What is really ‘The Arab Spring,’ their hope or ours? “… democracy is a product of western culture, and it cannot be applied to the Middle East which has a different cultural, religious, sociological and historical background.” - Tayyip Erdogan,PM of Turkey, 2003-present Cultures are wrought over centuries. A culture evolves, develops and calcifies slowly over generations with rote reinforcement of a set of tangible and intangible values. In fact, what you continuously choose, eventually metastasizes into your genes. This hypothesis was explored by John Cloud in a 2010 article for the TIME magazine, titled: “Why your DNA isn’t your destiny: The new science of Epigenetics reveal how the choices you make can change your genes.” The Nabataens – the secular pre-Islamic Arabs, the Dutch, and the Venetians didn’t become great merchants … Read entire article »