The Amman Declaration

On September 11, 2001, America awakened to a new world order and has been living in fear ever since as it learns increasingly more about Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, Islamic fundamentalism and the coming so-called "Clash of Civilizations."

Sadly, as Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek Magazine first reported, we know little about "Why They Hate Us." Indeed, America knows little about the Middle East, Arab history, culture or commerce, or the concerns of the average Arab citizen, who is as deeply concerned about the war in Iraq, the continuing Middle East conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, and their image in the rest of the world, as we are. Except for little Dubai which boasts the largest Internet facility in the world, we know little about Arab hopes for an IT future.

In truth, America knows little at all about the Arab world, or indeed most other countries in the world. Part of the problem is historical. Most Americans have been insulated from the trials and tribulations of other nations; buoyed by our relative prosperity, more or less surrounded by water and influenced by media that feeds our obsessions with sports, entertainment, fashion and the topical events of the day.

At a Harvard University conference chaired by David Gergen, former advisor to three presidents and now Director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard, he and his colleagues talked about the challenges such ignorance poses for the press and public diplomacy, and expressed their "concern that international news coverage nearly reached a vanishing point in the mainstream press before September 11, 2001."

The reasons for this phenomenon included:

• "Lack of general interest in international affairs post-Cold War
• Family ownership of networks being replaced by chains
• The breaking down of editorials and
• Cynical evasion of responsibility."

In general, participants at this conference and others in universities and think tanks across America are expressing similar concerns about America's ignorance of world affairs, the state of journalism education in our universities, and asking: "what can and should we do?"

On December 12, 2002, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, building hope for the years ahead, announced a new U.S.-Middle East Partnership. He called it a response to the reality that Queen Rania of Jordan so eloquently termed "the hope gap." In announcing this initiative, Powell said: "It has become clear that we must broaden our approach to the region if we are to achieve success. In particular we must give sustained and energetic attention to economic, political and educational reform. We must work with peoples and governments to close the gulf between expectation and reality [to close] the hope gap."

Powell's remarks were widely reported throughout the Arab world and in Amman, Jordan where I was attending a World Bank Conference on "Children and The City." When I returned to the U.S. a week later I was surprised to find that the U.S. press provided almost no coverage of Powell's initiative.

The meeting in Amman itself was quite extraordinary and worth reporting as it dealt directly with the problems former Secretary Powell was most concerned about, i.e. the education and well being of Arab women and children and their participation in the governing process in the wake of a global "Internet-based " economy.

The conference venue, Amman, was of particular interest. Once known as Philadelphia, or the City of Brotherly Love, Amman is the birthplace of Christianity, Judaism and Islam all three of which are still practiced in the region. Women, in particular, are well integrated into the political and social structure of Jordan. Among the Arab mayors, municipality heads, governors, municipal and community leaders from throughout the Arab republic, women and children were well represented at the conference and played a major role in the "Amman Declaration" on Children