Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (37924)	8/15/2002 9:46:16 AM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 281500

Arab authors criticize Arabic economic and social development: The Situation is Really Bad >>The report points to three areas of underdevelopment in the Arab world, according to the Arab News: “[L]ack of freedom, marginal participation of women in public life and educational backwardness.” According to Tash, “Arab people enjoy least freedom compared to any other region in the world… Arab women get the least opportunity to participate in the economic and political activities compared to any other place in the world. The level of education among Arab women is the lowest in the world. More than 50 percent of them are illiterate.” In general, the Arab world suffers from “educational backwardness,” according to Tash. The rate of illiteracy among Arabs is reported to be 43 percent of the Arab population. In addtion, the Arab News reports, “Only 0.5 percent Arabs have access to Internet. It is also the lowest in the world.” As for books, the Saudi columnist informs his readers of the following incredible statistics: “The total number of translated works to Arabic in the last 10 centuries is the same as the number of books translated in one year to Spanish. The pitiful number of 220 books translated to Arabic annually is only one-fifth of the works translated to Greek every year, while the Arab population is 28 times the size of the Greek population.” Particularly frustrating for the Saudi writer is “the backwardness of Arabs in the field of science… the per capita spending on scientific research and development is the lowest in the world. In 1996, it was 0.4 percent of the GNP which is one-third of what Cuba spent on scientific research. In 1994, Israel allocated 6.35 percent for the GNP for research programs while in Japan it was 6.9 percent.” Economically, the report revealed, the Arab world, including the oil-rich Gulf states, are doing very poorly. “The average economic growth in the last 20 years is not more than 0.5 percent,” Tash writes, “At this rate, it will take 140 years to double the capital investments in these countries while it will take only 10 years in most other parts in the world… [T]he net domestic product in 1999 was less than 11 percent of Spain, which has only one-seventh population of Arab countries.” << israelnationalnews.com Panic Grips Us at Every Criticism israelnationalnews.com