Hello again everyone! It's been a long time since there's been any activity on the salon. I've been busy sticking my head in the sand, trying to get through school. And I imagine everyone else has been painfully busy with life as well. My internship this summer includes as a major task watching the news and keeping my boss updated, so I find myself more able to plug into issues of relevance that are prime subjects for discussion in the salon. So here's to a revival of debate and discussion!
I just read a New York Times editorial by Thomas Friedman (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/01/opinion/01friedman.html?hp) that's worth reading. He describes the disastrous "Bin Laden Decade" from 2001 to 2011 in which the US, Israel, and the Arab World all dug massive holes for themselves - holes that we're all going to have to dig ourselves out of, eventually. But now we're far less capable of doing so then ever.
For instance, the UN in 2002 published a report on development in the Arab World which basically said the region had three obstacles to overcome: a lack of freedom, a lack of quality education and knowledge, and a lack of women's development and participation. I think the UN report was right on - those are precisely the region's most pressing and fundamental problems, and solving them will do more to help overcome all the other problems rampant in the region (unemployment, religious extremism, etc). But the ten years spanning 2001-2010 saw dictators clamp down ever tighter on their people's freedoms across the Arab World, while education continued to be lacking, and women's rights eroded steadily, or maintained their ground but did not advance. All of this, of course, thanks to US foreign policy in the region which placed anti-terrorism efforts above tackling the REAL problems.
In the US, our good friend George W Bush simultaneously cut taxes, increased spending on health care, and then started two unbelievably costly wars. If anyone is to blame for the massive level of US debt (now more than 65% of GDP, and due to rise well above 100% in the next few years), it is George Bush. The recent recession isn't helping things either, making it ever harder to make the necessary changes to put our country in the position to pay down the debt, or at least hold it steady at a reasonable level (the EU accession criteria for new potential member states includes debt levels not higher than 60% - under these rules, if the US were a European country, we wouldn't be allowd to join the EU). And, of course, our dearly beloved politicians, instead of tackling the REAL problems (ballooning debt and an aging population), prefer to attack each other, because it's always easier to criticize an opponent than to solve difficult problems.
Finally, Israel has had years of peace, stability, and a willing negotiating partner
(Mahoud Abbas has been the president of the Palestinian Authority since 2005) to solve its existential crisis by withdrawing from the occupied West Bank and gaining recognition of a Jewish state in exchange for its reciprocal recognition of a Palestinian one. But rather than seize the opportunity to act, another dear friend of ours, Benjamin Netanyahu, has let the historic - and probably never to return - chance slip away in exchange for continued popularity at home. He has aggressively pursued Jewish settlement in the West Bank (there are now approximately 600,000 Jews living in the occupied territory), a move that has strengthened support for him and his party in the shor-term, but which leaves the question of Israel's legitimacy (as well as its claim to be a genuine democracy) up in the air for later generations of leaders to deal with. After all, if you don't want to deal with the REAL problem, what's better than putting it off for others to solve later on? It's certainly easier to do that than solve it yourself.
So that leaves us all standing in deep holes, with scant resources with which to extricate ourselves. The next decade will tell if political leaders in the Arab World, Israel, and the US can generate the courage, strength, and authority necessary to finally address and solve the real problems - and believe me, there are no easy fixes when it comes to REAL problems; the solutions are painful, difficult, and take a long time to bear fruit. It's a good sign you're addressing the core issues if the solutions are painful and long-term. No one is going to like it, but it's the only way out of the hole. So (speaking to our esteemed leaders), any takers?
