مدونة د. منصور عمر الكيخيا * Dr. Mansour Omar El-Kikhia Blog

Last week, some readers asked me what I plan to write about after Mr. Bush leaves office, and my answer was that there is plenty to write about in the aftermath of Mr. Bush. The mess the world finds itself in is not about to disappear anytime soon. I honestly believe that the current president has been insignificant in the scheme of things, and my pieces over the last five years have reflected that.

In my mind, the problem has not been with Mr. Bush per se for, after all, he remains a simple man, who in spite of graduate degrees from Ivy League institutions, has not demonstrated a profound understanding of politics, economics or culture. And what he did know was so narrowly defined by religious constraints that it was for all intents and purposes quite obsolete.

My gripe has been with the Republican Party for permitting itself to be hijacked by so-called neo-conservatives. Politically born in the ‘70s during the Nixon administration, the neo-cons emerged during the tenure of Mr. Reagan and George H.W. Bush. However, much of their plans met with only partial successes due to the unwillingness of the latter two presi

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Last week’s shoe attack by Muntadar al-Zeidi, an Iraqi reporter, on President Bush got me thinking about the contradictory nature of Middle Eastern politics, and I was not pleased with my conclusions.

Each community in the region has its own particular insulting gestures, but there are also common gestures involving footwear that are considered insulting to all Arabs. Assaulting anyone with shoes is considered insulting by any standard in Arab society. Also insulting is displaying shoe soles, as some are prone to do when they put their feet on a table, desk, chair, or sometimes even while sitting on the ground.

Usually, when entering an Arab or Muslim home, one is expected to take off footwear before entering carpeted or covered areas of the dwelling. Muslims in particular do not enter mosques or pray with their shoes on.

Unlike many across the globe, I found the attack on President Bush offensive — and neither heroic nor amusing. And, in spite of the fact that Mr. Bush’s policies have been a disaster for Iraq on one level, they have, on another level, been a blessing. Iraqi democracy is one of those unintended consequences of the Bush blunder, and even though it came at a great cost, Iraqis are in a better position today than at any time in the

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Can anyone tell me where President Bush is? Not that I miss him, even though I should, given that I made a career of critiquing his policies. I am just curious how an individual, let alone a president, can become so irrelevant so fast. It seems that Americans are inviting him to hurry up and leave the White House before he causes any more mischief.

I was surprised at the audacity of Condoleezza Rice’s invitation to Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to resign and leave office.

Mind you, Mugabe is a nasty bit of work, and he should have resigned and left office a long time ago, but where was the courage to tell him to leave or even support a putsch by forces of Zimbabwean democracy against the incompetent dictator?

I would venture that the world has seen more support of dictatorships and human rights abuses around the globe by this administration than any since President Nixon. So why now? Has this administration, like the lion in the Wizard of Oz, found its heart? It seems highly unlikely, if not hypocritical, for an administration that has shown so little respect for the rights of its own citizens to even think about the well-being of citizens of a country half a world away.

Rice’s utterances on Zimbabwe, however, are ins

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Nearly half of what we pay in property taxes in Texas goes towards paying for schools, but that doesn’t seem to be enough.

I will come back to this later, but let me first deal with higher education as it impacts the city of San Antonio, where the problem is even more critical.

First, I think the proliferation of school districts is a curse because it promotes discrimination and uneven opportunity in education.

This is even more serious in the umpteen university systems in Texas. As chairman of the University of Texas Faculty Advisory Council, I believe the University of Texas System to be the only bona fide system in Texas, and it shouldn’t be denied the opportunity and the resources necessary to play that role and fulfill its mission. This need not diminish the importance of other Texas systems.

Second, enough is enough so let’s stop all the talk about the soaring cost of education in Texas. Judging by UTSA, where I serve as chairman of a department, the cost of education is still very reasonable. That’s the case in spite of the fact that state financial support has diminished fro

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Much of the world seems to be pleased with America’s choice for a new president.

There seems to be a global consensus that he be given every opportunity to succeed and reassure the world that even superpowers have their downturns, and they might have to be isolated from the body of nations until they overcome their maladies.

It was a close call, but America is overcoming its illness and is emerging from eight years of schizophrenia and paranoia stronger, wiser and more determined to re-assume its global position of leadership.

It was an awful experience in how not to govern that took a heavy toll on health and wealth, but the body remains sound and a sound body can recover and make even more wealth. And, what has been a bad dream for the country was a nightmare for the world because it reconfirmed that whatever countries might feel about America, their economic and political health is impacted more by the United States than by their own populations.

