In 2002 I authorised a publication with the apparently inoffensive title of The Arab Human Development Report. Within days of its release, a million copies of the Arabic language edition had been downloaded, and the new al-Jazeera television channel was debating it endlessly. Shortly afterwards, a closed door ministerial meeting of the Arab League condemned its calls for democracy, women’s rights and secular education – and its warnings about the region’s stagnation and youth unemployment. The region was becalmed, even as democratisation and economic liberalisation swept through so much of the rest of the world.
2002年，我批准发布了《阿拉伯社会发展报告》(The Arab Human Development Report)。该报告的名称显然毫无不敬之意。报告发布数天之后，阿拉伯文版的下载量就达到100万次。刚开播的半岛电视台(Al-Jazeera)频道一刻不停地围绕该报告展开辩论。不久之后，阿拉伯联盟(Arab League)部长级闭门会议对该报告发出的呼吁（实现民主、确保妇女权利和世俗教育）和警告（该地区的增长停滞和青年失业问题）表示了谴责。尽管当时民主化和manbetx20客户端下载 自由化浪潮正席卷世界其它大部分地区，但该地区纹丝不动。