Al-Ahram Weekly | Economy | A warning bell

		11 - 17 July 2002 Issue No. 594 Economy	Current issue Previous issue Site map
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A warning bell
From acclaim to harsh criticism, the international press sounded off on the first Arab Human Development Report. Gihan Shahine samples the reactions

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"For the poor to be heard and their interests recognized, government needs to be made truly representative and effectively accountable to all the people."
The wealth of information the first Arab HDR provided has drawn a round of applause in the foreign media, but also has supplied fodder for some harsh coverage closer home. Arab critics have attacked the report because it allegedly failed to give sufficient weight to the Arab-Israeli conflict as a major obstacle to human development in the region.
When the report was launched on 2 July, the BBC World News expressed the public's desire to find out "what kind of societies produce the type of militant movements from which Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qa'eda network arose". Barbara Crossette, in The New York Times, similarly argued that the 11 September attacks have given the report "unexpected new relevance as explanations for Arab anger against the West are being sought."
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman provided some answers in his piece for 4 July: "If you want to understand the milieu that produced bin Ladenism -- and will reproduce it if nothing changes -- read this report... President George W. 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 -- it's most of the Arab world."
Friedman said "a shortage of freedom to speak, innovate and affect political life, a shortage of women's rights and shortage of quality education" have led to a situation in which "Arabs are falling off the globe."
Other leading foreign newspapers almost completely skirted any mention of paragraphs in the report related to the Arab- Israeli conflict, such as: "occupation freezes growth, prosperity and freedom in the Arab world" and "political upheavals, military conflicts, sanctions and embargoes have affected many economies in the region, causing decline in productivity and disruption of markets."
According to Friedman, the report drives home an important message. "Getting rid of the Bin Ladens, Saddams and Arafats is necessary, but is hardly sufficient," he wrote. "Americans also need to roll up their sleeves and help the Arabs address all the problems out back."
In a similar tone, Victor Davis Hanson wrote in The National Post that the report should teach people not to believe that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or America's support for Israel is the problem. "The simple fact is that hundreds of millions of people are going backward in time in an age when global communications hourly remind them of their dismal futures," he said.
In the daily London-based Al-Hayat, Columnist Abdel-Wahab Badrakhan said the report has been significantly abused by the international media.
Although Badrakhan said the report was a serious and important instrument in making political, economic and social adjustment, he said American writers like Friedman were too short-sighted in seeing the report as nothing more than a description of the environment Bin Laden came from. He fears other journalists misread the report in the same way.
Badrakhan said it was "wrong and silly" to forge direct links between terrorism and the lag in human development.
"It is true that the deficits in freedom, women's empowerment and knowledge breed extremism," Badrakhan conceded. But, in the developed world, where people enjoy a larger margin of freedom, gender equality and knowledge, there are other kinds of extremism and organised crime that nobody ever termed as terrorism, he said.
Experts agree the report has alerted governments that development is the responsibility of the Arabs themselves.
"The report puts Arabs to a harsh test," Badrakhan said. "It says to Arabs, both peoples and governments: this is what you have achieved so far. This is where you stand at a time of challenging globalisation."
On the whole, however, the report was not analysed from an economic and methodological perspective and reactions to it were highly politicised.
Michael Byrnes, senior economist at the IFB Centre for Technology and Economic Development for Bosnia and Herzegovina, said the report "only addresses the symptoms of development problems. It does not address the root of the problem."
He said the real issue with not only Arab states, but all nations not presently competing in the larger big-stakes global market is how and when to compete.
"Education is certainly helpful," Byrnes said. "But one more thing is required: a game plan that constructs a three dimensional economic model that addresses not only the traditional inputs of human and natural resources, but also internal consumer demand for global products and services and the nations' capability to adopt global standards."

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