Chapter 1768 Everyone Has Their Own Frustration (Please Double It!! Please Subscribe!!! Please Recommend!!)

The situation of the little bully is not good, so is the situation of Egypt good?

The answer is worse than that of the little bully! The little bully has nothing, and so does Egypt. Perhaps the only thing that is better than the little bully is that they do not lack water, which is good news... But the problem is that there are many people in Egypt!

The population of Egypt has exceeded 100 million!

Yes! Egypt has water, but it does not mean that it does not lack water. In fact, apart from the Nile River, Egypt is basically covered with yellow sand. This is fatal!

In the past, Egypt could even be the granary of the entire Mediterranean. As one of the four ancient civilizations, Egypt was the granary of the Mediterranean in the Roman era. There is a saying that "Egypt's grain can feed half of Rome", which shows that it has an important position in the Roman Empire system. Egypt also relied on its developed agriculture, and its national strength became stronger and stronger, and it once became a powerful country. But today's Egypt is gradually moving away from the word "granary", and has even become a country with "high" poverty and hunger rates. Today, Egypt's food self-sufficiency rate is only half, and a large amount of food needs to be imported every year to meet domestic demand. Even so, 30% of the population is still hungry.

Why is the former "ancient Roman granary" so short of food now?

Chinese culture emphasizes "heaven, earth, and man", and the development of all things is inseparable from these three.

First of all, "heaven", that is, weather and climate. Egypt's climate has changed greatly. In the early days, Egypt's climate was relatively humid, and the area of ​​the Nile Oasis was larger than it is now. However, with the change of climate, most of Egypt is now located in a tropical desert climate, with very low annual precipitation and high evaporation. The lack of water conservancy is extremely unfavorable for agricultural production.

Secondly, the area of ​​farmland is also shrinking. 96% of the land in Egypt is covered by desert, leaving only 4% available. And the remaining 4% of land is not all arable land. With the continuous development of cities and the continuous development and destruction of land, the land has been continuously developed and destroyed. For example, between 1952 and 1980, about 203,000 hectares of agricultural land were converted to urban land, and agricultural land in the Nile Delta was greatly reduced. Today, land development in Egypt has almost reached its limit.

Finally, there is population explosion and improper policies. The population of ancient Egypt was not large, and the agricultural conditions at that time could fully support it. But starting from the 19th century, the population of Egypt began to increase gradually, and by the mid-to-late 20th century, the population surged. Data shows that in the 1990s, the population of Egypt was about 35 million, and by around 2010, the population of Egypt reached 83 million, more than doubling in 30 years. By 2022, the population of Egypt has exceeded 100 million.

Secondly, there is a policy in Egypt, the pancake subsidy!

In Egypt, pancakes have always played a very important role for this country. Egyptian pancakes have two basic characteristics: one is cheap. According to RMB, you can buy one for 2 cents, and one cigarette can buy 20 Egyptian pancakes. Those flatbreads are still very big, and can be said to be cheap and affordable. For Egypt, which basically relies on imports for food, the price is really quite cheap.

Second, it is a monopoly. Egyptian flatbreads are not available for purchase whenever you want. This special supply of flatbreads for two cents can only be purchased at special places with meal tickets. In addition, Egyptian flatbreads are divided into good and bad. Black flatbreads with average taste are 2 cents each; white flatbreads made with good flour are several times or even more than ten times more expensive. Simply put, Egyptian flatbreads are a special food provided by the Egyptian government to the people, with the purpose of filling the stomachs of the people. For more than 30 years, Egyptian flatbreads have maintained a price of 2 cents each.

The fact that there has been no price increase for more than 30 years is not because Egypt has no inflation, but because the Egyptian government is spending money to subsidize it. From production to sales, only government subsidies can ensure that businesses do not lose money and fill the stomachs of the people. According to Egyptian President Sisi, the actual cost of each flatbread is 0.60-0.65 Egyptian pounds (about 0.25-0.27 yuan). That is to say, for every Egyptian flatbread sold, the government has to subsidize more than 0.2 yuan. Because Egypt has a large population base and many poor people, the sales volume of Egyptian flatbread is high. In total, the Egyptian government's annual subsidy for flatbread has accounted for about 15% of the national income, and in some years it has even reached 25%.

