Queen Noor of Jordan at the 2011 Skoll World Forum
Queen Noor of Jordan at the 2011 Skoll World Forum: The Democratic Deficit and the Reinvigorated Movement for Freedom and Justice Across MENA. In her keynote at the close of the Forum, Queen Noor provided deep insight into “the most remarkable example of large-scale socio-political change… since the fall of the Soviet Union.” She explores its causes, including the “democratic deficit” described in the 2010 UN Arab Human Development Report, and the implications of this, “reinvigorated pursuit of freedom and justice” across the Middle East, North African region.
Thank you, Jeff, very, very much. Since it's beginning, the Skoll World Forum has engaged extraordinary hearts and minds. In a dynamic of solidarity, partnership, faith and action. Providing valuable ideas and opportunities for all of us, dedicated to the welfare of our fellow men and women around the world.
So I just want to take this opportunity to thank you, Jeff, Sally, Pamela, Paula, and all who work with you all who make up the team of the Skoll Foundation, the Skoll World Forum For Social Entrepreneurship, the center here Oxford, and so many others initiatives that Jeff and his colleagues are responsible for that are affecting lives the world over and providing hope which is probably the most important outcome of all of this.
Now, I was really, I realized looking at the program, simply invited to be a warm-up act for, to give a general survey of our region at the moment, talking about sort of peace and justice or the implications for peace and justice in our region, what is happening now which is really just a warm-up for one of our most pioneering entrepreneurs, Fadi Ghandour, who will follow me shortly and tie what I have to say into this forum, and so much of the discussion that's been taking place here.
So I will start by talking about the Middle East and North Africa region today. We appear to be witnessing the most remarkable example of large scale sociopolitical change at least since the fall of the Soviet Union. And so what are the implications of this reinvigorated pursuit of freedom, and justice for our larger region?
Well, first of all, you might ask, why now? What circumstances and tipping points, led to or enabled these changes?
Although many outside and even inside the region were caught off guard by the sudden unrest, no one should have been surprised except perhaps by the flash point. The tragic, dramatic suicide of a vegetable seller in Tunisia, and by how quickly the protests spread. The protestors' concerns are not new.
Anyone listening to ordinary people, political observers, and others over the past decades, would have known of the deep discontent, not only with obvious economic hardship in so many places and the lack of opportunity for so many, but also with the fundamental to a problem of the police state culture of fear, intimidation and corruption which has resulted in region-wide deficits in just and representative governments, the rule of law, and human rights.
I will never forget my early experiences in the region when as having grown up a young Arab-American in the United States, I wanted to return to the land of my forefathers and did so first working in Iran and then later research throughout the Arab world before I married.
And in Iran, working for a British urban planning firm, we found ourselves subjected to SAVAK bugging, if you will, of the office, various Iranian members of our staff disappearing without warning, off the streets, and it was my first real experience with what I then later encountered in doing research in Iraq where everyone you had a conversation with was feeling under the table to see if there are any bugs, or looking around afraid to talk about the weather even for fear that it might be some political connotation in the ears of those listening.
I'm serious. It was very hard to really talk about anything, and even to this day there are places in our region where people will take the batteries out of their cell phones in order to have just simple social conversations because of the fear, the overwhelming presence of fear. But, until now, in the name of security and stability so many ruling elites have stifled protests of any kind, opposing freedom of the press, of assembly, the growth of civil society institutions. Effectively preventing the emergence of open and participatory and dynamic societies where the human capital is extraordinary but has been held prisoner by these approaches.
In many countries, religious parties filled this vacuum assuming a preeminent social and political role through extremely effective networks of philanthropy and the provision of social services. In this way, activist Muslim groups constructed a broad deep base of support seemingly providing the only alternative to autocratic government.
So, what has changed? Paradoxically, while some might site a lack of developmental progress over all in our region, the democratization movement could be said to be the bi-product in significant part of the development process rather than of it's failure. When measured purely by per capita income.
The MENA region (Middle East North Africa region) seems to have stalled. However, when health and education advances and knowledge and technology penetration are taken into account, it becomes much clearer that the Arab world has really reached a level of development that is out of sync with archaic political systems that dominate.
