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Poll: 81% of Americans cannot identify Arab world on map

Most Americans have scant knowledge of the Arab world, with eight in 10 unable to point out the region on a map, a wide-ranging Arab News/YouGov poll has found.

The survey of 2,057 people in the US revealed an alarmingly low level of awareness about the Middle East and North Africa, but also a desire for more media coverage of the region.

More than a fifth of respondents said Agrabah — the fictional city from “Aladdin” — is a real part of the Arab world. An even higher proportion — 38 percent — would be happy with a US travel ban on citizens of Agrabah should they be proven a threat.

The US public’s knowledge gap does, however, extend far beyond Disney fiction.

The “The Arab Image in the US” poll, conducted March 17-21, found that 65 percent of respondents admitted to knowing little about the Arab World, with 30 percent having no interest in understanding the region further.

Over three-quarters of respondents said they would not consider traveling to the Arab world, with 39 percent saying the whole region is too dangerous to visit.

The results of the poll are published today to coincide with the Arab Media Forum (AMF) in Dubai. An Arab News panel discussion on “The Arab Image in the West” will be held today, the second day of the forum, to discuss the media’s role in addressing the region’s perception problem.

This is significant as a low engagement in news about the Arab world was seen as one factor behind the vast gap in Americans’ knowledge exposed by the Arab News/YouGov poll.

Almost eight in 10 of the respondents said they follow international news, but of those only 24 percent tune into news about the Arab world. But half of the respondents said they think US media do not provide sufficient coverage of the region.

Stephan Shakespeare, the chief executive of polling firm YouGov, said the findings are significant and a cause for concern, especially at a time when President Donald Trump is ramping up the US involvement in the Arab world.

“America appears more isolationist since the advent of President Trump and yet at the same time more willing to intervene fast with military action, defying Russia with a surprise attack in Syria,” Shakespeare said.

ann_p01-lead-knowledgegap.jpg


“Whatever one’s views of these situations, everyone surely hopes for increased understanding between the peoples of the world.”

Shakespeare did, however, point to some “more hopeful” signs from the poll findings.

For example, when it comes to immigration — one of the key talking points during in last year’s US election — the results were generally positive.

The survey found that 63 percent of respondents believe Arab immigrants have made efforts to integrate themselves in US and Western societies.

And Shakespeare also pointed to the desire of US citizens to learn more about the Middle East, something on the agenda at the Arab Media Forum.

“About a third (of respondents said) they would like to see more media coverage about social, cultural and scientific aspects of the region,” Shakespeare wrote. “There appears to be some readiness to consider broader and more positive types of news.”

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1093246/middle-east
 
JustAFan said:
Where is "The Arab World" and can somebody post a map with it properly labeled?
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Here are the member states of the Arab League:

_56755741_alcompii.jpg


It may be pushing it to count the Comoros, Djibouti, and Somalia as part of the 'Arab World', although Arabic is an official language in those countries. On the other hand the Maltese speak a form of Arabic but are not included.
 
2cents said:
Here are the member states of the Arab League:

It may be pushing it to count the Comoros, Djibouti, and Somalia as part of the 'Arab World', although Arabic is an official language in those countries.
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But where on a map does it say "Arab World"

Kind of hard to locate a place on a map if it isn't labeled properly damn it!

white text and all that
 
JustAFan said:
But where on a map does it say "Arab World"

Kind of hard to locate a place on a map if it isn't labeled properly damn it!

white text and all that
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Ah I get you, fair point!
 
To be fair I did okay picking out the countries on the map, the issues I had were around Bahrain, UAE, Qatar and Oman. Also, never heard of Comoros before, my apologies to everyone from there.
 
