A quick glance at what is happening around us is enough to tell us that we Arabs are a nation that has lost its grip, and that we no longer have anything of value except our oil, which we sell to others in return for their dollars and their products, [such as] cars, foodstuffs, planes and a long list of other things. I do not know what we will do with our oil tomorrow if these nations achieve their goal of developing alternative energy.
… every day I writhe in pain to see the gap between ourselves and the West, [and between ourselves] and the civilized world, growing wider and wider, and to see us apparently accepting this situation…
We do not [seem to be] worried that the West surpasses us, while we [trail behind] at the end of the line. We have become addicted to this backwardness, to moral deterioration, tyranny, oppression, laxity, corruption, and slow death…
