In his opening address at the 2024 International Congress of Arabic Publishing and Creative Industries—referred to for brevity as “Congress PCI”—Abu Dhabi’s Dr. Ali Bin Tamim spoke of how “the dynamic field of the creative industries has become indispensable”—and of how those creative industries “need Arabic and the Arabic language in turn needs the creative industries.”
Bin Tamim—well known to Publishing Perspectives readers as both the chair of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, which produces the Congress PCI, and as the secretary-general of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award—is in his third year of exploring this conference’s potential to elevate the stance and reach of Arabic in the world’s creative fields.
And in introducing today’s keynote discussion, Bin Tamim put the challenge into perhaps his most eloquent terms yet, speaking of “the amount of effort that is required for the Arabic language to have its rightful place in the amazing space of creative and cultural industries.”
In studying for years the potential of Arabic—both the language and its many cultures—to achieve its impact in the world’s creative industries, Bin Tamim said, “We have always agreed on emphasizing and diversifying efforts, shortening time, and overcoming obstacles and paving the way to achieve this goal.
“And here we are,” he said, “with you today for the third year in order to share ideas, exchange visions, attract innovative minds and creative energies, and engage young people and new generations to embody the gains of the ancient past and products that serve the present and lead us toward the future with a permanence worthy of the concept of sustainability, which is always celebrated by the United Arab Emirates in both word and action.”
With Bin Tamim having then taken his customary aisle seat on the front row of the conference he’d opened, the program moved to its keynote discussion, Foresight for Growth: Cultural and Creative Industries as a Driver for Economy.
Dr. Ali Bin Tamim, right, chair of the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center and secretary-general of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, watches the 2024 Congress PCI produced under his direction at Manarat Al Saadiyat. Image: Publishing Perspectives: Porter Anderson
Al Mubarak: ‘This Beautiful Language, Beautiful History’
“A societal investment in people’s right to exchange ideas” lies at the heart of what Mohamed Al Khalifa Mubarak sees as the fundamental value in leveraging extensive educational and cultural “building blocks” for Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, and the Arab world.
Al Mubarak is among the most charismatic and articulate spokespeople for the UAE’s evolving sense of itself in the cause of the Arabic language and its international cultural potential. Not only does he signal the inspirational possibilities of a raised profile and place for Arabic in world culture, but at times he speaks of this in oratorical cadences, astutely homing in on a keyword as a refrain to land his points with bracing rhythmic repetition.
He chairs the influential Department of Culture and Tourism at Abu Dhabi. Al Mubarak’s department thus oversees not only the Congress PCI and the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair—which opens Monday (April 29) to run to May 5—but also the Arabic Language Centre and many other programs.
Needed: “A true new form of investment, the investment of the mind when it comes to school curricula, when it comes to cultural programming in understanding what the Arab world has meant, when it comes not just to the present but to the past, and reminding us for the future.”Mohamed Al Khalifa Mubarak
Asked about measuring success—a question from moderator Caroline Faraj, the personable vice-president and editor-in-chief of CNN Arabic—Al Mubarak said, “You can measure success through the economic growth of this industry, specifically here in the United Arab Emirates to talk about PCI,” publishing and creative industries.
“We’ve been growing at 4 percent. And we hope to grow that to 5 percent from 2024 and beyond, on a year-to-year basis, success that’s obviously formulated in the employment numbers created by a sector which is up significantly. Not just here in the United Arab Emirates: You’re looking at 30 million people working in in the sector internationally.”
Al Mubarak said that more than 4 percent of the United Arab Emirates’ GDP is “coming directly from PCI.”
A key development Al Mubarak said he sees is “a true new form of investment, the investment of the mind when it comes to school curricula, when it comes to cultural programming in understanding what the Arab world has meant, when it comes not just to the present but to the past, and reminding us for the future.”
In too many educational contexts, Al Mubarak said, “You don’t learn much about the history of some of the greatest Arab thinkers, who are truly global thinkers because they’ve really changed the pathway that we receive today.”
Speaking with energy, he called for a specific “emphasis on making sure we learn about math and even learn about science philosophy—even when you learn about the English language—all of that has a clear mind and history. [So] how do we make sure that our content is following suit?”
El-Erian: ‘Biases Are Very Deep’
Queens’ College Cambridge’s Mohamed El-Erien speaks with Al Mubarak and Faraj. Image: Publishing Perspectives, Porter Anderson
Biases, said the Egyptian-American economist Mohamad El-Erian—now based at Queens’ College Cambridge and the former CEO of the investment management firm PIMCO—”are very deep.”
“One of the biases in the West is to forget that the Arab world was at the forefront of mathematics, astronomy, architecture.”Mohamed El-Erian
As a part of the three-speaker keynote with Al Mubarak and Faraj, El-Erien’s role in the discussion today was that of a cordial provocateur, always ready with a polite but persistent prod to the debate and a reminder that, as he put it, the UAE “has enabled a lot in Egypt.”
What would become evident is that unconscious bias might be behind inadequate educational attention to the contributions of the past from the Arab world.
“We all we all have biases,” he said, “and one of the biases in the West is to forget that the Arab world was at the forefront of mathematics, astronomy, architecture. I encourage people to go to Spain and see Grenada, Cordoba, and to realize that for a very long time, the Arab world has exported culture, has exported innovation, has exported creativity.
“And of course, a lot of that is forgotten,” he said in agreement with Al Mubarak: “It’s not taught in many curricula. It’s important to demonstrate, and this demonstration can help the West understand better the amount of culture and creativity that originated from this.”
This, it turns out, informs what Al Mubarak sees as the mission of his department in Abu Dhabi, but also for the Arab world, a mission to make this “demonstration” of Arabic talent and creativity and ingenuity that El-Erian talks about.
Most content today, Al Mubarak said, “has been consumed by the Midas touch. But there’s a void that can definitely be filled.
“We have a mandate for us” in the Arab world—”just like it’s the mandate for the Department of Culture and Tourism—a mandate for all our institutions to make to make sure that we create incentive schemes, that we generate funds to really invest in these creators, to create fantastic Arabic content, whether it’s stories, whether it’s short stories or novels, whether it’s content for television or film or games, in the Arabic language or attached to Arabic culture, Arabic history, Arabic tradition.
“To really emphasize the importance of how we should safeguard this beautiful language, beautiful history.”
A near-capacity crowd listens to the opening keynote discussion and Dr. Ali Bin Tamim’s comments at the 2024 Congress PCI in Abu Dhabi, April 28. Image: Publishing Perspectives