• AC Home
  • News
  • Events
  • Quick Links
Austin College Logo

Sherman, Texas

Apply

Visit

MENU
  • 2022 Issue
    • From the President
    • … Worth a Thousand Words
    • Planet Hunters
    • Austin College Can Feel Like Home – For Everyone
    • The Joy of Giving While We’re Living
    • They’re Somethin’ in the Water
    • How Many Laps Make a Champion?
    • An UP and Coming Sport
    • Arts Prevail in Pandemic Times
    • How to Not Get Lost in the Woods
    • Healing in the Arts
    • From Ida Green to the LA Scene
    • ‘Roo Notes 2022
    • In Other Words
  • Issues
    • 2021 Issue
      • From the President
      • Seeing 20/20
      • On the Front Lines
      • A Broad Worldview Helps Doctors Face a Global Challenge
      • Finding A New Normal
      • Making A Way
      • This Family is All In
      • A Dream Realized
      • No One Plans for a Pandemic
      • Pastoring in 2020
      • CREATE at 5
      • Transformed: Student Success
      • An Expert in the House
      • A Voice for Good Health
      • ‘Roo Notes 2021
      • In Other Words
    • 2020 Issue
      • From the President
      • Global Life: ‘Roos Around the World
      • Good to Go
      • Just Keep Running
      • Pledged to the Public Good
      • Leaves Book and Tea Shop
      • Public Health Program Provides Popular Major and Minor
      • Power to the ‘Roos
      • ‘Roo Notes 2020
      • In Other Words
    • 2019 Issue
      • From the President
      • TWELVE
      • The Making of a Legend
      • One Legend’s Story
      • Sacred Expressions
      • Powering the Future
      • Fierce and Friendly
      • The Stories of the Stones
      • Truth in Art
      • ′Roo Notes 2019
      • In Other Words
    • Winter 2018
      • Snapshot
      • From the President
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • The President’s Home at Wood House
      • Roots
      • Home Team
      • 100 Years of Co-Education
      • President Steven P. O’Day
      • Giving to Prepare Future Servant Leaders
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • July 2017
      • Snapshot
      • Roots
      • From the Interim President
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Home Team
      • The Adventure of a Lifetime
      • Au Revoir
      • The Momentum of Discovery
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • January 2017
      • From the President
      • For Love of the Game … and the Players
      • This Is Us – Diverse and United
      • Snapshot
      • Roots
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Winter 2016
      • From the President
      • Snapshot
      • Roots
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Home Team
      • Living the Liberal Arts
      • At Home in the Rainforest
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Summer 2015
      • From the President
      • Snapshot
      • Roots
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Community Impact
      • Of Gratitude and Wonder
      • Home Team
      • Reimagining the Liberal Arts in A Digital Age
      • Medical Experience in Mexico
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Spring 2014
      • From the President
      • Snapshot
      • Roots
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Preventing Pandemic
      • Home Team
      • A Wild Semester
      • The Bottom Line is Greener
      • The Business of Learning
      • Blazing Trails
      • An IDEA Realized
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Winter 2014
      • From the President
      • Snapshot
      • Roots
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Making A Difference in the Natural World
      • The Mentor Advantage
      • ‘Roos Who Write
      • Storytellers’ Gift
      • Strategic Plan
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Summer 2013
      • From the President
      • Snap Shot
      • Roots: On the Road Again
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Heard Around Campus
      • The Austin College Experience
      • Looking Back and Planning Ahead
      • Faculty Retirees Reflect
      • The Business of Food
      • Class of 2013 Takes on the World
      • A Legacy of Law
        • What is Pre-Law?
      • Dr. Kenneth Street
      • Making History
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Fall 2012/Winter 2013
      • From the President
      • Mission Around the Globe
      • My Summer of Learning
      • Views of the Outback
      • Our Identity
      • IDEA Center Challenge
      • Investing in Austin College
      • Snap Shot: Opening Convocation
      • Roots: Majestic Music
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Summer 2012
      • From the President
      • Detours to Adventure
      • At the Core of Excellence
      • Who Values Education? WE DO!
      • Sowing the Seeds
      • Banned, Buoyed, & Laureled:
      • A Lifetime In College
      • Snap Shot: Commencement
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Heard Around Campus
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
      • Roos for Roos
    • Spring 2012
      • From the President
      • Postcards from Abroad
      • Costa Rica Sisters
      • Texas Super Lawyers
      • An American in…Bucharest
      • My Internship in Congress
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
    • Winter 2012
      • From the President
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • A Century of Science
        • Digging the Antarctic
        • Science in Everyday Life
        • Alumnus Integral To The Manhattan Project
        • Starry, Starry Nights
        • Telling Her Story
        • Celebrating the Unknown
        • A Look Back
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Fall 2011
      • From the President
      • A New Year Begins
        • Meet the Class of 2015
        • Pieces of Home
        • Enrollee to Student
        • Freshman Legacies
        • The Summer Read
      • Gifts That Matter
        • Making Moments Matter
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • Honor Roll of Donors
    • Summer 2011
      • From the President
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Commencement Photos
      • The Many Faces of Success
      • Ghost Light
      • Time
      • In Full Bloom: Lives of Success
      • The Light Shines for Texas
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
    • Spring 2011
      • From the President
      • From the Editor
      • JanTerm 2011
      • Commencement 2011
      • ACtivator Event #500
      • The Homesick Texan
      • Remembering Chase Gaddy
      • Along Grand Avenue
      • Home Team
      • ‘Roo Notes
      • In Other Words
  • Archives
  • Contact Us
Info For...
  • AC Home
  • News
  • Events
  • Quick Links
Home » Issues » Spring 2011 » In Other Words

In Other Words

An “Insider’s” Look at the Middle East

Mike WallMichael Dorsey ’02 completed a master’s degree in Middle East studies from American University in Cairo as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in 2004-2005. He lived about 300 meters from Midan Tahrir (the Tahrir Square) that was home to recent political protests in Egypt. He said he walked through it a couple of times a day to get to school, buses, and restaurants. “One of the most surprising observations about that area and all of Cairo was the number of military and police dressed in white, protecting tourists and others at nearly every intersection in the city, but particularly in Tahrir square,” he said. “Frequently, we would see barricades and huge trucks full of police moving to different areas around the city, so it was unbelievable to see so many youth filling the area in what was the central feature, really, of the entire country.”

