Shame is what Muslims, Arabs and America Share in Abundance

Today, as on many days since 1948, the world is witnessing Israeli cruelty toward Palestinians. Over the years, Palestinians have lost their homes and land. Palestinians who live under the Israeli yoke are oppressed in ways that many observers have called apartheid. Israel retaliates against legitimate Arab uprisings — the latest in response to the eviction of Palestinian families from their Jerusalem homes — with cruelty and inhumanity. …

To Change, Iran Needs a New Constitution

These days, restoring the Iran Nuclear Agreement (JCPOA) occupies the headlines. It is seen as crucial for Iran and for the United States. Can the parties remove the Trumpian-layered sanctions which were dishonestly connected to terrorism and sell the agreement both in Washington and in Iran? Will Iran and the U.S. each return to the JCPOA as it was? While this may be a priority for much of the world and especially for the United States, it misses the point as far as Iran’s future is concerned. Even if the JCPOA is restored…

In a span of less than 45 years from 1975 to 2018, Iran’s population increased from 33 million to 82 million, its GDP from $52 billion to $454 billion and its per capita GDP from $1,580 to $5,550. While South Korea’s population increased from 35 million to 52 million, GDP from $22 billion to $1.7 trillion and per capita GDP from $617 to $33,422.

The difference in performance is staggering. Iran’s GDP increased 8.7 fold compared to South Korea’s 77 fold. But because of Iran’s much more rapid population growth, the differential performance in per capita GDP was simply unbelievable…

Nuclear Hypocrisy and Its Chain Reaction

Let’s start off with an indisputable fact. No sane person or responsible country wants to see a nuclear proliferation free for all. Nuclear weapons could destroy all life as we know it. So the stakes are high. The Great Powers are the self-appointed guardians of nuclear non-proliferation. A lauded goal but they have been hypocritical and duplicitous in its implementation.

Nuclear weapon breakout capacity (the time required to build enough highly enriched uranium for one or two warheads) has been limited to regimes that are deemed responsible. Objectionable regimes seeking breakout capacity are threatened…

A Country’s Straight jacket is its People

A country without inhabitants is but an empty shell. Countries are made up of complicated individuals, each having his or her own value, history and moral compass. The collective values of individuals in turn shape and define a country’s institutions, culture, character, behavior and history. A country can change its character and behavior when the collective values and behavior of its people change. As countries are invariably made up of millions of individuals, a sea change in collective values and culture is a slow process, something that takes much time, decades and even…

The world’s greatest democracy! The American dream! The world’s best hope! Shining city on a hill! Citadel of liberty. Fact or American fiction?

At best these are myths that America keeps telling to comfort itself and to garner admiration around the world. Politicians have spread these myths so often and so wide that most Americans have accepted them as fact, becoming detached from reality and complacent in a manufactured history. But this cancer of lies, if not addressed, will in time destroy the country from the inside and harm rest of the world.

America is no longer the world’s greatest…

America’s Ancestral Crime Lives On

America’s ancestral crime — slavery — is known the world over. The country was built on the backs of kidnapped Africans brought to the New World in chains starting some 400 years ago. As a result, the young nation was nearly destroyed during its Civil War a little over 250 years later, but a heroic President Lincoln managed to hold a divided land together. After WWII and some overdue legislation — The Civil Rights Act of 1964 — the horrors of its crime seemed to recede. But this temporary respite did not provide the momentum…

Trump’s Coup and What Lies Ahead

The Coup

Coup d’états come in many forms — while a military overthrow of the government may be the most dramatic, a quiet erosion of institutions may be just as disruptive and with even more long-term consequences.

Over the last three to four years, we have witnessed a steady degradation of America’s enviable institutions. Many eminent economists and philosophers have highlighted the importance of institutions for democratic governance and socio-economic progress. While Adam Smith may be the best known among these giants of the past, a more recent contributor was Douglass North.

What are…