What is the common trait among the Arab Thought Foundation; the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research; the Foundation for Abdulaziz Al-Babtain Prize for Poetic Creativity; the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation; and the Abdul-Maqsoud Khoja Publishing House – as well as many other similar institutions? The answer is optimism. Indeed, those in charge of these institutions are making an exceptional effort to publish books of interest for the Arab world, whether by encouraging the latter to keep up with modernity, or through the revival and preservation of the intellectual heritage of the nation. However, Arabs do not read, and if they read they do not understand, and then they go for an afternoon nap, waking up only to eat and sleep again in order to stay fit (most of those who contact me with letters containing religious themes make the biggest amount of mistakes in grammar and vocabulary, although they have in their hands the primary reference for the language, or the reference that has preserved it [i.e. the Quran]). Everyone has read the international reports that show that Greece, whose population is 11 million, prints and reads more books than 300 million Arabs. I also remember a similar comparison with Spain, whose population is 46 million. Nevertheless, I want to be optimistic too. Leaving Greece and Spain to focus on tourism, rather than reading, and relying on the UN Development Program which has statistics on readership, I find that out of 187 countries, Qatar occupied 37th place – an achievement indeed. However, Qatar is the least populous Arab country. Sudan ranked last among the Arab nations, with 169th place. By contrast, Israel ranked 17th place, ahead of three-quarters of European countries. Bahrain came 42nd, followed by Saudi Arabia (56) Kuwait (63) then Libya immediately after, and Lebanon (71), Oman (89) and Tunisia (94), then Jordan immediately after as well as Algeria. As regards Egypt, ‘the Mother of the World', it occupied 113th place, followed by the Occupied Palestinian territories, then Morocco (130), Iraq (132) and Yemen (154). Returning to my introduction, my relationship with the Arab Thought Foundation and the Abdulaziz Al-Babtain is rather direct, as I am a member of the Board of Directors in both institutions, and I have written in this column about interesting and important books published by them, year after year. Since my initial training is in literature, the new publications of Al-Babtain are the subject of particular interest to me. The Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research, which is headed by Dr. Jamal Sanad Al-Suwaidi, is probably the most active research institution that I have had direct dealings with. The Centre publishes research papers and studies, and translated books on topics of interest, and also trains research cadres. I thus receive from the Center, every other month, a collection of books including studies that range anywhere from 80 to 600 pages or more. Of these, I choose what benefits me in my work, and I review some other books, and then distribute other books among colleagues. As I write here now, I have no less than 50 books in my office, published by the Abu Dhabi-based Center. I was prompted to write about this topic today by the fact that I had travelled to Dubai with a suitcase of clothes weighing 10 kilograms, only to return with the same case weighing 25 kilograms – on account of the books I brought back-, and smaller hand luggage that probably weighed another 12 kilos. Not all the books were published by the Arab Media Forum. From the Forum's publications, I chose ‘The Arab Media Outlook 2011-2015” in both English and Arabic. I also brought back books that were given to me by colleagues and participating writers and novelists. On the return leg, I started reading “Common Grounds and the Human Conscience” by the dear Salah Salem, who had previously given me his book “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights”. Of cultural magazines I chose Al-Waha [The Oasis], Miraat al-Khalij [The Mirror of the Gulf] and Al-I'lam Wal ‘Asr” [Media and Modern Times], along with “'Arous al-Yaman” [Bride of Yemen] - because I know nothing significant about the women of Yemen. When I returned to the office, I found that I had given “The Events of Memory” to the dear Mohammed Abdullah al-Iryani, and “Half Decent Citizen” to the dear Hani Naqshbandi – published by Dar Al-Saqi, as well as “A Biography of a Political Career”, which is the memoirs of the dear Atta Abdul Wahab, between Baghdad and Amman. Our dear friend Abdul-Maqsoud Khoja is a one-man publishing house, and his publications can be found at both my office and my home. Usually, I carry books to read on the plane, where I can never sleep or relax. They are all important, and the friends behind these works are optimistic for no apparent reason. Nevertheless, they deserve praise for their efforts, and all I hope for is that they are rewarded by seeing higher readership rates in our countries.
