West Bank, and… Arctic Ocean One thing is easy to see: When the Egyptian dredgers devote themselves to “working day and night” to bring that 400m long and 220,000-ton ship back into the ocean, they don’t just forget to sleep. because the Suez Canal is one of the country’s greatest pride, not only because there is $ 9 billion of cargo stuck every day, but because the circulation of boats on the Suez Canal is closely related. to their own piece of rice. As Eslam Negm – an Egyptian sailor involved in dredging and rescue – shared: “We – that is the majority of Egyptians – live off this canal”. From there, no need for accurate data, anyone can imagine the huge profits that this artery maritime route brings. And therefore, it should not be surprising, given the immediate alternatives to the Suez Canal (or at least the worst case scenario) proposed in the vehicles. international mass news. First is Israel. According to The Arab Weekly on March 30, 2021, the congestion of the Suez Canal prompted discussion of alternatives to the Suez Canal – including Israel’s Ben Gurion Canal project linking the Red Sea. with the Mediterranean (also known as the Israel Canal) – come alive. The Israelis see this route as a competitor to the Suez Canal. Tel Aviv intends to turn the Israeli canal into a multifaceted project, such as building small towns, hotels, restaurants and nightclubs around the waterway. Outline of the Israeli canal project. Before that, on March 25, Business Insider (USA) announced the content of a secret memo written in 1963, which was declassified in 1996. Accordingly, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory of America used to study a project using nuclear explosions to dig a 160-mile (257 km) canal across the Negev desert in Israel, connecting the Mediterranean with the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea (Red Sea). Historian Alex Wellerstein – who also mentioned that profile on his personal social networking site Twitter – thinks this is a model option. However, in 1967, when the Arab-Israeli war broke out, the Suez Canal had to be closed for eight years, no one said anything about the Israeli canal. That is not difficult to understand, because in the 60s of the last century, trade activities as well as the volume of goods and especially the interdependence of all factors are not rich and diverse. form, development, complexity … as present – 21st century. The problem is: Because of the implications of nuclear radiation, there is no guarantee that neighboring (and still skeptical or hostile) Muslim Arab countries will allow Israel to redeploy the mining project. Ben Gurion channel. Meanwhile, when 380 ships were waiting at the Suez Canal, Russia announced: Bringing the project of the Northern maritime route along the North North Ocean connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, and committed Russia will ensure the safety of this new traffic route, as well as ensure that transportation costs will be cheaper. This sea route shortens 40% of the journey from China to Egypt to Europe, and the journey time is less than 15 days. Due to climate change, the amount of floating ice on the above line is less and less, the travel will be easier and easier. The Russian side pledged to let the icebreaker come to save any merchant who got caught in the ice on the way. Russia alone plans to use this maritime route to export its oil and gas. Those are the inevitable movements stemming from the fact, when everyone has seen how vulnerable the modern global supply chain is. That fact makes any country have conditions to prepare a backup plan, at the same time looking for opportunities to startle on the logistic “piece of cake”. Eternal aura However, we can believe that every Suez Canal project may not be of reference value, but will never achieve its goal of completely replacing the 193.3 long sea journey. km, connecting the Hong Hai with the Mediterranean. Just as the Panama Canal passing through Central America connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific, history and reality give the Suez Canal an incomparable position, by any competitor. Compared with the northern maritime route that Russia is planning to deploy, the absolute advantage of the Suez Canal is not not afraid of freezing in winter, but … near the “oil navel” of the planet. The position on the European – Asia – African junction of the Suez Canal is also extremely important, when North Africa – Middle East has never been a “hot spot”, never a place in the Middle East. The world’s leading power mind competes for influence on the global geopolitical map. Above all, the Mediterranean is the most important commercial center (if not the most important commercial center) of humankind since ancient times, also the site of a series of ancient civilizations. . 19,000 ships pass through the Suez Canal each year Israel may still proceed with the digging of the Ben Gurion Canal. However, “human peace” will be the biggest obstacle facing the Jewish state. On March 29, when Egyptian President El Sisi announced: “Egypt has succeeded in ending the crisis of the ship stranded in the Suez Canal, and bringing everything back to normal. This is all about it.” the world is reassured about the transportation of goods and their needs through this lifeline “, it can be said that he has made all the friendly Muslim Arab states reassured to” ignore them. “with every other alternative, especially the idea of ​​using another canal to benefit Israel. Old habits and relationships, whatever you say, always play a core role, even in terms of interests. Of course, Egypt would have to do much better than its part, to make sure as much as possible that an incident like the Ever Given ship ran aground – that is, the global supply chain was interrupted by a very windy night. But, of course, the era when famous maritime restaurants such as Vasco da Gama, Bartholomeus Diaz or Ferdinand Magenllan had to go around the Cape of Good Hope in the southern end of Africa to reach India was also far in the past. . Mankind will not return to those days, but it is not necessary to have another way, after more than 100 years familiar with the Suez winds … * Every year, the Suez Canal brings Egypt an average profit of about $ 6 billion, with about 19,000 ships passing, carrying goods equivalent to 10% of the total global trade turnover. In 2020, under the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the paralysis of the global trade machine, this figure will still reach USD 5.61 billion. * Since digging canals by traditional methods will be extremely expensive, the Americans are expected to use the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions (Pneums) method. This is a viable option, because this nearly 160-mile canal, 130 miles of uninhabited desert, could have nuclear detonation. According to calculations, to dig each mile of the canal, it is necessary to detonate 4 nuclear devices (temporarily called the atomic bomb) of the size of 2 million tons of TNT. So a total of 520 atomic bombs or 1.04 billion tons of TNT need to be detonated to dig this canal.

