10 Uplifting Egyptian Stories that Made 2019

Some people say the only news is bad news. Those people don't work at CairoScene. We looked back at 2019 and collected ten of our favourite uplifting stories of the year.

1) The First PSA World Championships To Award Women More Than Men Happens At The Pyramids
It's been a heck of a year for squash. Egypt maintained their worldwide superiority across the globe with Egyptians making the majority of the top ten list of players, including Raneem El Welily and Ali Farag as world number 1s. Last October, the CIB PSA Women's World Championship and the men's CIB Egyptian Squash Open were both hosted by the Giza pyramids. For the first time, the women's championship event - with a prize money of $430,000 - had a larger pay-out for the victors than the men's Championship, demonstrating a positive move towards pay equality for women athletes. Winning this historic feat was Nour El-Sherbini, making her the first woman to win a higher cash prize than male players at the PSA World Championships.

2) World's Biggest Solar Park Becomes Operational in Egypt
In November and December, the world's largest solar park at Benban in Aswan became connected to the national grid following the completion of the second phase of its construction. While it currently only provides a fraction of the nation's electricity, that number is expected to rise to 20% by 2022. The Benban Solar Park is so large it can be seen from space. Speaking of which…

3) Egypt Chosen to Host African Space Agency
In February, the African Union's Executive Council chose Egypt to host the African Space Agency, which is planned to be built in New Cairo. This isn't the only achievement Egypt has made in their reach for the heavens: Egypt also launched the TIBA-1 satellite that would help provide internet access to remote rural areas in November, and have announced a competition to find their first astronauts in December.

4) Student with Down Syndrome Successfully Strikes Offensive Term from Textbooks
In November, Sama Ramy brought her case to the Minister of Higher Education Khaled Abdel Ghaffar and the Minister of Education Tarek Shawki, and convinced them to remove derogatory terms from school textbooks. Previously, the curricula referred to people with Down Syndrome as having 'Mongolian Dementia' or 'Mongolian Idiocy'. Thanks to Sama Ramy's advocacy, that's no longer the case. Additionally, local hero Mohamed El Husseiny was appointed the first UN Goodwill Ambassador with Down Syndrome in Egypt and the Middle East, after he skyrocketed to fame in 2017 by attempting to swim the English Channel.

5) Egypt's new electric buses go full force with AUC-Tahrir line
In December, Egypt introduced a line for eco-friendly electric buses between the American University in Cairo and Tahrir Square. The buses will undergo a testing trial in the first half of 2020. At the end of October, Egypt's Ministry of Military Production also announced that they will produce mini-cars called E-Motion with the Egyptian IMUT company.

6) Egypt's Agricultural Exports Surpass 5M tons
Egypt's agricultural exports, including potatoes, onions, garlic, strawberries and mangoes, have exceeded 5 million tons from the period between January and December of this year. According to the Central Administration of Plant Quarantine, this demonstrates a 203,000 ton increase since last year.

7) An Abundance of Artefacts Have Been Discovered
This year has been wholly impressive in terms of archaeology, with numerous discoveries made, including the Sohag Tomb, Tutu's mummy, a Ramses II statue under a house in Giza, and discoveries in the underwater cities of Heracleion and Canopus. These discoveries shed light on the boundless culture and legacy of the Ancient Egyptians and made the lists of livescience.com (one of the biggest global websites on scientific breakthroughs), the BBC and CNN, amongst other major news outlets.

8) Mohamed Salah Becomes First Egyptian To Lift the UEFA Champions League Cup
The magnificent Mo Salah continues to shine with his football achievements. He is the first Egyptian to hold the UEFA Champions League Cup, after Liverpool's win, and was one of the 3 equal Top Scorers of the English Premier League. The Egyptian King was also named Best Player of the FIFA World Club Cup in Qatar.

9) Egypt is One of the Fastest-growing Travel Destinations of the Year
According to a report by the UN World Tourism Organization, Egypt is one of the most rapidly-growing tourism destinations of the year. The Egyptian Travel Agencies Association has stated that the country witnessed a 30% increase in tourist arrivals in 2019, putting Egypt well on its way to recover its tourism decline from recent years. Egypt and its cities also made it to the lists of the top travel destinations to visit in 2020 on several major publications, including National Geographic, Forbes and Lonely Planet. Many world-famous stars also came and praised Egypt as a travel destination, including Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Dani Alves, Nathalie Emmanue, Billy Zane just to name a few.

10) 2019 was an Amazing Year for Egyptian Actors in Hollywood
Egyptian actors have been killing it in Hollywood this year; from James Bond villain-to-be Rami Malek winning an Oscar for Best Actor (and a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA) for his sensational performance as Freddie Mercury in the stunning 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and Mena Massoud starring in the remake of the childhood classic 'Aladdin', to Ramy Youssef being nominated for his performance in HBO's 'Ramy' and Amir El-Masri portraying Commander Trach in the newest Star Wars film... it's hard to keep up with all their amazing achievements!