No reason was ever given for this particular American professor's non-renewal at that new Liberal Arts University as would be required in any American university, on which that university was supposed to be modeled on. In short, the mechanisms for supporting good learning skills and scholarship are undermined by the collecting of "wasta" by local Arabs who know how to milk the traditional "wasta" system. For this very reason, "wasta" is seen to significantly be eroding the possible positive changes needed in a modern workforce.
This is tragic because the liberal arts model was imported to solve many of the areas of shortfall in home-grown leaders and educated citizenry. Olson and Diab note that Liberal Arts importation was intended to significantly help with the education and re-tooling of a national workforce to participate in the global economy. " However, the key tradition of "wasta" is the fastest means of bypassing most every procedure in society. However, this "wasta" is putting liberal arts in a disadvantaged position "because wasta drives out competence based education and its emphasis on critical thinking skills deriving from western liberal education." [8]
NOTES
[1] Al-Salman, Mohammed & Al-Qatari, Osama, "Country's Assets top $200 Billion",
THE DAILY STAR, 5 June 2007, p. 1
[2] Olson, Mark J. & Diab, Hassan, "When Wasta and Liberal Arts Conflict:
A Case Study of a Private University", Paper presented at American University's
Research & the Liberal Arts, 7 May 2007, p. 6.
[3] Ibid., p.2.
[4] Ibid., p. 4.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid., p.5.
[7] Ibid., p.6
