It’s two weeks since Valentine’s Day. But I’ve just read Egyptian cleric Hazem Shuman’s criticism of the holiday. And I think it deserves repeating.
“I have come tonight to warn all boys and girls about an extremely dangerous virus, which is about to attack the hearts of the nation’s youth…we must confront this Valentine virus!”, he says. Shuman has an important point to make. It’s just not the point he intended.
The export of Western culture to the Middle East has long been a potential source of social friction: this is well known. Less well known, however, is that China has a role to play.
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“Nationalism” is on the rise and it is bad news for the Silk Road.
I’m reminded of the risks by events in Syria. I recall Syrian friends praising China a few years ago―the arrival of “Made-in-China” goods to the streets of Damascus meant the middle-class could afford to buy the type of high-end consumer goods, such as digital cameras, which were once unaffordable.
But the tone has since changed. Mohammed Sharabti, the head of the Aleppo Chamber of Industry, alleged earlier this year that Chinese clothing imports have flooded the market. A number of textile manufacturers in Aleppo, the country’s second largest city, have closed. (You can’t afford to buy “Made-in-China goods if you don’t have a job). The Syrian government has responded by imposing tariffs on Chinese textile imports.
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China’s President Hu Jintao visited Riyadh last week. It was his second visit in three years. This is a big story, right? Perhaps. It depends on where you are.
I was in New York and the story didn’t rate a mention. Instead, the economic crisis has, not surprisingly, gripped the city’s attention.
The story, however, was big news in China and Saudi Arabia. Sina.com, a leading Chinese news portal, created a special feature for the visit with links to commentary and background information (in the same way CNN might create a special feature for the Gaza crisis). Al Hayat, a major Arabic newspaper, meanwhile devoted its entire second-page to the meeting between President Hu and King Abdullah.
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Who’s to blame for this economic crisis? It’s an important question for governments in Cairo, Islamabad, and Manila: as I wrote last week, they face the challenge of finding jobs for the rising number of migrant workers returning home.
So it’s no surprise many governments are pointing to the West, in particular America, as responsible for factory closures and job losses. This is what makes today’s crisis different, for example, to the Asian crisis a decade ago.
I’ve been looking for evidence of “finger-pointing” in the Arabic and Chinese media. But it strikes me that not everyone is behaving in the same way.
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The Silk Road was, for a while, the world’s largest construction site. From Beijing to Dubai, skyscrapers were erected at a frightening speed. But the economic crisis has taken its toll and the construction sites are closing. Migrant workers are feeling the pinch as they back their bags and head home.
This is a big problem for the Silk Road’s economy. The region accounts for 65 million of the world’s 190 million migrants, according to the World Bank. Many live no more than a few years abroad and most send money home. The two biggest earners, India and China, receive $57 billion annually. It’s a figure equivalent to Microsoft’s annual revenues.
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