21/08/2017
Al-Akhbar Newspaper 2017/AUGUST /21
Many hasty pens have written in disregard about the subject of the Egyptian rubber eraser which is an annoying matter to me and many others, especially after the declaration of our Minister of Industry, Eng. Tarek Kabil, about the first Egyptian rubber eraser production; some deliberately belittled such announcement as an insignificant achievement for a minister to declare by himself. In addressing these pens, I would like to say: The Egyptian industry is an integrated structure where the manufacture of good-quality pencils and rubbers for every child is an important matter that serves the educational process; it is no more acceptable to provide children with low-quality pencils or rubbers.(Available in Arabic)
Let’s go back in memory when the leader Gamal Abdel Nasser planned to change Egypt from an only agricultural country to an industrial one, too. In 1957, Nasser brought Professor Schacht; one of the prominent German Industrial Planners – according to the deceased Dr. Ismail Rashid, Professor of Aeronautical Science at Cairo University – where Nasser asked Professor Schacht to prepare an industrial plan for production of fighter aircraft and guided missiles and liquid fuel The professor asked Nasser: Do you manufacture commercial planes, cars, motorbikes, bicycles, forks, knives, spoons, pencils, sharpeners? Aziz Sedki, Minister, answered by No; that made Professor Schacht recommend them to start with pencils and rubber erasers up to the last item in the industrial system. Nasser got irritated by the professor’s reply considering it politically unacceptable however, it was comprehended by Aziz Sedki interpreting the fact that the industrial system commences in an ascending order that begins with pencils and rubber erasers, not the vice versa.