The Palestinian Authority has a new cabinet:
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Feb. 24 - The Palestinian Parliament overwhelmingly approved a new cabinet composed mainly of professionals rather than politicians today, ending days of crisis and marking a break with the Yasir Arafat era.
All but 7 of the 24 cabinet members were newcomers, many of them specialists with doctorates in fields as diverse as education, electrical engineering and economics.
What, they aren't all lawyers? Sounds like we could learn a thing or two from the PA.
That's a lot of expertise to draw on. If the new PM listens to his cabinet, he's liable to be quite well advised.
And, it's worth remembering (especially since it's National Engineer's Week!) that George Washington was an engineer by training, not any sort of lawyer.
It's a good omen.
IMO, this is the best news I've heard coming out of the PA... ever!
Anti-semitism will remain, of course, but not as violent. Most of all, this is a big swat at endemic corruption.
I'm afraid this is not as big a deal as it seems. The scions of the Arab world, if they are not Western-educated, tend to take degrees in science or engineering. (In contrast to the U.S., where the history majors, at least at the colleges I attended, had more family money than the techies.) Possibly the latter is favored because Islam is so hostile to scientific inquiry. Obviously, Islamic universities are not going to offer comparative religion, deconstruction, or much in the way of relevant history...