An imbalance at the 2010 Arab human development board has referred to as the democratic deficit in the Arab world.
A sizable majority of the population in the Arab world is under 30, give or take, around 60%. And facing the highest unemployment rate in the world and among the highest youth unemployment rates in the world. A reason that the uprisings are so often viewed as a youth revolution in spite of the fact that young and old men and women of all ethnicities, religions, tribes, and other groups in society have come together and united in these efforts.
It is the youth that really have provided the impetus, are very frustrated and under utilized youth in our region. Because many of these young protestors are students. They have been educated enough to know what their inalienable rights are, what jobs they desire and deserve and how to use new technologies to demand them.
Perhaps a key tipping point has been that new technological network and social media developments have provided the means, model, and catalyst to bring all other elements together, and virtually all of the uprisings, satellite television, cell phones with cameras, and, by the way, just in the past year alone cell phone usage has increased by 10%.
That's considerable. YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook have served to organize, publicize and vitalize support for the protestors. This would have been impossible just a few years ago when access to news information was almost entirely controlled by a narrow elite.
Internet usage in the Middle East has risen more than 1800% in the past decade. And, in fact, now very slightly exceeds the average in the rest of the world. This is even more remarkable than it sounds at first, given that the second Arab human development report in 2003 expressed concern that internet usage in the region was at only 1.6% and that the gap presented a severe challenge to political, social and intellectual development in the region.
Clearly, their estimation of the power of the internet as a force for change was absolutely correct.
The Arab human development reports themselves with their readily available and candid analysis of problems facing the region. This had never been done before. No collective effort to try to assess the region using credible, distinguished scholars, social scientists and Arab statesmen. In cooperation with the U.N. development program they launched a five report series beginning in 2002 to examine the central obstacles to development across our region.
Such as deficits in knowledge, in innovation, freedom, and women's inclusion. They faced down these pioneering authors, faced down regional government pressure and even international pressure to excise unfavorable information. And their courage and honesty profoundly affected public discourse in the region and also help plant the seeds of this Arab spring.
In recognition, we at the King Hussein Foundation awarded them the 2005 King Hussein leadership prize, because in so many ways, they represented so many of the qualities of King Hussein's leadership. The courage to speak the truth. The understanding that it is only through understanding the truth that we can actually find solutions to the problems that we face.
The large scale mobilization for change we're witnessing now stems in part from the expansion of what the human development reports were calling for: education, interconnectivity, and women's participation, and these changes are hopefully enabling others freedom, good governance, and human rights.
Such technological and social innovations and the awakening they have sparked are, in a sense, the antithesis of the modus operandi of most of the Arab world for the past half-century, over half a century. Transparent versus opaque. Peaceful versus violent, young versus old. Pluralistic versus authoritarian.
In a sense, they not only employ the tools of social entrepreneurship. They can be seen as almost an embodiment of social entrepreneurship itself. As evidenced by their collaborative, creative and collective ways of bypassing traditional structures that have silenced people for so long.
It's no accident that the target of recent protests in Egypt was the intelligence directorate headquarters. Their revolution represents a new kind of intelligence. Not secret intelligence maintained for the security and benefit of a few, but a wide scale intelligence by and for the masses. Now inclusion can vanquish intimidation.
In recent developments in Egypt, social networking and commercial interests have come together to maintain the momentum and spirit of the awakening. In one initiative, El Balad Baladna is an this is our country, is the name of the initiative. An advertising agency and its client, a manufacturer of supplies, launched a nation-wide cleanup campaign for the streets and neighborhoods where the uprisings took place in Egypt, and the subsequent celebrations.
The organized publicized weekly cleanup days on facebook, and many of the young people who protested and partied, returned to show their civic commitment to improving the country. So what is next? Dangers abound inspite of the very optimistic views of our Mina panelists yesterday we are also very, very realistic about the challenges to sit we face.
