The Al Gore Youth Group
November 4, 2009
Emergensea
November 4, 2009
Walmart Challenges Another Industry
November 4, 2009
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This cartoon was originally published at Town Hall.
It was not long ago that word of “the Dubai miracle” was on everyone’s lips. Driven by little more than a grand idea of itself, this sparsely populated, sun-baked strip on the Persian Gulf had become a gleaming multiethnic metropolis overnight. Dubai was bursting with financial assets, boasting the world’s most luxurious hotels, and attracting more than six million visitors every year — no small feat for an emirate of a mere 100,000 citizens. But in the last year, the speculative bubble that had driven much of Dubai’s growth popped: cranes fell still, and ambitious projects lay languishing on the drawing board. Behind the scenes, it took tens of billions of dollars in financial guarantees from Abu Dhabi to keep the whole enterprise afloat…
Vali Nasr’s new book, Forces of Fortune, was written largely in the exuberant phase of Dubai’s story, but it is being published in a more sober time. It reflects some of the old enthusiasm for the notion that “the Dubai model” — a multiethnic, capitalist society insulated from violence and ideology — could save the Middle East from a downward spiral of intolerance and political extremism. Nasr’s overall conclusion — that the triumph of free markets in the Middle East “will pave the way to the decisive defeat of extremism and to social liberalization” — is sympathetic to the Dubai experience. “If that battle is won by private-sector business leaders and the rising middle class tied to them,” Nasr argues, “then progress with political rights will follow.”
This is not merely a book about Dubai, however. It is a book about the enduring promise of Dubai, the struggles of Iran, and the success of Turkey. Bolstering these cases with brief studies on Egypt and Pakistan, Nasr suggests that where capitalism flourishes, so, too, do tolerance and moderation. He also thinks that the resurgence of Islam is promising rather than threatening. Judging that the tide has turned against extremism, he views middle-class religiosity as a path through which Muslim communities can integrate with the rest of the world. In Nasr’s words, “This upwardly mobile class consumes Islam as much as practicing it,” seeking to embrace modernity on Muslim terms rather than rejecting it as a form of corruption. The old populist dogmas that focused on injustice and encouraged resistance are waning. Consequently, resources poured into bolstering liberal ideals in Muslim communities merely feed the culture wars, Nasr cautions. Instead, “The key struggle that will pave the way to the decisive defeat of extremism and to social liberalization will be the battle to free the markets.”
Al Gore: The Upside
November 4, 2009
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This cartoon was originally published at Town Hall.
Jews, Muslims and the Nobel Prize
November 4, 2009
Next month, Professor Ada Yonath will be awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry, becoming the fifth Israeli scientist to win this award. This has sharpened, once again, the grim statistics regarding the scarcity of Nobel laureates in the Muslim and Arab worlds. While Jews, who are only around 0.2% of the world population, have won a quarter of all Nobel Prizes awarded in the sciences, Muslims, who are one quarter of the world population, have won only a handful, even by the most generous accounts. And while relative to its size, Israel’s tiny academia has been the world’s leading Nobel power over the past decade, Arab universities have yet to produce their first Nobel laureate.
Israelis and Jews worldwide consider these awards a source of pride – and rightly so. It’s always nice to be on a winning team. Muslims and Arabs view these numbers as a source of shame and even soul searching. Even Muslim religious scholars who portray Western political systems, social foundations and cultural achievements as manifestations of infidel entities in decay recognize that the West’s huge scientific and technological edge must be narrowed. Some even openly discuss Israel’s scientific achievements in order to encourage their followers to become more academically competitive.
Conventional wisdom offers a conventional explanation for the disproportionate number of Nobel Prizes in science awarded to Jews and Israelis: the “Jewish genius,” whereas Muslims and Arabs fail because they live under dictatorships. This explanation is not completely detached from reality, but is, nevertheless, not sufficient.
The truth is that a certain type of Jew has won Nobel Prizes. These Jewish laureates drew on a Jewish heritage that dedicates itself to learning, reveres scholars, and places intellectual demands on its young people. But these laureates were also modern Jews, open to modern sciences and rational thinking, and keen on making their way in the greater world that exists beyond their communities. Remove one part of this equation – heritage or modernity – and the “Jewish genius” vanishes.
This particular type of Jew is a nearly extinct species. Secular Jews, especially secular Israelis, are increasingly detached from the heritage of giving primacy to education and scholarship. They are inundated by a culture that reveres instant celebrity, shameless greed and utter stupidity. Observant Jews, especially observant Israelis, are increasingly facing trends that are hostile towards rationality, suspicious of modernity and indifferent to the merits of scientific experimentation.
Blasphemy
November 4, 2009
This image has been posted with express written permission.
This cartoon was originally published at Town Hall.
The Pelosi Prescription
November 4, 2009
This image has been posted with express written permission.
This cartoon was originally published at Town Hall.
