A big part of my daily reading/writing is about the future (as a strategist, this is what I do). Lately, this is leaving me with a deep feeling of sadness. The MENA lies at the intersection of every bad trend that defines humanity's future yet is not part of the conversation.
Climate change? Water stress? Ecology collapse? Desertification? Food security? Refugee & migrant movements? Economic inequality? Social inequality? Demographic transitions? Mental health? Intergenerational trauma? We're at the nexus of all of them
And yet we're locked out of the conversation because we are led by dictatorships gripped by strategic nihilism, dictators who no longer care about the future of the region, only about the future survival of their power and privilege. They're sending us to hell and we have no say
In real terms, as all of these crises get more serious, and as the world comes together to create new global rules to deal with this, half a billion people living in the MENA will be rule-takers because they are unrepresented at any level local, domestic, regional, or global
It's half a billion people. There's a lot of good among them. A lot of genius, a lot of heart, a lot of passion. Yet we're talked about as a problem to be solved or a threat to be managed. When will we gain our agency, so that we can contribute again to the progress of humanity?
Sometimes I feel like the only right thing that happened in 44 years of my existence was when millions of people took to their streets, tore down the pictures and statues of their dictators, and chanted that they want nothing less than the downfall of their regime.
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