Optimism 'helps overcome trouble'

Dubai: An optimistic approach to problems will help the Arab world cope with some of its biggest challenges and eliminate deceptive obstacles, thus helping to create more literary and intellectual output, said His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

"There is no doubt that the Arab state of affairs is not free from thorns and pitfalls. This is our reality. We have no choice but to work through that reality, resolved to overcome obstacles, realising that the worth of man is not measured by his adaptation to reality, however it may be, and not by his skill in managing that reality. It is rather his ability to develop reality and change it for the better," said Shaikh Mohammad during the knowledge conference yesterday.

He said during preliminary studies it was revealed that the foundation will face complications and sensitivities plaguing the Arab situations "caused by illusory limitations envisaged by some over the roles of states, communities and establishments. ... We noted previous attempts that were not met with success and how bureaucracy infiltrates most establishments and groups involved in the production of knowledge."

Tackling unemployment

He stressed that "the challenge facing all of us today is not only finding jobs for the unemployed. It is finding 80 million job opportunities during the next decade".

According to Human Development reports, literary and intellectual books published in the Arab world represent only 0.08 per cent of world output.

The same reports state that the Arab world spends only 0.02 per cent of its GDP on scientific research. In the Arab world, for every 10,000 people in the workforce there are 3.3 academic scholars, while the developed world has 110 for every 10,000.