Thursday, June 08, 2017

Stop citing those silly Arab surveys: Saudi-UAE propaganda from Hoover

"The recent Arab Youth Survey, an annual poll conducted by the public relations firm ASDA’A Burson Marsteler, reflects this narrative. In interviews with the 18-24 demographic across the Arab world, a striking picture appears, a picture of two Middle Easts: satisfied, contented youth in the Gulf Arab states and dissatisfied, frustrated young people more broadly across the region. "  This is meaningless. To express disagreement with the government in Gulf governments--as you now see for full view--will get you a long jail sentence and a hefty fine. While if you live in Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon (to varying degrees) people are more willing to express in surveys disagreements with the governments. So the analogy of survey findings in the Gulf with those in some other less repressive Arab countries is just meaningless.