THE Arab soul is broken by unemployment, poverty and general recession,” Amr Moussa, the Secretary General of the Arab League and former foreign minister of Egypt, said addressing the Arab League meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh. This was a telling statement in the face of the civil strife in Tunisia wherein students and recent graduates exploded in anger at the government's inability to create jobs . The tumult in Tunisia, however, has made several governments in the region sit back and do some soul-searching. Moussa's warning — “The Tunisian revolution is not far from us” — should not be taken lightly. In other words, the very same circumstances that prompted young Tunisians to take to the streets exist in many other states in the region. As education becomes more available, larger numbers of young people are graduating from universities with the goal of obtaining suitable employment. But while qualified candidates are there for the jobs, the jobs themselves are nonexistent. Instead of just searching for ways to shore up their own power, the governments are actually taking action to defuse any potential problem. A $2 billion jobs creation program has been proposed by Arab leaders to help the weakest economies foster job creation. There is also discussion on ways to expand and empower the private sector, a basic necessity in creating a healthy economy and is the need of the hour. Arab leaders have renewed their commitment to the developmental strategies adopted at the 2009 Kuwait summit and affirmed their determination to move forward in the development of Arab societies technologically, economically and socially, and develop structures of joint action within the framework of the Arab League. If there is any silver lining in the clouds that have engulfed Tunisia, it is a new awakening among governments whose main goal should be to serve their people diligently. __
