NP - The Real Problem Over There

[David Morris]

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/02/international/middleeast/02ARAB.html

Study Warns of Stagnation in Arab Societies
By BARBARA CROSSETTE

blunt new report by Arab intellectuals commissioned by the United Nations 
warns that Arab societies are being crippled by a lack of political freedom, 
the repression of women and an isolation from the world of ideas that 
stifles creativity.

The survey, the Arab Human Development Report 2002, will be released today 
in Cairo.

The report notes that while oil income has transformed the landscapes of 
some Arab countries, the region remains "richer than it is developed." Per 
capita income growth has shrunk in the last 20 years to a level just above 
that of sub-Saharan Africa. Productivity is declining. Research and 
development are weak or nonexistent. Science and technology are dormant.

Intellectuals flee a stultifying — if not repressive — political and social 
environment, it says.





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