This is a considerable burden. Although Egypt has a relatively complete industrial system compared to other African countries, Egypt's manufacturing industry is mostly light industry, and its international competitiveness is not strong. Egypt's main sources of foreign exchange rely on oil and gas exports, tourism, remittances and Suez Canal tolls. Among them, the largest foreign exchange income relies on Suez Canal tolls... basically billions of dollars every year.

Don't think that billions of dollars are not enough... you have to analyze it in the specific environment. For a country, billions of dollars don't sound much, but Egypt's GDP in 2015 was only 329.4 billion US dollars. Do you think these billions of dollars are important?

And these billions of dollars are pure profit. Except for a few maintenance fees, all of them belong to the government!

Just say whether this is important or not!

Of course, it seems like a lot, but there are also many places to spend money. In addition to food, Egypt also has to import a lot of industrial products. This makes Egypt's foreign exchange reserves stretched, and it has to borrow money to buy food.

As a result, this policy, which was originally used to benefit the lower-class people, has become the heaviest burden on this country!

What is even more regrettable is that the country has made such great efforts to ensure that its citizens have enough to eat, but some people do not know how to cherish it at all. Because Egyptian flatbread is so cheap, some people just throw it away if they can't eat it, and some people even use it to feed their livestock. The price is too low, which invisibly creates waste. Egypt's former Supply Minister Hanafi had already recognized this problem when he was in office. He had warned many times that Egypt's current financial subsidy system had caused huge waste and must be reformed.

Unfortunately, it can’t be changed!

Because this involves too many people, the rich will certainly not care about these few cents. But there are too many poor people in Egypt!

Many families rely on this to have enough to eat!

This is also one of the reasons for the population explosion in Egypt... Who would control having children when you can eat enough for a small amount of money anyway? Isn’t the cost of living high? If you try it in developed countries, the cost of raising a child is so high that people are not willing to have children.

Is it okay to produce more food?

Still not working!

Egypt’s agricultural policy changes have also hindered the development of agriculture to a certain extent. Egypt’s fragmented small-scale peasant economy cannot concentrate on production, and its policy of focusing on industry and neglecting agriculture has led to a long-term shortage of agricultural development funds and even a gradual decline. Therefore, Egypt’s agricultural infrastructure has always been relatively backward. Insufficient land investment means insufficient output. Faced with a growing population, Egypt has to import a large amount of food every year. Over-reliance on imports has made Egyptian agriculture increasingly lose flexibility and initiative, further restricting agricultural development.

At the same time, market reasons also have to be mentioned.

Under the lobbying of the United States, Britain and other countries, Egypt, which had just used the Soviet Union to build the Aswan Dam, took the initiative to break up with the Soviet Union, unilaterally terminated the "Soviet-Egyptian Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation", and completely turned to the Western world. Egypt, which has turned to Britain and the United States, has not found its own development route. Egypt, which owns oil and the Suez Canal, has little interest in earning more foreign exchange. It can achieve good operation of the country by relying on tolls from the Suez Canal, and there are also the United States and Britain. Waiting for state support, industrial development will no longer be considered by the Egyptian government. At the same time, in response to the call of the United States and Britain, Egypt gave up the principle of self-sufficiency in food. With the commitment of the United States, Egypt began to purchase food from the United States at low prices and opened up the Egyptian market.

As soon as the Egyptian market was liberalized, all Western capital and products poured into Egypt. Egypt, which was originally lacking in industry, was basically paralyzed by the continuous attacks of Western capital. The industrial output value barely accounted for a quarter of the total output value, and was After the rampage of Western products, Egypt's food self-sufficiency has further declined and is now less than 20%. However, the food self-sufficiency rate of European and American countries that deceived Egypt into giving up food self-sufficiency and buying food instead has never fallen below 100%.

If someone grabs the food, I will be the one to eat it.

Domestic people no longer value food because food cannot be sold at a high price! As a result, domestic farmers can only grow high-value crops, such as cotton, sugar cane, etc. These crops are more profitable than food, but they cannot be eaten as food.

The domestic food self-sufficiency rate has further declined. As Egypt's population increases, the food crisis gradually emerges. More importantly, Egypt has few employment opportunities and the arable area is extremely limited. With the explosive growth of population, food shortages, Increased unemployment has become the sword of Damocles over Egypt's head. In response to the food crisis in Egypt, the first thing that comes to mind when there is a food shortage is buying a large amount of grain. The first thing that comes to mind when there are few job opportunities is the crazy introduction of Western capital. The annual food demand of up to 15 million tons accounts for most of Egypt's expenditures. Almost all of the oil sales and Suez Canal crossing fees are invested in the purchase of food. There is no extra money to build infrastructure, and the development of industry has become a utopia. .

