The first step in progress

Dr. Omar bin Sulaiman, the chairman of Young Arab Leaders (YAL), didn’t have to pay very close attention at YAL’s annual forum in Beirut last month to pick up on the high levels of youth frustration — although it’s probably a good thing he did. “How do you start?” a young woman, a YAL member from Egypt, asked from the audience. She was standing with a microphone in a large ballroom at the Habtoor Grand Hotel during a morning discussion on how to create more opportunities for youth. And she was expressing a recurring sentiment. “Young people do not have enough expertise to write a correct business plan,” she said. “We end up with young people saying, ‘No one will give me a job if I don’t have the right connections.’ Meanwhile, the public sector says you need more education. The private sector says the public sector has to change