OP-ED: A Slate of Arab Woes (Daily Star, LEBANON)

On January 20, the Obama foreign policy team will inherit from the Bush administration an increasingly unstable Arab world. The more than 300 million Arabs in 22 countries, with the rare exception of a few Gulf nations, are lagging behind most of the world and are becoming vulnerable to unrest.

Presiding over anemic economies and poor educational systems, entrenched Arab leaders have failed to educate their citizens to participate effectively in a globally competitive economy. Average unemployment is hovering around 15 percent, higher than all other regions in the world except Sub-Saharan Africa. About 30 percent of all Arabs are believed to be illiterate. These facts describe a potentially scary scenario for the not-so-distant future, especially when one adds to the mix the fact that 60 percent of the region's population is under 30 years of age.

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