When the first Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) was published in 2002, a star shone in a vast and gloomy sky. The fact that a UN-sponsored report, authored by independent Arab scholars, would receive so much attention in Arab media was in itself a promising start. The fact that such terms as human security, personal security, economic security, etc. — as highlighted in the report — could compete with the largely ceremonial news headlines in many Arab countries was in itself an achievement. But then, the star quickly faded; the terms became clichés, and the report, published seven times since then became a haunting reminder of how bad things really are in the Arab world.
Those who wish to discredit Arab countries, individually or as a group, now find in the reports plenty of reasons for their constant diatribes; those who genuinely care and wish for things to improve are either silent or feel forced to remain so.
The last report, sponsored like the rest by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), was published in July 2009. It was the grimmest. Its statistics are fascinating, although depressing. In the Arab world, 2.9 million sq km of land are threatened by desertification. Natural resources are being depleted at an alarming level. Birth rates are the highest in the world. Unemployment is skyrocketing. Fifty million new jobs must be created by 2020 and Arab oil-based economies leave some Arab countries completely vulnerable to market price fluctuations or the depletion of oil altogether. While many economies, especially in Asia, are shifting or have already made great strides towards becoming knowledge-based economies, Arab economies are still hostage to the same cycle of oil and cheap labor. In fact, according to the report, 70 percent of the Arab region’s total exports is oil.
The problem is not just economic, or environmental; it’s societal as well. Inequality is entrenched in many Arab societies. Women’s rights are not the only individual rights violated. Men’s rights are also violated — that is if the men are not members of the dominant group which are usually characterized by blind political allegiance, tribal or sectarian membership or economic power. Admittedly, Arab societies are not the only societies suffering from these problems, but sadly, the Arab problems are the most complex, accentuated by the fact that there little action is taken to rectify the problems, neither at individual country level or by using joint platforms — for instance, the Arab League. Why didn’t the Arab League hold an emergency summit following the release of the first or even the last AHDR report? One would think that problems of such magnitude, ones that affect the lives of 330 million people, were pressing enough for such gatherings.
THE Arab media has been highlighting the issues and the shortcomings, some media outlets more than others. But the discussion is largely political — too often a mere attempt at discrediting this government or that leader, with the discussion conducted in general terms. The latest report, for example, was supplemented by opinion polls conducted in four Arab countries — Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco and occupied Palestine. One need not emphasize the different human development challenges in these countries, situated in greatly different geopolitical areas. One cannot possibly devise the same solutions for a country occupied by a foreign power and an independent country with untold oil wealth and a third with immense human potential but dire poverty.
GENERALIZED problems can only obtain generalized — and thus superficial — solutions. Therefore, it has been summarily decided that the problem lies in lack of education, not the inequitable and unrepresentative political systems. Education became the buzzword, as if education were a detached value; therefore, education cities are erected in Arab countries that could easily afford importing the best teachers and curricula money can buy. In addition, research institutions are also making appearances in various Arab lands. Those in rich Arab countries are operated largely by foreigners, whose sense of priority naturally lies elsewhere. One fails to grasp the wisdom of it all.
But of course, education is a mindset, a culture even. What is the point of pursuing a Ph.D. in a society in which nepotism determines who does what? It’s most rational, from a self-seeker’s point of view, to spend time knowing and passing one’s business cards to the ‘right people’ instead of spending years of one’s life pursuing a university degree. UNDP recently launched “The Arab Knowledge Report 2009,” jointly with the United Arab Emirates-based Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Foundation. Another depressing read. Governments were criticized for paying lip service to ‘reform’, yet “widening the gap between word and deed.” It concluded that Arab countries are far from being knowledge-based societies. Numbers and more numbers told the story: Finland spends $1,000 per person on scientific research while less than $10 is spent annually in the Arab world. In addition, the number of published books averages one for every 491 British citizens, while in the Arab world it’s one for every 19,150. But that should not be much of a surprise considering that one-third of older Arab citizens are illiterate with two-thirds of that number being women. Meanwhile, more than seven million children, who should be in school, are not. Illiteracy stands at 30 percent in the Arab world.
Dr. Ghassan Khateeb, of Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank believes that there “is a direct relation between the lack of investment and the problematic situation we find ourselves in relation to knowledge. This is all related to politics and the lack of knowledge.”
Paul Salem, writing in the The Guardian, recognized the failure of Arab governments but found that others must also bear some responsibility for the problems. “The cost of a single month of Western military spending in Iraq or Afghanistan would be enough to triple total aid for education in the Middle East. The cost of two cruise missiles would build a school; the cost of a Eurofighter a small university.”
Alas, some Arab governments, spend twice, if not three times more on their military budget than they do on education. And keeping in mind that nearly one of every five Arab citizens lives below the poverty line of two-dollars a day, the tragedy is suddenly worsened.
Arab governments must rethink and reconsider their current priorities and course of their action. They must think and act individually, but collectively as well, before the crisis turns into a catastrophe, as will surely happen if nothing is done.
— Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com.
