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The Nairobian

Let's leverage on our Middle East connection

Business

By XN Iraki | Dec 25, 2016

The Middle East, which curiously includes Egypt, is forever in the news. From the Arab Spring to the wars in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, this region gets more than its share of negative limelight. Traditionally it was the epicentre of economic news—courtesy of oil. The region is often cited justly or unjustly as the source of extremism.

This region does not feature much in our day to day conversations. In our curriculum, Mesopotamia, the cuneiform and the Pyramids of Egypt are mentioned. There could be more pyramids in Sudan than Egypt, only that no one talks about them.

Yet, Arabs visited Kenya much earlier than Britons, Americans, Chinese or even Nigerians. The region has lots of oil money, which should attract more than domestic workers.

We pay close attention to Middle East (ME) on matters of religion. The region hosts holy sites for two of the world’s biggest religions, Christianity and Islam. They are Mecca and Jerusalem which is also a holy site to Islam. Every year millions make the pilgrimage to the holy sites. Kenyan Christians have joined the yearly pilgrhttps://cdn.standardmedia.co.ke/images to Jerusalem.

It gets more complicated, the Islamic faith, has two main sects, the Shia who mostly live in Iran and Iraq. The Sunni mostly live in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Most conflicts in this region have an element of these two sections of Islam.

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Economically, the region is known for oil, which has been in production for over 100 years. Britons discovered it in 1908. That has naturally attracted world economic and military powers. The world, despite all the hype on renewable energy still runs on oil, and that dependency is not likely to end soon.

What of tomorrow? The fall in oil prices and the subsequent suffering of the national economies is a threat to stability of this region. After flying over the deserts of Middle East you are left with no doubt that every region of the world has its blessings.

The Middle Eastern countries seem to be prepared for the post oil industry with bold attempts to diversify their economies into services, with airlines a bright star. Think of Emirates or Qatar Airlines and their global reach. Their second approach is through trade, much favoured by their strategic location between the East and the West.

The centrality of religion and oil in our lives and their ally politics means that Middle East will remain the epicentre of world events.

It is time we focused more attention to this region beyond the West and the East. The region is nearer and to large extent richer. More interesting is that we have had more interaction with the region much longer than East or West. It is time we leveraged on these historical links to attract tourists and investors.