I came to this country expecting nothing. Unlike some countries where the citizens see Europe/America as the great hand out lands, visas, jobs, usually with a European woman, oh and I pay my taxes.

The difference is that if an Egyptian goes to another country he is charged exactly the same as the national of that country, unlike here where being European really means: Take them for every penny you can!

It seems as if you misunderstood my message and as a European myself I certainly wasn't making a "blinkered generalization of Europeans", as I know many different types of Europeans and Americans living here and I know that they don't all think like this. I'm sorry if my message came over like that.

However, there are many westerners who do come to Egypt and who do come to this board wanting precisely what I described and it is really beginning to annoy me. You could argue that it is a chicken and egg situation, and that it was because the westerners were offered high salaries to "tempt" them to come here in the first place that the Egyptians then got used to the idea that they had more money and tried to benefit from it. And also why should foreigners not take advantage of the system that is already in place, as they didn't create it.

But when I keep on hearing foreigners saying that they wouldn't work for an "Egyptian salary" and that as a foreigner they "deserve to be paid more!", and that "you couldn't expect a foreigner to work for those wages!" and then I look around at the Egyptians who would love to even have a job, it strikes a nasty chord and makes me feel that there is something wrong and it needs to change.