Beyond the Mafia Regimes!

Corruption is the Number One obstacle in the face of development in our haggard part of the world. Entrenched regimes which act more like mafia conglomerates than actual governments can never produce the sort of reforms needed to help bridge the Development Gap separating us from the rest of the world.

Therefore, those of us who are seriously interested in seeing this region living up to its full potential in terms of being able to provide for the material wellbeing of its various peoples have the awesome responsibility of trying to build alternatives to existing regimes from the ground up. Nothing could be more daunting.

Not even the people who will benefit the most from such a development will stand by us at first, on account of the many social taboos that we will end up transgressing against.

Indeed, achieving a regimefall is only a minor hurdle in comparison to those represented by socio-cultural norms. This is as true in Syria as it is in most Arab countries. The struggle to build free and developed societies in our part of the word will take us the better part of this century. But then, and as we say in DarEmar, Small Steps Count.