Egypt Needs Systems Engineering

As I stood in the queue to purchase a metro ticket at exactly 7:30 am in Heliopolis's Kobba El Saray station, I could not believe that Cairo could be so serene. This was of course before the hustle and bustle of the rush hour. I awaited in a short line to purchase my 1 L.E. ticket to board the punctual metro that would take to Midan el Tahrir, where I would attend another day of classes at the American University in Cairo. Just as I was about to conclude that that Cairo could have its tranquil moments, a Cairene bumbs into me, actually pushes me, cuts the short queue and starts shouting at me for "standing in the way." I began to question his logic, before the strangest thing happened. Another Cairene cuts the two of us and the two men begin quarreling about who should be first in line. As I stood back watching them in bewilderment, I could not understand how they could get so worked up at such an early hour and how were both at fault. The one thing that stuck me in their aggressive dialogue was that the word "system" was thrown around nonchalantly by the two of them. One would remark, "The system is broken!" And the other would reply, "The is no system, brother!" Anyways, by the time they settled who'd be first to purchase the one pound ticket, the 7:30 metro passed all three of us.

Ever since my youth, there have always been criticisms of this abstract notion called "the system"? No one ever really pinpointed what this idea was. It was one of those up-in-the-air notions that everyone criticized when they were frustrated. Whether it was the cab drivers, the politicians, the economists, or my uncles after dinner, the same debate would circulate around how the system is broken. Ever since my youth, I had wished to know exactly what the problem was so I understand its nature to find the solution. The fact that we in Egypt have never defined what the problem is in essence our problem! Apparently, the system and its subsystems (be it the educational or political system) are in peril in Egypt.

Always, there are complaints about the system's incompetence, intricacy, bureaucracy, lack of vision, . All of these factors undermine Egypt's potential to mobilize its people into a productive, efficient, and powerful force. This is detrimental to the state's allocation of resources to efficient use. This is the reason why Egypt is always struggling to stay afloat when it comes to providing for its citizens and making leaps in economic development. Now I can go on and on listing the problems, but that doesn't contribute to finding a solution for them. In a word, the problem is that we need an organized and efficient system that can allocatively and productively bring Egypt to its full capacity.

I commend Prime Minister Nazif's efforts for achieving Egypt's ranking as the number 1 reformer in the world in 2008, but all that Egypt has been focusing on thus far is structural reform. Structural reform of the economy is like shuffling around a deck of cards. You create new industries, they emerge, they grow, and they die. Its a life cycle. The trends of growth are known by economists to be that of moving people out of agriculture into industry, creating new smart villages, stimulating the economy via fiscal policy, shedding workers out of corporations, etc... These economic tools are effective for short-term improvements in the socio-political status of the country, yet these structural changes are merely an effort to beat around the bush and not address the source of the problem, which is the need for systematic change. Systematic change has a much broader perspective and is comprised of economic, social, political, and cultural institutions.

The System is comprised of the rules and practices that constitute the economic behavior. The system is what needs to undergo change. The aim of our system is to change is so that it can become more integrated to the world economy so that the best practices are implemented. Egypt is a welfare state that relies on government that isn't always capable of always providing for its citizens. This is when the government needs to play less of a role by retain the role of establishing the ground rules for markets to determine the rules of the business game and punish those who endorse undesirable behavior. The government must only play the role of the "watchful eye" that Obama mentioned in his inaugurations speech and not favor some over the others when it comes to providing opportunities.

I understand that I have taken a purely economic perspective in this analysis, but my aim is to convey the message that Egypt's System is comprised of a set of powerful interconnected factors that if only one of the subsystems is addressed with without regard to the "whole", then fixing the system will be a futile effort. Therefore, tinkering with a few subsets of the system will not yield sufficient change to the whole system. Everything from the way children are raised to how industries needs to be taken into consideration so as to revamp the whole program.

No excuses can be made to avoid blame of our incompetence. We cannot escape from our past. When our Mubarak uses the argument that Egypt is so underdeveloped because it had endured many wars in the past, I say look to the Japanese who had suffered the atomic bomb. Look where they are now. Look at the Chinese who had endured the wrath of Mao's terror during the Cultural Revolution. Look where they are now. These nations have revamped their system and decided to join the ranks of the civilized industrialized nations. In order to accomplish this marco-level revamping, we need what I call systems or social engineers.

My keen interest in the field of Systems Engineering was essentially to fix the problem that the "system" entails. I remember that I was once laughed by the mayor of Fairfax when I responded to his inquiry of what I wanted to do after graduation by telling him that I was interested in policy making. In America, engineers are taken to be introverted technical personnel that are referred to by policy makers. Whereas in the developing world it is the engineers that have come to lead. Technocratic governments are the new trend when it comes to countries like China and Egypt. It is through the technical tools that we acquire in our rigorous engineering disciplines that enable us to solve societal problems within a technology-scoped framework. I think it is our responsibility to solve this "system problem" through problem solution mindsets in this Information Age.

It is Systems Engineering that bridges the gap between the human and the machine in the effort to revamp the institutions of a nation from its attitude, psychology, social behavior, within the framework of modern institutions, such as the rule of law to discourage undesirable behavior. What is most important in the case of Egypt is respect for the law. People must understand that working within the framework of the system is in their advantage and that cheating the system is detrimental. Moreover, the great compromise will be for the government to serve the nation instead of opposite.

I truly pray that my studies in Systems Engineering are not in vain and that I may someday be able to pursue my dream of participating in the movement that will put Egypt back among the ranks of the world's key players both economically and politically. Obviously the aforementioned are the ramblings of a 3rd year Systems Engineering student, but hopefully they may sow the seeds for the changes that I dream to see in Egypt one day.