A few weeks ago I was in Amman, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, at the invitation of Dr. Rima Khalaf Al-Hindi Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Regional Director of the Arab States Office to attend the launching of the Second Arab Human Development Report for 2003, and take part in the seminar which discussed the report extensively for a whole day before its launching was announced. The report had been prepared by independent Arab researchers commissioned by the United Nations Development Project. It was an event which many Arab and international quarters and personalities had been anticipating, and many Arab thinkers and intellectuals anxious about the knowledge of the position we had come to be in, which they had obtained from in-depth studies on the lines of what the first report had disclosed to us. This had astonished everyone with its figures, statistics and what it revealed about Arab social and human worries that had long been covered up. This ought not to have been hidden, particularly those who aspire to and dream of a better Arab situation and a brighter and more enlightened future, for which they have some hope.

The initial arrangements were that the meeting (the seminar and the announcement launching the report) would be held at the headquarters of the League of Arab States in Cairo, but for reasons unknown to many of us, Cairo was replaced by Amman, that capital which is regarded as a good indicator of an excellent return from human development, through knowledge specifically. It witnessed the launching of the second report on Arab human development. It is a comprehensive report, which covers most realms of Arab life, and deserves more than consideration of one of the chapters contained in its 177 pages. But for reasons related to the role of this general Arab publication, Al-Arabi magazine, in the field of culture specifically, I feel myself impelled to give attention, first, to the second section of the report, entitled To Build the Society of Knowledge , and to start with the three chapters (from Chapter Six to Chapter Eight) which attempt to explain the deterioration of the situation of the acquisition of knowledge in the Arab countries at the present time, by analyzing three domains of the societal context of the system of the acquisition of knowledge, which are:

1. Culture, comprising the heritage, the Arabic language, folk culture and influential religious interpretations (this is not to say religion itself).
2. The existing social and economic structure.
3. Local, regional and international political influences.

Before beginning a critical reading as much as possible in the realms of this system as the report has stated them, there is a technical observation about the language of the report and its editing (by the way, this observation also applies to the first report). This report, which we look forward to it being available to a broad public of those who want to examine, both as a printed copy or from an Internet web site, should have adopted brevity and the greatest degree of clarity, bearing in mind the importance of the interaction of the reader in general, or the intellectual in general, with it. It might be appropriate to present a copy of the report to the general public which makes it easy to become acquainted with it and interact with it. This could be done by getting rid of the copious academic forewords, or abridging them and simplifying them, and simplifying the language of the report for non-specialists. But it seems that those who drew up the report, in giving their attention to the profundities of this difficult task, preferred to leave this task of enlightenment to the debates which they were certain that the report would arouse on a wide scale through the press and the mass media of culture and information. This is what happened with the first report, whose echoes are still reverberating this day. This is not a bad idea in terms of the seriousness of the report, even though the insistence continues to be based on the need to bear in mind brevity and clarity for the general Arab reading public. This is an effort that makes a serious work more serious, even though it increases the burdens on those working on the report. This general Arab public is the target of the message which the report contains. And this public is also the target of the appeal for the need for critical re-examination, and the instrument to achieve the intended change.

In order to carry out, as much as I am able, what I am calling for in terms of brevity and clarity, I shall present what is stated in the part of the report with which I am dealing, opinion about it and criticism of it. This is a rushed job which abbreviates a great deal, but tries not to neglect what is important.

The Culture of Superstition and Magical Awareness

The report considers that the Arab intellectual heritage today poses basic problems of knowledge, because of its connection with knowledge and its contradiction of it at the same time. It is connected with knowledge, religion, the sciences and culture, and it is in contradiction with them, because in most instances it is not considered in accordance with the requirements of science but is surrounded by emotion, capriciuosness, desires, hopes, idolization and disregard for the realities of life and personal truths which are not pleasing. That is, the ideological tendency has its own dilemma.

So the problem is not in the intellectual heritage itself, so much as in the manner in which it is considered with an emotionalism that nullifies or freezes the horizons of choice or criticism. But this emotionalism, capriciousness and spirit of idolization, in addition to emanating from historical accumulations which have made an emotional frame of mind that must be examined critically and reconsidered, is not the only factor accused of offending against objectivity. There are accusations directed against the Arab mentality as well, but they are accusations which must not go so far as the first orientalists like Victor Cousin, Leon Gauthier and Ernest Renan in alleging that the Arab mentality which directs the Arab heritage has fragmentary characteristics which are incapable of synthesis and abstraction, rooted in partial or imagined perception. It does not have the necessary capabilities to be really creative." This tendency is refuted by obvious practical examples of outstanding Arabs. "The Arab intellectual heritage" was not a prison that incapacitated their creative talents, nor was "the Arab mentality that they had condemned to sink into partial or imagined perception. They were creative in scholarship, the arts, the sciences and philosophical knowledge. This brought some of them to the summit of scientific achievement, and the names are many.

