Not the UAE

"Dany Assaf (How Competition Helped Fuel The Arab Spring – May 7) would have us believe that the example of the United Arab Emirates galvanized Arab youth to take to the streets in revolutionary fervour. But the Spring’s call for universal rights, economic equality and representative government could not be more at odds with the sectarian and gender inequality, wealth disparity, and oppressive military dictatorships characteristic of the Gulf.  One look at the protests in Bahrain against that state’s hosting of a Formula One race shows that the people of the Middle East would like nothing less than to emulate “what the UAE had done.”" (thanks Regan)