Summer 2002

4Abstracts for Articles in English

Articles and Research Papers

When Understanding Does Not Equal Acceptance: Cross Cultural
Communication as Experienced by Danish Students of Arabic
Helle Lykke Nielsen | University of Southern Denmark

Views and Opinions

The Middle East Water Question: Looking Behind
Conventional Assumptions
Tony Allan | University of London (SOAS)

Bibliographical Essays

Arab Perspectives on America; A Review of Sources: 1895-2000
Kamal Abdel-Malek | University of Alberta & American University of Sharjah

4Abstracts in English for Articles in Arabic

Unemployment and Deviant Behavior: A Field Study in Damascus Prisons
Buthaina T. Al-Rajab & Amal Abdel Rahim

The Emigration of Sudanese Abroad: Psychological and Social Reasons and Consequences
Khaled Hassan & Ibrahim Kinani

Interest Groups in Saudi Arabia
Saud Mohammed Al-Otaibi

The Arab-Israeli Conflict as Portrayed in the Social Studies and History
Curricula of Foreign Private Schools in the United Arab Emirates
Musa Rashid Hatamleh

Summer 20024Abstracts for Articles in English

When Understanding Does Not Equal Acceptance: Cross Cultural Communication as Experienced by Danish Students of Arabic
Helle Lykke Nielsen

This paper is based upon interviews with a group of Danish students of Arabic about their cross cultural experiences in an Arabic-speaking country. The students’ experiences were analyzed according to the context in which the students interacted, how this related to their own social background, the use of stereotypes, etc. The paper argues that in the field of cross cultural communication, it is important to distinguish between “understanding” and “acceptance,” because the distinction has explanatory power for the way that students react when they interact with people in a foreign culture. The paper finds that most of the students developed an instrumental attitude toward Arabs and Arab culture, and it is argued that this can be explained within the context of the distinction between understanding and acceptance by the students. The paper also discusses implications for the way that cross cultural communication should be taught in the foreign language classroom.

All the economies of the Middle East face worsening water resource problems. Their populations are rising and the demand for freshwater is rising proportionately. The 300 million population of the Middle East and North Africa at the millennium will double to 600 million by 2050. The supply of naturally occurring freshwater is finite. Rainfall, which in other regions (such as the temperate latitudes) contributes most of the water budget of an economy, provides only a tiny proportion of the water for Middle Eastern economies. The region’s thirsty irrigated tracts have already driven the regional demand for water far beyond locally sustainable levels. The readily developable resources are already being heavily used. In many cases they are being severely overused. A feature of water allocation and management within the region is that the tendency to overuse freshwater is not discouraged by the government agencies responsible for the water sector.

Arab Perspectives on America; A Review of Sources: 1895-2000
Kamal Abdel-Malek

This paper provides a survey of Arab bibliographical sources on the historical and cultural relations between Arabs and Americans between 1895 and 2000. The sources are cited chronologically, according to the year of publication. They are written by Arab authors, the majority of whom hail from Egypt and other Arab countries. These sources provide a picture of America in the historical as well as the literary imagination of modern Arabs. The survey is by no means a comprehensive one, but it includes the major sources in Arabic along with a small selection of the most recent ones in English. The paper covers the following topics: (i) American History in the Arab World; (ii) America in Arabic Travel Literature; and (iii) Arabs in America.

Summer 20024Abstracts in English for Articles in Arabic

Unemployment and Deviant Behavior: A Field Study in Damascus Prisons
Buthaina T. Al-Rajab & Amal Abdel Rahim

This paper discusses the relationship between unemployment and aberrant behavior in Syria. As background, a brief historical description of the unemployment problem is provided for Syria and other Arab countries. The paper also discusses the nature of the unemployment problem and its development. The current work utilizes official government statistics to analyze the distribution of unemployed workers in the different economic sectors of Syria over a period of three decades. The results of the paper confirm the link between unemployment and aberrant behavior.

The Emigration of Sudanese Abroad: Psychological and Social Reasons and Cnsequences
Khaled Hassan & Ibrahim Kinani

Recent studies of emigration have explored the social, political or climatic forces that push emigrants abroad. Very few studies have focussed on the psychological forces. The present study attempts to analyze and measure (i) the forces that have led citizens of the Sudan to emigrate, and (ii) the external forces that have attracted them. The effects of emigration on mental health and social identity are measured, as is the degree of social interaction by Sudanese emigrants with native peoples.
Before proceeding to the analysis, the paper provides a survey of emigration theories. The authors have adopted Hoffman and Nowotny’s theory of societal systems.
In order to achieve the aims of the study, five scales were constructed. On a technical level, face validity and construct validity have been applied, and a reliability analysis has been conducted by the test-retest method and by the split-half method.
By applying the five scales, the study has demonstrated the following. When the Sudanese emigrants were in their homeland, they were politically, economically, socially and psychologically deprived. Prospects in the countries to which they emigrated were good. The Sudanese emigrants maintained and preserved their social identity during the period of their emigration. They also had a satisfactory experience, on a social level, interacting with the societies of the countries to which they emigrated.

Interest Groups in Saudi Arabia
Saud Mohammed Al-Otaibi

The purpose of this study is to shed some light on interest groups in Saudi Arabia. The paper describes the kinds of interest groups that exist, the functions that they perform, and the methods that they utilize to deliver and communicate their demands to decision makers. The paper finds that there are two major kinds of interest groups in Saudi Arabia. The first kind is formal interest groups, which are comprised of (i) private interest groups (such as business organizations) and (ii) institutional interest groups (such as bureaucratic and military organizations). The second kind of interest group is less formal in nature. Examples include those that are organized around the religious establishment, tribal leaders, or different families. The results of the paper show that interest groups use two methods to convey their demands to decision makers. The first method is direct and formal contact with government. The second method involves indirect contacts with decision makers. The paper also discusses the functions that are performed by interest groups.

The Arab-Israeli Conflict as Portrayed in the Social Studies and History Curricula of Foreign Private Schools in the United Arab Emirates
Musa Rashid Hatamleh

This study carefully examines the social studies and history curricula of private schools in the Arabian Gulf states, with a special focus on the United Arab Emirates, and analyzes how Arabs and the Arab-Israeli conflict are depicted in these curricula. In addition to gathering relevant data and analyses, the investigation attempts to to identify the factors that help determine how these curricula are developed, supported, and promoted. It is hoped that this kind of study will assist educators in general and curriculum planners in particular with the structuring and implementation of new curricula. This pioneering study raises a number of questions for future research.