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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (4193)	7/8/2002 10:19:13 AM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

Pat, I don't recall very much of the story but the Texas school board was concerned because they thought that the author exaggerated the number of prostitutes plying their trade. I imagine that if the women had an opportunity to make an income in another profession they would have done so. Usually, women have been mistreated and abused by men because it is the men who have the power. The women who live in Arab countries that are allies of the United States suffer greatly, but women in many other countries suffer from oppression as well.

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (4193)	7/8/2002 10:19:47 AM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Tough report says Arab world stuck in Dark Ages Toronto Star July 7, 2002. 01:00 AM Mail this story to a friend By Haroon Siddiqui THE GROUP that annually rates Canada as among the best countries has broadened its country survey to the seven regions of the world. Starting with the Arab world, the United Nations Development Program has just released a report lambasting the 22 Arab League nations for oppressing women, subjugating citizens, and failing to provide adequate education and spread economic benefits evenly. Accusing the Arabs of squandering oil wealth, the report gives them a failing grade on virtually every measurable human index - from education to economy, from development to democracy. The beauty of the scathing study is that it has been done by Arabs - distinguished intellectuals and experts. And that it has the imprimatur of the United Nations, the forum Arabs often use to attack Israel. The study was commissioned well before Sept. 11 but made more relevant by it. But not in the way the anti-Arab, anti-Muslim crowd may use the findings to spew some more hate or to shield Israeli and American policies from critical scrutiny. Sept. 11 exposed three pathologies: The denial by too many Arabs and Muslims of the rot within; the unwillingness of Zionist extremists to acknowledge the fury caused by continued Israeli brutality against the Palestinians; and the refusal of the U.S. to see the folly of embracing autocratic regimes in return for a secure supply of cheap oil. The U.N. study offers no balm to either of the first two camps, while remaining silent on the third. It says Israeli occupation of Arab lands, besides stunting Palestinian development "in every conceivable way," is "one of the most pervasive obstacles to security and progress in the region geographically (since it affects the entire region), temporally (extending over decades) and developmentally (impacting nearly all aspects of human development and human security, directly for millions and indirectly for others) ... "Occupation casts a pall across the political and economic life of the entire region ... In most Arab states, it dominates national priorities, creates large humanitarian challenges for those receiving refugees, and motivates the diversion of investment in human development towards military spending." Yet the report blames Arab states for using the issue as "both a cause and an excuse for distorting the development agenda, disrupting national priorities and retarding political development." The authors then get on with cataloguing Arab wrongs. (Not all Arabs are Muslims. Not all Muslims are Arabs. The world's 1.1 billion Muslims are culturally and linguistically a diverse lot - about 300 million in the Indian subcontinent alone and another 210 million in Indonesia). The Arab Human Development Report - http://www.undp.org/rbas/ahdr/ -says the 280 million Arabic-speaking peoples are mired in backwardness. They are the least literate, the least free. Their women are the most oppressed, legally and socially. Half the women can't read or write. The maternal mortality rate is double that of Latin America and four times that of East Asia. In the few places with a semblance of democracy, only 3.5 per cent of elected representatives are women. Arab women have the lowest rates of political and economic participation in the world. Gender bias is so ingrained that Arabs have turned a cardinal principle of development on its head: Even economic upliftment has failed to empower their women. In fact, women in some oil-rich states are subject to Taliban-like strictures, while the most empowered are in Iraq, at the bottom of the development index. The head of the U.N. task force, appropriately a woman, Rima Khalaf Hunaidi, former deputy prime minister of Jordan and now head of the U.N. Bureau of Arab States, summed up this shameful record thus: "The three main deficits are freedom, gender and knowledge." About 10 million children are not in schools. The quality of education is deteriorating. There is "a major mismatch" between course content and labour market needs. (Too much religion, too little math). Investment in R and D is well below the world average. Science and technology are dormant. Growth in per capita income is the lowest but for sub-Saharan Africa. Productivity is declining. Unemployment is rising. So is population. Arabs are younger than any other people. More than a third are under 14. In 20 years, total population may shoot up to 450 million. Arabs are the least connected to information technology, so few own a personal computer and fewer still use the Internet, partly because governments limit access. The only positives: The region has reduced extreme poverty and inequality, raised life expectancy by 15 years, cut infant mortality and is investing heavily in girls' education. What the study did not say, but we can, is that Arab lands are also awash in corruption and racism, and that the most backward and oppressive among them are America's closest allies. Which is a way of saying that Arab backwardness alone cannot explain away anti-American militancy, any more than Israel can be blamed for all Arab ills. As Hunaidi says, only Arabs can address what she calls "some very scary signals" specific to their region. About time. Haroon Siddiqui is The Star's editorial page editor emeritus. His column appears Thursday and Sunday. He can be reached at hsiddiq@thestar.ca. Additional articles by Haroon Siddiqui thestar.com