The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, says he is giving $10bn to set up an educational foundation in the Middle East.

The money is meant to improve the standard of education and research in the region, and aims to stimulate job creation, Sheikh Mohammed said.

It is thought to be one of the largest charitable donations in history.

From Al Bawaba:

According to human development reports, literary and intellectual books published in the Arab world represent only 0.08% of the world's output, less than those published in Turkey alone. For every 100,000 books published in North America, there are 42,000 published in South America, and only 6,500 books published in the Arab world.

The thing is, most of those in North America are "Dummies" books, celebrity tell-all memoirs, fad diet HOWTOs, obscure academic treatises, etc.

The most alarming indicators are the 18% illiteracy in the under-15 age group and the 43% illiteracy among females in the region.

For something (but not much) beyond the press release and factoids, consider this op-ed from The Brunei Times:

Our first comment is this: "It's about time".

It goes beyond simply purchasing books for the research centres as shoving information down the throat of students does not a scholar make.

Instead, we wish to see that more people in the Middle East return to the tradition of knowledge rooted in the understanding that mankind is first and foremost a creation of God, and which makes no distinction between women and men in intellectual pursuit.