The world has bid 2010 farewell and has welcomed 2011, thus starting a new decade following the end of the first decade of the second millennium and what accompanied it in terms of terrorism and crises. The world has started counting the “beads” of a new decade which may carry more sadness and sorrow than the previous one, or may actually constitute a window of hope and optimism. I'm not interested in the way the world handled the past ten years of the 21st century, as much as I'm interested in the state of the Arab world and whether or not we are prepared to move forward and change the “miserable” reality which is threatening our lives, fates and aspirations. Year after year, the Arab world is growing weaker and bleaker, while its skies are filling up with clouds and fog caused by the absence of any immunity for the people; and by bad education; the rise of unemployment and poverty rates; and the decline of freedoms and rights; in addition to the expansion of terrorist movements and the increase of the number of radicals and ideologues – to the point where militia groups were able to gain control over it and where the riffraff and the weak-spirited were imbued with false ideas in the name of religion. Egypt (the Mother of the World) did not wish to receive this new decade without a new bloody play produced by terrorism against the Copts who were commended by the Holy Prophet. It is a “tragic” crime that targeted Egyptian civil peace and plurality which endured throughout history. For some time now, fear of seeing sectarian strife between Muslims and Copts had been increasing, in addition to other problems such as poverty, unemployment and cultural regression. In Palestine, people are suffering from displacement, persecution and an obscure horizon, while the authority is still busy managing internal conflicts and divisions between Fatah and Hamas. This situation rendered liberation and the violation of the land the last items on the list of priorities, at a time when popular suffering is expanding and when lives are turning from hell to a resident hell. In Iraq, Iran is doing whatever it wants while the “democracy” heralded by the Americans is still “limping” and has not allowed for success or the acquisition of the keys of the game, except by Iran and its men, and the terrorist groups. For their part, the Iraqi people have traded their suffering from Saddam's dictatorship with security mayhem, misery and killings which are targeting the people in mosques, churches, on the roads and in the markets. In Lebanon, we are witnessing sectarian disputes hijacked by regional agendas that are fueling the fire. In the meantime, Hezbollah is building its state and turning Lebanon into a quasi massive warehouse for Iranian weapons to impose its will and agenda, to the point where the arms have become a “scarecrow” which the party is using to intimidate its own people and earn a place on each table of negotiations. In Sudan, geography and history are changing as the country is being torn between a northern part and a southern part, while “brother” Al-Bashir is still shouting and promising what he does not possess. Somalia, for its part, is bleeding due to civil wars and fabricated ones, at a time when its people are haunted by catastrophes and setbacks fueled by their compatriots on this ancient land. In Tunisia, the people are heading toward a new revolution in the name of unemployment, one which is threatening the “green” Tunisia with a “gray” future. Moreover, the Arabs know of a state called The Comoros, which is a member of the Arab League, but know nothing about its status or its fate. Indeed, they do not know about the conflicts and the holes in its walls, although these conflicts and holes are encouraging the prowlers to exploit them and achieve their agendas on Arab land. In Yemen, the Houthis are rebelling on one end and the leaders of the separatist Hirak are staging their actions on the other. As for Al-Qaeda, it is exploiting the deteriorating domestic situation and working in “rough” terrain to carry out its recruitment and planning operations to detonate the world once again, while the government is losing grounds and presenting solutions that remain “weak.” There is no doubt that the Arab Gulf states share agreements that are only in form, as well as “silent” disputes. Indeed, although the positions and policies in the Gulf may seem to be in concord, they are quite different, while the opinions are numerous despite the meetings around the same table of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The differences thus continue to exist and are “shyly deported” from one summit to the other. The entire world is targeted by terrorism, and innocent lives are being claimed. However, in the Arab world, the accusation is always ready and is either cast against the Zionist enemy or Al-Qaeda – the organization which for years now has been ready to adopt any terrorist operation or bloody crime that disfigures the spirit of Islam. Still, despite the wounds caused by the terrorist acts and the financial crises it faced, the Western world continued to offer medical, scientific and technological inventions to be placed at the service of mankind. Indeed, this past year alone witnessed a technological revolution in all areas as we saw the latest scientific creations with the emergence of the iPad, laptops, smart phones such as iPhone, Galaxy and N8, in addition to the creation of new drugs. In the meantime, the contribution of the Arab mind at the level of the technical, technological, scientific and medical innovations remained “absent,” while this mind even tried to use the novelties to cause damage and detonate innocent people, as it was seen in the context of the “booby-trapped parcels” conspiracy. There seems to be no hope on the horizon of the new decade as long as some Arabs and Muslims are still instigating, funding and supporting terrorism and pushing toward accusations of infidelity and explosions. This will continue to be the case as long as there are governments that are completely subdued by financial and administrative corruption, and are exercising oppression against freedoms without any concern for human rights; but also as long as there are populations remaining silent vis-à-vis anarchy and are suffering from increasing backwardness and close-mindedness. There can be no consolation except through a revolution that would unleash minds, encourage innovation, support rights, reject the muzzling of truthful voices and refuse outbidding, strife and misleading slogans with actions in which there is balance between popular fervor and political will to stand fast in the face of the extremists and support the talents and the great minds. This would allow the building of efficient societies that would topple the ideas of the extremists and the choruses of the imbeciles calling for the eclipsing of the mind.
