The sufferings of a route canal

The next time you complain about being stuck in a monster traffic jam, be thankful you were not on the Suez Canal last week. A giant container ship, The Ever Given, carrying some 200,000 tonnes of goods, got jammed diagonally in the famous canal connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea last Tuesday. The result? The utter chaos and hair-tearing confusion that comes when at least 369 other vessels, including bulk carriers and oil tankers, get stuck behind a massive pile-up — for almost a week. The jammed cause for the jam was finally unjammed in the very early hours of Monday, to wild celebrations and a $1 fall in crude oil prices. The Suez Canal is conduit for 12% of the world’s trade.

Opened in November 1869 and owned by the Egyptian government since 1956 when President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised it, its temporary closure may have given some folks temporary joy. Remember, Britain had fiercely opposed the creation of the Suez Canal, (rightly) fearing disruption to its maritime and commercial supremacy. Similarly, some of today’s spluttering trade ‘empires’ were hoping against any cape of good hope to have the canal bandh continue. Thankfully, it’s up and about again, and its reputation as the best canal east or west of — or, indeed, along — the 125-km wide isthmus of Suez, remains uncontested.