This is good news for the whole world, because the Suez Canal is a vital maritime route for international trade. But during the nearly 1 week of being trapped, how great of the damage has you caused, are you curious? Let’s take a look at some prominent numbers, to see how sensitive the world economy is in fact. Huge numbers The Ever Given is a super ship of over 400 meters long, weighs more than 220,000 tons, can carry a maximum of 20,000 containers. At the time of jam, the ship was carrying a total of 18,300 containers. The ship is operated by shipping company Evergreen Marine based in Taiwan (China), and is among the largest in the world. The ship has been stranded since March 23 while entering the Suez Canal from the Red Sea. After hitting the shore, it ran aground and turned sideways, blocking the canal. Initially, it was thought that the wind was too strong, but the SCA believes this is not the only reason. More investigation will be needed to find out whether the main cause is technical or human impact. And also because of the jam that alone on Sunday (March 28), there are about 369 ships waiting at both ends of the canal, waiting for the time to pass the 193km long route, although it is unknown when. Run with time Over the weekend, 14 tugboats were mobilized to pull Ever Given out of the strand. Thanks to this, it has rotated “slightly” about 30 degrees. On March 29, after the media reported that the ship had begun to re-float, the SCA announced that Ever Given was completely rescued. According to the SCA, they will keep the ship operating during high tide – a condition required to put the ship back in the middle of the route and clear the canal. Some small boats have begun to move, but others will have to wait a long time, said Richard Mead, chief executive of shipping company Lloyd’s List. “We are seeing about 450 ships waiting to cross the canal. It will take quite a while to resolve this congestion.” Scary damage 12% of world trade, about 1 million barrels of oil and 8% of liquefied natural gas – those are the numbers the Canal is responsible for each day. According to SCA President Osama Rabie, the canal’s revenue lost between 14 million and 15 million dollars per day. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, maritime operations through the Suez Canal contributed up to 2 percent of Egypt’s GDP. Meanwhile, data from Lloyd’s List shows that the damage from the congestion is estimated at around $ 9.6 billion a day – $ 400 million per hour, and $ 6.7 million per minute. Looking at the bigger picture, global trade suffers losses ranging from $ 6 billion to $ 10 billion a week, according to insurance company Allianz. At the same time, the trade growth decreased by 0.2% to 0.4%. The cost of chartering a ship from Asia to the Middle East increased by 47%, to $ 2.2 million. Some shipping lines have chosen to detour to avoid the Suez Canal – such as through Cape Hao Vong. This means that travel times, costs and fuel will also increase, affecting a wide variety of industries – from retail, supermarkets to manufacturers around the world. The exact amount of damage is really difficult to calculate until the canal is fully cleared and the trade continues. Many UK companies have said they are still waiting to know when the goods will arrive. Some even have stock right on the ship Ever Given. Although the ship was freed, some expressed concern as the canal was still congested. Many companies even think of using air for transportation, which means the cost will be tripled. Perhaps, it is very rare that the world has seen such a tremendous impact from a stranded ship. Source: BBC

