Egypt's "Field of Dreams": Connecting the Seas Began in 1380 B.C.

That great American film, "Field of Dreams," captures the imagination by one sentence.  "If you build it, they will come."  The reference was to a mid western hope in the future of a corn field.  A corn field from which the ghosts of great baseball players, long departed, appear to the field owner.  Playing, then disappearing in the thick of corn stalks.  Wondering if it was a signal for carving out a baseball arena on his farm.  Yet afraid that no spectators would come, he was advised: "If you build it, they will come." 

So it was the case with Egypt's field of dreams.  Connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Seas.  A dream that began in Ancient Egypt in 1380 B.C.  A canal that shows Egypt as a world crossroads.  Making of commerce a rational substitute for conflict.  Yet when the dream became a reality with the opening of the first Suez Canal in 1869, it brought both commerce and conflict.

The Suez Canal of 1869 was the successor regime of all the prior efforts.  Beginning with Pharaoh Sitti I (1380 B.C.) through Amre Ibn Elass in the 7th Century A.D.  It was the latter who led the Arab and Islam into Egypt during the Second Caliphate of Omar Ibn Al-Khattab.  Amre wanted to link the two seas.

But Omar, with his clear Bedouin cum legal mind, vetoed the connection.  Allowed only a link from the Nile to the Timsah Lake to the Red Sea.  Omar feared foreign intervention if the two great seas were linked.  Amre, a successful military leader, didn't mind courting that challenge.  But Amre was over-ruled by his boss in Madina.

Amre couldn't play circles around Omar again.  He had done it before and gotten away with it.  Omar had instructed Amre not to march into Egypt -at least not yet.  Quick over-expansion of Islamized territory was not an acceptable formula for the Omar Khalifate.  But Amre, nonetheless, crossed over into Egypt with his armies.  Pretended that Omar's instructions arrived a bit too late.  Resulted in Omar keeping his "General Mac Arthur" (Amre Ibn Elass) under constant watch.  The first instance in history of civilian control over the military.

A digression intended to link the name of Suez to the inner core of the Egyptian psyche, and spirit.  Not with numbers. But with symbols often missed by Egyptian media for lack of connection to the Suez connectedness.  Lack of "Egyptianess!!"

Now Egypt has Suez I and Suez II.  A whale of a difference between the two symbols.  Though tied at the hip, implicating Egypt's sovereignty.

Suez I was a project spearheaded by Ferdinand de Lesseps, a French Vice-Consul in Alexandria.  Received from Khedive Said Pasha, a son of Muhammad Ali, the great founder of a strong Egypt, permission to dig the canal in 1854.  The hesitant Khedive needed England's view.  Though France and England were allies during the Crimean war, the British Consul offered no clear opinion.  Resulting in the signing of an agreement dated January, 1856.

An unconscionable agreement as far as Egypt was concerned.  An "adhesion contract," so heavily restrictive of one party, Egypt, while non-restrictive of another, the Canal Company.  This grave inequality of bargaining power is manifest in the following:

• The Company builds a feeder canal drawing fresh water from the Nile, covering all needs for work on the Suez Canal;
• In return, Egypt donates all land for work and construction, tax-free;
• The Company has the right to charge all Egyptian users of that fresh water.  Together with the free use of Egyptian mines and quarries; 
• Egypt provides for free, four-fifth of the labor needed, with new shifts of manpower every three months;
• All dues of passage in the Suez Canal, whether for human or cargo per tonnage to be collected by the Canal Company;
• Profits are to be debited 10% as interest on investment.  The balance is then divided between Egypt 15%; 10% for the foreign Canal founders; 75% for the canal administrators and upkeep.

So for 15% of the net profits, Egypt provides land, labor, fresh water, natural resources, and security.  For 99 years, a colonial regime was established by a foreign company on lands deducted from Egyptian sovereignty.  What an imperial bargain!!  The nominal suzerain, the High Porte of the Ottoman Empire responded: "Hell, No!!"

