Extensions of Remarks

1336 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS January 30, 1980 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS TRIBUTE TO ARETTA CRITICS SAY ILL-ADVISED SPENDING OF OIL aside from oil, these duffcountries-mTgfi.f BARRINGER . FuNDs HURTS ARAB S~IETY. be building white elephanf.s. <By Youssef M. Ibrahim> The rapid modernization taking place in the Gulf, the vast expansion of the school LoNDON, Jan. 27~-Economic experts on HON. GERALD B. H. SOLOMON the Persian Gulf are warning increasingly system and of social welfare have not been OF NEW YORK matched by any degree of pcilitica1 liberal that overly ~bitious plans, bad advice, ization. So, while a new generation is grow IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES little experience and hurried spending in the Arab oil-producing countries have cre ing up better educated and more ambitious, Wednesday, January 30, 1980 ated a force that is tearing at the social it is deprived of participating in the deci- • sionmaking process. • Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, on fabric of these conservative Arab nations February 2 the people of Poestenkill, and distorting their economies. DISSIDENT'S BOOK IS BANNED. N.Y., will be paying tribute to one of The warnings are not new. But now they "They send us abroad; they give us the New York State's most dedicated are voiced by a growing chorus of Arab tech- best education money can buy, but when we . · nocrats in such places as Qatar, the United come home with our ·degrees from Harvard · public servants, Aretta Barringer. For Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and or Cambridge it is only to find out they are 52 years, until her decision not to seek Bahrain. not serious about incorporating us in. the the job . last year, Aretta served as Because of the sensitivity of Arab rulers system of govemm~nt,'' said Abdallah al town clerk of Poestenkill. But do not in these countries to open questions about Neifeissy. "They still want allegiance to the get the idea that Aretta, who will be the way they spend their oil money, the ruling families first, not know-how." Dr. 90 on her next birthday, has settled criticism often takes the form of scholarly Neifeissy seryed as chairman of the political into an easy. retirement. She Will still exercises at seminars, or of dissidents anon science department of Kuwait University serve the town as registrar of vital sta- ym.ously pointing to what they see as poten- until 1978 when he wrote a book expressing similar views. Now his book is banned in tistics. ti~:~~ss, with the Persian Gulf oil Kuwait, and the Cambridge-educated pro Aretta, besides having the distinc- · producers ~bout to receive another large in fessor says he can neither teach nor work tion-of serving longer as a town clerk crease in revenues, questions about past and there. He has taken refuge in Britain but re than anyone else in New York ·state, future spending policies are becoming more mains one of the Arab· world's best-known can claim a couple of other firsts. She persistent both at home and abroad. In ad dissidents, expressing a view often heard in was the first woman in Poestenkill to dition, President Carter has identified the the Gulf these days. hold a public office. This is not sur- · Persian Gulf as an area of vital interest for To be sure, there has been a striking im · · f · t the United States. And Just across the Gulf prising, since shE: was also the u~s from the Arab States is the disorder in provement in the living stattdards of the woman to vote in Poestenkill after Iran-a vivid reminder of the revolutionary Arab populations in the Gulf. New roads, jammed with new cars, criss-cross every women's suffrage. forces that may be unleashed by large-scale Arab capital, and they are lined with new Aretta's sense of duty as an elected unstructured spending. · buildings and broad villas. The rooftops official and citizen are only over- Since 1974, when oil prices quadrupled, bristle with televisions antennas. There are shadowed by her own warm personal- the handful of countries . in . the Gulf new hospitals, new hotels and even ice-skat tty apd integrity. Aretta's active role region-which have a combined population ing rinks in some places like Kuwait where in that community and her 52 years of no.larger than.New York Sta~e-:-have spent the thermometer stays at 115 degrees for conscientious service to the people of $250 billion to push their prmutive econo- months out of the year. Young Bahrainis ·. mies into the modem era. I The fear now is that along with their and Kuwaitis pick up. their car phones to Poestenkill will be forever cherished. call friends in London as they drive to their join with Aretta's many friends