26-year-old excavator driver Abdallah Abdelgawad The incident attracted worldwide attention. As a very important trade route for the world economy, the temporary closure of the canal caused the name Suez to appear in newspapers and social media posts. Photo: Reuters The size difference was too great between the two objects The image shared with dizzying speed of a small excavator trying to rescue the giant ship has surprised many people. The huge difference in the size of the two objects makes one think of an ant trying to get an elephant out of troubled waters. Abdallah Abdelgawad, who operated the small excavator, did not expect to become famous on social media one day. However, from anonymity, he actually became a star widely praised. At 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday, March 23, Abdelgawad arrived at his workplace as usual. However, the gates are closed and prohibited from entering. “I asked a person and he said there was a boat blocking the canal,” said Abdelgawad, 26. He and his colleagues returned to their residence at Al Arbain, 30 minutes away. An hour later, Abdelgawad received a call from his manager, asking him to immediately go to the east bank of the canal. A Suez Canal Authority car was waiting to take him away. “I told him we were not allowed into the work site because a ship was blocking the channel,” the manager said. “You will come to work on that ship,” recalled Abdelgawad. While the authorities attempted to rescue the ship, Abdelgawad alone dug the silt under the giant ship’s bow. He worked nonstop for more than a day until someone else changed his shift. For the next 5 days, he only had 3-4 hours of rest in each working day to clear the maritime route connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. After extraordinary efforts, including a contribution from Abdelgawad, the super ship Ever Given was successfully rescued. In those days, when his family was worried about his health and phoned every day to inquire, pictures of the giant ship by the excavator were circulating on the Internet. “On social media, they said the excavator and me with the ship were like” ants and an elephant. ” At first I was sad, but then it felt normal that we were finally able to rescue the ship, ”Abdelgawad said in an interview. “On Monday, I was really exhausted. But when the ship was successfully rescued, I caught a video as it started to move,” he said proudly. My Facebook account and said that this achievement is due to my tiny miner. I feel as if I have won a war, “he added. Abdallah Abdelgawad takes a selfie with his excavator. – Photo: Facebook Abdallah Abdelgawad Abdallah Abdelgawad poses with workers at the spot along the Suez Canal, where the container ship Ever Given was stranded. Abdelgawad is paid 3,000 Egyptian pounds ($ 190) a month for his work as a excavator. After this incident, he was greeted as a “hero” when he returned to his small village on the outskirts of the city of Shirbin in Daqhaliyah province. “I know I did something big, when everyone gathered around me I felt proud and my dad said,” You made me proud. ” My phone still keeps ringing. I want to sleep, but I can’t sleep, ”he laughed. “My life has changed because of those pictures.” Even though his social media posts have earned him popularity, Abdelgawad has a message he wants to reach out to all those who mock him. “Don’t make fun of the weak or look down on them. This tiny excavator played a huge role in moving a ship more than 500 times its size. Now, I feel extremely proud of what I have done. I hope you all are proud of me too. ” Said Abdelgawad.

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel relates it to an artery blockage that caused capitalism’s heart attack. An association could not be more relevant. Ever Given gets stuck, but that’s not just its own business. Nearly 400 other ships that wanted to cross Suez were also stuck, causing $ 9.6 billion in trade value to stall.

Obviously no ships were sunk and the cargo will arrive sooner or later but they are slow. Slowly, that’s how capitalism has changed man’s notion of time. If you asked someone who lived in the 17th century about a timetable, they would wonder what the hell you were asking about. Until the 18th century, people just invented a timetable to manage train times. But, it was not until the late 19th and early 20th centuries that industrialists had to optimize it and bring it into economics as an indicator of efficiency. That is, it was only when the capitalists appeared that the expression “time is money” was born.

The image of the pitiful little bulldozer is rescuing the Ever Given super ship into a photo-processing phenomenon on social networks for many days.

Not only that. The Ever Given ship stuck for 6 days in the Suez Canal, Egypt, causing the country to lose $ 12-14 million per day. 6 days seems to be a very special time for Egyptians. In 1967, the Israeli army also landed in Egypt to wage a six-day war over the Arab coalition and as a result Israel then took control of the Gaza Strip, east of Jerusale, the Sinai peninsula, the west bank and Golan Heights.

In retaliation, Egypt closed the Suez Canal and reopened it in 1975. That coincidence is a sign that, if we look closely, the story of the incident in Suez might suggest more.

And, that’s right. Since its inception, Suez has always been a mirror to the world, even if we want to, we can see very clearly the many stages of human history over the past 150 years, only through the lens of Suez: from the owner. colonialism in Africa, to the Cold War and then globalization.

In the mid-19th century, a French diplomat proposed to invest in Egypt building a canal connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, and the creation of that artery was also the beginning of a dark chapter of Africa, when the continent began to be torn apart by Europe. Just before Suez’s inauguration, Khedive (Viceroy) of Egypt defaulted and was forced to sell part of the ownership of the Suez Canal to England – so a colonial dispute broke out between England and France, culminating is the Fashoda event, where the British won Egypt and the French kept only Morocco. So, from the outset, that canal has been a metaphor for a change in power structure.