Americans should be thankful f

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ترجمة: مفتاح السيّد الشريف

في المشرق العربي، أصبح تصنيف الحكومة لاأهميّة له مطلقا. فليس مهما في الحقيقة إذا ما وصفت البلدان نفسها بأنها ممالك أوسلطنات أو مشيخات أو جمهوريات، أو في حالة ليبيا البطّة الغبيّة المسمّاة جماهيريّة، أي دولة الجماهير. إنها ألقاب مختلفة، ولكنها كلها تقريبا تعني نفس الشئ، وتحكم من قبل أفراد أو ورثتهم الذين يبقون في السلطة لفترة طويلة جدا. فهي لا يوجد لديها شيء إسمه الديمقراطية، أوالمشاركة الشعبية، أوتقاسم السلطة، أو إقتصاد وطني جدّي، أو أي معنى حقيقي لما تعارف عليه المجتمع المدني. وفي هذه المجتمعات فالتقدم الفكري للقيادات السياسية الوطنية لا يبدو أنه قد تقدم بعد حقبة الحقّ الإلهي للملوك التي ميزّت تشكيل الدولة القومية في عام 1648. وحتى بعد الإستقلال، عندما أتاحت الفرصة إمكانية اعتماد مفاهيم مثل السيادة الشعبية والمشاركة السياسية، لم يتغيّر الأمر. والقادة قاتلوا بشدّة لمنع إصابة مجتمعاتهم بعدوى هذه المفاهيم الخطيرة. وكانت النتيجة سنوات من المؤسّسات السياسية العقيمة، وحكم ديكتاتوري، وتردّي الأوضاع السياسية والاجتماعية والثقافية والاقتصادية، لم تشهده المنطقة منذ نهب المغول لبغداد في عام 1258.

فمن الناحية الإقتصاديّة أخذت الأنظمة تتخبّط على غير هدى، وتتعيّش طفيليّا على الفرص المتاحة لها من النظام الدّولي، وعلى الموارد الطبيعيّة الوطنيّة التي تمتلكها، هذا إذا اسثنينا واحدا أو إثنين منها. وللأسف، يحدث هذا في وقت ك

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In the Arab East, the classification of government has become quite insignificant. It doesn’t really matter if countries refer to themselves as monarchies, sultanates, sheikdoms, republics, or in the case of Libya’s Daffy Duck a jamahiriya or state of the masses. The names are different, but they are almost all the same and are all ruled by individuals or their heirs who stay in power for a very long time. There is no such thing as democracy, popular participation, shared governance, serious national economy or any real sense of civil society.

In these societies, the intellectual progression of national political leaderships does not appear to have advanced beyond the era of the divine rights of kings, which characterized the formation of the nation state in 1648. And, even after independence, when opportunity presented the possibility of adopting concepts such as popular sovereignty and political participation, none did, and leaders fought vigorously to prevent the infection of their societies by these dangerous concepts. The result has been years of effete political institutions, dictatorial rule and political, social, cultural, and economic regression not witnessed in the region since the Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258.

Economically, the regimes chug along aimlessly, surviving parasitically on opportunities afforded them by the international system and, with one or two exceptions, any scarce natural resources they might possess.

Unfortunately, this is happening at a time when many countries are shifting into fifth gear, racing toward fundament

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Like many young people throughout the world, America’s youth supported Barack Obama’s run for the presidency of the United States because they saw real potential for change in him.

There was nothing wrong with John McCain, and in another era he might have made a good president.

Today, he is the wrong choice, and had he been elected, America would have found its position as a global leader untenable.

There are a number of reasons for this state of affairs.

It’s important to understand that the world has undergone a profound change that necessitates 21st century responses to social, political and economic problems.

Unfortunately, Mr. McCain was unable to articulate that new and global vision.

Yet having said that, neither did Mr. Obama, but his ability to talk about the future intelligently led to the assumption that he has the answers to the problems plaguing the United States and the world.

There are no concrete, easy solutions to what Mr. Obama is confronting. He finds the U.S. economy in serious trouble, and in spite of his advocating for “redistribution of wealth” and injecting liquidity at the bottom in the hope it will float to the top, he will do little.

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In a historic election, Americans have selected a new president and succeeded in ending a sorry period in their history, characterized by bitter divisions fueled, in many instances, by ignorance and myopia.

Much has been written and spoken about Sen. Barack Obama’s victory, so I will not regurgitate what has already been said.

I am elated by the choice, but I tend to take a cautious perspective on what is coming. First, contrary to the prevalent perception, I don’t believe Obama will be a panacea for all of America’s problems. His will be like no presidency since FDR, and America’s political and economic future will hang in the balance. It will not be easy to rectify the political imbalances of the previous eight years and economic imbalances of the previous 40.

The new president will have no honeymoon, and he must hit the ground running. He cannot wait for the current administration to formally hand over the reins of power before he begins his preparation to implement his political or economic agenda. He must be ready on Jan. 21, 2009.

I see the negative impact of eight years of Republican rule manifesting itself in three layers. The top layer is political and here Obama will need to dismantle the many official

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This week the Republicans have again succeeded in angering Arabs and guaranteeing the loss of the Arab-American vote.

The latest American attack on Syria and the civilian casualties it has caused has infuriated Arab satellite television viewers across the world. I can say with a degree of certainty that the Bush administration has taken an important step in ensuring that America’s stay in the Middle East is short-lived. There is a tremendous amount of anger at the United States.

The U.S. administration has caused a great deal of turmoil and damage to the fabric of Middle Eastern society, and to make matters worse it has openly told the inhabitants of the region that it doesn’t care about them and will reserve the option of attacking them at will as it sees fit.

The problem with this line of thinking is that it ignores any costs associated with it. Even the Iraqis are seriously questioning the benefits of signing an agreement with the United States in light of so much internal opposition to America’s policies in the region. The Syrians are hopping mad and might be pushed into the arms of Russia, something that they have been very reluctant to d

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