Patrick Garner-Economist, "Special Report on the Arab World-2009"

This arcticle discussed the Arab world in the past and present. It discussed how nothing has really changed or updated in the past 20 years. This arcticle also made it clear that the middle ease is not a very global society. The only thing that keeps the middle east in the global realm is the resources that they possess. We have tried to force the middle east to be democratic and change for the better but this has been failure. The middle east has not made very many changes for the better and if they do it seems as if it will not be for a long time. This arcticle also describes the Middle East as being "tribes without flags". Hence areas such as Lebanon and Iraq have poor programs of nation building due to ethnic, confessional, or secretarian differences.

I was not surprised that the Middle East has not really changed in the past 20 years but I was never really aware of this. It is very sad that a country cannot keep pace with the surrounding countries around the world. I believe that other countries need to help and speed up progress in the Middle East. It would be great if they could get on track by themselves but the chances of this are very slim to none. They strive primarily off the resources that they have control of and nothing else. This is a good example of how the Middle East is stuck in the past. We are in the hunt for alternative fuel and energy while the Middle East could care less because they are only worried about oil.

A comment was brought up in class that when all of the natural resources are depleated in the Middle East, this could be a time for them to change. If they cannot be pushed or forced to progress; I think that it will be a wake up call when their resources are depleated. I cannot think of any other reason for the Middle East to have to change. Hopefully, we will find a very stable alternative fuel and the Middle east will have to "sink" or "swim".