Professor Sameh Morcos, Emeritus Professor of Diagnostic Imaging, Sheffield

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understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

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I left Egypt my country of birth in the summer of 1973 , a time that was extremely difficult for professionals to leave Egypt. I had several coincidences that facilitated obtaining the relevant documents and permission to leave the country. The first I needed a permission from the ministry of health which is not easy to obtain but I got it as it happened one of my friends was working at the minister office who facilitated the success of my application, after that I needed a permission from the military authority, I had postponement of my military service at that time and to leave the country I needed their permission, it happened that my colleague at work his neighbour is a senior officer in the department that deals with issuing permission for travelling and helped my application for permission to travel which was not easy to obtainthe. The last coincidence was in the final step which is getting an exit visa to leave the country from the interior ministry, at the office that was looking at my application in Cairo one of the junior officers in the department lives in the catchment area of the hospital where I work 40 miles outside Cairo, he noticed my place of work so he called my name as I was waiting outside the office, I thought initially there is a problem with my application, that time they would try to find any excuse to reject the application, but he came to me asking to help him to be admitted at the hospital where I was working for a hernia operation which obviously I promised to help, he processed my application promptly and without any fuss. All these coincidences facilitated leaving Egypt at a time it was almost impossible for somebody in my position to leave the country because of the tight governmental regulations on young professionals at a difficult time following the disastrous war with Israel in 1967. Till now I am wondering about all these coincidences , are they meant to happen because of predetermined plan for my career or just random chances. I would appreciate your expert views on my story.
Total votes: 240
Date submitted:Thu, 27 Jul 2017 00:34:42 +0000Coincidence ID:9332