M D Nalapat
Ninety-five
years ago, Britain and France got together to divide the Arab world.
The 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement formalised the division of the region
into spheres of influence controlled by London and Paris. Gone were the
promises of freedom that had been given to the Arab peoples at the start
of the campaign against Turkey.
Watching the London Conference on the future of Libya, it becomes clear that very little has changed in the Arab world. Most of the countries of the region are under the tutelage of either Britain or France, with of course the US as the senior partner of both these powers. Any visitor to the Gulf Cooperation Council region will be struck by the influence of US and European “advisors”. Apart from minor decisions, such as whether to have pasta or hummus for dinner, all decisions get taken only after they have been vetted and approved by the ubiquitous “advisors”. Small wonder that even after losing more than $1 trillion in the 2008 financial collapse caused by the greed of financial institutions in London, Zurich, Chicago and New York, Arab investors still place more than 95% of their financial assets in the very same entities that have fleeced them
