Those Entrepreneurial Communists

former presidents Mohamed Morsi, Egypt, center left, and Hu Jintao, China, center right Ng Han Guan/AP

We Americans like to think we're particularly entrepreneurial, and we are. But how's this for enterprising? Chinese businesspeople have cornered the market on sexy lingerie in ~ where else? ~ Upper Egypt. It seems that, while, as one woman put it, "The minds are closed," the pocketbooks definitely aren't. It's a thriving market ~ so much so that one dealer in Cairo imports 10 shipping containers of women's undies per year, and that's in addition to the articles he makes in his factory. One couple that owned such a shop noticed that plastic water bottles piled up in the streets and added a recycling business. The mix of the two nationalities seems to work very well, for the most part. The Chinese don't care to judge, and the Egyptians are happy not to be judged. There's just one problem: The business owners have found that Egyptian women are better employees. "The men here in Egypt are too restless; they like to move around. They can’t focus,” says Xu Xin, who started a cell-phone factory. But few women are allowed to work, and those who are do so only until they get married: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/10/learning-to-speak-lingerie