Support for Suicide Terrorism

So what is the relationship between the support for terrorism in public opinion and the relationship with terrorist attacks? Guess what these researchers found?

We find that justification in public opinion for suicide terrorism increases terror attacks on people in countries that are unfavorably regarded. There is a robust positive relationship between the share of the population in a country that at the same time justifies suicide bombings and has an unfavorable opinion of another country, and terrorism originating from the former country.

In other words, there is statistically significant evidence that public opinion does encourage terrorism. In a way, this is a d’oh statement. Terrorism thrives on the oxygen of publicity and then there are various assorted morons and idiots who will support terror as a way to punish other countries. What they do not understand (well, not surprising because its usually religious nutters and other ideologically screwed up people who do this) is that terrorism usually devours them.

So what do people from s Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, Senegal, Tanzania, Mali, Jordan, Lebanon, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Palestine and Nigeria respond to the PEW survey question?

Some people think that suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilian targets
are justified in order to defend Islam from its enemies. Other people believe that, no matter
what the reason, this kind of violence is never justified. Do you personally feel that this kind
of violence is often justified to defend Islam, sometimes justified, rarely justified, or never
justified?

On average 23% justified suicide terrorism, with a minimum of 8% support and an astonishingly high 70% maximum support. Highest was in Palestine, Nigeria and Mali, Lowest up was in Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia. Surprising eh? Palestine I can understand, but Nigeria, Mali, Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia? The last 3 countries are like factories for terrorists. Some other facets, Nigerian Women were showing more support for suicide bombing compared to men. Here’s the graph

There was another question which was asked, about which countries are most unfavourable to the respondents. Some of the results for the most unfavourable and least unfavourable are amazing and bewildering.

So Bangladesh actually has the lowest unfavourable opinion towards India! and highest towards USA. And what on earth is happening in Ethiopia with least Japan and high Iran? USA seems to be the most hated country across these muslim nations. Extraordinary but what is worrying is the extraordinarily high level of support for suicide bombing and terrorism in all these countries. The next time somebody says that terrorist support in Muslim countries relate only to a very small minority, do ask about the definition of a very small minority because a minority which ranges from 8-70% with an average of 23% aint such a small minority by any stretch of imagination.

Women make gains in Arab boardrooms

Excellent news and very shameful for Japan and Italy. I quote:

Public companies listed in Oman and Kuwait have more women on their boards than in Italy and Japan, highlighting rare gains made by businesswomen in one of the most restrictive parts of the world.

Overall, the numbers arent that good,

The representation on boards in the two Gulf countries masks a bleaker overall picture: across the region women represent only 1.5 per cent of board seats, compared with 13.6 per cent in the US and 22 per cent in Norway.

But its a start at improving women's lives.

Technorati Tags: Arab,Women's Rights,Corporate Governance

Divorce around the world

Society is changing, and the answer is not to go back to basics (which is what?), but to think about how to manage this change. And for those people who think that divorce is a peculiarly western phenomena, please note the figures. I Quote:


I've heard this from many men over the past three months. It's like an epidemic virus violently threatening the Egyptian family, which we wrongly thought was immune to the virus that struck families in Western societies, simply because we still preserve the characteristics of the "happy orient."
Statistics indicate that divorce and the collapse of the family institution have become a phenomenon that cannot be ignored. Divorce strikes 46% of all marriages each year, compared to 33% a few years ago. A staggering 42% of divorces occur among newly-married couples in the first to fourth year of marriage.
Divorce rates among young people in the first year of marriage has risen to 34.5%, according to recent statistics by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMS). The figure is terrifying. In Austria, for example, divorce rates hit 48.9%, which has led the Austrian government to declare an emergency to tackle a disaster that threatens the security and safety of the community.
These statistics are not only in Egypt, but also in most of the Arab world. The divorce rate in Kuwait has reached 46%, according to a symposium on spinsterhood organized by Arabiyat forum. It hit 48% and 38% in the UAE and Qatar, respectively. Clearly this social phenomenon has undermined the family institution and threatens the next generation.
In France, for example, two thirds of schoolchildren come from broken homes and many of their parents live with second husbands and wives.
Psychologists are observing these students to predict future behavioral patterns. One must wonder about the psychological state of Arab society following three decades of its men not living under sound social conditions — at least from the old-school perspective that children must grow up in both their parents' care.
I recently met a group of university professors. When I told them that I was planning to write an article about divorce, all fifteen confessed that they were separated from their wives. One female workmate also said that the marriages of six of her close friends all lasted less than a year.
Regardless of the statistics, I vouch for the fact that this phenomenon has reached unprecedented heights.
What has really happened in the past few years? Some social research claims that poverty accounts for a considerable percentage of divorces and that sexual incompatibility between couples is another reason.
I disagree. Poverty, need and bedroom problems are as old as sin. So what has happened then?
Some point an accusing finger at women's emancipation as the culprit behind the collapse of the family. Once more, I beg to differ. I think that women have lost much of what they gained in the past ten years.
The divorce phenomenon is, without a doubt, the product of changes in society as a whole; the way marriages are conducted, the absence of any sense of belonging to the homeland, to a common cause or an institution.
With this feeling predominant among most young people, how can they have a sense of belonging to the institution of marriage? Young people these days change jobs and even careers as if they were changing their t-shirt. At the same time, many girls want to get away from their own broken homes, and so accept any proposal just to escape, only to continue their escapism by leaving their husbands.
Social pressure, not only financial problems, push people into a tight corner every day, and the prevalent fast food culture has made caution a thing of the past.
Globalization, the information revolution and the satellite revolution, which shower us with a barrage of images and poisoned values, have all nipped marriage in the bud. When I look at my children I wonder how long their marriages will last. Will it be years, months or hours?



