Arab World Poverty -- Whose Fault?

Capitalism Magazine ^ | 11/18/01 | Larry Elder

[Jean S]

"Muslims love to live in the U.S. but also love to hate it. Many openly claim that the U.S. is a terrorist state but they continue to live in it. Their decision to live here is testimony that they would rather live here than anywhere else. As an Indian Muslim, I know for sure that nowhere on earth, including India, will I get the same sense of dignity and respect that I have received in the U.S."

Arab World Poverty -- Whose Fault?
By Larry Elder (November 18, 2001)

[CAPITALISMMAGAZINE.COM] "I don't have the knowledge to blame a government," said Bakhtiar Khan, an Afghan man in his mid-twenties. "I don't know about politics, but for our problems I blame the world community. All humans should be equal, but we are not. You ask me who is to blame. You find out who is to blame."

Khan, according to a recent New York Times piece on the origins of Islamic extremism, earns a subsistence level income making bricks in a pit outside the city of Peshawar, an Afghan city of 2 million, nearly 50 percent refugees. When asked about his life, he says, "Life is cruel. You can see for yourself. You wear nice clothes and are healthy. But look at us. We have no clothes to wear and we are not healthy. Your question is amazing."

So, who is to blame?

A recent story on Afghan schools described a teacher who holds up a wealth pie chart. America, she shows her students, controls this huge slice of the pie, leaving a tiny sliver for us Afghans. The not-so-subtle point? Afghans suffer poverty because of America's disproportionate wealth.

But no, Khan lacks the "knowledge to blame a government." For, through knowledge, Khan would discover that his poverty stems from corrupt, dictatorial governments, the absence of capitalism and free trade, and the lack of individual rights and the rule of law. But who, in the Arab world, spreads this message?

Dr. Muqtedar Khan, director of International Studies at Adrian College in Michigan, challenges American Muslims to set the masses straight: "While we loudly and consistently condemn Israel for its ill treatment of Palestinians, we are silent when Muslim regimes abuse the rights of Muslims and slaughter thousands of them. Remember Saddam and his use of chemical weapons against Muslims (Kurds)? Remember Pakistani army's excesses against Muslims (Bengalis)? Remember the Mujahideen of Afghanistan and their mutual slaughter? Have we ever condemned them for their excesses? Have we demanded international intervention or retribution against them? Do you know how the Saudis treat their minority Shiis? Have we protested the violation of their rights? But we all are eager to condemn Israel; not because we care for rights and lives of the Palestinians, we don't. We condemn Israel because we hate 'them.'

"Muslims love to live in the U.S. but also love to hate it. Many openly claim that the U.S. is a terrorist state but they continue to live in it. Their decision to live here is testimony that they would rather live here than anywhere else. As an Indian Muslim, I know for sure that nowhere on earth, including India, will I get the same sense of dignity and respect that I have received in the U.S. No Muslim country will treat me as well as the U.S. has. If what happened on Sept. 11 had happened in India, the biggest democracy, thousands of Muslims would have been slaughtered in riots on mere suspicion and there would be another slaughter after confirmation. But in the U.S., bigotry and xenophobia has been kept in check by media and leaders ...

"It is time that we acknowledge that the freedoms we enjoy in the U.S. are more desirable to us than superficial solidarity with the Muslim World. If you disagree, then prove it by packing your bags and going to whichever Muslim country you identify with. If you do not leave and do not acknowledge that you would rather live here than anywhere else, know that you are being hypocritical.

"It is time that we faced these hypocritical practices and struggled to transcend them. It is time that American Muslim leaders fought to purify their own lot."

But only a few weeks ago, Arab leaders condemned Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for calling Western civilization "superior" because it "guarantees respect for human rights and religion." Harsh criticism forced him to recant his "racist" statement. But if we call Berlusconi's remarks "racist," in what category do we place the statement made by Abdulrahman Awadi, formerly a high-ranking official in Kuwait? When Kuwait learned that Sulaiman abu Ghaith, a Kuwaiti citizen, had become a top lieutenant with Osama bin Laden, Kuwait revoked abu Ghaith's citizenship. Awadi said, "This is a wake-up call that we have to be very careful with freedom. Democracy and freedom of choice may be good for Western cultures, but for the Gulf countries, those are dangerous things. These people are using freedom to achieve their ends."

Who is to blame?

Countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt suffer double-digit unemployment rates, estimated as high as 25 percent. Grinding poverty and religious zealotry, wrapped around a blanket of government-led scapegoating of Israel, the United States and the West -- all combine to form a dangerous and deadly Third World victicrat mindset. Blame triumphs over enlightenment, and anger defeats reason.

CREATORS SYNDICATE COPYRIGHT 2001 LAURENCE A. ELDER

 

[timestax]

A lot of those islamic muslums/ ARABS don't want to work, they are, here it comes==L A Z Y !!

[Cacique]

A FORMER MUSLIM PROFESSOR ON WHY HE LEFT ISLAM (click on picture)

The Hardcover edition.

[Cacique]

A FORMER MUSLIM PROFESSOR ON WHY HE LEFT ISLAM (click on picture)

The Hardcover edition.

[walden]

"I chose this this line of work voluntarily for my own reasons. Unlike many of the people I work with, I can get a $40/hr. job as an engineer if I am willing to commute for 3 hours per day, which I'm not.) "

I self-retired a couple of years ago (I'm 42) in order to spend more time with my kids during their critical teenage years. We live quite modestly, but very happily on my income from investments. I know that if I ever needed the money, I could go make a big salary again, but if I just needed a little additional cash (say $1000/mo or less) I would be very likely to just get a job in the local grocery store or something. But the fact that I have the choice is critically important-- I can choose to pursue happiness however I wish.

[Sueann]

"Whose Fault??"

Their own. The Bible says, "there is a way which seems right to man, but the end thereof is death".

[agrace]

"It is time that we acknowledge that the freedoms we enjoy in the U.S. are more desirable to us than superficial solidarity with the Muslim World. If you disagree, then prove it by packing your bags and going to whichever Muslim country you identify with. If you do not leave and do not acknowledge that you would rather live here than anywhere else, know that you are being hypocritical...."

Wow.

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[ladyinred]

Whose fault? Usually their corrupt leaders who live in luxury, and themselves for not doing anything about it.
If I am supposed to feel like it is my fault, I flunked.

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[boycott]

Maybe these Arabs need to get off their lazy asses. All they seem interested in is terrorism. Imagine how pathetic they would be if their lazy asses weren't sitting on all that oil.

[Jakarta ex-pat]

"ps Don't try to out poor me since I came from a very poor family. Only in this country (I presume you mean America) can you rise above poverty and make a go of it. -Tom"

Sorry. WRONG! 100% WRONG!

[Capt. Tom]

. Only in this country (I presume you mean America) can you rise above poverty and make a go of it. -Tom" Sorry. WRONG! 100% WRONG!

What I am talking about is groups of Americans who were born HERE into poverty. They can do pretty well economically in this country if they put in some effort. And so can't immigrants.

Everyone around me was poor but that is not the case now.

Had this same group been born poor in another nation I would expect most would be still poor.

People are coming here (USA)because of economic opportunities and many for handouts from the Fed and State Govts.

Still the root cause of poverty is poor people having children. 2 poor people having 5 children equals 7 poor people . Is that hard to understand??? If Bill Gates has 20 children how many poor people will be added. -Tom

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[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

These Muslim countries all hate us, but they all want in. What a bunch of trashy bastards. America is the most evil country in the world (according to the Muslims) but they are more than happy to accept our handouts. We've built the highest standard of living in the world while they've done nothing but drive their countries and people into the ground.

[arthurus]

Rule of law means the people's elected officials have made the laws, and they can be unmade by the same democratic process.

Rule of Law means that the rulers and makers of the laws are equally subject to those laws along with the general population. It does not necessarily even assume democracy though that is the only system that successfully maintains the rule of law.

[MissAmericanPie]

They should blame their own freaking selves for their cultural belief that manual labor is a shame for a man to do. And no matter if we throw the entire worlds wealth at that belief eventually we will all be in their same shape.

This is a people who suffer the same Liberal inability to comprehend the simple fact that result follows action and zero result follows from inaction. The same thinking that despises an entire group of people because the majority of them like to reason things out, build a better mouse trap, and tinker with making things, then not satisfied tries to make them better, in other words those who are ingenius, and who exibit the ability to think in abstract terms.

These louts descend on achivers like a plague of locusts demanding with unreasoned insanity that they reap what they did not so, just because they want it. Who are very happy to block from their own minds their own fault in their situation.

I listened to this Sheak tell Ben Ladin on that tape, "I was asking God why we never have anything, and then came the victory of the WTC." If this is how they measure success then death and hell are their just due.