The changing Middle East

Foreword "The Arab world has not been a happy or successful place for quite a while. As one o f Arab diplomats once said: “There is a sense of failure, which has opened a gap between the rulers and the ruled. It has led to a lack o f confidence in Arab culture, and hostility to foreign influences.” The Arab Human Development Reports 2002 and 2003, prepared by a group of leading Arab intellectuals under the auspices of the UNDP and the Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development confirmed such a very pessimistic view of the Arab world. The combined gross domestic product of the 22 Arab countries was lesser than Spains. Labor productivity in these countries dropped between I960 and 1990, while it soared elsewhere in the world. Even Africa outperformed the Arab world in rates o f economic growth. An exploding population cannot be supported by scarce resources and every other citizen is ready to emigrate."(...