First and foremost, it is vital to safeguard these movements from being politically and physically hijacked. Current uncertainty in Egypt, violence in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Syria and tension elsewhere warn that positive change is by no means guaranteed. Even where rulers have been deposed, reform must to be real.
New governments must genuinely embrace change, rather than preserve old power structures under new figure heads while making limited cosmetic concessions to placate protestors. The collective, pluralistic nature of the protest is heartening, but lack of clear leadership may pose serious challenges going forward.
One young woman who helped in the Cairo clean up said she came even though she didn't know who the leaders are. Now, that traditionally is very important in our culture. People must maintain pressure on their nascent or incumbent governments until real progress is achieved, and we're seeing this even today as I speak.
In places like Tahrir Square, we are seeing the the understanding that transforming a movement into a viable system of government, or to use Pamela's words: "an ecosystem of visionary leadership at all levels." Because that, fundamentally, is what we need. That will be our greatest challenge.
And women's rights and participation must not be sacrificed on the altar of expediency. Unfortunately, as revolution gives way to real politique, women's rights are all too often the first to be compromised and bartered away.
In Egypt where women and men protested side-by-side, all too soon sexual harassment and discrimination reappeared. When women reappeared or returned on International Women's Day to Tahrir Square to protest the absence of women on the Constitutional Amendment Committee, they were attacked by male counter-protesters.
Although the pluralistic, largely secular nature of the protests so far undermines the long-standing, old guard scare tactic that the only choice is between or zero sum choice is between authoritarian rule and strict Islamist orthodoxy. New governments, and their constituents must avoid exchanging one extreme for the other.
We must all be mindful that from the beginning the mainstream goal has been pursuit of a pluralist democracy which embraces religion without imposing it. What specific approaches and solutions would most effectively further this quest for justice and freedom. First and foremost we need good governance any reforms must ensure a democratic process that expresses the will of the majority while protecting individuals and, of course, minorities.
A system of checks and balances, to limit state power, a commitment to transparency and accountability, and against corruption. And an impartial justice system to uphold the rule of law for all citizens male and female, young and old of every creed and tribe. And we need further educational reform emphasising not only accessibility and employability but citizenship, independent critical thinking, conflict resolution, and peace building.
Countries of the region have long preserved our archaic education systems that perpetuate unquestioning and unchallenging societies. This lack of critical thinkers, diverse opinions, and healthy informed debate has stunted efforts to bring about real change and in the immediate future we need to improve people's access to the basic necessities of life.
Not only employment and fair wages, food and healthcare but also environment stewardship, and sustainable, equitable access to water and other resources. These are increasingly the hallmarks of many societies throughout the world today. Countries that are more prosperous, more tolerant, richer in opportunity, and, ultimately, less likely to engage in conflict.
These countries can support progress in our region by elevating the priority of political reform, without imposing it. As history shows, foreign involvement inevitably fails when forcefully attempting to impose regime change or reform. But neither should these countries step back entirely, and wait for the dust to settle.
Rather, our international partners should respect organic, democratic developments as their own principals demand. And engage fledgling democracies in serious dialogue about sustainable and gradual reform that can lead to new political openness and power sharing. These words can be backed with deeds in the form of humanitarian rather than military support.
Far better value for money and we have seen what creative forms that support can take here in Oxford over the past few days. And above all, we need to apply these principles of tolerance, equity and democracy across borders, as well as within them. To revive the quest for peace in the region.
The international community's support of stability over democracy and pursuing peace separately, if at all, has procured none of the three. International sympathy for Arab people's fight for freedom must therefore also acknowledge the Palestinians' right to freedom from occupation and to self determination and independence.
As reforms take hold in Shal La, Israel will no longer be able to claim to be the only democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. And the claim will seem increasingly hollow if they claim to exclusionary and neo-apartheid police state measures. That are being condemned elsewhere. Freedom and justice who probel only if everyone in the MENA region and the West.
From Israel to the Arab League to the United Nations, to the young people who rose up and now must take responsbility to nurture new societies, respects encourage the overwhelming desire of the Arab majority for a life free of oppression, and the building of a just and lasting peace.
