The Current Discussion: With the U.S. presidential primary season in full swing, there's a lot of talk here about "change" vs. "competence" in leadership. Which does your country have more of? Is that a good thing?

Change is great and certainly is more important than experience. The only problem, however, is that not all change is necessarily for the better. In our region, change has been institutionally blocked as presidents and monarchs pass power from father to son. Our region has been controlled almost exclusively by persons who run the executive branch leaving the legislative and judicial branches subservient to the executive. And, naturally, the press is in even worse shape as it is directly or indirectly controlled by those in the presidential palaces.

The Arab world is perhaps the last region in the world that has not seen any change in structure and leadership for over thirty years now. Change for many of us has become a far-fetched dream. For the time being, we can only hope that change in the form that Barack Obama is promising will happen in the U.S., and will then spill over into our part of the world.