The Arab mind is not a single dumb lump. There are variations according to time and place. This mind was not purely Arab in its formation and historical development, but was subject to universal intellectual, psychological, social and human interactions, from which it took and to which it gave. This does not in any way mean absolving this mind from responsibility. It has sinned to some extent, and been sinned against to some extent. It has sinned by surrendering to the emotions of capriciousness, idolization and negative deception, and has been sinned against by "the culture of superstition" which is still extended with varying influence among the ordinary people (and perhaps has recently crept into wide sectors of people with university degrees and scientific qualifications, including graduates of Western universities). They include regrettably some who today occupy chairs which direct scholarship and culture in many universities of the Arab and Islamic worlds, as the report observed, and this is certainly something that must be combated and eradicated at present and in the future, by all means available.

True, this "culture of superstition" can be digested, and represented aesthetically in literary and artistic creativity. But this digesting and that representation are an act critical of the deterioration of this obstructive negative culture, particular with regard to the arrangement of the affairs of human beings and their present in a healthy manner that makes it possible to move properly and efficiently from the present to the future.

Related to the need for this criticism, indeed to eradicate the domination of this culture of superstition, is freeing the Arab mind from it. In addition to that, one must warn against another evil impediment, namely what Dr. Fahmi Jadaan has called magical awareness . In actual fact it is the absence of awareness and a complete abandonment of the scientific and rational foundations that have guided classical Arab cultural experience, and is built on what is called magical culture that links astronomy with astrology and spells. It had a distinctive status after the age of Ibn Khaldun, continued to operate and still operates through modern devices, and even post-modern ones, for example, some programs on Arabic satellite channels, and electronic transmission on some Arabic-language web sites on the Internet. And I do not exempt the Arab press, which considers the publication of this culture a response to what the readers want , in addition to increasing circulation and hence increasing advertising. These are blemishes and cultural and intellectual weeds which cling to the emotional life of the people and are difficult to eradicate with a resolution or a decree. But limiting their influence and criticizing their erroneous data are part of the essence of the role of intellectuals and Arab culture at present. Let us begin with school and its curricula, in order to prepare the way for the culture of knowledge and reason.

The Haphazardness of Interpretation and the Solidification of Language

Those who drew up the report are aware of how the exploiters of religion for purely worldly purposes are always lying in wait to search for allegations or gains. So the report introduced the beginning of its paragraph entitled Religion, the World and Science by emphasizing that the characteristics of the religion of truth, Islam, which lead to a state of desired equilibrium between religion and the world, or between the world of earthly life and the afterlife, should replace these fallacies. There is great emphasis on the importance of discernment, contemplation, meditation, science, intellect and wisdom, and on what is related to God s appointment of humanity as His deputy on Earth, and the requirement that they develop it.

After that, the report began its critical view of human phenomena and the historical accumulations in disincentive use, in that historical experience since some Muslims tended to understand the principles of learning , intellect and other things in the light of religious learning . With this limitation and narrowing of the concept of learning, they were an unfavorable force for the development of the intellectual and natural sciences. This was the beginning of the disruption of the Islamic Arab sciences, the halt of their growth and continuity. Others seized onto them, and continued their researches in them, which bore fruit in modern civilization.

This impediment, therefore, is not from religion, but from human views that are narrow-minded in their interpretations, and are usually linked to worldly maters, among them political competition in which there is no innocence or transparency in most cases. The report says of this that it is worth noting that a phenomenon appeared in the Islamic religious space in the last decades of the twentieth century, of the political outweighing the civilized, human and moral among some religious movements, that is, the political aim with these movements has become the main purpose.

It is an observation worthy of consideration and careful examination, and may be an explanation for the mix-up that is occurring in the relations of Muslims with each other and with others, whether within the confines of countries, outside countries or internationally. The use of what is spiritual or moral in conducting worldly conflicts by methods that cannot be spiritual is what we must pause to consider, so that we may preserve for religion the splendor of its qualities, its superiority and its sanctity, and preserve the world with what God has given humanity Muslims and others in terms of the blessing of life and the things that make existence easy, without confusion and without arbitrariness. Perhaps this observation is more suitable and useful for the world, and closer to the good for which true religion calls and which the Creator of humanity and the universe blesses.