The Middle East and North Africa
is a region poised on the brink of epic change.
We are watching unfold before us a breathtaking experiment in collective action, by young people armed only the cellphones and computers, protected only by social networks united in their willingness to speak out and sacrifice for change. We can learn much from their courage and dedication. We can also take the wisdom that we've all gained here to help further their noble cause.
Today, they are fighting peacefully for justice. And as justice prevails, so will peace. Thank you.
So I just want to take this opportunity to thank you, Jeff, Sally, Pamela, Paula, and all who work with you all who make up the team of the Skoll Foundation, the Skoll World Forum For Social Entrepreneurship, the center here Oxford, and so many others initiatives that Jeff and his colleagues are responsible for that are affecting lives the world over and providing hope which is probably the most important outcome of all of this.
Now, I was really, I realized looking at the program, simply invited to be a warm-up act for, to give a general survey of our region at the moment, talking about sort of peace and justice or the implications for peace and justice in our region, what is happening now which is really just a warm-up for one of our most pioneering entrepreneurs, Fadi Ghandour, who will follow me shortly and tie what I have to say into this forum, and so much of the discussion that's been taking place here.
So I will start by talking about the Middle East and North Africa region today. We appear to be witnessing the most remarkable example of large scale sociopolitical change at least since the fall of the Soviet Union. And so what are the implications of this reinvigorated pursuit of freedom, and justice for our larger region?
Well, first of all, you might ask, why now? What circumstances and tipping points, led to or enabled these changes?
Although many outside and even inside the region were caught off guard by the sudden unrest, no one should have been surprised except perhaps by the flash point. The tragic, dramatic suicide of a vegetable seller in Tunisia, and by how quickly the protests spread. The protestors' concerns are not new.
Anyone listening to ordinary people, political observers, and others over the past decades, would have known of the deep discontent, not only with obvious economic hardship in so many places and the lack of opportunity for so many, but also with the fundamental to a problem of the police state culture of fear, intimidation and corruption which has resulted in region-wide deficits in just and representative governments, the rule of law, and human rights.
I will never forget my early experiences in the region when as having grown up a young Arab-American in the United States, I wanted to return to the land of my forefathers and did so first working in Iran and then later research throughout the Arab world before I married.
And in Iran, working for a British urban planning firm, we found ourselves subjected to SAVAK bugging, if you will, of the office, various Iranian members of our staff disappearing without warning, off the streets, and it was my first real experience with what I then later encountered in doing research in Iraq where everyone you had a conversation with was feeling under the table to see if there are any bugs, or looking around afraid to talk about the weather even for fear that it might be some political connotation in the ears of those listening.
I'm serious. It was very hard to really talk about anything, and even to this day there are places in our region where people will take the batteries out of their cell phones in order to have just simple social conversations because of the fear, the overwhelming presence of fear. But, until now, in the name of security and stability so many ruling elites have stifled protests of any kind, opposing freedom of the press, of assembly, the growth of civil society institutions. Effectively preventing the emergence of open and participatory and dynamic societies where the human capital is extraordinary but has been held prisoner by these approaches.
In many countries, religious parties filled this vacuum assuming a preeminent social and political role through extremely effective networks of philanthropy and the provision of social services. In this way, activist Muslim groups constructed a broad deep base of support seemingly providing the only alternative to autocratic government.
So, what has changed? Paradoxically, while some might site a lack of developmental progress over all in our region, the democratization movement could be said to be the bi-product in significant part of the development process rather than of it's failure. When measured purely by per capita income.
The MENA region (Middle East North Africa region) seems to have stalled. However, when health and education advances and knowledge and technology penetration are taken into account, it becomes much clearer that the Arab world has really reached a level of development that is out of sync with archaic political systems that dominate.
An imbalance at the 2010 Arab human development board has referred to as the democratic deficit in the Arab world.
A sizable majority of the population in the Arab world is under 30, give or take, around 60%. And facing the highest unemployment rate in the world and among the highest youth unemployment rates in the world. A reason that the uprisings are so often viewed as a youth revolution in spite of the fact that young and old men and women of all ethnicities, religions, tribes, and other groups in society have come together and united in these efforts.
