Permalink, Cartoons for Kids, cam, 676 words, 1 comment, Danish Cartoons, Middle East, Unemployment, Youth Bump, Baby Boomers

Many pixels have been spilled on the cartoons of Mohammad and the vandalisation of embassies in the Middle East. Everyone has an opinion on it of one form or another. The opinions have been predicated in freedom of speech, clash of civilisations, multi-culturalism and the civility not to offend. I haven't seen anyone raise the issue of youth yet.

The events that led to the Cronulla riots were between young kids from different parts of Sydney who should have known better than to choose violence. The riots through Cronulla, which targeted people of middle eastern appearance were dominated by images of young kids, tanned and strong. Again, people who should have known better. The riots in the Middle East were not much different. It was young kids perpetuating the violence and vandalism.

Youth bumps lead to turbulent times, sometimes for the positive, and sometimes just chaos. The Industrial Revolution led to a massive growth in the youth population in Britain. The youth; young and poor, gathered together in cities that could not handle them. Without work they took to violence and crime. Part of Britain's response to this was to send as many as they could out to Australia. The youth bump became middle aged in Britain and society settled down once again.

America faced a similar youth bump post WWII commonly known as the baby boomers. During the Vietnam war the boomers protested the violence, civil rights and other issues. Sometimes violently, sometimes passively. The boomers also changed many liberties through their activism that modern society now takes for granted, such as sexual liberation. On the down side, the boomers also popularised much of the modern drug culture.

The Middle East will be an issue for the world for a time to come. In most European nations the population under fifteen is about twenty percent. For the Middle Eastern nations it is much higher;

• Yemen: 48.7
• West Bank/Gaza: 46.1
• Iraq: 41.4
• Saudi Arabia: 39.1
• Syria: 38.3
• Jordan: 38.0
• Oman:37.2
• Egypt: 35.2
• Iran: 32.6
• Libya: 31.3
• Lebanon: 29.6
• Bahrain: 29.2
• Israel: 27.9
• Qatar: 26.6
• Kuwait: 26.1
• UAE: 25.8

The Middle East shares the highest regional unemployment figures for the globe with sub-saharan Africa. Unemployment is estimated to be as high as 50% in Gaza and 30% in Iran - not to mention Iraq where unemployment rates may be as high as 60% . The Middle East has a growth rate of approximately three percent , meaning that it will double its population every twenty years. In Yemen the growth rate is over four percent.

The confluence of youth, unemployment and fundamentalist religion in the Middle East means it will be a hotspot for a time to come. The baby boomers left their activism behind when they became fat and happy through consumerism. Oil, monarchy, oligarchy, theocracy and inequality will ensure that the Middle Eastern youth have no outlet for their fears, angers and frustrations other than demonstrations of religious backed violence.

The Middle East will change the world same as the baby-boomers did. Whether conservatives or western cultural elitists like it or not, population demographics are ensuring that the Middle East will have a massive effect on the globe. We will have to wait and see if it is for the positive.

I still have my money on Iran's youth redefining the global dialog on freedom, despite the US's clumsy parking of the US military next door. I believed Iran and Australia were the two nations best situated to achieve that in the 1990s. Australia blew it, and Iran could not get past the post.

Keating made the statement that when a government changes, the nation changes. Such is the political, media and economic power of government. The Howard government has sunk Australia into a myopic conservatism, drunken for past stereotypes of a Britonian Australia. Iran recently got a new Prime Minister who, like the Howard government, is opposed to change. Unfortunately Iran has a harder task ahead of it than Australia.

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