The traditional British afternoon tea is an institution.
It consists of a selection of dainty sandwiches, including, of course, the famous thinly sliced cucumber, and scones served with clotted cream and preserves. Cakes and pastries are also included.
To experience the best of the afternoon tea tradition, indulge yourself with a trip to one of London’s finest hotels or visit a quaint tearoom in the West Country.
The Devonshire Cream Tea is famous worldwide and consists of scones, strawberry jam, and the vital ingredient—Devon clotted cream—as well as cups of hot, sweet tea served in china teacups. Many of the other counties in England’s West Country also claim the best cream teas: Dorset, Cornwall, and Somerset.
There is a wide selection of hotels in London offering the quintessential afternoon tea experience.
Notable venues offering traditional afternoon tea include Claridge’s, The Dorchester, The Ritz, and The Savoy, as well as Harrods and Fortnum & Mason.
I was sitting in a private corner of one of these hotels, sipping my second cup of Darjeeling tea with Rasha, her husband, Antoine, and their son, Claude.
Rasha, a successful businesswoman, and Antoine, a successful surgeon, have been close friends of mine for a long time. Although we seldom met, we kept in touch frequently.
Rasha was born in a historic country characterized by snow-capped mountains and a river running through it, with hot summers and mild winters. She lived her younger life in a coastal city and grew up fully engaged in her father’s business. When he passed, she moved her headquarters and main business from the country of her birth to London, with a branch in Switzerland.
Antoine was born in the capital of their home country and later moved to London with Rasha. Claude was born in their home country too, but grew up in the UK.
Rasha was lamenting her last visit to her country of birth a couple of months ago.
You could see her words were heartfelt, tearing at her soul as she described how doing any business in her home country was a nightmare filled with bureaucracy, endless hurdles, and a total lack of investment sense.
She added that she had no need to continue working in her country of birth, as her business abroad was flourishing; the rules were clear, laws were respected, justice rapid, and incentives existed on many fronts.
Knowing that I respected her vision and talents, she talked to me about how her foundation, which helps the homeless and provides food and medical programs, was being taxed in her home country. She described how her letters of credit were delayed by banks that played favorites, and how it was more important to know people in power than to do good.
As I tried to console her, she became angry and asked, “Why are ministers obstructing my country’s growth and economic potential due to their lack of executive management? They have minds that reflect paralysis rather than speed and achievement in a framework of accountability.”
She added that every responsible person who needs to make immediate decisions simply kicks the can down the road unless the instruction comes from above.
“Why,” she asked, “is my country regressing whilst countries that don’t have a quarter of our potential are progressing like a high-speed bullet train?”
I put my plate back on the table, unable to disagree with her.
Claude looked at me and asked, “Why don’t we have open skies given our geographic and cross-shipping comparative advantage? Why can’t we be the key tax-free warehouse for Europe, Africa, and Asia? Why are all government decisions made in a manner that is costly, slow, unstudied, and with huge debt?”
“I love my country,” Rasha interjected, “but not only are we losing our potential, our ethics are losing ground. With over 36 ministers and over 40 governors, the lines of responsibility and accountability are jumbled and need direct orders from the top. It is a system that hurts rather than benefits.”
I tried to interrupt, but she would not give me the chance.
She added, “I wanted to do a joint venture with a Chinese company and needed an industrial plot of land, only to discover that the approval system involved three ministries and one governorate. It took six months to be approved, and the Chinese company bailed out, noting the slowness of government approvals.”
As Claude leaned forward to grab his second cucumber sandwich, a gentleman and a lady arrived and were greeted by hugs from Rasha and Antoine, along with remarks of ‘You are late.’
The couple, Samir and Mona, were introduced to Claude and I. They, too, are from the same country but live in Belfast and apparently have a holding company with interests across a wide and diverse range of sectors.
Mona is in publishing and cosmetics; Samir is in manufacturing, trade, and real estate. After a few pleasant and non-controversial exchanges about Samir and Mona’s arrival from Belfast, the weather, and plans for the New Year, Rasha asked Mona about her business back home.
Mona, sipping her first cup of tea and preparing a scone, announced that she had closed her original publishing company in her country of birth due to censorship and poor readership.
She said she was welcomed in Ireland and is doing very well covering all of the EU. As for the cosmetics company, she wanted to invest more, enhance branding, and export. However, she noted complications with the authorities—especially the tax authority—and a lack of action from the Minister of Finance who appears to fear taking a decision without a committee covering him.
“He is great at PR but not there on decisive action; his failure to sign a paper,” Mona added, “has made me close the file on further investment.” Samir, who was on his second cup of tea and chatting to Antoine and Claude about deep-sea fishing in the Red Sea and the Great Barrier Reef, heard Mona’s last comment and Rasha’s sigh. He looked at me and asked, “Why is our government shooting itself in the foot?”
