An article I came across in the Arab Times. It is interesting to see in these days of hightened awareness about Middle East political situation to see an article comparing Arab political situation with the developing world, primarily India rather than the west. I think this makes quite a lot of sense since from a social point of view Middle Eastern nations are much more closer to the developing world than the developed world, even though countries like Kuwait does claim per capita income at par or even higher than many a western nation.

Ali Al-Baghli, Former Minister of Oil, Kuwait

In the Fifties of the last century we saw the establishment of a new alliance, which claimed it would face the superpowers in the West headed by the United States and the superpowers of the East led by the Soviet Union. The result of the confrontation between these powers was called "the Cold War." The new alliance – known as the Non-Aligned Movement – was founded by leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Sukarno of Indonesia, Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt, Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia and several others with lesser reputation. The idea wasn’t a 100 per cent success because some of the founder members split to join one of the superpowers. Egypt sided with Soviet Union when the World Bank, under instructions from the US, refused to finance the construction of the Aswan Dam in the early Sixties. The purpose for formation of the Non-Aligned Movement was buried once and for all.

Members of the Non-Aligned Movement were victims of the circumstances because most of them had just won their independence. There were other conflicts. While Nehru favored peace, development and democracy Gamal Abdul Nasser – who had erased the word "democracy"from his dictionary – was all for posing challenges, and building his army at the expense of development. To be honest the development of Egypt was in the mind of Abdul Nasser but countries don’t get developed merely through good intentions. If we compare the achievements of these two countries we will be surprised. India, which favoured peace and democracy, has made a quantum jump and progressed in many fields. Currently the name of India is synonymous with scientific and technological achievements.

It has entered the space age by launching several satellites for communication and educational purposes since the Eighties. Most of these satellites were made in India and the last one – "Edusat" meant exclusively for educational purposes – was launched in September 2004. India has become a pioneer in the field of research and development. Several factors such as quality, integrity, and low costs have helped India to become a destination for such scientific projects. The number of Indian companies which have signed contracts with international companies for research development is increasing by the day. Recently, India has found a new source of income – medical tourism. Indian doctors, who have a lot of experience in modern medicine, have placed their country on the international map of health care.

The traditional Indian health treatments are an added attraction for prospective health tourists. In the field of movie industry, India’s Bollywood stands second in the world next to Hollywood. Of late India has strongly entered the world of fashion and designing. It has achieved huge success and amazing developments in a variety of fields because it favoured democracy, peace, development and is strongly against any kind of extremism. Isn’t it enough that hundreds of millions of Indians, who are mostly non Muslim, are being ruled by a Muslim President Abdul Kalam. The Indian President is neither an army officer nor the son of any former President. But he has the credentials of an unmatched scientist. The difference between us and a country like India is our Arab mentality. Our mentality has led us to where we are now while the mentality of Indians has pushed them to their current high position.

Source: Arab Times