Foreign Policy: Changing Views Of Arab Youth

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124810203
NPR

Ok, so I felt compelled to give you guys some happy news that still has to do with what we're talking about in class. This article shows that most youth (<25 years-old) in the Arab world are optomistic about the future, even though (according to the article) so-called "experts" say there "he Middle East is no place for optimists." Whoa, man, downer, can we please keep it positive, like the young people are doing? Anyway, the article goes on to say that these levels of optomism are surprising, given the current economic, social and political problems in many countries in the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia. Many surveyed expressed interest in global citizenship and democracy, as well as religion and politics.

This recent discovery puts a serious dent in the Chang's thesis concerning the mostly negative aspects of globalization. The article specifically addresses the idea that the optimism in the Middle East, as well the interest in global citizenship and democracy, are the result of globalization. Perhaps this is an unintentional, positive result of globalization, but nonetheless, it still paints globalization in a better light than a tool of the first world to "kick out the ladder" for the third world, as it were. The optimism that the youth feel overcomes the harsh realities of their respective countries, including economic ones, which would suggest that only the positive, social elements of globalization affect them, and not the negative, economic results.