Democracy and the Arab Middle East

John Burgess of Crossroads Arabia points out a very interesting column by Mshari Al-Zaydi in Asharq Alawsat. The article examines the political choices made over the last 50 years in the region and proposes an interesting solution to the failures that have occurred: literacy.

The debate between those who ascribe the crisis of democracy among Arabs to the failure of the political demography on one hand and those who define the failure of the democratic structure as a direct result of the failure of Arab culture and Arab consciousness to overcome that of the past on the other hand, has not ended and never will. But is this our fate, and if so would that be mere satire like that of hardliner Orientalists against Arabs, accusing them of never being eligible for modernization and development? Such an approach resembles that of describing Arabs of having “biological ground” for underdevelopment!

Undoubtedly, this is not the case. The problem lies in consciousness as consciousness is not fixed, rather it needs sufficient time and a supportive environment, and above all this, needs conscious people who have a patient and diligent outlook.

Change comes from the lower elements of the structure. The awareness of people and communities in areas that are far from the political noise and the clamor of political parties, is the most important element as it shall be the constituent that overflows the narrow political outlets when the new river of awareness shall be filled with clear water.

Therefore, encouraging awareness, reading and allowing critique (and rather new) books, as well as trying hard to teach people how to read, and the admission of states, businessmen and institutions to this battlefield, as well as transforming the book publishing industry and the atmosphere of reading into a comprehensive, constant and important task, is the real and deep challenge. These elements shall also be the starting point for permanent change. For all of this, what philosopher Russell had said, is once again entirely true. The spread of criticism, as well as the multiplicity and variety of real intellectual production will ensure the disappearance of ignorance, which sees intolerance and the political trafficking of ignorance spread.

To achieve this, rearing a reader who can accept criticism is an essential trait for Arab readers, in fact it is a priority and a key. According to various statistics, Arab communities are believed to have the largest rates of illiteracy in the world.

I find this proposal particularly gratifying because it’s a subject I’ve returned to from time to time. Literacy re-orders consciousness, facilitating critical and abstract thinking.

Check out the column and John’s as-always sound commentary.

7 comments… add one
  • I think Al-Zaydi is using “literacy” to mean something other than “the ability to read and write”. That kind of literacy is actually at a pretty good level. The UN reported last year that in the KSA, for example, male literacy was around 97%; female literacy approaching 90%.

    What I think he means is “a society that reads”. There, Arab countries tend to do rather poorly. The 2003 UNDP report on the Arab World noted that fewer books are published in the entire Middle East than in Spain. Without books, there’s not a lot of opportunity to learn except through direct experience. All the lessons that others have learned are invisible.

    The Saudi–and most other Arab–education systems do not do much to encourage reading, for fun or profit. There certainly are Arab writers of note (the late Nobel Laureate Nagib Mafouz, for instance), but they actually have more readers outside the region than within it.

    Some of that is due to censorship, admittedly. But most of it is because nobody thinks of reading anything but a newspaper once they get out of school.

    Unfortunately, that’s a trend I see in the US and Europe, too…

  • I understand that he means critical thinking, too, John. That’s why I drew the link to my previous posts on orality. The way I read his column he’s noting that the culture is a vestigial oral one.

    Literacy is rather tricky to define and tends to be somewhat Humpty-Dumpty. In my view the very small amount of reading (which you point out) suggests that the actual literacy rate may be somewhat smaller.

  • I’ve heard that there is a great deal of literacy in the Arab world, and that (for instance) Cairo markets have many used book vendors. But, as Juan Cole mentioned several years ago, there is little in the way of western philosophy available from Arabic publishers, which is part of the reason he started the Global Americana Institute.

  • Interesting debate!

    Both of you are probably familiar with an article titled “The Impending Collapse of Arab Civilization” published in Proceedings last year (the original article is behind a subscription wall, but you can read it here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1477518/posts ). Here’s a relevant quote from the article:

    Statistics tell an ugly story about the state of Arab civilization. According to the U.N.’s Arab Human Development Report:

    There are 18 computers per 1000 citizens compared to a global average of 78.3.

    Only 1.6% of the population has Internet access.

    Less than one book a year is translated into Arabic per million people, compared to over 1000 per million for developed countries.

    Arabs publish only 1.1% of books globally, despite making up over 5% of global population, with religious books dominating the market.

    Average R&D expenditures on a per capita basis is one-sixth of Cuba’s and less than one-fifteenth of Japan’s.

    The Arab world is embarking upon the new century burdened by 60 million illiterate adults (the majority are women) and a declining education system, which is failing to properly prepare regional youth for the challenges of a globalized economy. Educational quality is also being eroded by the growing pervasiveness of religion at all levels of the system. In Saudi Arabia over a quarter of all university degrees are in Islamic studies. In many other nations primary education is accomplished through Saudi-financed madrassas, which have filled the void left by government’s abdication of its duty to educate the young.

    Read the whole thing if you haven’t already. Certainly a lot of good points even if the the ultimate conclusion proves untrue.

  • First, it rather seems like there are some misconceptions feeding into the discussion.

    As noted supra, literacy levels within the Arab Middle East, although varying widely, are generally not bad.

    Of course some countries do rather more poorly than others, e.g. Morocco only has 50 percent literacy (this measured at a basic level), against Jordan with literacy levels in the high 90 range.

    I am not ready to share the hand wringing over the number of books published in Arabic, however. (And I would note that the internet access hand-wringing is at once faddish, and already the numbers are out of date as internet cafes and governmental programs are boosting growth in penetration to double digits)

    In my experience, with few exceptions, there is a large amount of readership leakage to the European business language prevalent in each particular country, whether in terms of books or in terms of other printed media. The grim numbers regarding Arabic are in that context deceptive as a high percentage of literate people are functional in a second langauge, at least in terms of reading, and access materials in English and French directly. This tends to undercut the Arabic print market for many areas, except, surprise, RELIGION.