All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Institutionalised Corruption in the Gulf - Wasta

My aunt has been diagnosed with a possible stroke and a clot in the brain. So I have been on the phone since the morning trying to get more details. She is based in Dubai but apparently the doctors have advised her to go to New Delhi as the level of care and medical expertise is much higher.

And then I read this note. I am truly saddened. And then I think about the doctors in India, see my previous note here. Not that corruption and bad medical care does not happen in India either. But sad, very sad.

Wasta: A Matter of Life or Death

By TMO | October 25, 2007

By Sumayyah Meehan, Muslim Media News Service (MMNS)

Almost 2 years ago to this very day, my son almost died. What started out as a simple sore throat turned into a horrible infection. My spouse and I spent more than a week shuttling him back and forth to our local government hospital here in Kuwait. Each time we went there was a different doctor on duty and a different diagnosis. First, they said he required antibiotics to kill the infection. Then, when he did not improve, another doctor took him off the meds and said it was simply a nasal problem. They sent us home with a bottle of nose drops. Finally, we went to the main government hospital in our district thinking we would find better care, but we didn’t. With no other option available, we had no choice but to turn to the private hospital sector. On the morning we planned to take him to the private hospital of our choice, I went into his room to get him ready. I knew something was direly wrong by the way he was holding his head on the pillow. His face was a pale shade of blue and he was burning up with fever. In terror, I began screaming his name and shaking him to wake him up. He was unresponsive. I shook him even harder and he managed to open one of his eyes to the space of a squint. We raced him to the hospital as fast as we could. The first thing the nurse did, before we even saw the doctor, was to hold my son’s entire head under a faucet of cold running water. Even the icy cold water barely roused him. The doctor diagnosed him with severe tonsillitis and admitted him immediately. He stayed there for a full week receiving several bags of IV fluids each day and a cocktail of antibiotics. Test results later revealed that the infection had spread to his bloodstream and was also present in his urine and stool samples. The doctor said that if we had not brought him in when he did the consequences could have proved fatal.

Thankfully, the only casualty in this health crisis was our bank account. The hospital stay cost us about $6000 and our account was officially declared dead. But for us, it was money well spent. I was just thankful to see my son healthy again. However, our joy was short lived when the fever returned 3 days later. We took him back to the same hospital and were told that my son’s tonsils were turning against him. The organs themselves were damaged and full of holes. He needed an emergency tonsillectomy that would cost at least $10,000. There was no way we could afford it. So, we headed back to the government hospital.

Many Americans crave a universal healthcare system in the US, but I have lived with it in Kuwait and it is not at all what it is supposed to be. Almost all the countries in the GCC, who offer universal healthcare, struggle to provide quality care but it’s often hard when hospitals are understaffed and doctors are underpaid. On top of that, getting an appointment for a government hospital is no easy feat. After hearing raves about a government hospital in our area, we went to schedule my son’s tonsillectomy. However, despite his raging fever and ravaged little body we were given an appointment 3 months from the day we added his name to list. Neither my husband nor I believed my son could make it until then. So, we looked for a way to get a faster appointment.

And that way was by finding someone with ‘wasta’, or influence. Basically it means you have friends in high places. Wasta is usually the only way to get things done in the Middle East. Those without it truly struggle to make it in this region. In Kuwait, only the Kuwaiti citizens have wasta. We began looking for someone with wasta and fortunately we found a man who took pity on our situation. This man went to the hospital within 24 hours of us contacting him and our son was on the operating table the following week.

It has been 2 years since my personal experience with wasta being a matter of life or death. So, I was unsure if the same practices were still prevalent in Kuwait today. After talking with a few people, I learned that wasta is still alive and well in Kuwait.

Zainab Saad is a 29-year-old Pakistani mother to 4 girls. She was recently diagnosed with having a polyp in her uterus. The doctor who made the diagnosis ordered an operation to remove the growth and test it to see if it was cancerous. However, Zainab would have to wait 3 months before she could be scheduled for the operation. Since she could not afford to go to a private hospital she had no choice but to look for wasta. Luckily, her husband found a Kuwaiti citizen to help and Zainab was on the operating table in less than 2 weeks and the tests proved she did not have cancer.

On the flip side, Soraya Adil, a Palestinian secretary and mother to two boys, is also struggling with medical issues–however she does not have wasta. Her youngest son has a growth behind his nose. The doctors recommend he have an immediate operation to remove it as it is affecting his breathing and aggravating his tonsils. “My son cries all day and night. I have missed so much work that I fear they will fire me,” she says, “I do not have wasta so I have no choice but to let my child suffer for 3 months until our appointment.”

The 3-month waiting period for surgical operations in Kuwait applies to expatriates only. Kuwaiti citizens, as usual, receive preferential treatment. Even if your life is on the line, without wasta you are forced to gamble with your very existence. As expatriates, we are forced to pay health insurance fees for laughable medical care. The fee is attached to the renewal of residence visas and there is no way to avoid it. Someone in need of a life saving surgery in Kuwait has almost no chance of survival unless a sympathetic doctor manages to pull a few strings. But with their desensitization and disenchantment with their own role in this medical nightmare it’s highly unlikely that they will step up to the plate to save a life that needs saving.

Technorati Tags: Healthcare , United Arab Emirates , Kuwait , Corruption