The Recession: Is It Real?

In Egypt, we have all been feeling quite safe that the countries most hit by the recession are out there...nowhere near home. We are going to work as we are, spending the same, going out every night, etc. What we are really feeling is our high inflation, bad traffic, polluted air, etc. That's Egypt's REAL problems which have been appearing strongly in the past year or two. SO we're already struggling, and seeing the poor getting poorer, the rich getting richer, and the middle class just getting completely pushed off the edge. So what's with this recession they keep talking about? This was the attitude a few months back, but now, all of us have witnessed our companies having to lay off people, announcing to us that we'll probably have no bonus/promotion/raise this year, plus seeing our own clients ask to cut their fees to us. Could this recession be real? To me, its starting to seem like a big dream that we are all getting sucked into. The recession is BIG excuse that if you dont capitalize on, you'd be an idiot coz everyone will believe you; "recession" is the magic word. You may think I am crazy to think this, I mean the whole world is suffering from the recession. I am not undermining its effect, but I think its effect in Egypt is slowly creeping up on us but I am not sure if its due to the recession directly, or due to us feeding our own panic of the recession "coming" thus we are creating it for ourselves out of nothing! I see that we are all spending just as we always were with complete disregard to the recession...what do you think?