    This is hardly the first time Arabic has lost usage space to other languages – in the Ottoman and Mamlouk eras, Arabic became “merely” the language of religion, whereas administration occured in official Turkish or dialects thereof.

    It is certanly true the education system is declining under demographic pressures, and was always rather poorly adapted to the needs of private market growth, but it is very easy to be duped by the anectdote such as 25% of graduates are religious studies students in KSA – indeed a problem, but it is rarely smart to generalise from KSA.

    Rather, one needs to stop the reflexive hand-wrining and reflect first on the data, and in re books/print area, what the real market is.

  • I’m curious how you would define a “large amount” of readership leakage to the European press. I’m skeptical that the poor in Arab society are as widely read as you indicate, especially if the education systems are so poor. Certainly the educated elite, most of whom attend school outside the Arab world, are well read, but what about mass of poor and poorly educated youth in the region?

    There’s also the question of availability of foreign language reading material. Certainly the internet has assuaged this to some extent, but how widely available are all kinds of books and magazines in these countries, especially given high levels of censorship?

    Even if the Arab world does have a high literacy rate, that means only so much. Literacy is one of the most basic skills upon which almost all education is based. If a high literacy rate is not backed up by quality education that develops useful skills and a critical thinking ability, then its utility in a globalized world is severly limited. That’s the core issue in my view. What good is literacy in a biased and mysogynistic education system that does not promote free speach or thought?

  • First, Andy, let’s have a bit of clarity in terms and focus – if only for the novely value.

    So, I’m skeptical that the poor in Arab society are as widely read as you indicate, especially if the education systems are so poor. Certainly the educated elite, most of whom attend school outside the Arab world, are well read, but what about mass of poor and poorly educated youth in the region?

    Who said “the Poor”?

    I said, the literate.

    Now, you substitute “the Educated Elite.”

    Well, a fine term, but what the bloody fuck do you mean by it?

    In a country like Jordan, for example, with near universal literacy, and where the modern business sector operates heavily in English, large numbers of people read English and English press is indeed consumed (often with second hand copies I see by observation). In the Maghreb similarly literacy is almost completely co-terminous with literacy in French, that is most people (esp. in urban areas) up and down the social ladder who are literate are literate in French and Arabic; in the Maghreb in fact domestic French language press is fairly heavily consumed and not merely by an “elite” although the expense factor clearly cuts down on how much one can do so.

    Lebanon is fairly similar (except there is the queer mix of French and English w English having come to dominate in the past 20 yrs).

    For these countries the constraint is not censorship (the over-generalisation in this area renders fallacious your reasoning) per se, but cost of consumption, but this effects equally Arabic and foreign language material, and indeed more so Arabic given English language publications often can spread cost over a wider audience.

    The Gulf of course has relatively high and growing levels of literacy in English.

    As to “attending school outside the Arab worl” that’s beside the fucking point, mate, as most English and French language literacy is generated in schools at home. Surprising perhaps to North American monolingual provincials, but it is indeed the case. Not generally perfect fluency to be sure, but working knowledge and ability to do basic business in English or French, absolutely.

    Now the bloody point of my note was with respect to the bloody economics of Arabic publication, not issues of censorship blah blah blah.

    The business case is the bloody baseline; publication of Arabic books isn’t going to bloom regardless of censorship if meat & potatoes market is being siphoned off by foreign language publications – it’s a basic business / economics of the industry fact. So, I was advising that instead of starting with typical wooley headed Left humanities hand-wringing blah blah, one should start with an understanding of the economics.

    Now as to availability in grosso modo, leaving aside political items, the binding constraints across the region are not censorship and politics, it’s cost.

    Even if the Arab world does have a high literacy rate, that means only so much.

    If” What is it about MENA subjects that renders people incapable of basic reasoning and engenders resort to reasoning by assertion?

    The data is there, some countries have very high levels of literacy, others mediocre (of which Morocco is the worst of the ‘middle income’ group – excluding Mauritania and Sudan as marginal. Yemen is dirt poor of course, and the very worst, a bloody basket base). Nevertheless in the core region around 50 percent in the worst case, often upwards to 70% of the population up to 90% is literate.

    Basic literacy is then a problem in some countries. Not all. In this area generalising across all of MENA gets you a badly distorted picture, at best.

    Literacy is one of the most basic skills upon which almost all education is based. If a high literacy rate is not backed up by quality education that develops useful skills and a critical thinking ability, then its utility in a globalized world is severly limited.

    If, if, if.

    Critical thinking is useful for elites. Basic skills appropriate to the market are far more important for developing countries. Not just MENA, generally. And I would note that plenty of developed countries (Japan comes to mind, European systems as well) do fuck all to develop critical thinking in the fetishised North American model.

    I like critical thinking and the North American model, mind you, but it (i) is not universally applicable or appropirate and (ii) North Americans tend to assume what is good for their system is applicable at all stages of economic development.

    It ain’t the case.

    I say this as someone investing and working to grow businesses in the region, their first challenge is getting the school system to serve immediate economic needs. Critical thinking is a luxury.

    That’s the core issue in my view. What good is literacy in a biased and mysogynistic education system that does not promote free speach or thought?
    Full of assumptions, aren’t you?

    Worked well enough in Europe and Japan, it’s great for promoting economic growth if it is adapted to current market needs in terms of basic skills. Other frilly little wooley headed clap trap can be addressed by social change as the society grows, becomes more self-confident.

    Else, I’d stop assuming own values are the best way to start in terms of an education system in a foriegn culture.

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