Bleak Arab progress report

"The basic points of the reports are very accurate and good," says a Jordanian political commentator. "But it does not help their case when they fly first class, stay in five-star hotels, and produce these glossy reports. If this report had come from the Arab League, then I think people would have sat up and paid more attention in the region."

Political and economic reforms have made some headway in the Arab world over the past year. In 2002, Bahrain held its first elections in 30 years, and this year is moving closer to becoming the first of the five-member Gulf Cooperation Council to establish political parties.

In April, Qatar held a referendum on adopting a formal constitution. Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah earlier this year unveiled a "Charter" recommending reforms and greater political representation in the Arab world.

Saudi Arabia has made strides in liberalizing its educational curricula and has just announced it will hold municipal elections for the first time. Even Syria, which, with Mr. Hussein's downfall, is the last Baathist regime in the Arab world, has embarked on a wobbly reform program, although critics say progress is too slow.

"Reforms don't happen quickly," says Prof. Shafiq Ghabra, president of the American University of Kuwait. "But these reports provide ammunition for reformists and undermine the arguments of those in favor of the status quo. All it takes is one leader in one Arab country to click with this kind of reform to get the process moving."

The drive toward reform in the Arab world in part is a result of the changed global realities brought about by the war on terror. Paradoxically, however, the war on terror is also blamed for allowing some authoritarian Arab regimes to crack down on political freedoms.

"One of the worst consequences of freedom-constraining measures in developed countries is that they gave authorities in some Arab countries another excuse to enact new laws limiting civil and political freedoms," the report says.

• The number of Arab students in the US dropped by 30 percent between 1999 and 2002.

• Public spending on education in Arab countries has declined since 1985, and enrollment in higher education has fallen. Among women, high illiteracy rates persist.

• There are less than 53 circulating newspaper copies per 1,000 Arab citizens, compared with 285 per thousand in developed countries.

• There are 18 computers per 1,000 people in Arab countries, compared with a global average of 78.3 per 1,000.

• Internet access is available to 1.6 percent of the population in Arab countries. Telephone line access in the countries is barely one-fifth that of developed countries.

• Just 4.4 translated books per 1 million people were published between 1980 and 1985. The corresponding rate for Hungary was 519 books per 1 million people, and in Spain, 920 books.

• The number of scientists and engineers working in research and development is 371 per 1 million people, compared with the global rate of 979.

• The production of literary and artistic books in 1996 did not exceed 1,945 books, representing just 0.8 percent of world production. Religious books account for 17 percent of the total.

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