Posted on 07/02/2002 7:46:17 PM PDT by Pokey78
President Bush was right to declare that the Palestinians need to produce decent governance before they can get a state. Too bad, though, that he didn't say that it's not only the Palestinians who need radical reform of their governance ? i t's most of the Arab world.
By coincidence, though, some other important folks had the courage to say that just this week: The U.N. Development Program, which on Tuesday published, along with the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Develop ment, a brutally honest Arab Human Development Report, analyzing the three main reasons the Arab world is falling off the globe. (The G.D.P. of Spain is greater than that of all 22 Arab states combined.) In brief, it's due to a shortage of freedom to speak, innovate and affect political life, a shortage of women's rights and a shortage of quality education. If you want to understand the milieu that produced bin Ladenism ? and will reproduce it if nothing changes ? read this report.
While the 22 Arab states currently have 280 million people, soaring birthrates indicate that by 2020 they will have 410 to 459 million. If this new generation is not to grow up angry and impoverished, in already overcrowded cities, the Arab world will have to o vercome its poverty ? which is not a poverty of resources but a "poverty of capabilities and poverty of opportunities," the report argues.
Though the report pays homage to the argument that the Arab-Israeli conflict and Israeli occupation have been both a cause and an excuse for lagging Arab development, it refuses to stop with that explanation.
To begin with, it notes that "the wave of democracy that transformed governance in most of Latin America and East Asia in the 1980's and early 1990's has barely reached the Arab states. This freedom deficit undermines human development." Using a standard freedom index, the report notes that out of seven key regions of the world the Arab region has the lowest freedom score ? which includes civil liberties, political rights, a voice for the people, independence of the media and government accountability. In too many Arab states women can't vote, hold office or get access to capital for starting businesses. "Sadly, the Arab world is largely depriving itself of the creativity and productivity of half its citizens," the report says of Arab women.
On education, the report reveals that the whole Arab world translates about 300 books annually ? one-fifth the number that G reece alone translates; investment in research is less than one-seventh the world average; and Internet connectivity is worse than in sub-Saharan Africa. In spite of progress in school enrollment, 65 million Arab adults are still illiterate, almost two-th irds of them women. No wonder half the Arab youths polled said they wanted to emigrate.
The report concludes that "What the region needs to ensure a bright future for coming generations is the political will to invest in Arab capabilities and knowledge, particularly those of Arab women, in good governance, and in strong cooperation between Arab nations. . . . The Arab world is at a crossroads. The fundamental choice is whether its trajectory will remain marked by inertia . . . and by ine ffective policies that have produced the substantial development challenges facing the region; or whether prospects for an Arab renaissance, anchored in human development, will be actively pursued."
Well said ? and here's the best part: t he report was written by a "group of distinguished Arab intellectuals" who believed that only an "unbiased, objective analysis" could help the "Arab peoples and policy-makers in search of a brighter future."
There is a message in this b ottle for America: For too many years we've treated the Arab world as just a big dumb gas station, and as long as the top leader kept the oil flowing, or was nice to Israel, we didn't really care what was happening to the women and children out back ? whe re bad governance, rising unemployment and a stifled intellectual life were killing the Arab future.
It's time to stop kidding ourselves. Getting rid of the Osamas, Saddams and Arafats is necessary to change this situation, but it's hard ly sufficient. We also need to roll up our sleeves and help the Arabs address all the problems out back. The bad news is that they've dug themselves a mighty deep hole there. The good news, as this report shows, is that we have liberal Arab partners for c hange. It's time we teamed up with them, and not just with the bums who got them into this mess.
According to the Arab-American shills on TV this is an "incredibly racist" thing to say.
This stat kind of leaped off the page so I thought I'd check. I stopped after thirteen Arab countries.
(year 2000 data, in $ billions)
Spain $720.80
Saudi Arabia $232
Egypt $247
Syria $50.90
Jordan $17.30
Lebanon $45.40
Yemen $14.40
UAE $54
Qatar $15.10
Bharain $10.10
Iraq $57
Algeria $171
Morocco $105
Libya $45.40
Total $1,065 (that's trillion, folks)
Friedman is usually careful with the facts. This was rather egregious.
Ultimately they will decide. War, death, destruction and then peace or try democracy and see how it goes. Unfortunately war, death and destruction seem to be the direction right now. Bad news for the rest of us.
The G.D.P. of Spain is greater than that of all 22 Arab states combinedThis stat kind of leaped off the page so I thought I'd check. I stopped after thirteen Arab countries.
[snip]
Total $1,065 (that's trillion, folks)
Friedman is usually careful with the facts. This was rather egregious.
It's not that bad. GDP figures vary wildly depending on what sources you use. Friedman's source could be different from yours, and his statement could be correct for that source material. Or even for a different year than 2000, when economic conditions may have tilted the comparison more in Spain's favor.
You didn't state what sources you used, but using the first one I came across (http://www.mrdowling.com/800nations.html), *all* 22 Arab countries had a total of $1071B GDP, while Spain alone had a GDP of $677.5B -- in the ballpark, at least, and again we don't know what year Friedman made his comparison for. Maybe he's using 2001 figures which are newer than either yours or mine.
And France blows the 22 Arab nations out of the water with a $1373B GDP.
But the grand total dollars don't tell the whole story. Consider that the 22 Arab nations have a combined population of 280 million people, while Spain has a population of 40 million. With one seventh of the people, Spain produces a GDP roughly the size of the entire Arab world -- and without living on an ocean of petroleum.
Put another way, the GDP per capita of Spain is $16,939, while the same figure for the entire Arab world is $3,825.
So on a person per person basis, the residents of Spain are 4.4 times as productive as the residents of the Arab world.
The $3,825 per capita GDP for the combined Arab world puts them slightly ahead of Guatemala ($3,790) and Botswana ($3,616), and well behind such relatively economic powerhouses as Lativa ($4,075), Ecuador ($4,218), Peru ($4,294), and the Dominican Republic ($5,176).
Compare that against the per capita GDP of the United States ($33,586), Norway ($24,837), Iceland ($23,230), Lichtenstein ($22,666), or even Guam ($19,402). Hell, glacier-covered Greenland has a per capita GDP of $16,939...
I guess the Arab world is dedicating too much of its time and energy towards such non-productive pursuits as murdering Israelis, training kids to be suicide bombers, blowing up embassies, and chanting "Death to America".
I believe that if the known drop since 2000 in the Arab states' revenues due to oil price and production level alone, plus the known increase in Spain and Euro area generally is factored in...
The two become much closer than in the posters' exhibits.
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