The Middle East and the Uncertain Future!
It may be “chaos,” uncreative chaos, that is the case. Rather, it is the calm before the storm that has been stirring the atmosphere across the entire Middle East region of late. Patience in the face of adversity may be the key to a cave we will never find, as long as the rubble of victims continues to pile up and rise, and as long as the secret of secrets remains in the iron grip of a single hand that dominates the reins of power in our thoroughly unfortunate region.
It is certain that “Buraqash,” which has done it to itself time and again, has not taught us how to learn from the lesson or derive wisdom from the experience. All we do is mindlessly repeat the same phrases, with the naivety of the spontaneous, the ignorance of the lazy, and the strangeness of the defeated. It is also certain that the Middle East, which once floated on black gold in the Gulf, white gold in Egypt, and yellow gold in our deep deserts, has miraculously transformed into a source of danger to us, leading to the depletion of some resources and the drying up of others, leaving us at the mercy of a handful of stronger, more controlling, and more dominant powers.
Worse still, the struggle for wealth in our lands has reached its peak, igniting wars, fabricating crises, weaving conspiracies, and hurling accusations, all so that wealth remains at the mercy of those more capable of discovering it, reprocessing it, or managing its revenues. Indeed, we have seen our oil money flowing by the trillions into the vaults of the West, while the remainder is funneled into arms factories in developed countries.
Although the region witnessed a renaissance in cotton cultivation—“white gold”—in Egypt during modern and less modern history, it was exported as a raw material, and at best, processed into textiles and oils during the eras of Muhammad Ali and Gamal Abdel Nasser. When the Muhammad Ali dynasty departed and the Gamal Abdel Nasser era receded, the cultivated area of long-staple cotton in the land of Kanaan shrank until Egypt, once a global leader in cotton exports, became an importer of clothing and textiles.
Since the oil boom of the 1970s, specifically when the price per barrel rose from four dollars to 44 dollars, oil- and gas-producing and exporting countries have failed to benefit from the raw material and begin processing it, except through a limited number of petrochemical, aluminum, iron, and steel plants. Meanwhile, the lion’s share is exported as crude oil to major industrial powers whose industries have made remarkable progress, whether in automobile manufacturing, advanced equipment, machinery, engines of various types, or construction materials of different natures, among many other industries for which oil has been and remains the lifeblood, most notably the arms and military equipment industry. Yet, these industries remain under the control and dominance of developed countries’ markets.
After we all realized that the fabrication of crises in the region, starting with the Iraq War under the pretext of Iraqi “chemical” or nuclear weapons, through the Iran War, and including the “genocidal war” in Gaza, the economic objective and the drive for wealth were what we should have identified, and indeed reached, before our enemies did. These enemies target our homelands under multiple pretexts and more than one flimsy reason that should not have deceived us, for it only fools the heedless, the subservient, or those who have surrendered their aspirations for revival and the sources of their potential to lesser nations, states, empires, and regimes.
Today, we face the Second Iran War and its aftermath, since February 28 of last year. No one can predict how far this war will go. Are armies preparing for a second battle, one that may be fiercer and more dangerous for everyone? Will the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran become mere ink on paper, or will it remain a draft agreement that can be relied upon when peace prospects narrow at “the Strait,” turning the issue into merely a “sea lane” for the world’s most important economies, rather than just a narrow “bosphorus” for passing ships and old boats, and enjoyable maritime races?
The questions are many, but the speculations of some controllers of the Arab media apparatus have prompted me, and will continue to prompt me, not to mock those who have “other agendas,” but rather to critique our Arab condition, which pleases neither enemy nor friend.
