Rami Khouri: 'The Wall will fall in the Arab World'

Rami G. Khouri wrote this article - published today in the Jordan Times. Read the whole article HERE

The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall a few days ago passed very quietly in the Arab world, because the meaning of the wall’s fall - the transition from total state control to human freedom - also bypassed the Arab world. Not the Islamic world, or the Middle East, but the Arab world.

For many reasons, the Arab world, collectively, is the sole exception to the global wave of liberalization and democratization that touched every other region of the planet. It is difficult to predict how and when our region will change, liberalize and democratize. The spark that sets off a chain reaction for freedom could happen in one country, and then spread to others - like the Solidarity movement in Poland ultimately echoed throughout the Soviet bloc and resulted in its total transformation.