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Archived Articles
Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
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Yemen and the difficult tasks of the WestThere will be no lasting solution to the cultural tensions between the West and the Arab world, of which the terrorist attacks and the war against the terror are only two most striking expressions, without changing the hearts and minds of the Yemenite population. Whatever is done or will be done by the local government, this population represents potential danger for the peace and security for the region and beyond. Many people in the West know that Osama bin Laden comes from Saudi Arabia. Few know that his family traces his roots from Yemen, where the world's terrorist no.1 enjoys wide moral popular support. If we add to this the lack of modernization in the country, the high fertility rates, the traditional gender inequalities, the very low living standard, the nomadic style of living for many, the strategic situation of the country at the gates of Red Sea and the lack of strict border control, and we'll see how many problems the West is facing in order to change the basic negative premises. Usually a population in its early stages of modernization, and Yemen falls well into this category, is very volatile, likely to produce severe social upheavals, to change frequently the government, to distribute and redistribute the property, to move quickly between traditional, modern and charismatic type of authorities and vice versa. The fact that the population is one of the poorest in the world is still perhaps unknown for the majority, being either illiterate or nomad, or both. What a force of change it will represent when this generation of millions children is channeled to the mandatory educational system? Nothing short of a political eruption is to be expected when the socially deprived classes decide to take back what they think belongs rightly to them. Where will be the West in this moment? Will it be perceived as the good guy, helping the modernization, the democratic process and the economic development? Or will it be perceived as sitting with the oppressors as so many times in the past in this same region, remember Iran, Egypt, Syria, Algeria. It seems that the West again is trying to act as a conservative social force, making deals with the existing authorities that may bring benefits in short run but will undermine the strategic western presence in the long run. When the time of troubles comes, the West will risk again to be bypassed by the events as in Iran in 1979. Without falling into determinist predictions we can say that all the factors presented on the ground show that Yemen is to become in the next years one of the hot spots on the map. Perhaps it won't become so hot and unpredictable as was Afghanistan in the second half of 1990's, although we can't rule out such possibility.
Yemen country profile: --------------------
See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Yemen.
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