Arabic Civilization and the Book Market - Essay Example

Arabic Civilization and the Book Market Institute Introduction The Arabic homeland is placed 5,000 miles from the Atlantic coast of North Africa, towards the west of the Arabian Sea, and from the Mediterranean Sea, it is placed in the north and to the central Africa, it is in the south. It is believed to cover an area close to 5.25 million square miles. Its territories spread to almost cover different parts of the world, with 72% in Africa and 28% in Asia. It comprises of two continents, a position that makes it to be worlds strategic regions. From the begging of 1994 to the end of 2000, its population was approximately 280 million with half of its population taken by the youth. The aspect of the average density population has little effect to its Arab world since the significant human settlement is found where there is adequate water supply (Wischenbart, 2011). The high rate of illiteracy, lack of up-to-date statistics and information, distorted balance of payments, low purchasing power, and low level of technological development are the due factors that have made Arabs fail to develop in as required in the market book. This statement is well analyzed in this paper. Culture Cultural issues affect every market. The diversity of the culture determines the extent to which such affect the market. For instance, Arabs culture is divided into three main parts, the Urban, Rural, and the Nomad. As such, these cultures place a great significance in both the family and the community. Cultures associated with richness are, Arab art, music and philosophy, these have made great contribution to the development of different areas particularly, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, language, architecture among others have all benefited from Arab industry (Mazlish, 2004). The Arab world has contributed much to the world’s economy. However, this is seen to decline in the book market because they do not seem to abstain from some of their practices. They do not give jobs because of what you have but for who you are, freedom of expression between them is sharply limited as well as freedom of association unlike other countries. The quality of education has seen to be declining causing a clear mismatch between the labor market and the education system. Arabs cultural standard does not seem to allow their populations to buy books in a way that develops the book industry (Harabi, 2007). Political practices The ballot box power transfer has never been adopted in which parts of the developing world are a common phenomenon. Bogus elections, confused executives and the judiciary, media constraints and on the civil society sometime suffocates the environment. The great wave of democratization that revolves along the world has left the Arabs untouched. Senior public servants as well as the ministers are chosen solely on merit, which contributes to particular people securing jobs. This continues to sink the development of the Arabic in relation to the Arab market book. It is thus arguable that the politics practiced in the area impact the market in a great deal (Krätli & Lydon, 2011). Linguistic Any form of communication has its own strategies and these strategies vary systematically. This is caused by the rate of illiteracy that has increased up to foreign language 142.8 million but seem to have decreased recently with 70% of the adults being illiterate. This illiteracy of Arabs circumscribes the book market. Learners have had difficulties in communicating effectively foreign languages. Development of Arabic world has highly been affected by the difference in the languages (Haeri, 2003). This much is contributed by the fact that the Arabic language is classified in three different variants; classic, modern standard and colloquial Arabic. The rush to write the correct Arabic grammar has all been in vain since they tend to memorize foreign languages just like their native. This makes them to be almost linked with plagiarism, which fails them from development. Arab students make this kind of errors when writing, ignorance of rules, overgeneralization, incomplete application of errors and false concepts hypothesized. Further still, tax was imposed by the caliphate on individual of religion other than Islam, tax was also put across to non-Muslims, and this caused trade development shutter down between different religions that speak different languages (Haeri, 2003). Economic The main economic reasons that cause the non-development of Arabic homeland are its low growth since oil producers are all depended on the government’s spending of oil revenues. Here, the richest region is Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Significant oil transporters have failed to generate growth in relation to Arabic book market. This is the middle part of the Arabs that basically rely on self sustaining. Arab economies experience less than 1% yearly average growth of the real GDP per capita this per capita hardly covers the basic necessities (Contadini, 2012). Property prices are usually high, investors only venture big short-term profits while rich, and poor are influenced by social and political ideas. Foreigners have largely been excluded from the Arab economies. Some other countries like Egypt, Sudan in the early 1950s were socialists (Harabi, 2007). They then changed to be republican and no longer have