However, the troubled political situation in Egypt led the British press to coined the term “Egyptian question” as a way of expressing doubt and fear that the occupation of the Suez Canal would pose a threat. Castle. Little is said about, that the formation of the Suez Canal led to the creation of a gothic literary movement about the supernatural forces of the rising ancient Egyptian civilization to destroy the enemy. Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the immortal series of Sherlock Holmes, could not stand out from the trend and he has a short story “Lot No.249” revolving around an Egyptologist who brings back so many antiques. You should get revenge by the zombies.

And, the story of these ancient curses “can be read as a symbol of both a desire for power to fully hold the Suez Canal and the fear of losing it,” as scholar Ailise Bulfin in Trinity College wrote in an essay.

It was the middle of the 19th century. Also until the middle of the 20th century, this time everything changed after 2 world wars. Colonialism is coming to the conclusion of many colonial countries’ struggle for national liberation and a newly formed context: the Cold War. The historic arena now belonged to the Soviet and American powers, a battle that Hopkins University’s foreign relations professor Michael Mandelbaum likened to a sumo fight, in which two fat brothers worshiped. and stomped his feet but barely actually touched each other. With unmatched value, the Suez Canal is of course indispensable for a role on this sumo ring.

The British Air Force prepared to attack Egypt during the Suez Crisis of 1956.

On October 29, 1956, the British – French – Israeli coalition attacked Egypt after its decision to nationalize the Suez Canal, opening the “Suez Crisis”. And, like all events in the world at the time, it was actually still a matter between the US and the Soviet Union, though they might not “show up” directly. Why does the Egyptian government want to nationalize Suez? It is in response to the US unwillingness to fund the construction of the Aswan Dam on the Nile. And who is willing to lend Egypt $ 1.12 billion to implement this project? Who else but the Soviet Union.

What was even more interesting, however, was that the United States did not want to attack Egypt. Therefore, President Eisenhower’s government has pressured allied countries to leave, with Britain alone, Eisenhower threatened to sell bonds in pounds, which would cause immeasurable damage. for UK finance. Frightened, Britain withdrew its troops and suffered a dull face. Historians today conclude that the Suez Crisis “marked the end of the UK’s role as one of the great powers in the world” and that the demise of old empires like Britain or France only caused The dichotomy between the US and the Soviet Union became more solid.

Then after a few decades, when the walls fell, the Cold War was finally in the past. What defeated it, replaced it, was globalization, according to author Thomas L. Friedman in “The Lexus and the Olive Fishing”. Friedman’s famous book was first published in 1999 but up to now, it is still accurate. We are still living in the era of globalization, globalization becomes more and more apparent in every corner of our lives.

And, just in time when the new power structure is going into smooth operation, the Ever Given ship’s trauma on the Suez Canal reveals to us the fragility of the global supply chain. In his book, Friedman makes a statement: “The greatest threats to globalization originate in itself. This system has the potential to destroy itself ”. Among the “self-destructive potentials” mentioned by Friedman, one comes from “too tight connection”.

Only one ship, but accounts for more than 13% of all cargo that goes through the sea. Just one ship, can cause total damage of about 400 million USD per hour and 10 billion USD per day. And, no country can say this incident has no effect on us, just that the effect will come soon or a little later. It was an incident no one ever thought could happen, but it still happens. And, the whole world could suffer just because of the negligence of a handful of people. The weakness of globalization lies in that. And this time, will the Suez Canal herald a structural change in the world? Some experts say that, most likely, the Suez incident will promote the transport of knowledge and technology, instead of the physical cargo. Let’s wait and see.

But, also does not rule out this possibility, a possibility that has been mixed with the Egyptians in recent days. The number is that before Ever Given was trapped, Egypt was moving 22 mummies to the new museum and because of the “cemetery of the tombs”, the mummies of the Pharaohs were cradling a curse that caused bad luck to the world. It sounds nonsense, but it shouldn’t be taken literally. In fact, the curse of the Pharaohs is the “olive tree” described by Friedman: it is a symbol of the past, of identity, of tradition, which is grappling with the “lexus” – that is development, integration, industrialization, which is represented by the modern Ever Given supership.

The only thing we can be sure of is that globalization has some small problems, but if not fixed in time, it can have a big impact. Anyway, in ancient times terrible changes in history began with the release of screws.