wanted to talk geo-politics with a foreigner.  After chatting for a while (my sweetie pie is a serious shopper) I asked him about the EU.  He said that he and most of the people he knows are changing their mind about wanting to join.  They feel Turkey will soon soar like an eagle and the EU’s problems would be an anchor.  Decorum prevented me from pointing out that Turkey is also exporting its unemployment problem to EU countries.

But looking around the countryside confirmed the merchant’s assessment.  We saw clean urban and rural landscapes, well maintained modern roads and buildings, and new construction everywhere – on the way to Ephesus it was hard to tell that you were not driving down a German highway.

Egypt, an Arab country with 86 million people, is a totally different land and culture.  Egypt has been under martial law for decades; the place is filled with very visible policemen and armed militia.  For years we have been pumping from $2 to $3 billion annually into Egypt to buy its ‘friendship’.  The country’s main highway between its port of Alexandria and capital Cairo has speed bumps every couple of miles where the road contains built-in jogs designed for military checkpoints.  Its streets are broken, there is ‘deferred maintenance’ and trash/filth everywhere.

Almost all women are shawled or covered in burqas, working age men in sports shirts lounge in coffee houses smoking and talking.  There is little sense of urgency and the place is a mess.  While visiting the fabled Alabaster Mosque, I participated in the national pastime of baksheesh by being shaken down by an armed policeman and his supervisor.  They got three dollars, I got to come home.

George Rebane is a retired systems scientist and entrepreneur in Nevada County who regularly expands these and other themes on KVMR and Rebane’s Ruminations (www.georgerebane.com).