any ideologies. Arabs have availability of jobs in bureaucracies and the state companies are given to the middle classes and others. Employees are not obliged to the purpose and they have little knowledge of their jobs and the salaries hence they provide a low service. Arab countries have not been able to enrich their countries. These countries have a distorted balance of payments in non-oil producing countries causing imposition rigorous measures that does not develop the book market (UNESCO, 2005). Summary The publishing industry in the Arabs is facing major challenges that have actually impeded the book development since translation has been the main problem. Import licenses, quota systems, foreign exchange restrictions are all imposed on books and as a result, many Arabs cannot afford books. Difficulties in currency in some of Arabs make intra-regional book trade deficit. Printing paper, newsprint, and magazines usually involve custom duties and other ancillary taxes. Skilled laborers have lower wage levels causing detrimental effect to the book industry. Maintenance of machines is very high because of inappropriate skills other countries like Egypt have no foreign exchange making the book prices high (Wischenbart, 2011). Inflation is another key aspect that has caused imported raw materials, machines and wages making publishers have little room to do their duty. Some Arab government tends to buy books from the lowest bid in a public tender rather than the authors. Book industry lacks institutional organization and thus it development seem to be stagnant. Investors only depend on books that are saleable to maximize their profits, namely, literary, religious and Islamic heritage books (Harabi, 2007). The main publishing industries are owned by a quasi-governmental body that is not active in its field hence inhibiting the expected outcome. Some countries lack the domestic Copyright legislation posing difficulty in book production. The lack of this copyright hinders the progress of the market. Finally, publishers associations are not active and have no leadership. This means that the lack of one line of authority has hindered the possible outcome of these associations. Remedies The government should take the initiative in recruiting translators in the book industry and imposing laws as well as removing all the duties and the ancillary taxes that cause the book market underdevelopment. Companies should embrace on the skillful power in order to improve their art of production and increase their competitive advantage. Learning should be taken seriously and the rate of per capita increased by raising the economy. In some countries like Egypt, foreign exchange should be allowed to ease the book market. Elections should take a new mode of acquiring the new ballot system that will change their outdated system. Arabs should be open to learn from the foreign countries on how to improve its market and the interchange of the commodities using one common language through interacting with many countries. According to UNESCO (2005), industries should organize institutions based on educating people on the importance of knowledge that is obtained from books. Domestic copyright legislation should be introduced in all countries in order to promote the book industry. Finally, the availability of jobs should be availed to all people both skilled and the unskilled in order to regionally balance the rate of employment. Conclusion Generally, the Arabic book market development has been affected by the lack of serious restrictions that should be handled by the government. Publishers have lacked the moral to continue publishing books due to the custom duties that have been imposed and lack of leadership. Employment in many industries embraces not only to the unskilled power but also the people they are which is rather nepotism practiced almost everywhere all over the world. Corruption is another aspect that is not tackled in the above argument that occurs in all the parts of the Arabic world that mostly affects the book market development. It is the time the book market being observed in the Arab homeland in order to enhance market development through observing all what is required of them, which is well explained in this paper. References Contadini, A. (2012). A world of beasts: A thirteenth-century illustrated Arabic book on animals (the Kitāb Nat al-Ḥayawān) in the Ibn Bakhtīshū tradition. Leiden: Brill. Haeri, N. (2003). Sacred language, ordinary people: Dilemmas of culture and politics in Egypt. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Harabi, N. (2007). Performance of the Arabic Book Translation Industry in Selected Arab Countries: Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi-Arabia and Syria, Retrieved on April 7, 2013 from http://cba.ksuedu.server261.com/member/file/library/edoc_1258129804.pdf Krätli, G., & Lydon, G. (2011). The trans-Saharan book trade: Manuscript culture, Arabic literacy and intellectual history in Muslim Africa. Leiden: Brill. Mazlish, B. (2004). Civilization and its contents. Stanford, Calif: Stanford Univ. Press. UNESCO. (2005). International Flows of Selected Cultural Goods and Services, 1994-2003, Retrieved on April 7, 2013 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001428/142812e.pdf Wischenbart, R. (2011). The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections. OReilly Media, Inc., Read More