and rising standard. of living they might have new universities, and they spend their sum neighbors in thanking her for a Job bought a potential nightmare. mers in Western Europe and the United well done and in wishing her the very "We are talking about an unprecedented States. · best.e experience in history,'' said Tim Niblock, deputy director of the Center of Arab Gulf The blessings of. the consumer society of Studies at Exeter University. "What is hap the.West have indeed arrived in the Gulf. U.S. DOLLARS AND ARAB pening there has no parallel anywhere. But the price for this progress has been CULTURES Many of these' governments are losing con high, many believe. To Dr. Neifeissy, and trol of their own· countries," many less outspoken Arab technocrats This was, he said, the broad conclusion of eager to keep their Jobs, the huge presence HON. GERRY E. STUDDS a panel of experts who gathered at the of foreigners has become a major irritant. "We are sick of them; they are after the OF MASSACHUSETTS center a few months ago to examine the de velopment process begun by the Gulf states money, not the comm:on good of the coun IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 'when the price of oil rose from $2 a barrel try," said a middle-level manager with We.dnesday, January 30, 1980 in 1973 to around $30 at present. Saudia, the Saudi national airline, on a The critics say they see the following de recent flight from Dhahran to Jidda. e Mr. STUDDS. Mr. Speaker, for the structive patterns developing in the Gulf: Yet the scale of development started by' consideration of my colleagues, I The· oil producers, hampered in their de countries such as Saudi Arabia cannot be ac would like to submit an article which velopment effort by small populations, are complished without foreign labor. With a appeared in the New York Times on being flooded with foreign workers.· In native population of four million to five mil January 28, 1980; which questions the Qatar and Kuwait, imported labor is larger lion, few skilled workers of their own and wisdom of the internal investments of than .the native population. By 1985 another even fewer managers, the Saddis ·have tied several Persian Gulf countries and the two million foreign -workers will be needed themselves for "°t least the next two decades in the Gulf in addition to the nearly three to a large contingent of foreign workers. role of the United States in those in million already there. There are a.bout two million migrants in vestments. Development is focusing almost entirely Saudi Arabia. Kuwait has nearly 600,000, In light of our recent policy failures on the oil sector and heavy industry. The almost half its population. Tens of thou in Iran, I think that we need to be neglect of nonoil resources has damaged sands of migrants live in the other Gulf mindful that certain parallels may be such traditional areas of econon1ic develop Emirates. Experts say that more will come. found in our involvement in other area ment. as agriculture and fishing. Attempts A recent study by J.s: Birks and c.~ Sin countries as well. that were made to modernize these sectors clair of Durham University iri England pro The same resentment which accrued were poorly managed. jects that 1.9 million additional workers will The industrialization effort has been un have to be imported by the conservative to the United States over lavish ex dertaken without any regional coordination. monarchies of the Gulf 'in the next five penditures on arms and Westerniza As a result, airports, factories and industrial years. Saudi Arabia, which has just complet tion projects in Iran· could have a parks are being built without a rational pro ed a $180 billion five-year development pro sequel in other Middle Eastern coun gram. With small consumer· markets of their gram, is about to start another, with a price tries. own, high labor costs and no raw materials tag of $250 billion, according to American • This .. bullet.. symbol identifies ..statements or insertions which a.re not spoken by the Member on the floor. January 30, 1980 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 1337 banking sources here who are familiar with are 20 minutes apart by car. Dubai is also recent months, with no slackening in the still-secret budget of the plan. building a huge dry-dock ship repair yard consumer demand yet in sight. A SHARE OF THE WEALTH DEMANDED that will only duplicate a similar facility in There are a multitude· of sound, nearby Bahrain. · Nearly 70 percent of the migrant labor The greatest concern i~ that many of the practical reasons for supporting alco- foree consists of poorer Arabs, in including· 1.arge industrial projects are · unrealistic.

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