Measuring Democracy

The New York Times is always a decent place to get the news. A few weeks ago I wrote on an opinion piece my Kristof, a great article about the internet in China. He had an actual story, a good argument, a sound opinion. But this week’s opinion by Thomas Friedman (who I am always skeptical of) is garbage and does a poor, phone-it-in job of taking on the situation in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East.

The title really as nothing to do with the substance of his article. “China, Twitter, and 20 Year Olds vs. the Pyramids” may be an attention grabbing headline and will likely generate a lot of clicks, but it has no real correlation to what Friedman is getting at. Twitter is mentioned once in the entire two pages, more in passing about how it lets people communicate. Not good enough.

His main argument is that China, Twitter, and 20 year olds are sparking the change we now see in the Middle East. He blames China and it’s ever-expanding market for the rise in food prices, which in turn “sharpened discontent with the illegitimate regimes”. China is not solely to blame for the rise in food prices, and Friedman completely glosses over this issue.

He then says China has an impact in terms of trade as well, as the country can produce goods more cheaply than Egypt can. That’s the case for countries EVERYWHERE: China is a powerhouse right now, exporting goods all over the world. This may very well be an issue, but the author could do a much better job of addressing it, rather than devoting under 50 words to it.

He then goes on to talk about the 20 year olds, and how they are fed up with the current regimes. Facebook and Twitter help facilitate this discontent. This is nothing new here, Tom: let’s move on.

Skip to page two, and it’s like a completely different article all together. No mention of Friedman’s three drivers of change: just his Westernized opinion of what should happen next in Egypt. Not that it is a necessarily bad opinion, but to be honest, I still don’t know enough about the history of Egypt or their culture to make a judgment on the matter.

Disappointing stuff, really. Friedman tried to connect too many dots without any real logical argument. He finishes with a call for democracy in Egypt and Jordan: a point well taken, but poorly delivered.