Culture

It's no secret that the Arab social order has serious flaws. And I don't think anyone is suggesting a quick fix. However, a new report by "Arab intellectuals commissioned by the U.N." has some stunning statistics. In a year, the entire Arab world (which has a population equal to the U.S.) translates just 330 books! By comparison, the NYTimes article records, Greece translates 5 times that many, and Spain in one year translates as many books as have been translated in the last 1000 years by Arabs! Truly embarrasing. Obviously, one issue is that the upper-echelon Arab minds all emigrate to freer and wealthier climes, and the educated Arabs read English and French, and thus don't need translation. However, since these stats are indeed indicative of Arab stagnation at large, it would behoove Gulf governments (who have plenty of loose cash) to assist in the refinement of their populaces.