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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37922-2003Jun26.html
Old-Thinking Arabs
(Washington Post) - David Ignatius The heady, public enthusiasm at the World Economic Forum in Jordan about the Arab future was wonderful. But there is a culture of negativism and despair so deep in the Arab world that many people treat life as a zero-sum game: If something is good for America, they assume it must be bad for the Arabs. As someone who wants political change in the Arab world, I was enthusiastic about the mood of the Dead Sea gathering - until I heard the Arab intellectuals and their chorus of despair. Maybe I'm just a naive American who romanticizes change. But this week I wanted to shake my Arab writer friends and say: Come on, gang. Stop whining and get moving. If you don't want America to shape your future, then take control of it yourselves.