THE PROBLEM WITH THE ARABIC LANGUAGE
Al-Ahram, Egypt, August 21
I’ve been closely following the Arabic Language Academy since November 2020, when the minister of higher education, Khaled Atef Abdul Ghaffar, appointed the great literary thinker and critic Dr. Salah Fadl to temporarily lead the institution.
It seems that Fadl’s task wasn’t easy at all. According to several accounts, he faced immense internal pushback when he stepped into his new role. Insiders within the academy describe an “old guard” that resists any changes to the decades-old institution, which was established in 1932 to preserve the integrity of the Arabic language and to help adapt it to evolving needs in the fields of science, arts and culture.
However, the challenges of the Arabic language actually go far beyond these theoretical goals.
The first and most prominent challenge is the growing gap between colloquial and classical Arabic. Egyptian children simply cannot speak literary Arabic today; they use a combination of a spoken Egyptian dialect and slang borrowed from foreign languages. This language is, of course, different from the spoken Arabic used by a child in the Gulf, in Sudan or in Morocco.
The second issue relates to archaic grammatical rules, which are difficult and cumbersome. The language must be simplified into models that are easy to understand and comprehend.
Yes, I know that these are not easy tasks. But the alternative is far more concerning. I’ve already noticed Egyptian children who learn English from a young age because they find it easier to speak in it than they do in Arabic. Similarly, a growing number of institutions, public projects and businesses are taking on foreign names (mostly in English and French).
If we are serious about preserving the Arabic language, then we must be willing to adapt it to our everyday needs. This is what we hope that the Arabic Language Academy, under the leadership of Dr. Fadl, will be able to do. – Osama Al-Ghazali Harb
INDIA: NO MORE RETROACTIVE TAXATION
Al-Ittihad, UAE, August 20
Last week, the Indian government decided to repeal a controversial law that imposed retroactive taxes on multinational companies, which had sparked several legal disputes worth billions of dollars.
There is no doubt that this is a positive step in the right direction, which corrects a long-standing injustice and will ultimately help improve the business climate in the South Asian country.
The move is expected to help the government get rid of lawsuits brought by various companies, including Vodafone and Cairn Energy, against claims for tax backlash. It is also expected to help reassure investors who still have concerns about the stability of the regulatory environment in India, due to the sudden adoption of this law.
The government has submitted the 2021 Tax Laws Bill to parliament, which will abolish the tax retroactively on the indirect transfer of Indian assets before May 2012.
The origins law was retroactively introduced in 2012 by the previous Congress-led coalition government. It was adopted amid many reservations within the government at the time. The opposition went so far as to describe it as “tax terrorism,” but the bill passed nonetheless. It immediately frightened foreign investors and cast doubt on the stability of India’s regulatory environment. It was seen as very controversial legislation, and has dominated discourse about the country’s investment climate ever since.
When Narendra Modi’s government came to power, it declared that it had no intention of enforcing the law, but it did not go so far as to repeal it. The government also inherited all the judicial disputes that erupted because of it, at a time when major companies resorted to the judiciary in order to file lawsuits against tax claims amounting to billions of dollars.
The amendment of this law is now seen as a major step in alleviating the fears of foreign investors, as it should help resolve at least 17 disputes related to tax payments exceeding $6 billion.
Amending the law now represents a way to evade court rulings issued against the government in two international tribunals. Last month, a French court allowed a freeze of $20b. of Indian government holdings in Paris to enforce a $1.2b. ruling in favor of the British oil company Cairn Energy. In another case, Vodafone, the international telecommunications giant, won a lawsuit filed in an international court, which ruled that the Indian authorities’ demand for taxes in excess of $2b. is illegal.
In any case, the amendment of the law comes at an opportune time, after the Indian economy has been badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Currently, great efforts are being made to revive the economy, as the government seeks to attract foreign investments into the country.
Now, with the retroactive tax eliminated, attention could shift to the reforms that the government was promising to enact in order to boost the economy. This includes steps such as production-related stimuli.
Considering that India is pinning its hopes on bringing foreign mega-projects into the country, there is no doubt that the abolition of this law will be beneficial for the Indian economy in the long run.
– Dhikr Al-Rahman
THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN PUBLIC LIFE
Al-Qabas, Kuwait, August 20
I was on a business trip in the late ’70s to Jordan, with some of my friends who were interested in the hotel sector.
On our evening return from a gala dinner, in the lobby of the hotel where we were staying, I asked my companions to consider for a moment the paradox of the prayer-times board that was hung high above the reception desk.
I pointed out to them that the height of the board means that there’s a need for a high ladder and an employee who undertakes the daily task of changing the prayer times on it.
Because those with me were all from the lodging sector, they thought about the operational costs of maintaining that prayer board. But I was left reflecting on something else: the role that religion plays in our society.
It’s clear that increasing the role of religion in people’s everyday lives doesn’t create better societies. Good citizenship isn’t fostered by injecting religion into everyday public life. The goal of the state is not to create a religious citizen, but, rather, to create an educated, capable and productive citizen who can contribute to the economy and pay taxes. Without taxes, governments cannot provide any services. Therefore, at the core of every society stands a productive economy, not a productive religion.
That is why many were interested in the positive consequences of Saudi Arabia’s decision to allow shops, factories and hundreds of thousands of businesses to continue operating during prayer times. Those who wish to worship are allowed to do so – and are still protected under Saudi law – but the norm has shifted from shutting down businesses for several hours a day.
Arab economies cannot afford to continue sustaining themselves by pumping millions of barrels of oil out of the ground. This solution won’t last forever. Instead, we must all prepare for the day when our economies become innovative, productive and efficient – allowing us to unlock the growth we need to sustain ourselves for generations to come.
– Ahmed Al-Sarraf
Translated by Asaf Zilberfarb.