Eighteen months of plague were followed by three years of dearth, famine, riots and public executions.
Exhausted by three years of post-revolutionary chaos, ordinary people wanted a strongman to restore stability.
That was followed by three years of supervisory release -- the federal equivalent of parole.
It sounds like another story from Europe's desolate southern rim, squeezed by three years of austerity and recession.
Instead, lured by three years of positive returns in bond markets, they are switching to fixed-income securities.
But sympathy for the youthful activists among Egypt's people, exhausted by three years of unrest, has worn thin.
According to Mr. O'Connor, Mr. Bruno served a 15-month sentence that began in 1997, followed by three years of supervised probation.
But Mr. Greer said Mr. Delfino's administration has been marked by "three years of inactivity capped by an election year of panic and desperation".
In Afghanistan, dried to the bone by three years of drought and enduring a decreasing food supply, the sight of both fish and water was strange.
Pakistan's economy has been battered by three years of successive floods from 2010 to 2012 that damaged the country's agricultural heartlands.
Since Egypt's 2011 uprising, tourism has suffered as many foreigners stay clear of a country rocked by three years of unrest that nevertheless left most attractions untouched.
