it was framed this way. i ll put it up on the screen. by his actions the magazine writes mr. obama put other authoritarian allies on notice. he thinks that even pro western autocracies that fail to reform deserve to die. but how much reform? and when will he decide they are dying? will mr. obama abandon gradual reformers such as king abdullah or king mohammed as soon as enough people turn out? david, for years and, indeed, throughout the course of this entire administration, we have been saying to our friends and partners in the arab and muslim world that there needs to be a process for full reform. there are conditions that are inherently unstable. a youth bulge, high unemployment, lack of political openness, the and we have
we have to be very careful not to encourage people into actions which will be paid for with their lives. so we re dealing with a lot of complexities. there are differences. this is andy serwer. he s editor of fortune magazine. there are a lot of differences in these countries as you indicated, but isn t the common denominator problem the lack of jobs, the lack of economic opportunity, the disparity in income? what can the united states do to try to impact change in that realm going forward? i think you re quite right in your list, but i would add further to it. it s also the youth bulge. it s very important factor. there is now really a significant demographic youth bulge particularly in the middle east. that creates a large community of rather restless young people.
reports that his assets have been frozen in switslan switzer. and what was the trigger between yesterday and today. and they are trying to forecast to the best of their ability where it goes from here in the middle east. they set up a task force to look at parameters to reach some assessments. i think among those that are the most interest can is what they call the youth bulge and the effect of the internet and social networking sites. they have helped mobilize these demonstrations, they reported from the ground to the rest of the world what s been going on and we have seen this compression in time. the end of december until now just about 6 or 7 weeks we have seen two dictatorships in north africa collapse. that compression is unseen before in the history of the
they have not known any other leader in their lifetime. many of them three decades of rule and then five minutes, everything changed for them. just an historic moment for them. i think the story of the youth of egypt is also a broader story about the demographic changes happening throughout the world. 52% of the people alive in the world today are under 30 years old and a lot of the developing world, we re talking two-thirds of the population in many countries are young people, so this is not a typical situation in the demographic evolution of countries. you ve got a youth bulge that is global in scale. this is a huge moment for young people all around the world for their countries and more political liberty and freedom for their own civil societies to see the power of what happen, even in such a repressive country, one of the most
in 2008? there have been changes under way in egyptian society that i and other scholars as well have been following. there s a youth bulge in egyptian society as other arab societies and this young generation has grown up with satellite television, with internet, they ve become increasingly active in social and political causes, and frankly they just weren t really willing to play by the old rules, to play by the rules of authoritarian government. so it was clear there was a growing gap between egyptian society, particularly between this younger element in egyptian society and the egyptian government. a widening gap. and i think it was only a matter of time until it broke wide open. and we saw that 12 days ago. so you also wrote that the western world has not been paying attention. what were some of the things that the western world has overlooked?