Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, faced intense mockery this week after he gave a speech at a development conference. During the speech, he said that he would sell himself in order to help the country, which led to someone posting him for sale on eBay and receiving bids of over $100,000.
However this was not the only statement he made which was ridiculed.
He also urged Egyptians to send one Egyptian pound ($0.13) per day (via text) to a state fund, known as the Long Live Egypt Fund (Tahya Misr), which was set up in 2014 to financially support the country.
“If 10 million Egyptians out of a total 90 million have mobile phones, they should send a one-pound message everyday, and then [the fund] would raise EGP 10 million a day, EGP 300 million a month, and EGP 4 billion a year,” he reportedly said.
This sparked a viral hashtag on Twitter, with many users mocking his request, and some even claiming that after sending the text they were charged five pounds and not one.
The hashtag, #صبح_علي_مصر_بجنيه roughly translates to "wake up and greet Egypt with a pound."
me:hello mum!
— hagar♡ (@HagarTika) February 25, 2016
masr: we deducted one pound #صبح_علي_مصر_بجنيه
اتبرع بجنية علشان نبنى سجن نحبسك فيه
— mohamed atef (@atef_oo) February 25, 2016
اتبرع علشان نزود مرتبات الجيش والشرطة والقضاء
اتبرع علشان نشترى سلاح نضربك بيه #صبح_علي_مصر_بجنيه
Donate a pound so we build a prison and jail you in it.
Donate a pound to increase the salaries of judges and police.
Donate a pound so we can buy weapons to attack you with.
أصبحنا نعالج "الدولة" على نفقة "المواطن" !
— مشروع محامية قصيرة (@MayaaMOhamed) February 25, 2016
جلال عامر.#صبح_على_مصر_بجنيه
And now we cure the state at the expense of the citizens.
