Part 10: “The Arabs Now” by Basim Musallam. Comments by: Dr. Saad Bin Tefla.
What do the Arabs believe to be the most potent forces in their society at the present time and how do they assess their condition today?
How possible is criticism of that condition and who will be the most effective critics? The intellectuals? The politicians? Arab youth? Fifty percent of all Arabs are under the age of twenty and 20,000,000 Arab children are in school today. What effect will this explosion in education have on society? What will be the effect of the huge labour-migration across the Arab world or the revolution in communications, as air-travel, television, video and satellites serve to bring Arabs of all nations into close contact with one another?
Just how successful have the Arab political orders been coping with all the needs and pressures of our time and what future developments are likely or possible?
Basim Musallam returns to the Arab world for this final programme of the series, to ask the questions that Arabs ask themselves; not in the hope of finding definitive answers, for those are beyond reach, but in order to allow the Western viewer to share in those concerns which are uppermost in the Arabs’ own minds.
Major Locations
Cairo, Lebanon, The Arabian Gulf, Morocco