Last week Brazil, this week Egypt, and both just the tip of a global iceberg. This article talks about deep-rooted problems in the Arab world and says the West is wrong to obsess about "democracy". What Arabs want - as do the "little people" everywhere - is simply the right to go about their business without being crushed by corruption and bureaucracy (too often the same thing).
"A few weeks ago, de Soto told the US Congress that the West has fundamentally misread the Arab Spring and is missing a massive opportunity. Bouazizi [the Tunisian who killed himself in protest], and the five Egyptians who self-immolated, spoke for 380 million Arabs who lack property rights or any legal protection.
"A few weeks ago, de Soto told the US Congress that the West has fundamentally misread the Arab Spring and is missing a massive opportunity. Bouazizi [the Tunisian who killed himself in protest], and the five Egyptians who self-immolated, spoke for 380 million Arabs who lack property rights or any legal protection.
"This applies to Britain: if we were to become champions of these people, and demand the extension of property rights in return for our foreign aid, it could be the most effective anti-poverty strategy ever devised. And it might make us millions of new friends in the Arab world.
"This is not a new idea, but the revival of an old one. As Margaret Thatcher once put it, “being democratic is not enough – a majority cannot turn what is wrong into right”. Freedom, she said, depends on the strength of the institutions: law and order, a free press, the police and an army that serves the government rather than supervises it. History is proving her right – in Russia, Afghanistan, Iraq and now in Egypt. The façade of democracy can be horribly deceptive; it is the strength of institutions that decides if nations rise or fall."
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