:lol: Yeah I remember now
 
For all the science nerds:

http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(17)30246-5

A very very very interesting study about reversing aging by killing of senescent cells. The details of how this works and how it relates to aging are a bit complicated. The point is, that they tested it with mice and had amazing success. They could reverse various specific stuff like age related kidney dysfunctions, loss of hair etc., but the behaviour of the mice also changed and made the mice more vital/healthier/mobile/reactive to stimuli. The method worked with naturally aged mice, which is quite amazing. This FOXo4-DRI protein isn’t just slowing down aging, but is actually reversing it. Very promising.

---------------------------------------------

http://biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2017/04/04/123729.full.pdf

Sex Differences In The Adult Human Brain: Evidence From 5,216 UK Biobank Participants

Here we report the largest single-sample study of structural and functional sex differences in the human brain to date. (…)

This large-scale characterisation of neurobiological sex differences provides a foundation for attempts to understand the causes of sex differences in brain structure and function, and their associated psychological and psychiatric consequences.
Click to expand...

The paper isn’t even that long, but I havn’t read it yet. Still an interesting topic without all the usual bullshit.

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https://www.edge.org/response-detail/26714

The Race Between Genetic Meltdown and Germline Engineering

An argument why genetic engineering is going to be vital for the healthy survival of humanity.
 
Rouhani wins second term in Iran.
 
2cents said:
Rouhani wins second term in Iran.
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He better improve that economy...otherwise the voter backlash is going to sink a whole lot of reformists the next time around. I can see the hardliners going - 'well we tried it their way...see, it got us nowhere'.
 
What happens when you let libtards roam free for too long without adult supervision:

"Write a letter to a terrorist", children told to "respect" killers in new teaching aid

A NEW teaching aid that recommends schoolchildren as young as seven "write a letter to a terrorist" to help understand their motives has been condemned as "dangerous and misguided".

The book, Talking About Terrorism, published weeks before the Manchester Arena atrocity, describes the mass murder of innocent members of the public as a "type og war".

It tells primary age children that terrorists kill people because they believe they are being treated "unfairly and not shown respect".

It gives examples of "terrorists" whose ideas that turn out to be right. "The Suffragettes used violence and were called terrorists" it stated

"Today many people think of them as brave women and deserve their struggle for the right to vote."

In an activity recommended for pupils aged seven to 11, teachers are urged to "invite children to write a letter to a terrorist. If they could ask a terrorist six questions, what would they be ? "

Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said the letter task would confuse and potentially upset pupils.

He said: "This a crackpot idea based on the misguided notion that primary children must engage with, and show "respect" for religious fanatics who are seeking to kill them.

"in trying to help children "understand" terrorists motives, the book invites sympathy for the killers, critics claim.

And by invoking the Suffragettes and Nelson Mandela, it leads children to question whether terrorists might be justifiable, they say."

- Express.co.uk.
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http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/81...-killers-teaching-aid-talking-about-terrorism

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...ren-told-in-new-book/articleshow/58880030.cms

http://www.business-standard.com/ar...te-a-letter-to-terrorists-117052800304_1.html
 
SwansonsTache said:
What happens when you let libtards roam free for too long without adult supervision:
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So do you think the fact that struggles against colonialism, racism, and apartheid involved terrorist tactics should be censored from history books? Or that it's not worth discussing how deified sanitised figures like Mandela weren't exactly popular when they hadn't "won"?

Besides, it would be a little helpful if the article gave some actual lines from the book. For example, do you think Mandela advocated violence because he was "treated unfairly"? I think so, and I think students should know.
 
berbatrick said:
So do you think the fact that struggles against colonialism, racism, and apartheid involved terrorist tactics should be censored from history books? Or that it's not worth discussing how deified sanitised figures like Mandela weren't exactly popular when they hadn't "won"?

Besides, it would be a little helpful if the article gave some actual lines from the book. For example, do you think Mandela advocated violence because he was "treated unfairly"? I think so, and I think students should know.
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If the "struggles" against colonialism, racism and apartheid involved blowing up innocent children and innocent people, then yes it should be long forgotten and not glorified.

What the article underlines is the idiotic idea of trying to "understand" terrorism perpetrated in the name of an ideology that says that you should die if you are a non-believer, gay, liberated woman or infidel.