It is the youth that really have provided the impetus, are very frustrated and under utilized youth in our region. Because many of these young protestors are students. They have been educated enough to know what their inalienable rights are, what jobs they desire and deserve and how to use new technologies to demand them.
Perhaps a key tipping point has been that new technological network and social media developments have provided the means, model, and catalyst to bring all other elements together, and virtually all of the uprisings, satellite television, cell phones with cameras, and, by the way, just in the past year alone cell phone usage has increased by 10%.
That's considerable. YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook have served to organize, publicize and vitalize support for the protestors. This would have been impossible just a few years ago when access to news information was almost entirely controlled by a narrow elite.
Internet usage in the Middle East has risen more than 1800% in the past decade. And, in fact, now very slightly exceeds the average in the rest of the world. This is even more remarkable than it sounds at first, given that the second Arab human development report in 2003 expressed concern that internet usage in the region was at only 1.6% and that the gap presented a severe challenge to political, social and intellectual development in the region.
Clearly, their estimation of the power of the internet as a force for change was absolutely correct.
The Arab human development reports themselves with their readily available and candid analysis of problems facing the region. This had never been done before. No collective effort to try to assess the region using credible, distinguished scholars, social scientists and Arab statesmen. In cooperation with the U.N. development program they launched a five report series beginning in 2002 to examine the central obstacles to development across our region.
Such as deficits in knowledge, in innovation, freedom, and women's inclusion. They faced down these pioneering authors, faced down regional government pressure and even international pressure to excise unfavorable information. And their courage and honesty profoundly affected public discourse in the region and also help plant the seeds of this Arab spring.
In recognition, we at the King Hussein Foundation awarded them the 2005 King Hussein leadership prize, because in so many ways, they represented so many of the qualities of King Hussein's leadership. The courage to speak the truth. The understanding that it is only through understanding the truth that we can actually find solutions to the problems that we face.
The large scale mobilization for change we're witnessing now stems in part from the expansion of what the human development reports were calling for: education, interconnectivity, and women's participation, and these changes are hopefully enabling others freedom, good governance, and human rights.
Such technological and social innovations and the awakening they have sparked are, in a sense, the antithesis of the modus operandi of most of the Arab world for the past half-century, over half a century. Transparent versus opaque. Peaceful versus violent, young versus old. Pluralistic versus authoritarian.
In a sense, they not only employ the tools of social entrepreneurship. They can be seen as almost an embodiment of social entrepreneurship itself. As evidenced by their collaborative, creative and collective ways of bypassing traditional structures that have silenced people for so long.
It's no accident that the target of recent protests in Egypt was the intelligence directorate headquarters. Their revolution represents a new kind of intelligence. Not secret intelligence maintained for the security and benefit of a few, but a wide scale intelligence by and for the masses. Now inclusion can vanquish intimidation.
In recent developments in Egypt, social networking and commercial interests have come together to maintain the momentum and spirit of the awakening. In one initiative, El Balad Baladna is an this is our country, is the name of the initiative. An advertising agency and its client, a manufacturer of supplies, launched a nation-wide cleanup campaign for the streets and neighborhoods where the uprisings took place in Egypt, and the subsequent celebrations.
The organized publicized weekly cleanup days on facebook, and many of the young people who protested and partied, returned to show their civic commitment to improving the country. So what is next? Dangers abound inspite of the very optimistic views of our Mina panelists yesterday we are also very, very realistic about the challenges to sit we face.
First and foremost, it is vital to safeguard these movements from being politically and physically hijacked. Current uncertainty in Egypt, violence in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Syria and tension elsewhere warn that positive change is by no means guaranteed. Even where rulers have been deposed, reform must to be real.
New governments must genuinely embrace change, rather than preserve old power structures under new figure heads while making limited cosmetic concessions to placate protestors. The collective, pluralistic nature of the protest is heartening, but lack of clear leadership may pose serious challenges going forward.
