Radical Idea for War on Terror - Liberate the Entire Middle East

Simon W. Moon · Feb 11, 2007

Wanna do something radical in the War on Terror that will cause tyrants and terrorists to tremble?
Translate and publish books, literature and information into Arabic and publish them to the internet.

Just everything- Hunter Thompson, academic journals, comic books and manga, the Federalist Papers, Buckminster Fuller, William Buckley jr, Stephen King, Shakespeare- just everything.

The cumulative total of translated books since the Caliph Maa’moun’s time (the ninth century) is about 100,000, almost the average that Spain translates in one year

Galal, S., 1999. Translation in the Arab Homeland: Reality and Challenge. Higher Council for Culture, Cairo.
cited in
United Nations Development Programme
Arab Fund For Economic And Social Development
Arab Human Development Report 2002

Translation is one of the important channels for the dissemination of information and communication with the rest of the world. The translation movement in the Arab world, however, remains static and chaotic. On average, only 4.4 translated books per million people were published in the first five years of the 1980s (less than one book per million people per year), while the corresponding rate in Hungary was 519 books per one million people and in Spain 920 books.

source
United Nations Development Programme
Arab Fund For Economic And Social Development
Arab Human Development Report 2003

Just a thought

Tashah · Feb 11, 2007

I agree wholeheartedly Simon. Unfortunately, the regimes that control the Arab Middle East have a self-serving aversion to modernity and unfettered exchange of information and ideas.

As time permits, I voluntarily tutor English to Palestinian youth in the West Bank. They are always amazed at the breadth and scope of literature and information published in the English language. One time I took a group of them to the library at the University of Tel Aviv. They were incredulous at the sheer volume of printed materials available in Hebrew and English, the huge microfiche database, and the hundreds of computer terminals.

Perhaps someday... knowledge will indeed liberate the Arab Middle East.

Red_Dave · Feb 11, 2007

Simon W. Moon said:
Wanna do something radical in the War on Terror that will cause tyrants and terrorists to tremble?
Translate and publish books, literature and information into Arabic and publish them to the internet.

Just everything- Hunter Thompson, academic journals, comic books and manga, the Federalist Papers, Buckminster Fuller, William Buckley jr, Stephen King, Shakespeare- just everything.

The cumulative total of translated books since the Caliph Maa’moun’s time (the ninth century) is about 100,000, almost the average that Spain translates in one year

Galal, S., 1999. Translation in the Arab Homeland: Reality and Challenge. Higher Council for Culture, Cairo.
cited in
United Nations Development Programme
Arab Fund For Economic And Social Development
Arab Human Development Report 2002

Translation is one of the important channels for the dissemination of information and communication with the rest of the world. The translation movement in the Arab world, however, remains static and chaotic. On average, only 4.4 translated books per million people were published in the first five years of the 1980s (less than one book per million people per year), while the corresponding rate in Hungary was 519 books per one million people and in Spain 920 books.

source
United Nations Development Programme
Arab Fund For Economic And Social Development
Arab Human Development Report 2003

Just a thought

I agree but if your concerned about freedom of thought in the middle east then maybe you should lobby your government to stop backing the regimes that oposse it?

Simon W. Moon · Feb 11, 2007

We need to set up clandestine channels for smuggling books.

mikhail · Feb 11, 2007

an excellent idea i feel.Though obvously it will be limited by certain countries but definetly a step forward.

RightOfCenter · Feb 11, 2007

A good idea, and I love the quote, but I think one of the reasons it hasn't happened is because of the difficulty of the Arab language, I have heard it is one of the hardest in the world to become fluent in.

Simon W. Moon · Feb 11, 2007

In the past 1000 years there were fewer books translated into Arabic than were translated into Spanish in a single year.

For the past 1000 years!

Billo_Really · Feb 11, 2007

Originally posted by RightOfCenter
A good idea, and I love the quote, but I think one of the reasons it hasn't happened is because of the difficulty of the Arab language, I have heard it is one of the hardest in the world to become fluent in.