Ignoring that refusal, de Lesseps, went ahead with open bids for subscription, in November 1858.  Nearly  half a million shares were snapped up at 500 francs per share all over western Europe.

Egypt did not own the Company.  The Company owned Egypt.  And 1 million of its peasants (25000 each 3 months for 10 years), most of whom perished for lack of care.  While slavery was outlawed in Africa south of the Sahara, indentured slavery was instituted in Egypt by a contract with a Government which existed in name only.

British Prime Minister Palmerstone protested to Istanbul the loss of Egyptian lives.  Not primarily for humanitarian reasons.  But for fear of growing French influence in Egypt, the gateway through Suez to India where rebellion was seething.  Anglo-French rivalry in Egypt focused on the Canal.

That was Said Pasha.  But with Ismail Pasha succeeding him in 1863, Egypt acquired new claws.  The strong State was back, clawing at the illegally gotten advantages.  Attacking the enslavement of its citizens, to the applause of Great Britain.  Paying the avaricious Company two million Egyptian pounds for 177,642 shares bought by the weakling Said, but had remained unpaid.

Then Ismail labored for the reduction of the number of Egyptian Canal diggers; forced the Company to disgorge State land sequestered by the Company through machinations and bribes.  And with approval of the Ottoman High Porte, the Company received an eviction notice: Accept the reformation of that stupid contract or get the hell out!!

De Lesseps nearly had a heart attack; the astute Ismail agreed to have Napoleon III arbitrate; decision for Egypt on July 6, 1864: No enslavement; no crack of the whip on Egyptian backs; restitution of the huge swathe of land to the sovereign owner -Egypt.

The Company was left with only 200 meters on the two sides of the Canal.  The price was steep:  Nearly 3.3 million Egyptian pounds; an enormous price to retrieve what Egypt owns.  But Ismail paid up, saying: "I want the canal to be for Egypt, not Egypt for the Canal." The Ottoman Empire issued the firman (Imperial Executive Order) approving the deal in March 1866.

And with a big bang, the Suez Canal was inaugurated in 1869.  Monarchs were personally invited by Ismail who travelled to Europe, personally carrying to them invitations.  All expenses paid from his personal funds.  Ismailia, the city on the Canal, which was appropriately named after the patriotic Khedive, was bathed in light and splendor.

The French Empress, Eugenie, danced all night, and still asked for more.  A palace in Cairo by the Nile was built in her honor (now the Marriott Hotel).  Roads were paved to the Pyramids.  And the Opera Theatre was built at Opera Square, in the heart of Cairo.

By the standards of 1869, the cost of the party was huge, 1.5 million Egyptian pounds - i.e. pounds sterling.  Ismail, like the U.S. of today, was well practiced in deficit funding!!  The debts led to the British occupation of Egypt in 1882.  The Sudan also came under British hegemony.

The Canal continued to be the lighting rod for Egyptian nationalism; Sinai was ceded by the Ottoman Empire to Egypt in 1906; with the collapse of the Ottomans in World War I, Great Britain's creeping annexation leaped over the Canal and Sinai into Palestine.

From the records of the Canal Company, the aggregate cost of the Suez Canal was 17.5 million pounds.  Of that amount, Egypt paid the staggering amount of 16 million pounds.  Not counting the huge human cost and Egypt's exposure during times of weakness, to foreign intervention.  But with the end of World War II, Egypt, thanks to the impetus of the Canal, rediscovered its sinews of power: location, demography, diversity, cultural cohesion, and national fervor to wipe out any vestiges of past humiliation.

By 1956, the British occupation of the Canal Zone was gone; and Nasser, the new strong man of Egypt, nationalized the Suez Canal Company.  Egypt's adversaries cried foul; propagated in policy, media and foreign affairs, that "Egypt has nationalized the Canal!!"  Utterly stupid.  You don't nationalize what you own.  The nationalization was for the Canal Company which had been chartered under Egyptian laws.  And every shareholder was paid in full.

