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07/20/2004:
"Why tyrants rule Arabs"
For 60 years, the West has propped up Arab despots, creating poverty and illiteracy where education once thrivedGWYNNE DYER
It was just a random statistic, but a telling one: Only 300 books were translated into Arabic last year. That is about one foreign title per million Arabs. For comparison's sake, Greece translated 1,500 foreign-language books, or about 150 titles per million Greeks. Why is the Arab world so far behind, not only in this but in practically all the arts and sciences?
The first-order answer is poverty and lack of education: Almost half of Arabic-speaking women are illiterate.
But the Arab world used to be the most literate part of the planet; what went wrong? Tyranny and economic failure, obviously. But why is tyranny such a problem in the Arab world? That brings us to the nub of the matter.
Full Article : thestar.com
