Egypt is a third world country through and through, even though the different segments of our big population seem to have their own interesting perceptions of the country. Egyptians come in all shapes and sizes, which truly makes Egypt a place of diversity.

First world

Recently, there was a Facebook post about how the parties that everyone loved aren’t happening in Sahel this summer. People were voicing their concerns and annoyance at the fact that their favorite source of entertainment won’t be around like they expected.

Some people think that this is ridiculous; they feel like these first world problems have no place in our already struggling country. Is this a fair thing to say?

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According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we go up the pyramid once we fulfill one level of needs. It’s only natural that someone who doesn’t have to worry about food and safety to have other concerns. Once a problem is solved, another arises. To the person experiencing the problems, it is a problem, one that the magnitude of can’t be understood by someone at a lower level. What we need to understand is that this doesn’t make it any less of an issue for the ones experiencing it.

To us, our problems are big, they cause us discomfort, so in our perspective they’re bad. We can’t expect everyone to see our problems the same way we do, but we can at least learn to be more tolerant.

An important thing to note is that “the suffering of someone else doesn’t take away from your own”. We can’t escape all the issues that come up when living in a third world country but we can let people enjoy the escapes that they have found without judgement or resentment.