Michael provided the following reflections on recent happenings in the Middle East.

I went for my M.A. in Egypt, post-9/11, with the primary goal of understanding what was going on in the region. I wanted to understand why people felt so desperate that they would kill themselves in order to make a statement. I came away with four key observations:

(1) Demographics: a disproportionately large percentage of the population in nearly every country in the region is young. In previous decades, when countries like Egypt and Algeria were experiencing an oil boom, so many children were born in what seemed to be booming economies. Now that so much of the oil has dried up and other parts of their economies have stagnated, the large, young demographic is now reaching an age at which they need to earn a living.

Compounding this, the prospects for future employment for all but the most fortunate youth is very bleak. There are not enough jobs for the existing adults, while the regions teens are reaching workforce age at a record pace. Many are left hoping to work in part-time, government jobs in bloated national bureaucracies, or in menial labor—have no real prospects for work at all. As a result, there are literally tens of millions of youth across the region who know that their career opportunities will be limited. And if you have 100 million young men who don’t believe they have a future, they are extremely vulnerable. How difficult is it to drive just a handful of them to become extremely radical, when you have a pool of tens of millions of depressed and impoverished young people?

(2) Resource Scarcity: Added to this, the population of countries in the Middle East and North Africa have essentially outgrown the agricultural and water resources available to them. As most of the landmass in the region is desert and the booming populations now rely on a handful of large rivers for their water supply, the economic challenges are further compounded by this resources scarcity. Without sufficient access to water, everything else in life and business becomes more difficult.

Mike Wall(3) Information Access: Importantly, there was also a lack of access to information. During one sociology class I took at the AUC, one topic in our texts explained how information was transmitted among the illiterate citizens of Egypt. Rather than reading newspapers, it was common for people to get their information through cassette tapes that were distributed by local religious leaders. The point of the research was that instead of looking things up on the Internet and challenging the things their governments were saying, many people had one or two limited sources of information and few resources from which they could get more information.

Even for those who could read, information flow was certainly restricted. For example, in Egypt, one of my good friends worked as a writer at one of the English-language newspapers. He had to self-censor everything he wrote … nothing negative about the government, about Mubarak, or any one of several other sensitive topics was strictly forbidden. It was a well-known reality that the newspaper would be immediately shut down by the national government should it test these restrictions. Now I am sure that things have changed and that this is not the case in every country in the region, but many of the things we take for granted about information flow were not true in Egypt and other parts of the region.

(4) Regime Incentives: One thing I really wanted to understand was why many of the people of the Middle East blamed the U.S. for their difficult situation. Granted, there is plenty of room to criticize different aspects of the U.S. foreign and economic policies, but I wanted to understand why the West had become so vilified among the youth of the region. I didn’t understand why so many youth directly attributed their troubles to this image of a sinister West. One interesting aspect that I personally came to believe about this phenomenon was that the national governments’ incentives were to sustain their own control, and so it was in their interests to point the finger beyond their borders, toward an easy target for blame: the West. Rather than hold themselves accountable for failures that were as much their fault as the West’s (i.e., an inability to build strong educational systems and to overcome the challenges of developing solid economies), it was expedient to allow their people to believe that the West deserved the blame for all of it.

Mike & Joan at GraduationFinally, some positivity. While I am not proud of every aspect of our nation’s foreign policy toward the region, I am somewhat grateful that our society has helped usher in a profoundly different form of information flow in the region. Now that I live within walking distance of Facebook and near the birthplace of Twitter, Google, and so many other companies … I am proud that these Western services have created a situation where people can share information among themselves, organize themselves, and create a new form of democratic process that prevents autocrats from preventing their citizens from learning and mobilizing. I realize that the changes underway are frightening to many, but I truly believe that a more well-educated and informed public will make better decisions, regardless of where they are from.

And my number one hope for the region, both for the sake of its inhabitants and for U.S. national security interests, is that the countries of the Middle East and North Africa can begin experiencing economic growth and continue to receive greater access to education and jobs. To the extent that the U.S. can contribute to this development, we will help hundreds of millions of people, and also limit the number of people who are vulnerable to being convinced that it is the fault of the West.

Michael and his wife, Joan (Youngblood) live in Stanford, California. Michael is co-founder and managing director of Sagax Media, providing online marketing for small businesses. He completed study at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2010.

GET IN TOUCH

903.813.2000
Austin College
900 N. Grand Ave.
Sherman, TX 75090

Contact Us

GET SOCIAL

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn

GET LINKED

  • Quick Links
  • Human Resources
  • Campus Offices
  • Directory
  • Email

GET CONNECTED

Subscribe to Austin College E-Communication

Connect to AC

Copyright © 2022 - All rights reserved | Privacy Policy | Consumer Information | Site by thrive-logo