Celebrating The Not-So-New-Old-New Suez Canal

The country is living those historical moments of inaugurating the New expansion in the Suez Canal and you can feel over-enthusiasm in the mainstream media as if we dig a true canal that connect between the Red Sea and Mediterranean again
That hysteria reached to the level of claiming that the idea of the New Suez Canal “Yes the regime calls the expansion and bypasses as a New Canal” was better than the idea of the original Suez Canal in Youm7 !!!
I do not know what logic is that but without the Old Suez Canal, there would be no so-called New Canal or expansion or bypass.

The first Suez Canal: de Lesseps's idea, France Money and Eugenie
was the star of the inauguration
The new Suez Canal: An Egyptian paid digged by Egyptians with their
money and Egypt is the star of the inauguration 

Yesterday  we found out that Minister of investment Ashraf Salaman saying on air that one of the scientists told him that the digging of the new expansion in the canal was equal 100 times the construction of the great pyramid !!! We do not know till this day how the Great pyramid was constructed in the first from 3200 years B.C.
It is not a new Suez Canal for real, it is more of an expansion or rather a bypass like any other expansions and bypasses done in the Suez canal since the 1940s.
Now the ironically the Suez Canal exposes the lack of creativity of the Egyptian government and officials in Egypt’s Modern History  when it comes to the naming of the Suez Canal’s extensions as the New Suez Canal. Oh yes, El-Sisi’s New Suez Canal is the not the first New Suez Canal.
That was an issue of Akher Sa’a Magazine in 1949 speaking about how the Suez Canal gave a birth to a New Suez canal aka The Farouk I Canal which was a bypass.

The New Suez Canal in 1949 !! 

In 1980 , thanks to a special issue of famous Kuwaiti monthly magazine “Al-Arabi” we know that there was another expansion in the Suez made by the Suez Canal Authority in that year. It was called The New Suez Canal surprisingly !!
"Scans from @Fatima on twitter"

Here was tan AP raw video report about the 1980 Suez Canal’s expansion digging.
Yes, this video shows the start of digging not the inauguration of the project. That expansion, which is located in Port Said was inaugurated months later by President Sadat. The famous presidential Yacht “El-Mahrousa” carried President Sadat in that expansion with his distinguished guests.

New Suez Cannel Channel project in 1980

There is a big frenzy about the New Expansion with huge overestimation approved by the regime as part of its propaganda.
The new expansion of the Suez canal’s economic fruits and importance won’t be determined now, not to mention the revenues of Suez canal itself are determined by the international movement of trade as far as I understand.
The International economy is booming then the international trade will boom and more ships will pass from Asia to Europe and vice versa. Thus, the revenues of Suez Canal will boom. This is what I understand.
El-Sisi showing the world that he is in control gaining more international acceptance and support more about economic achievement. He also wants to show that he can achieve big promises and projects in no time.
You can read this Bloomberg report by Ahmed Feteha to know more about the new expansion of Suez Canal.
Here is also an infograph report from Ahram Online about the project. Mada Misr also addresses the Myths of the New Canal as well.
The regime should be realistic and honest with the people. Whether we need a new expansion or bypass or not, the new expansion is a mega project but it is not the greatest nor it would turn Egypt into a Gulf state.
For Me what I am interested in really is that the Suez canal zone development project with its industrial hubs. The work in that project should start on Saturday already.
And for Arabic speakers you can watch this video from Shawky’s Balcona

 Suez Canal 2.0