Doha // If fostering understanding between Muslims and the West is a defining objective of our time, Hady Amr seems well suited to the task.
"I've spent my whole life bouncing between the Arab world and the United States," said the 42-year-old Lebanese-American director of the Brookings Doha Centre. "Much of that time was spent explaining the US to Arabs and explaining Arabs to the US. And I have to say, things have never been so bad as they were during the Bush US presidency administration."
That low point inspired Mr Amr's latest report, which focuses on improving relations between Muslims and the United States - relations troubled by terrorism, two wars and combative US policies since the September 11 attacks. Released last week, "The Opportunity of the Obama Era: Can Civil Society Help Bridge Divides Between the United States and a Diverse Muslim World?" analyses nearly two dozen non-governmental initiatives intended to foster understanding in the post-September 11 world.
"The positive thing was that there was a lot of engagement, people did step up," Mr Amr said. "The bad news is that many did not do so well." Common problems included a lack of data, vague objectives and a tendency to lecture rather than engage.
"If people feel they are being listened to, they are more willing to listen to you," Mr Amr said. He pointed to the Bush administration-created Arabic-language TV station, Al Hurrah. "Efforts like that, the one-way projection efforts - on both sides - have been a failure."
The Barack Obama team hopes to avoid such failures. "Our goal is to listen more and discover new ways that we can work as partners," the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said last week at the Forum for the Future conference in Marrakech, Morocco. "We will seek to work with all of you in government and civil society to try to build local capacity, and empower local organisations and individuals, to create sustainable change."
Along with economic and interfaith projects, Mrs Clinton launched Civil Society 2.0, a new US government programme that will send technology experts to the Middle East and North Africa to train organisations in new media and web technologies. Also in Marrakech, Joseph LeBaron, the US ambassador to Qatar, announced a women's empowerment programme with the Qatar Foundation and a Qatari-US student exchange programme to be introduced next month.
Mr Amr said he hopes these programmes foster engagement and create positive results. "The key ingredients of success are joint partnerships and effective monitoring," he said. He cited Soliya, a New York-based non-profit organisation that connects Muslims from the Middle East and western students via new media and technologies such as the internet, as a good example of partnership in which both sides participate and contribute.
One of the most effective initiatives in terms of monitoring has been the US state department's Access Microscholarship programme, which has instructed more than 32,000 non-elite Muslim high-school students in English and US culture.
"They survey not only the student receiving the instruction," Mr Amr said, "but his friends, parents, and classmates".
Even with successful programmes, long-term change is impossible to control. Any understanding these programmes engender risk being reversed by current events. Last week, for instance, Mrs Clinton sparked Arab ire by stating that a halt to Israeli settlements should not be a pre-condition for talks to resume the Middle East peace process, a stark reversal of previous statements by Mr Obama. She later backtracked, but the damage had been done.
"Bridge-building efforts are never good enough to negate bad policy," admitted Mr Amr, who served with the department of defence in the Clinton administration. "You don't get repeat customers when you're selling crap. But we have a president now that offers us a real opportunity."
Despite the flip-flop on Israel, the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Mr Obama's failure to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, Mr Amr still believes this US president offers real hope.
"His Cairo speech inspired the largest event so far at Brookings Doha," Mr Amr said, referring to a discussion his think tank hosted after Mr Obama's widely lauded June speech in Cairo. "We were turning people away at the door. People were totally energised, particularly the younger people - and that's 60 to 70 per cent in this region."
Are all those Muslim youth - and their leaders - responding to the call for dialogue? Mr Amr sees mixed results. "Here in Qatar we have Education City, the Doha Debates, even my organisation, Brookings Doha," said. "The wealthy Gulf states have provided an amazing space for young Arabs in particular to come and live and work in a relatively free sociological space."
For the most part, however, Arab countries have seen minimal political change and little economic development. "There's a great deal of frustration across the Arab world, but the key problem is the lack of jobs," said Mr Amr, urging the US to engage civil society, not corrupt and autocratic governments. He recommended programmes that foster entrepreneurialism, which can help foster democratic ideals, and a scholarship programme that targets the poor. "You're creating social mobility so you can have somebody running for president that's not the son of the president."
Whether it is student exchange programmes, online networks, women empowerment initiatives or conferences on culture and religion, the time to act, Mr Amr said, has arrived: "Having a president that wants to serve as a bridge between the US and the Muslim World, we need to seize the opportunity now."
dlepeska@thenational.ae
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
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Find the right policy for you
Don’t wait until the week you fly to sign up for insurance – get it when you book your trip. Insurance covers you for cancellation and anything else that can go wrong before you leave.
Some insurers, such as World Nomads, allow you to book once you are travelling – but, as Mr Mohammed found out, pre-existing medical conditions are not covered.
Check your credit card before booking insurance to see if you have any travel insurance as a benefit – most UAE banks, such as Emirates NBD, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, have cards that throw in insurance as part of their package. But read the fine print – they may only cover emergencies while you’re travelling, not cancellation before a trip.
Pre-existing medical conditions such as a heart condition, diabetes, epilepsy and even asthma may not be included as standard. Again, check the terms, exclusions and limitations of any insurance carefully.
If you want trip cancellation or curtailment, baggage loss or delay covered, you may need a higher-grade plan, says Ambareen Musa of Souqalmal.com. Decide how much coverage you need for emergency medical expenses or personal liability. Premium insurance packages give up to $1 million (Dh3.7m) in each category, Ms Musa adds.
Don’t wait for days to call your insurer if you need to make a claim. You may be required to notify them within 72 hours. Gather together all receipts, emails and reports to prove that you paid for something, that you didn’t use it and that you did not get reimbursed.
Finally, consider optional extras you may need, says Sarah Pickford of Travel Counsellors, such as a winter sports holiday. Also ensure all individuals can travel independently on that cover, she adds. And remember: “Cheap isn’t necessarily best.”
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