One young woman who helped in the Cairo clean up said she came even though she didn't know who the leaders are. Now, that traditionally is very important in our culture. People must maintain pressure on their nascent or incumbent governments until real progress is achieved, and we're seeing this even today as I speak.
In places like Tahrir Square, we are seeing the the understanding that transforming a movement into a viable system of government, or to use Pamela's words: "an ecosystem of visionary leadership at all levels." Because that, fundamentally, is what we need. That will be our greatest challenge.
And women's rights and participation must not be sacrificed on the altar of expediency. Unfortunately, as revolution gives way to real politique, women's rights are all too often the first to be compromised and bartered away.
In Egypt where women and men protested side-by-side, all too soon sexual harassment and discrimination reappeared. When women reappeared or returned on International Women's Day to Tahrir Square to protest the absence of women on the Constitutional Amendment Committee, they were attacked by male counter-protesters.
Although the pluralistic, largely secular nature of the protests so far undermines the long-standing, old guard scare tactic that the only choice is between or zero sum choice is between authoritarian rule and strict Islamist orthodoxy. New governments, and their constituents must avoid exchanging one extreme for the other.
We must all be mindful that from the beginning the mainstream goal has been pursuit of a pluralist democracy which embraces religion without imposing it. What specific approaches and solutions would most effectively further this quest for justice and freedom. First and foremost we need good governance any reforms must ensure a democratic process that expresses the will of the majority while protecting individuals and, of course, minorities.
A system of checks and balances, to limit state power, a commitment to transparency and accountability, and against corruption. And an impartial justice system to uphold the rule of law for all citizens male and female, young and old of every creed and tribe. And we need further educational reform emphasising not only accessibility and employability but citizenship, independent critical thinking, conflict resolution, and peace building.
Countries of the region have long preserved our archaic education systems that perpetuate unquestioning and unchallenging societies. This lack of critical thinkers, diverse opinions, and healthy informed debate has stunted efforts to bring about real change and in the immediate future we need to improve people's access to the basic necessities of life.
Not only employment and fair wages, food and healthcare but also environment stewardship, and sustainable, equitable access to water and other resources. These are increasingly the hallmarks of many societies throughout the world today. Countries that are more prosperous, more tolerant, richer in opportunity, and, ultimately, less likely to engage in conflict.
These countries can support progress in our region by elevating the priority of political reform, without imposing it. As history shows, foreign involvement inevitably fails when forcefully attempting to impose regime change or reform. But neither should these countries step back entirely, and wait for the dust to settle.
Rather, our international partners should respect organic, democratic developments as their own principals demand. And engage fledgling democracies in serious dialogue about sustainable and gradual reform that can lead to new political openness and power sharing. These words can be backed with deeds in the form of humanitarian rather than military support.
Far better value for money and we have seen what creative forms that support can take here in Oxford over the past few days. And above all, we need to apply these principles of tolerance, equity and democracy across borders, as well as within them. To revive the quest for peace in the region.
The international community's support of stability over democracy and pursuing peace separately, if at all, has procured none of the three. International sympathy for Arab people's fight for freedom must therefore also acknowledge the Palestinians' right to freedom from occupation and to self determination and independence.
As reforms take hold in Shal La, Israel will no longer be able to claim to be the only democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. And the claim will seem increasingly hollow if they claim to exclusionary and neo-apartheid police state measures. That are being condemned elsewhere. Freedom and justice who probel only if everyone in the MENA region and the West.
From Israel to the Arab League to the United Nations, to the young people who rose up and now must take responsbility to nurture new societies, respects encourage the overwhelming desire of the Arab majority for a life free of oppression, and the building of a just and lasting peace.
The Middle East and North Africa
is a region poised on the brink of epic change.
We are watching unfold before us a breathtaking experiment in collective action, by young people armed only the cellphones and computers, protected only by social networks united in their willingness to speak out and sacrifice for change. We can learn much from their courage and dedication. We can also take the wisdom that we've all gained here to help further their noble cause.
Today, they are fighting peacefully for justice. And as justice prevails, so will peace. Thank you.
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2011 Skoll World Forum Highlights
