Fertilizer for the Plants of Democracy

May 25, 2011

Published in Die Presse
(Austria) on 20 May 2011
by Thomas Seifert (link to original link to original)

Translated from by Sean Thacker. Edited by Rica Asuncion-Reed.

Obama announces an economic package for the Middle East, which deals with the problem directly.

This statement is axiomatic: “It’s the economy, stupid.” Bill Clinton’s advisor James Carville made him take that statement to heart and gave Clinton’s presidency a direction. Now President Barack Obama is dusting off the statement and applying it to the Middle East. The Arab Spring was carried by the “lost generation,” the millions of young people in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Libya who remain stuck in the patronage systems of these countries, without a chance [for improvement].

Obama has now announced an economic package that will lend a hand to those countries that have survived the first birth pains of democracy.

The fragile, young plants of democracy must take root, but the region doesn’t have the money for irrigation or fertilization. There is talk of $2 billion and how the world economy could really use North African economic growth.

Osama bin Laden is gone, and the USA is slowly loosening its grip on Middle Eastern dictators; some of what Obama touched on in his historic June 4, 2009, speech in Cairo has become reality.

Dünger für die Demokratiepflanzen

Obama kündigt ein Wirtschaftspaket für den Nahen Osten an und trifft damit das Problem auf den Kopf.

Es ist ein Satz von allgemeiner Gültigkeit: „It's the Economy, stupid“ – „Dummkopf, es geht um die Wirtschaft“. Bill Clintons Berater James Carville schrieb ihn der Präsidentschaftskampagne ins Stammbuch und gab ihr damit eine Richtung.

Nun entstaubt ihn Präsident Barack Obama und wendet ihn auf den Nahen Osten an. Der Arabische Frühling wurde von einer „verlorenen Generation“ getragen, jenen Millionen von jungen Menschen in Tunesien, Ägypten, im Jemen, in Syrien und Libyen, die in den Patronage-Systemen dieser Länder ohne Chance blieben.

Obama kündigte nun ein Wirtschaftspaket an, mit dem jenen Ländern, die eben die ersten Demokratie-Geburtswehen überstanden haben, unter die Arme gegriffen werden soll.

Die fragilen jungen Demokratiepflänzchen müssen Wurzeln schlagen, für Bewässerung und Dünger fehlt in der Region aber das Geld. Die Rede ist von mehr als zwei Milliarden Dollar, einen Wachstumsschub in Nordafrika könnte die Weltwirtschaft gut gebrauchen.

Osama bin Laden ist von der Bühne verschwunden, die USA lockern langsam ihre engen Bande zu den Diktatoren des Nahen Ostens – einiges von dem, was Obama am 4. Juni 2009 bei seiner historischen Rede in Kairo angesprochen hat, ist Wirklichkeit geworden.

This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

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