A Humble Beginning

If there is one thing I have learned during my years in college, than it is that everyone has a set of political opinions that do not always coincide and that are not very easily changed.  Many of my best friends consider themselves right of center when it comes to American politics and this has often led to heated debates about the direction that our country should be headed in, but American politics shall not be the topic of this blog.  Yet, I cannot deny that my interest in the region that this blog does cover is not linked directly to the United States of America.  Just like so many stories about the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), my initial interest date all the way back to this faithful day in September 2011.  When the twin towers fell, I was a ten year old boy residing outside of Frankfurt, Germany, with little knowledge about the United States besides that it was the country where opportunities were unlimited and where the streets were paved with gold.  (Of course, I would later find out that those words should not be taken literally.)  I did not know what the World Trade Center was and I did not understand the severity of the situation.  The next day, we held a minute of silence to commemorate the victims of a tragic attack in a country so far away.  That day must have been the day, when a small spark lit the ever-growing flame that stands for my interest in International Studies in general and the MENA in particular.  Who were these people that committed this atrocity?  What were their motives?  Are they representative of the places they came from?  Question after question remained without answer, and only in the past couple of years, after specializing in International Studies, was I able to find some answers.  In the coming week we mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11.  I think now, after a whole decade, I have not only reached the academic potential to answer my own questions, but also to write about trends and underlying events in the region that are either not very publicized or brushed aside as unimportant even though they might have crucial local as well as global impacts.  On this blog, there will be weekly updates on events in MENA with information pulled from several (non-American) news networks which can be found in the links at the bottom of the page.  Naturally, as a young student, my views may appear a little to idealistic, but as the title suggests, I will try to keep it in the realm of the probable.  Please feel free to contact me with any suggestions and comments under the email in my profile.  This is my first blog so I hope you will bear with me as we both move through this experience together.