Simply idiotic to try to use the struggles that true freedom fighters like Mandela had to justify the rabid dogs that swear loyalty towards AQ and ISIS.
 
The problem is focusing on 'terrorism' as if that has any inherent value in itself, detached from the particular cause it's designed to advance.
 
SwansonsTache said:
If the "struggles" against colonialism, racism and apartheid involved blowing up innocent children and innocent people, then yes it should be long forgotten and not glorified.

What the article underlines is the idiotic idea of trying to "understand" terrorism perpetrated in the name of an ideology that says that you should die if you are a non-believer, gay, liberated woman or infidel.

Simply idiotic to try to use the struggles that true freedom fighters like Mandela had to justify the rabid dogs that swear loyalty towards AQ and ISIS.
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Terrorism has had many different meanings. "My terrorist your freedom fighter" etc. Examples other than Mandela include groups like Irgun and Stern Gang(their former leaders were received as honoured guests after they won), nationalists and leftist partisans in 1940s Eastern Europe, this guy in India: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagat_Singh.
It is important to understand that the word terrorist means what the govt wants it to mean.
Without specific examples, it's impossible to say what exactly that textbook is trying to do, or indeed if like @2cents says it is focusing on the term terrorism rather than the particular conflicts.
 
SwansonsTache said:
If the "struggles" against colonialism, racism and apartheid involved blowing up innocent children and innocent people, then yes it should be long forgotten and not glorified.
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If the pass/fail test is blowing up innocent children then you would to have pretend that there have been almost no wars or armies since dynamite was invented.

Australias war agains emu's would finally get some overdue attention, but it doesn't seem worth it.
 
There is a video of a dying girl Palestinian shot by Israeli soldiers popping up that I recommend avoiding if you don't want to be upset.

Really wish that hadn't played in my twitter feed.
 
SwansonsTache said:
Bunch of cnuts.

My dream is that their free ticket soon will be cancelled now that US has reached oil and energy independence.
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We haven't, actually. Not sure where you got that idea.

And where did they disrespect the silence? I didn't hear anything, though they didn't seem to know what was going on....
 
Organic Potatoes said:
We haven't, actually. Not sure where you got that idea.

And where did they disrespect the silence? I didn't hear anything, though they didn't seem to know what was going on....
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They stated clearly before the game that as per custom they would not participate in the minutes silence. I don't see any issue but people like being appalled about something these days.
 
lem8sh said:
They stated clearly before the game that as per custom they would not participate in the minutes silence. I don't see any issue but people like being appalled about something these days.
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Guardian report had pictures of them taking part in other minute silences.

I'm glad they lost the match, at least.
Also for the one guy who stood, well done.
 
Organic Potatoes said:
We haven't, actually. Not sure where you got that idea.

And where did they disrespect the silence? I didn't hear anything, though they didn't seem to know what was going on....
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Isn't your shale oil fields getting you near that goal soon? You have some giant fields like Bakken and Permian with estimated reserves near or greater than the Saudi fields.

Lifting cost also greatly reduced in the last few years, not quite at the levels of the Saudi's yet where you just have to put a straw into the ground, but still some shale fields are on about $25 lifting cost.
 
SwansonsTache said:
Isn't your shale oil fields getting you near that goal soon? You have some giant fields like Bakken and Permian with estimated reserves near or greater than the Saudi fields.

Lifting cost also greatly reduced in the last few years, not quite at the levels of the Saudi's yet where you just have to put a straw into the ground, but still some shale fields are on about $25 lifting cost.
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The production potential is there simply from a volume standpoint, especially when you add in things like the SCOOP/STACK which are also in development friendly environs.

But that ignores concrete concerns about crack spreads and refining capacity. Much of this oil coming online is too sweet unless refineries were to rebuild. And that isn't going to happen given that we've lifted the export ban and the Sauds are buying up refining capacity for their grades of oil.
 
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