could it be the daw of a new era, or just another desert mirage?
There is much international optimism that the first tentative steps along the path towards real democracy may have already been taken. By Adel Darwish A ripple of change is running through the Middle East, said Prime Minister Tony Blair at the closing of his London international meeting in support of the Palestinian Authority. “ There is a genuine ….ripple of change at the moment,” said Mr Blair,“ but it is happening throughout the Middle East, and it is important that we encourage it because it is out of there that so many of the issues that we grapple with in the international community arise.” Was Mr Blair trying to avoid accusations of plagiarising Harold Macmillan’s famous phrase ` the Winds of Change’ heralding the end of colonialism in Africa, in 1959 in South Africa? It took the Afrikannas three decades to catch up, as their releasing of Nelson Mandella and dismantling of apartheid coincided with the velvet revolution that swept Europe in 1989; but it took the Middle East
