Pharaoh's iceberg

“Egypt resembles an iceberg, one eighth is above sea level. Seven eighths are submerged in the depths. One eighth of our lives takes place in the light of the twentieth century, seven eighths in medieval darkness ... In the nineteenth century we went through pangs of birth ... but the renaissance was stillborn, and when another embryo was formed in the womb [under Nasser] it was aborted.” — Dr. Louis Awad, Egyptian literary critic, 1969