Issue No. 594
Economy
Previous issue
Site map
|
|
11 - 17 July 2002 Issue No. 594 Economy |
Current issue Previous issue Site map | |
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
The shackles of underdevelopment
Dina Ezzat reads the UNDP's report with an eye on the Arab-Israeli conflict
Israel might be upset that the UNDP's Arab Human Development Report 2002 blamed its occupation of Arab land as "one of the most pervasive obstacles to security and progress in the region". However, the report was not all bad news for Israel since it offers a very detailed account of the state of backwardness of Arab countries. According to the report, Arab states in immediate conflict with Israel or with declared political opposition to the Israeli vision for the future of the Middle East are faced with serious developmental problems.
Moreover, according to statistics in the report, most Arab countries with passable development rates are also those that the Israeli government, and for that matter the US, would label as "moderate" and "friendly" regimes.
Egypt has 19.4 million illiterate adults out of a population of 67.8 million. Illiteracy among adults in Bahrain is around 15 per cent compared with approximately 29 per cent in Egypt. Syrian researchers published no more than 471 articles in international journals from 1990-1995. And, while the total number of Internet users in Iraq is 0, Qatar has 70,000 Internet users out of a total population of 565,000.
"These figures should not be read out of context. The fact that development is very slow in the Arab world is nothing new. The fact that Israel is doing much better than most Arab states is also not new," commented one Arab official who asked that his name be withheld. According to this official, "the fact that Internet users in one of the small rich Gulf Arab states is much higher than in Egypt should not be read as an indicator that these states would be decisive in drawing Arab foreign policy in relation to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Geopolitical factors should never be ignored even when one is reading such a detailed report."
Under the title "Creating Opportunities for a Future Generation", the report draws a very bleak image of the state of developmental affairs in the 22 Arab states. The message of the 134-page report is that Arab states are suffering not only from Israeli military occupation or international economic sanctions but also from self-imposed lack of freedom, knowledge and empowerment. Comparing the rates of human development in the Arab world to those of other Third World countries is a seriously disappointing exercise. It is even more depressing to compare human development rates in the Arab world to those made in Israel.
The UNDP report does not concern itself with Middle East politics. It does not discuss future settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict. However, by analysing the indicators for development in the Arab World, the UNDP report's findings would seem to give credence to the argument that Arab governments are, at present, in no position to reach a genuinely just settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The impact that the report's findings might have on Arab management of the conflict with Israel was not something that received due attention in the launching ceremony of this report which took place last week in the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League.
"This report tells the whole world that Israel is a pervasive reason for slow development rates in this part of the world. This is an important message if one wants to read this report in relation to the Arab-Israeli conflict," commented Hisham Youssef, official spokesman for the Arab League secretary- general.
While admitting that the overall weak Arab developmental performance is bound to have a negative impact on the Arabs "struggle" to restore their legitimate rights and reach a fair and comprehensive settlement with Israel, Youssef says that as far as the Arab League is concerned this is not the most important point. "We are not reading this report with the intention of comparing our performance to that of Israel. This is the wrong attitude. We need to read this report to see how we, in the Arab world, are doing compared to the rest of the world." According to Youssef what really matters is not whether Israel is doing much better than most Arab states but that most Arab states are at risk of losing the international race towards development in an increasingly globalised world.
Meanwhile, asked about the Arab League reaction to the sorry state of affairs outlined by this report, Youssef said that the Arab organisation has "no immediate reaction" to the findings of the report. "The report is being closely examined by the Arab League and all concerned, governmental and non- governmental bodies of its 22 member states," he said.
Arab governments have issued no official statements as such in response to the report. They are not saying what measures they intend to take, in the short or long term, to improve the gloomy picture painted by this report.
|
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
