Equality for Women and an Educated Populace

If you want to improve things in North Africa and the Middle East, it is easy to say that what they lack for a more prosperous society is more equality for women and to educate their people to a higher degree.

However, what seems to be important for prosperity in northern Europe is trust between individuals. Thinking about this for a while I realized that I had no idea where this might have come from or how to improve the situation where it is not present. A country like Brazil is low on trust but has become more prosperous but lack in equality and thus quality of life.

Some people would say that Western society developed from property owning peasants on family farms. I'm not sure why such people would come to trust each other more than the nomads of northern Africa? The rule of law perhaps makes more sense when people settle down and have to interact without being able to move.

So, what are we going to do when we have entered Libya using what we know from the experience from Afghanistan and Iraq? Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal said wisely that once you are in there are any reasons for not leaving. I saw today on the Swedish news a nice looking rebel woman, her hair blowing in the wind, talking like a democracy would form next year and ending with "don't fail us now".

I believe that it will take Libyans generations to order the mess that is now being created, ie if a political solution can be found to the civil war now present. The problem is that since it is so difficult to stake out a path for improvement there will be problems for the coalition to unite behind a common goal.