Before I could answer, Samir continued, “My factory now has state-owned competitors that are being subsidized, making me think about closing down.” The law to shut down requires, he explained, that he pay each employee two months’ salary for every year of employment. Samir added that with over 3,000 employees with an average of 25 years of work, “although it is a hefty bill, I am seriously contemplating closing.”
Antoine asked Samir about procedural regulations. Samir smiled, put his teacup down, and described that renewing his passport is a one-day affair with great efficiency, but legalizing a general assembly or board meeting requires patience, and renewing a commercial registration needs an appointment and a ‘Hail Mary’ to get it done in a timely manner.
Claude looked at me and asked, “Why all those impediments?”
My response was brief and to the point. “A great country, a sizable market, diverse economy, unparalleled history, amazing weather, lovely beaches, islands, land, geographic advantage, space, and much more. However, the wrong choice of managers causes a failure to attract local, regional, and global investment, which is much needed to grow the economy. We need to create the environment to bring companies like Tesla, Amazon, Airbus, BP, Unilever, Eli Lilly, Cargill, Siemens, Microsoft, SAP, and Salesforce to establish their regional headquarters.”
I added that we have a comparative advantage of inexpensive labor and technicians, but we continue to lag behind in building data centers and developing AI capabilities.
Samir reacted by asking, “But what serious work is happening to achieve that?”
“Nothing,” he answered his own question. “Countries in the region,” Samir added, “are receiving foreign investment with open arms, creating a business culture where there was none less than two decades ago.”
Moreover, Samir remarked that in his field of real estate, he is competing with the state, a factor he mentioned while shaking his head, that defeats private-sector investment in real estate. “Moreover,” he added, “the concept of zoning is dead. We contractors and real estate investors follow the law, and here come the state-owned companies and persons of interest with the state who break the law with greater space permits and a higher number of floors with no penalty—or a minor penalty to save face.”
Finally, Rasha said, “We are all pouring criticism on Shafik as if he runs the show back home and has a magic wand.” I smiled half a smile and, in a low voice, said, “No problem. We all want what is good for our country of birth. However, it is worthwhile noting that the responsibility does not only fall on the officials. A real transformation demands more than leadership alone.”
I added, “Those who are governed, must also rise to the challenge, if they seek success. Doing so requires special characteristics of discipline, precision, efficiency, teamwork, perseverance, honesty, and trust. Stagnation leads to chaos and corruption. Totally ill-afforded for a country like ours with great potential.”
Claude, the youngest in the group, stood up and said he needed to go watch Liverpool play Manchester City. As I stood up to leave, however, he asked,
“What do you see in the coming future?” I thought for a moment and, bidding everyone a good evening, I said, “Presently we are in the twilight zone, and the future will be written based on which path we choose at this crossroad.”
I walked back in the grey, drizzling and cold London evening, remembering the supernatural TV show The Twilight Zone, thinking: will my country need supernatural ministers to cross the Rubicon to success?
Author’s biography
M. Shafik Gabr is a renowned leader in international business, innovation, investment and one of the world’s premier collectors of Orientalist art, and an accomplished philanthropist.
During his career, Gabr established over 25 companies plus three investment holding companies including ARTOC Group for Investment and Development which, established in 1971, is a multi-disciplined investment holding company with businesses in infrastructure, automotive, engineering, construction and real estate, over the past three years focusing on investment in technology and artificial intelligence.
Gabr is the Chairman and a founding member of Egypt’s International Economic Forum, a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, a Board Member of Stanhope Capital, an International Chairman of the Sadat Congressional Gold Medal Committee, and a Member of the Parliamentary Intelligence Security Forum.
Gabr is a Member of the Metropolitan Museum’s International Council and serves on the Advisory Board of the Center for Financial Stability, the Advisory Board of The Middle East Institute, and the Global Advisory Council of the Mayo Clinic.
Through the Shafik Gabr Social Development Foundation, Gabr is helping to improve elementary-school education in Egypt, introducing students to arts and culture and promoting sports and physical fitness for youth. The Foundation has its first Medical and Social Development Center in Mokattam, Cairo, offering free medical and health services.
In 2012 Gabr established in the US the Shafik Gabr Foundation which supports educational and medical initiatives plus launched in November 2012 the ‘East-West: The Art of Dialogue initiative promoting exchanges between the US and Egypt with the purpose of cultural dialogue and bridge-building.
Gabr holds a BA in Economics and Management from the American University in Cairo and an MA in Economics from the University of London.
