"When 50 million young Arabs aged between 6-18 are either not attending any school or receiving such poor education that they are left unable to read and write properly, then we are creating a time bomb of our own making."
This was just one of the starker home truths delivered by internationally renowned academic and journalist Rami Khouri in the second of his talks at AKU-ISMC last night entitled Erratic Governance and its Consequences for the Citizen-State Relationship.
In a seminar that dissected the current unsettled situation in the Arab world and shed light, insight and understanding on this most complex of issues, Professor Khouri assessed the devastating cumulative impact of a range of issues under the umbrella of ‘erratic governance’. These included an overwhelmingly informal labour market where the majority of workers had few or no basic employment rights such as healthcare, pension or a living wage, poor access to basic services such as water and electricity, public transport and decent housing conditions.
Prof Khouri painted a picture of a huge area where, as he said; “There isn’t a single country in the Arab word, except Tunisia, where the government has been shaped or validated by citizens’ decisions."
Touching on the increasing urban population and swiftly rising birth rate as well as environmental issues such as a rising water table, Professor Khouri was nevertheless able to offer an optimistic conclusion. There are many things that need our attention which can if taken together seem overwhelming but "Who knows what the turning point will be but I can say that we know how to fix it, because we know how we got here."
"When 50 million young Arabs aged between 6-18 are either not attending any school or receiving such poor education that they are left unable to read and write properly, then we are creating a time bomb of our own making."
This was just one of the starker home truths delivered by internationally renowned academic and journalist Rami Khouri in the second of his talks at AKU-ISMC last night entitled Erratic Governance and its Consequences for the Citizen-State Relationship.
In a seminar that dissected the current unsettled situation in the Arab world and shed light, insight and understanding on this most complex of issues, Professor Khouri assessed the devastating cumulative impact of a range of issues under the umbrella of ‘erratic governance’. These included an overwhelmingly informal labour market where the majority of workers had few or no basic employment rights such as healthcare, pension or a living wage, poor access to basic services such as water and electricity, public transport and decent housing conditions.
Prof Khouri painted a picture of a huge area where, as he said; “There isn’t a single country in the Arab word, except Tunisia, where the government has been shaped or validated by citizens’ decisions."
Touching on the increasing urban population and swiftly rising birth rate as well as environmental issues such as a rising water table, Professor Khouri was nevertheless able to offer an optimistic conclusion. There are many things that need our attention which can if taken together seem overwhelming but "Who knows what the turning point will be but I can say that we know how to fix it, because we know how we got here."