After that, the report goes on to the question of factors impeding knowledge which have become attached to the Arabic language. This is a major question at our present moment, which needs to be dealt with separately.

Thus I shall refer briefly to what is related to it in the report, in the hope of returning to it in a subsequent article, in a manner that is broader than the data in the report itself. The crisis of the Arabic language is not merely a crisis of impediment to development, it is also almost becoming an indication of a crisis of existence of a nation.

The report states that the Arabic language today, at the gateway to the society of knowledge and the future, is facing harsh challenges and a real crisis, in terms of theory, teaching, grammar, vocabulary, usage, documentation, creativity and criticism.

In a clearer picture of the depth of this crisis, or rather some of its aspects, the report leads us to the applied aspects, as the phenomenon of the knowledge explosion requires the creation of new, original programming methods to deal with texts and increase the effectiveness of access to knowledge, whether this knowledge is formulated in Arabic or other languages. Furthermore, the requirement to produce an Arabic electronic document and to give it the quality of secrecy via the Internet demands enormous attention from an Arabic linguistic researcher. The problems of classical Arabic begin from the first years of learning at school, as it is taught as a goal of knowledge, when it is a subject of itself. All that is the result of the traditional school which is based on the principle of reading, repetition, narration, memorization and avoidance of creativity and difference. This leads to rigid knowledge which is not able to be alive and develop.

These are some of the indications of the crisis of the Arabic language. They form impediments, the truth of which cannot be disputed by anyone who is worried by our need to enter the society of knowledge. From the impediments that have become attached to the Arabic language, the report moves on to the impediments that have been formed through misrepresentation and absorption of folk culture, which constitutes a huge store of experiences and creative independent judgements, which have contributed and are contributing to the enrichment of all people s intellectual, emotional and behavioral life. By examining its components, its true nature is expressed, as it contains the expression of two voices: a followers voice which calls for behaving in a customary manner, and a creative voice which calls for the situation to be questioned and urges the pursuit of more knowledge.

We do not need a great effort to be convinced and to convince others of the importance of celebrating what is creative and sanctifying it in this popular culture which becomes obstructed if we leave it to interact with negative frameworks. The ways of folklore are not appeals to haphazardness or the irrationality of motions, rather they are a treasure of aspirations to the ideal and the dream of what is true and human. Likewise the traditional crafts and ancient professions are not a celebration of something old and backward, rather they are a way to intellectual and physical maturity with the proficiency that they require and the skill of excellent workmanship that is a condition for understanding, absorbing and employing them in modern life. Expertise like following the tracks of human beings and animals, or that of guides and experts on the positions of the stars, and practitioners of folk medicine are not sleight of hand, rather they are accumulations of knowledge extended through time. In the serious critical view they do not need to be abolished and excluded, but rather they require the modernization and regulation of knowledge, and fusing it again into the general emotional life of the nation.

Patterns of Waste

For a long time human economic activity was an insistent call to develop the acquisition of knowledge and the application of its data. For reasons related to the growth of this economy itself. But many Arab economic activities which were prevalent in recent decades have gone astray, and have become an obstacle to the acquisition of knowledge, like investment in luxury real estate assets, the fashion of estate yield economics, and investment based on bringing in expertise from abroad (manpower and technicians). These activities have reduced productivity and its returns for society as a whole, and the society of knowledge specifically has been one of the greatest losers. They have limited competitive abilities, reduced the values of hard work and inventiveness and curbed the impulse of local demand for knowledge, which is stimulated by the ambition of research and development. In the larger economies economic output has been concentrated in primary activities and small projects have multiplied.

All that has led to the establishment of a closed circle revolving in an orbit that rejects the need to develop the society of knowledge. The Arab region or most of it is one of the lowest regions of the world in its proportion of exports of international high quality, if they are not totally lacking. The absence of competition and cohesion between the political elites on the one hand and the business elites on the other has reduced the employment of knowledge in Arab economic activity, whose profits have declined. Contrary to the widespread illusion that the Arabs are wealthy, the volume of economic output in the Arab region is limited. Gross Arab economic production, in total, at the end of the twentieth century, according to a recent United Nations report in 2002, was $604 billion, scarcely more than the production of one European country like Spain ($559 billion), and not as much as another country like Italy ($1,074 billion).

