I concluded in my 2010 article related to “Fragile ICT Infrastructure in MENA”, that the upcoming years will not be as good as we hope.
As long as we are witnessing instability across the region, we can’t expect better situation.
I didn’t see any improvements in cyber security measures in Middle East countries during the past year. Policy makers in the Middle East still think of the Internet as an information weapon and they are making every effort utilizing it to add more repression!
In my humble opinion, we can’t understand the future without looking back to the past. Only Five years ago will tell us how people are thinking in the region. They still think the same way, no advancement in education, awareness, culture, or media.
That also should be applied to the Internet. Middle East countries invested heavily in Internet and telecommunication technologies. But they didn’t invest much in educating people on how to efficiently use these technologies.
Since we are talking about the need to improve our education system, we should take a look at this World Bank report in 2008. If the road is not traveled in education, how could those countries face future challenges in 21st Century?
They are simply giving their people a Ferrari with no driving education!!!