Among the Tragedies of Arab Academic Conferences

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

They say that Arabs must encourage science and scientists in order to catch up with other nations making great scientific leaps, and in order to narrow the gap between us and the Zionists, who are achieving major scientific accomplishments across the various fields of life. And they propose many means and methods for this, among them academic conferences, which offer an opportunity for scholars to meet and deliberate on the latest scientific developments. Conferences serve as a stimulus toward achieving further scholarly accomplishments, and toward raising the scholarly standard of researchers and the institutions in which they work. This is true in theory, but its actual truth depends on other factors, such as the environment and planning grounded in scientific principles.

From time to time, I take part in academic conferences and present research papers on various topics, and I sometimes watch the opening of Arab academic conferences on television. The scene at these conferences is, to a great extent, repetitive. The conference opens, as usual, later than the announced time; then comes a break, followed by the conference sessions. Each participant with a paper is given about a quarter of an hour to present his research, and about half an hour is set aside for discussion among the researchers taking part in the session. Perhaps another session follows, then lunch. A session is held after lunch, which may be followed by a discussion of recommendations that no one ever acts on.

The opening session is the most important one, since a wide audience is mustered, the media is invited, and people are brought in who get called “personalities” or “leaders.” The head of the hosting institution delivers a speech overflowing with exaggeration about his institution’s achievements, reiterating his love for science and scientists, and dwelling on his institution’s policy of teaching that science is now the measure of progress in a world with no place left in it for the ignorant. He welcomes the esteemed audience, without whose encouragement and concern, he insists, the nation would never have achieved all this remarkable advancement.

…his own illusions, savoring the relaxation right down to the yawning. He is followed by another speaker, who educates the audience about our commitment to science and our esteem for scientists, all in keeping with divine teachings and prophetic traditions. And from his speech you gather that on the Day of Judgment we will be gathered together with the truthful, the martyrs, and perhaps even the prophets, on account of our overflowing love of science. The idea occurs to you of climbing up to the podium, or shouting from where you sit, to ask him to rein it in and slow down, out of mercy for the listeners.

The speakers ramble on, indulging in exaggeration and hyperbole, turning a mouse into a camel, a gazelle into a rabbit, and a dead man into a beacon. They finish, and the master of ceremonies calls for a tea break. You return to the hall half an hour later, and find that most of the audience has vanished and the media has left. Why did they leave? Most likely, they never came to listen to the scholars in the first place, but to the influential figures and officials who are the real decision-makers. And what good to them is a university professor who waits for the end of the month just to keep living, when flattering an official can bring in far greater rewards?

Those who ought to listen to the scholars and remain in attendance — the leaders, the chiefs, and the notables — flee the hall, wishing the scholars every success and good fortune in their deliberations. Scientific research exists for the sake of sound planning, and so that decisions may rest on scientific facts and evidence. Scientific research is the alternative to improvisation, street cleverness, and pretensions to knowledge, and it is the great secret behind the advancement of a nation’s material resources across the various fields of life. It is not meant to pile up in books and academic journals, nor to secure an academic promotion or a financial reward. It is a religious and national duty, before it is ever a means of improving one’s own personal circumstances.

The leaders do not listen, and I doubt they ever look at the research that gets published, or receive any summary of it, and I do not think the recommendations that academics and researchers arrive at ever reach their ears at all. As for the media, which crowded in at the start, it makes no mention of anything actually useful. You sit in the evening in front of the screen to watch the news bulletin, and you see the leader delivering his unpolished speech; and the day after the conference, you read in the newspapers and magazines about the academic event His Excellency the President, or his representative, attended, and you find lengthy coverage of the lofty remarks he delivered, while you find nothing whatsoever about the scholarly content of the conference itself.

The Arab know-it-all has no need of scientific research, because he already knows everything. Scientific research is not meant to make the official understand, since he possesses knowledge the like of which no one before him ever possessed, and no one after him ever will, and we carry out scientific research only because it is a global fashion, and to keep pace with those illiterate masses who see in the official nothing less than a god privy to both the seen and the unseen worlds. This, perhaps, offers a social explanation for the paucity of scientific research produced by Arab researchers.

And so we shall remain behind the nations.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “من مآسي المؤتمرات العلمية العربية” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.