LATEST ECONOMIC BRIEFINGS
QATAR | 15.09.2008
The insurance industry has generally failed to capitalise on Qatar's recently booming economy, but a series of initiatives aimed at broadening the sector's customer appeal may help it to get in on the action.
INDONESIA | 15.09.2008
The House of Representatives endorsed last week a new set of tax laws that is expected to encourage investment in Indonesia as well as benefit the individual taxpayer.
SYRIA | 15.09.2008
Continued drought conditions in Syria are ravaging not only farmland but the economy, raising imports, undermining key export industries and putting pressure on the government's programme of reducing price support for basic commodities.
KUWAIT | 12.09.2008
Kuwait is moving to mend fences with its neighbour Iraq, seeking to heal some of the wounds left over from Baghdad's 1990 invasion and the subsequent widespread devastation to the Kuwaiti economy and society.
BAHRAIN | 12.09.2008
Bahrain is working to provide housing for its citizens, and is looking at a number of proposals to shorten the long waiting lists for those seeking state assistance in obtaining a home.
GCC Technology Insight
GCC | 30.05.2008
Over the five years since coalition forces invaded Iraq, the country's academic and research institutions have been devastated.
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Iraq's Scientists Still Under Threat
30.05.2008
Over the five years since coalition forces invaded Iraq, the country's academic and research institutions have been devastated. First, 80% of Iraq's universities, including what were at one point some of the best in the region, were burnt and looted. Then, when a hit list with the names of some 460 intellectuals appeared in 2006, it was evident that academics were at grave risk. At the time, Isam Al Rawi, a geologist at Baghdad University and head of the Association of University Lecturers, said, "Assassins are targeting Iraqi university professors in a coordinated liquidation process to force well-known scholars to leave the country and thus hinder the country's reconstruction." He himself was murdered later in 2006.
Ismael Jalili, chairman of the National Association of British Arabs, reported to the UK's House of Lords commission on Iraq in 2007 that 380 university academics and doctors were killed between 2003 and 2006. According to Iraqi scientists, all factions have been trying to drive out the intellectuals; both Shias and Sunnis have been targeted.
Thousands of academics are thought to have left Iraq since 2005. Although it remains unclear precisely how many have left or where they have all gone, what is clear, according to Salman Rashid Salman, an Iraqi professor and the director of the institutional standards office of Qatar's Higher Education Institute, is that Iraq currently suffers the highest rate of brain drain amongst Arab countries.
Despite some improvements in security since 2007, many academics continue to face threats to themselves and their families. "The flow of academics has not stopped. Many are still leaving Iraq," John Akker, the executive secretary of the London-based Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA), told OBG. "Up to 40% of Iraq's academics have left the country since 2003, going mostly to Syria, Jordan and Egypt."
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, there are up to 1.4m displaced Iraqis in Syria and another 700,000 in Jordan. With both countries' infrastructure and social services strained from the number of migrants, they imposed visa restrictions on Iraqi citizens in late 2007, making migration even tougher for Iraqi academics. It was already difficult for Iraqis to get visas even to other countries in the region, not only the US, UK and western countries.
"Not too many come to the Gulf countries. It is often too difficult to get work visas," Hussein Rahmatalla, a professor who left Iraq to work in Jordan in 1992 and now heads the materials technology department at Qatar University, told OBG. "Iraqi scientists have been forced all over the world. "And though many would like to, it is very difficult to go back work in Iraq now," Rahmatalla said. "The security issues must be resolved first."
Exiled scientists often have a difficult time supporting themselves as scientists once out of the country. Through grants and fellowships, CARA helps support the work of Iraqi scientists at universities in the UK. It also works with the New York-based Scholars Rescue Fund and the Scholars at Risk Network to find placements for Iraqi scientists across the Middle East. CARA now plans to set up a learning centre at the United Nations University site in Amman, as a way to support Iraqi scientists in Jordan and across the Middle East. The project would function as a central point to connect academics with Iraqi students, both inside and outside of Iraq, through distance education technology, explained Akker. The organisation is currently looking to build a network of regional institutional partners and sources of funding. Such initiatives remain an essential part of preserving Iraq's human capital, even if it resides temporarily outside the country.
"At the moment, there is no kind of collegiate support for these exiled academics. The community is very fragmented," said Akker. "CARA is trying to help keep the professional skills of these academics intact for t
Ismael Jalili, chairman of the National Association of British Arabs, reported to the UK's House of Lords commission on Iraq in 2007 that 380 university academics and doctors were killed between 2003 and 2006. According to Iraqi scientists, all factions have been trying to drive out the intellectuals; both Shias and Sunnis have been targeted.
Thousands of academics are thought to have left Iraq since 2005. Although it remains unclear precisely how many have left or where they have all gone, what is clear, according to Salman Rashid Salman, an Iraqi professor and the director of the institutional standards office of Qatar's Higher Education Institute, is that Iraq currently suffers the highest rate of brain drain amongst Arab countries.
Despite some improvements in security since 2007, many academics continue to face threats to themselves and their families. "The flow of academics has not stopped. Many are still leaving Iraq," John Akker, the executive secretary of the London-based Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA), told OBG. "Up to 40% of Iraq's academics have left the country since 2003, going mostly to Syria, Jordan and Egypt."
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, there are up to 1.4m displaced Iraqis in Syria and another 700,000 in Jordan. With both countries' infrastructure and social services strained from the number of migrants, they imposed visa restrictions on Iraqi citizens in late 2007, making migration even tougher for Iraqi academics. It was already difficult for Iraqis to get visas even to other countries in the region, not only the US, UK and western countries.
"Not too many come to the Gulf countries. It is often too difficult to get work visas," Hussein Rahmatalla, a professor who left Iraq to work in Jordan in 1992 and now heads the materials technology department at Qatar University, told OBG. "Iraqi scientists have been forced all over the world. "And though many would like to, it is very difficult to go back work in Iraq now," Rahmatalla said. "The security issues must be resolved first."
Exiled scientists often have a difficult time supporting themselves as scientists once out of the country. Through grants and fellowships, CARA helps support the work of Iraqi scientists at universities in the UK. It also works with the New York-based Scholars Rescue Fund and the Scholars at Risk Network to find placements for Iraqi scientists across the Middle East. CARA now plans to set up a learning centre at the United Nations University site in Amman, as a way to support Iraqi scientists in Jordan and across the Middle East. The project would function as a central point to connect academics with Iraqi students, both inside and outside of Iraq, through distance education technology, explained Akker. The organisation is currently looking to build a network of regional institutional partners and sources of funding. Such initiatives remain an essential part of preserving Iraq's human capital, even if it resides temporarily outside the country.
"At the moment, there is no kind of collegiate support for these exiled academics. The community is very fragmented," said Akker. "CARA is trying to help keep the professional skills of these academics intact for t
