Cairo Dispatch

The price of oil

USA! USA! For those who don't know, America's first World Cup game is today (7pm in Cairo, noon in NYC) against the Czech Republic. There's also a lecture I'm going to in an hour (perhaps the source of my next entry...), so my time for today's entry is short.


In case you were wondering, gasoline in Cairo costs 1.4 Egyptian pounds to the liter. If my calculations are correct, that comes out to about 93 cents a gallon. The notion that all Arabs get their gas basically for free is quite off the mark. My apartment (a three bedroom) costs about $320 a month, and would be at most three times that if it was in a nicer neighborhood and building. Taxi rides that in New York would cost 8 bucks are about a dollar here. Food is also cheap (I can get a decent meal for $1.50, and I think even nice meals here generally run in the 10-15 dollar range, excluding the highest class establishments). As you can see, in comparison to the cost of living, Egyptians are actually paying more for their gas than we are.

posted by Reuben @ 6:12 AM