Egypt has fallen into a strange cycle. It cannot be self-sufficient in food → buys food → uses up foreign exchange earnings → cannot be self-sufficient in food. Now with the rise in food prices and the continued growth of Egypt's population, Egypt's foreign exchange income will inevitably not be able to satisfy Egypt. food needs!

This is the situation Apocalypse will face when he takes over this country!

Much worse than Little Overlord!

He has no choice but to negotiate!

Because the current situation in Egypt is even more serious than what was just mentioned. What I mentioned before are all situations that Egypt will face when international trade is normal... But what if international trade is abnormal?

This is also true, not only is it abnormal, but it has not been normal for several years!

That small test in Atlantis not only caused the United States to fall from its dominance in one fell swoop, but also changed the entire world.

Big countries like the United States have been so affected, but what about small countries like Egypt?

Worse!

In the year when Atlantis launched the attack, not a single ship passed through the entire Suez Canal for a day... This means that the Egyptian government has lost billions of dollars in funds that can provide stable income every year and are completely at the government's disposal for several years!

Therefore, Egypt, which Apocalypse took over, can be said to be completely impoverished!

The stagnation of international shipping forced them to spend more money to buy food... You must know that the freight costs of land transportation and sea transportation are very different!

The Egyptian government was helpless, which led to turmoil throughout Egypt. This is why Apocalypse was able to seize power so quickly, because even without Apocalypse, the government would not be able to hold on and would be overthrown sooner or later...

This time Tianqi launched a war, which meant that he had taken out all his family wealth.

According to the original idea, he would naturally destroy the little tyrant in one go, but after looking at his family's assets, he knew that it was impossible, because no matter whether he won or lost, he was bankrupt, and the country did not even have enough basic food.

No food.

No matter how powerful you are, you will be overthrown!

As an ancient Egyptian, Tianqi knows the importance of food. Tianqi exploited the entire ancient Egyptians so much, and the reason why those people did not rebel was that there was enough food! They had food to eat and would not starve to death, so naturally no one would rebel.

But if there is no food... they will die anyway, why should they be afraid of you Tianqi?

So Tianqi will start a war, because he must fight.

Then why stop?

Because he must stop!

He now needs to get benefits from various countries.

International recognition, and food!

The latter is more important than the former!

The country is still immersed in the joy of continuous victory in the war, so no one has noticed something wrong for a while, but in fact, the country is already so poor that it can't even eat.

The food reserves are almost at the bottom, and even the price of pancakes has increased.

It really can't not go up, because the subsidies can no longer be made.

The country has no money.

So a ceasefire is necessary!

He needs to use the compensation from the Little Overlord to recover the foreign exchange... they have no foreign exchange.

At the same time, he needs to use the Little Overlord to get a lot of food from European countries!

Food is not precious to those European countries. Especially in Central and Eastern Europe and America, there is so much food that it has to be dumped into the sea.

There is no way. With the stagnation of sea transportation, many grain-producing countries can't sell their grain... The current international grain prices are simply two worlds apart.

The grain prices of grain-producing countries have fallen below the historical low, thanks to the activities of the Titans. After the Titans made a few troubles, the climate of the world has become very good, and extreme weather has become much less. It's called a good weather, and all kinds of output have broken through historical highs, but they can't be sold. Then the grain price has fallen below the historical low.

Many third world countries are in desperate need of food. There have been several rounds of famine in the country, and the price of food is extremely high.

But there is no way to ask for it, the transportation capacity is so limited... The food cannot be transported, and even if it is transported, the price will be ridiculously high... After all, the price of a shipload of food may not be enough to pay for the fuel. If the food merchants don't sell it at a higher price, they will lose a lot!

So those countries definitely have food! It is enough for Egypt!

So Apocalypse must stop the war.

It should have been enough to make Apocalypse depressed, after all, it would be a pity to miss such a good opportunity. After all, the little bully was so bad this time, it was caused by many factors, and it is really difficult to get such a heaven-sent marriage again.

But unexpectedly, Nick Fury came!

And gave him such a big gift! Let his heaven-sent marriage continue. As long as Nick Fury did not lie, not only can it proceed according to the original plan, but it can also get greater benefits!

He really didn't expect that Egypt would be so poor...