Try learning english as a second language. How do you explain to someone the difference between two words spelled exactly the same,

live
live

but have completely separate meanings?

RightOfCenter · Feb 11, 2007

Billo_Really said:
Try learning english as a second language. How do you explain to someone the difference between two words spelled exactly the same,

live

live

but have completely separate meanings?

Billo, no matter how hard I tried I could never learn English as a second language, it's a bit too late for that. But i did say that Arabic is one of the hardest languages to learn

Trajan Octavian Titus · Feb 13, 2007

I don't like books, there all facts not enough heart, while the facts may change my opinion will never change no matter what the facts are. But seriously great idea, 1000 years? That's ridiculous no wonder these peoples culture is so as$ backwards.

dragonslayer · Feb 17, 2007

Red_Dave said:
I agree but if your concerned about freedom of thought in the middle east then maybe you should lobby your government to stop backing the regimes that oposse it?

It seems that when the Right, speaks of victory in Iraq, that they are talking about colonization. The longer we are in Irag, the more our country will be hated, and disrespected. We need to get out of Iraq. We had no reason for invading, and Iraq will never be American style democracy. There will never be freedom of religion, freedom of choice, freedom from civil strife until they can develop another Sadam style dictatorship, that will keep things under control with the Sword and Gun. We really made a mistake in Killing Sadam, heck we should have asked him for advice.
Yet we Americans are sometimes to self righteous and feel to superior. We have a tendency to feel that if it works in the Good Ole USA, then it should work in Cranga Bira Bora. (ramdom ficticious name).

Bush has proved that America is not superior, just richer, self righteous, and more agressive than most countries.

Red_Dave · Feb 17, 2007

dragonslayer said:
It seems that when the Right, speaks of victory in Iraq, that they are talking about colonization. The longer we are in Irag, the more our country will be hated, and disrespected. We need to get out of Iraq. We had no reason for invading, and Iraq will never be American style democracy. There will never be freedom of religion, freedom of choice, freedom from civil strife until they can develop another Sadam style dictatorship, that will keep things under control with the Sword and Gun. We really made a mistake in Killing Sadam, heck we should have asked him for advice.
Yet we Americans are sometimes to self righteous and feel to superior. We have a tendency to feel that if it works in the Good Ole USA, then it should work in Cranga Bira Bora. (ramdom ficticious name).

Bush has proved that America is not superior, just richer, self righteous, and more agressive than most countries.

I was thinking more saudi arabia

PrimBabUB · Feb 18, 2007

Simon W. Moon said:
In the past 1000 years there were fewer books translated into Arabic than were translated into Spanish in a single year.

For the past 1000 years!

I read that recently.

Have you ever read 'The Bookseller of Kabul' by Asne Seierstad? It's very good. I read it a couple of years ago.

Many times he was arrested, sent to jail, and his shop was destroyed. He used the time in prison to immerse himself in the culture and history of his country by reading books smuggled in by his family. During the 1992 attacks on Kabul by the Mujahadeen, Khan took his family to Pakistan. He returned to Kabul to find his shop decimated, as was the national library, a repository of treasured manuscripts. For a few dollars, Khan purchased works many centuries old, including a 500-year-old manuscript for which the Uzbek government eventually offered him $25,000. He continued to carry a wide range of inventory, about 10,000 volumes, hidden away, but the Taliban regime posed new concerns for all those who dealt in Afghan art or culture. Again incarcerated, Khan's shop was destroyed, as were all the priceless contents of the Kabul Museum. Khan bribed his way out of prison, returned to the remains of his shop, and attempted to save some books from destruction by covering up all the pictures -- depictions of life being anathema to the Taliban -- with paper and tape or scribbles.

Bookselling This Week: <i>The Bookseller of Kabul</i> -- A Complex Portrait of Afghan Life by War Correspondent

Radical Idea for War on Terror - Liberate the Entire Middle East

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