This regrettable situation has resulted in secondary impediments, as it has been impossible to allocate adequate resources for a system to acquire knowledge and employ it in the activity of society. Opportunities have diminished for the poor to extricate themselves from poverty. This has led to a reduction in their opportunities for education, so how about the impossibility of rising to the society of knowledge? With regard to the widespread poverty in Arab societies, the report mentions terrifying indicators. The report declares with certainty that it is increasing in terms of what is reported in the Arab countries as a whole. And of course, the more poverty increases and spreads, the more negative counter-effects are consolidated for everybody, in terms of values and incentives to lift oneself up. On the reverse side, the unjust and unwise distribution of wealth has appeared, personal benefit and the priority of private welfare over the public welfare have worsened, as have features of social and moral corruption and a parallel absence of honesty and responsibility. All this is enough to turn the present away from any vision of the future. In the center of that lies the society of knowledge which has been and is being more harmed by the aforementioned economic relations. As one example worth mentioning, statistics show that between 1998 and 2000, more than 15,000 (fifteen thousand) Arab doctors emigrated abroad, let alone the programmers, scientists, and high-technology engineers. That is, the matter is not just confined to the limits of the Arab society of knowledge being deprived of the Arab human energy to support it, it is also supplying other societies (competitive ones of course) with what strengthens them in knowledge, while we continue to deteriorate in terms of knowledge.

The Last Framework

The report says in Chapter Eight, the last of the chapters which study the impediments to the establishment of the society of knowledge, that politics is the last framework of reference, and it may be that of the furthest effect in its analysis of factors limiting the acquisition of knowledge in the Arab countries, The vitality of the system of knowledge is dependent on political conditions in every society. But the most important of these is the enjoyment of freedom, and its guarantee by the rule of law and the other pillars of sound government. And the system of government must prepare the requisites for the spread of knowledge and its production efficiently. What is the situation in the Arab countries compared to this ideal pattern?

The report asks, and we repeat the question with it, and long sighs are repeated. The ideal for this framework of reference almost looks like a dream, and how many Arab dreams there are which fail to come true, instead of an Arab reality that everyone knows. The world which resembles us and shares the level of development with us has been able in the past half century to achieve broad steps in the field of building political democracy, and in the fields of economic and social development. There are many examples around us in Asia and South America, indeed some countries in Black Africa. During this same period we have retreated in all fields. Politically we have turned from a project for democratic states in the middle of the twentieth century to states and regimes that are at the top of the list of one-man dictatorships. Freedom has retreated in favor of the rule of one man, no more, and Iraq in the last fifty years is the best example.

Nevertheless, there is no harm in referring to this Arab situation that everyone knows, and here are some of its features:

* A broad section of the Arab cultural elite has neglected the independence of the field of knowledge, thus leading to political domination over it.

* The sectors of culture, knowledge and scientific research have sunk to a low level on the scale of political priorities. This has diminished material investments in them, as is reflected by the low percentage of the share of allocations for scientific research in the Arab countries compared with the industrialized world, indeed even compared with some developing countries.

* The criteria of loyalty are given preference over the criteria of skill and knowledge. Hence the delay in the value of freedom of expression, research and creativity in knowledge.

That was in the internal framework of the influence of politics on the knowledge sector. But there are other regional and international frameworks which contribute to the obstruction, the most of which is the insistence of the industrialized countries, as the main producer of knowledge on a world scale, on transforming knowledge from a public commodity to an extremely private commodity. This is done through the industrialized West seizing possession of intellectual property rights, even in cases in which the knowledge originated from developing countries and was consumed by establishments in the industrialized West. This threatens the opportunities of developing countries to gain knowledge and places some productive sectors in them, like pharmaceuticals, in danger. Even more dangerous is what is likely to happen in the sectors of direct knowledge itself, which is something that the report did not mention. Perhaps that is because it is one of the negative future probabilities, like the erosion that is relatively free of charge from penetration of the international information network, and the application of market criteria in the rich countries against the poor in the available fields of knowledge by simple methods and at low cost.

That was a quick intervention I have tried as much as I can to make it an intervention for dialogue on what was written in the part allocated to a study of impediments to the establishment of a society of knowledge in our Arab world. But that remains an attempt to observe stumbles on the road, whereas paving it even with preliminary plans is something we shall return to with strategies for renaissance, which require additional consideration.