 |
| Osama Kadi (top). Right, with UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan and Farah Atassi |
A man for all seasons seems the one to beat in the
election of Syria’s provisional prime minister at the two-day meeting of the
main Syrian opposition coalition starting tomorrow in Istanbul.
His name is Osama Kadi.
An Aleppo native, he has lived, studied and worked, as
an economics consultant, in Syria, Canada and the United States.
He now leads the Syrian opposition
taskforce drawing up plans for post-war economic recovery
To boot, he is a theater director.
Kadi is a member of the Syrian National Council (SNC),
the largest component of the Syrian National Coalition of Revolutionary and
Opposition Forces (SNA) headed by Moaz al-Khatib.
Two
previous SNA attempts to name an interim prime minister were postponed over
seemingly intractable differences. Consensus has been building as the Syria war
enters its third year.
French
President François Hollande first floated the idea
of an interim government, which would help administer the large swaths of land
in the north and northeast the rebels have seized, in August 2012.
Hollande
at that time told French ambassadors in an annual foreign
policy speech, “France asks the
Syrian opposition to form a provisional government — inclusive and
representative — that can become the legitimate representative of the new Syria.”
The Council of Arab Foreign Ministers picked up the
baton earlier this month with a
resolution urging the SNA to form an “executive body” to take up Syria's vacant
seat at the Arab League and represent Syria at the upcoming Arab summit in
Doha.
The SNA announced overnight on its Internet page the names of nine nominees for
prime minister. It separately said on its Facebook page it
was keeping secret the names of two other nominees for their own safety since
they still live in Syria.
Frontrunner Kadi is:
- General coordinator of the Syrian Economic Task Force (SETF)
- President of the Syrian Canadian Council
- Founder and president of the Washington-based, non-profit Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies (SCPSS)
- President of Concordia College of Canada for Health, Business and Technology
Kadi did economics consultancy work for the Syrian
Agency for Combating Unemployment and the United Nations Development Program
(UNDP) in Syria.
Stateside, he taught macro- and microeconomics at
the Dearborn campus of the University of Michigan and business management at Baker College of Allen Park. His paper “Who Reaps the Benefits of peace in the
Middle East” was presented at the 1994 MESA (Middle East Studies Association)
conference in Washington.
He has also written innumerable articles and papers on
economics and politics for Syrian, Arab and international journals.
The London-based Strategic Research &
Communication Centre published his 2011 study titled “Syrian
Industry and the Problem of the Executive” on the eve of the Syrian revolt.
Kadi is on the active membership rolls of the:
- American Economic Association (AEA)
- Syrian Economic Science Association (SESA)
- Middle East Studies Association (MESA)
- Middle East Economic Association (MEEA)
- Middle East Institute (MEI)
- Academy of Political Science (APS)
- Western Economic Association
- American Sociological Association
- American Association of University Professors (AAUP)
- United Nations Association in Washington DC
- Canadian Association of Journalists
 |
| Stage director Kadi in action |
Going back to “a man
for all seasons,” Kadi is a theater actor and director in his spare time.
He co-founded the Risala Theatrical Group RTG in Canada, performed
on stage there and in the United States.
The last theater
production he directed in September 2011 – “Abu
Sultan’s Family” – showcases the life of a Middle East family that
immigrates to Canada in pursuit of a better life.
