The year 2005 began with the world shocked at the catastrophic devastation of the Asian tsunami. Two more immense natural disasters, Hurricane Katrina and the Kashmir earthquake lay ahead. In August, America made a hash of initial aid to the stricken city of New Orleans seemingly because the victims were mostly poor and black. The international aid response to October’s Kashmir quake was at first little better. The unpleasant impression was left that, unlike in the tsunami, in neither new tragedy had there been enough white victims to engage Western sympathy.
Europe, however, sat up and took notice when it was struck for the first time by suicide bombers in the July London attacks that killed 52. Though Muslim communities in Britain strongly condemned the crime and the failed suicide bombers a week later, there was widespread concern that police and security forces were over-reacting by targeting all Muslims.
Meanwhile, Al-Qaeda in one form or another continued to murder and maim around the world. The November wedding bombing in Amman in which 59 died reinforced the global Muslim anger at the organization’s bigoted butchery. Though senior members of the organization continued to be killed or captured in, among other places, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, the Bush White House’s war against terror is far from won, not least because in Iraq the Americans have created exactly the battleground that Osama Bin Laden wanted.
Iraq endured another year of violence during which it nevertheless held three successful national votes: On an interim constitutional assembly, on the constitution itself, and this month for its first freely elected Parliament. Undoubtedly the greatest success was the growing involvement of the Sunni community in the political process. The slow progress in training Iraqis to run their own security meant however that the US-led coalition looks set to remain for the foreseeable future. This is increasingly unwelcome news to US voters who seem likely to make George Bush’s second term anything but the political triumph he imagined.
In the Kingdom meanwhile, 2005 has been a year of profound change. The greatest was the death of King Fahd and the succession of King Abdullah as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. Markedly strong oil prices have underpinned an economic boom, which has seen the growth of Saudi stock and property markets and the arrival of a revolution in the Kingdom’s financial markets. These developments coincided with the Saudi Arabia’s admission as a full member of the World Trade Organization and its participation in an increasingly globalized economy. Foreign investors (now working if they wish without local partners) will be drawn to Saudi Arabia by the ambitious new five-year plan, the largest ever budget with a major focus on education and the remarkable $26.6 billion King Abdullah City, one of the world’s largest civil-investment projects. Few years are unforgettable, but for the Kingdom 2005 will be particularly memorable.
