If we have a lot to learn from the Israelis, as we have expounded in our last column, we must also allow the Egyptians to teach us as a nation and as a people. Our spiritual journey from Jericho, Galilee, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Cana, among others, down south to the Valley of Elat and crossing the border in Taba from the State of Israel to the Republic of Egypt, has led us to admire the Egyptians in the same manner as we hold the Israelis in high esteem. The people of this great and ancient land along the Nile River, and on top of the mass of arid and barren land, mostly desert, can very well teach our people a lot about nationhood. The Philippines and Egypt are similarly populated heavily but the latter has a lot more in history, culture, and arts.
First of all, the Egyptians are traditionally tolerant of various religions but uncompromising in the defense of their territory. This has been proven beyond the shadow of doubt in the historic external aggression by the Israelis when they grabbed the Sinai Peninsula from the Egyptians. The people of Egypt are not all Muslims. There have always been both Christians and Jews. But all of them, regardless of religious affiliation, fought the Israelis with relentless and unyielding ferocity. The Egyptians' united stance against the Israelis ended in the Camp David accord whereby the Israelis returned to Egypt the entire Sinai Peninsula, not just Mount Sinai. Nonetheless, Coptic monks from Israel are allowed to stay in the foot of Mt Sinai to maintain custody of the burning bush in a monastery. We visited them and learned a lot from the experience.
But regardless of their bloody and nasty confrontations, today Israel and Egypt are the best of friends. In fact, Egypt and Jordan are the only Islamic countries which maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, and have vigorous trade and cultural relations with it. We crossed the border of Israel in the Elat Valley in the side of Israel and Taba Valley in the side of Egypt. The border police was quite strict but we passed through immigration without too many problems. We learned that the Taba Valley which is adjacent to the Catherine City along the Red Sea is part of the Sinai Peninsula. This was the territory that was grabbed by force by the Israelis but was returned peacefully by virtue of the Camp David Accord with US President Jimmy Carter as conciliator.
The Filipinos can teach the Filipinos a lot on how to preserve our traditions, culture, arts, and history. Today, aside from oil and agricultural products, tourism is top foreign exchange-earning industry of Egypt. Millions of tourists from all over Asia, Antartica, Europe, and the Americas visit Cairo, Luxur, and Alexandria every week, every day. Billions of dollars are pouring into the national economy. Egypt also earn at least twenty-five thousand dollars from every vessel that goes through the Suez Canal every few minutes apart. In the ten to fifteen minutes that we spent in crossing the tunnel down under the Suez Canal, we saw not less than five vessels loaded with cargoes going through from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean.
Egypt also can teach Filipinos the value of hard work and perseverance. The only remaining seven wonders of the ancient world, the Great Pyramids in Giza and the Sphinx in front of the six pyramids are living testimonies of hard work and perseverance. Our tourist guide told us that it took hundreds of years to put all the rocks on top of one another and to gather them from different quarries from all over the land. We are also impressed by the art works and the industry of the Egyptians in doing those intricate paintings on the papyrus. We are astounded by the hard work of the shepherds out in the wilderness of the deserts living and sleeping with their sheep, goats, cows, and camels, and the patience of the farmers who plant fruits and vegetables under the scorching sun or in the coldest nights of winters.