Youths in Middle East: wired and wanting something better
Some 60 per cent of Middle Easterners are under 30 years of age, and many of the restless young are understandably angry, wired only with cellphones and feisty determination, with nowhere to go but to the streets, nothing to do but rebel.
Today’s mobilised Generation XS have uncensored access to Facebook, Twitter, satellite cable TV, Internet networks, blogs and iPods, which empower individuals to wrestle control, often at the expense of the state, which has virtually lost its chokehold control. There’s no rewind, only fast-forward, with rebels, rage and revolution challenging the autocratic rule of corrupt regimes that once seemed firmly entrenched.
In the Middle East, Israel has by far the most Internet users, followed by United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Noting the wwworld in transition – 55 per cent of UAE users are women, who access the Internet more than seven hours a day. As the blogosphere has expanded, youths have more access to information, contrasting the lack of transparency in their own country with the relative openness of liberties enjoyed elsewhere.
Social media enabled young men and women to share their wants, desires and frustrations in ways they couldn’t have done in the past. No longer feeling isolated or alone, they feel connected to likeminded allies, empowering self-confident growth. Like young people everywhere, young spirited entrepreneurs have lofty ambitions, too often thwarted by the lack of political connections (wasta) or state patronage cronyism.
Opinion polls show that the increasingly distrusted US has fallen out of favour. Most Middle Eastern youth are more pragmatically concerned about their well-being than abstract issues such as democracy, feeling better off now and more positively optimistic than previously. Priorities include creating jobs, fair pay, stabilising the cost of living, improving educational opportunities, offering better healthcare, ensuring social justice and expanding individual freedoms – of speech, expression, assembly.
A wide gap separates youths from older generation mindsets that remain out of touch with the need to implement change. The unresponsive elite have done little or nothing to prepare disillusioned, disenfranchised and disaffected youths for the future or to provide them with viable career options.
Charles Frederickson
