You can say we are sort of right smack in it! Here I am, planning my North Africa 'Tour de Cisco' with government workshops, customer visits and awareness campaigns on how ICT can be the catalyst of self-sustained economic and social growth - and next thing you know...the region erupts in demonstrations and ousting of presidents, dictators and other corrupt scumbags and vermin who suppress people's freedom. Well, so much for my awareness trip. The news of the demonstrations catapult me back to my own sit'ins at Christiansborg Castle Square in Copenhagen, where we marched by the thousands, to get reforms in our schools - better curriculum, better state support for students and better hours (longer in fact, not shorter!!) - those were the days of chanting "out with the education minister" ! Yes, I am a rebel, a loner, a dangerous voice among fellow Danes!
It's not too close for comfort here just in case you were worried about the Aults - yes, I know when you look at a map, it looks like we are one inch from the chanting and the gunfire, but then again, danger's our middle name; even as civilians and diplomats are running for the airports in Cairo, Tripoli, Muscat and Manama, we follow the plight of the citizens and youth who really just want progress and opportunities, food security and stability. You'd think the days of Amelda Marcos' incessant shoe shopping were in the past. You'd think that nepotism and fixed elections couldn't continue to happen in a world of so much media. Lest we forget, we live in a world where one day it's hip to save the whales and the next it's revolution and demonstrations that become the headlines. Heck, they're even demonstrating in Madison, Wisconsin, that's close to home!! and you thought we are in danger in the Middle East?? Look out your back door ;-)
People in the UAE, and I talk about the locals, the Arabs, the expats from North Africa, Beirut, Yemen and Oman, are following the developments closely and quietly discuss whether such a situation can occur here. Of course it can. We are bordering Oman and Saudi where the disparity between the ultra rich and the ultra poor is so vast something has to give one day. At the moment the next generation Emiratis are busy playing video games, doing donuts in the desert or at minimum trying to figure out what the identity really stands for. In 5-10 years these teens will have to face lack of education and jobs as the economy turns from oil based to hospitality/tourist based.
The UAE imports 95% of the food consumed here. Very little will grow in this desert, so Africa is becoming the fertile spot for food development. China wants food security too; there is one hungry nation rising! So what does this do to the food prices over time? My little patch of herbs and veggies will not even sustain our own family (despite Hunter's refusal to eat greens). We are truly on the verge of the tipping point. I have to admire the Egyptian, Libyan and Yemen youth as they gather in strength and courage to fight the regimes that have so long kept them in poverty and oppression.
I have my own silent, but deadly revolution going in my kitchen - this one against the army of invading ants. Last night they must have planned a full-on attack after lights were out and was it not for my increasing thirst, that had me up around midnight, they would have succeeded in carrying off the kitchen bin, with old banana peels and crumbs. They tried desperately to scatter their infantry divisions when I walked across the floor in flip-flops, but none escaped the weapon of all weapons: Pif-Paf ant powder! With mountains of white flour looking powder all over, the kitchen floor was a vast killing field of writhing ant bodies, taking their last breath.
So you see my friends, food security will always drive the Masses to desperate measures, and like Gaddaffi hanging on to his slipping power by his fingernails, so is this fearless Dane hanging on to kitchen cleanliness and she wows to destroy every vermin and bug who ventures into our space to threaten our food freedom!
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