But the myth was propagated in order to "cut Nasser to size."  A prelude for the Israeli, French and British vicious aggression of 1956 against a country, Egypt, for daring to exercise its inherent sovereignty.  With the cessation of hostilities, peace-keeping by the UN was born.  But for a life of only 10 years.

For in 1967, Israel struck again in the so-called 6-day war.  Sinai was reoccupied; thousands of Egyptian military lives were lost in both Sinai and at the Canal.  Yet Egypt, under Sadat, burst again across the Canal in October 1973, destroying a newer myth: Israel's invincibility.

Now in little over than 40 years, a second Suez Canal has been dug.  Inaugurated on August 6, 2015 by El-Sisi, the present-day advocate of "the Strong State."  

But what a difference between the environment of building Suez Canal I and building its younger sister Suez Canal II.

We have seen from the above, the miserable circumstances surrounding the de Lesseps project (Suez Canal I).  Suez Canal II is the concretizatoin of the New Egypt:

• A historic symbol of washing away the oppression meted out to the Egypt of the 19th century;
• An abashed declaration of an Egyptian equivalent of "Yes, We Can;"
• Dug by the armed forces, under the command of Vice Admiral Mohab Mameesh, in less than one year;
• Funded in mere 8 days by totally -Egyptian subscriptions induced by the spirit of Egypt of January 25, 2011 and June 30, 2013;
• An impetus for China to build the Kra Canal in Thailand to bypass the Malacca Strait.  A new maritime silk road shortening the voyage by 1200 kilometers.  Ending up in Suez welcoming two arms;
• China is also planning road and rail routes through Pakistan.  All ending up in Suez "aller et retour;"
• 85% of world trade carried expeditiously by the giants of canal containers plying their cargo "24/7;" from Port Said to Suez, and vice-versa.
• Seventy kilometers of daily transit from 49 to 85 crossings over the next 10 years.  The volume of world trade moved by sea is expected to double in the next 20 years.
• CNN described Suez II, the new companion of Suez I, as a "game changer for the future of world trade;" "the most strategic waterway in the world;" "a vital lifeline connecting the East and West;"
• MAERSK, the largest shipping company in the world declared: "It is more profitable for us to use the Suez Canals.  We shall stop using the Panama Canal;"
• Suez II was projected to be dug and operational over a period of 5 years.  Shortened at El-Sisi's insistence to only one year.  "We don't have the luxury of time," declared the Egyptian President.
• And in short order, a Presidential decree was issued creating "The Suez Canal Economic Zone." From ship repairs to rest and recreation, to training in maritime commerce, to amusement parks.

Washing away the shame of yesterday: the slavery, foreign manipulation, and the arrogance of power.  Now all gone!!

Still doomsayers predict less financial and economic returns.  No proof on that.  Only to fulfil a self-induced prophecy of unfulfilled expectations.  But the Suez Canals are primarily about:

• National resurgence; and Arab achievement in the midst of the cyclone of destruction of the Arab Spring;
• An Arab symbol of hope and restored strength, dissecting the Arab homeland by flags of all nations parading on ships on water in the heart of the Eastern Desert.

Commented Judge and Senator, Mrs. Taghreed Hikmet of Jordan: "It is a gift from the nation to the world."  In its present hour of peril, the Arab Nation is in sore need of boosters.  That historic Nation could always count on its big sister, Egypt, to faithfully provide.

In a way, the Suez project is an Arab iconic project.  Protected by armed might from Port Said in the North to the Gulf of Aden in the South.  Defending the freedom of navigation, world commerce, and, above all, the sovereignty of the host and owner -Egypt of 100 million Arabs.

All of this is while combating terrorism, jihadism, and anti-Islamism.  And at the same time singing the new lyrics inaugurating Suez II: "Tomorrow Egypt Shall Be Sweeter!!"