This site uses cookies.
Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site,
while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.
For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
This person has a SecurePRO™ card. Because this person is not a ProZ.com Plus subscriber, to view his or her SecurePRO™ card you must be a ProZ.com Business member or Plus subscriber.
Affiliations
This person is not affiliated with any business or Blue Board record at ProZ.com.
Services
Translation, Editing/proofreading
Expertise
Also works in:
IT (Information Technology)
Education / Pedagogy
Portfolio
Sample translations submitted: 1
Arabic to English: What causes corruption and how can we tackle it? General field: Social Sciences Detailed field: Government / Politics
Source text - Arabic إنّ ضعف الآليات الديمقراطية وآليات المساءلة – على الصعيدين المؤسساتي والفردي هي من أهم العوامل السياسية التي تؤدي إلى تفشي أعمال الفساد. من هنا نرى حالات تكون فيها الدولة في قبضة النخب القوية التي تتمتع بنفوذ واسع وحرية تصرف لا تتوافر لهم في أنظمة أكثر فعالية وديمقراطية. إنّ ضعف الحريات المدنية ونقص الشفافية وغياب ثقافة المحاسبة - وهو عادةً انعكاس للتركيبة الاجتماعية ذاتها - يؤدي إلى تعزيز الأرضية الخصبة للفساد. استناداً إلى ذلك، نجد أن الدولة التي تحاكي وضعاً شبيهاً غالباً ما تنتمي إلى الحقبة القمعية وفقاً لتقييم ابن خلدون أو غيره من الكتّاب الذين طرحوا فكرة العقد الاجتماعي حتى ولو ظهرت تلك الدولة في قالبٍ ديمقراطي عصري. وهذا نتيجة تشكيل العوامل البيروقراطية عاملاً بارزاً، بحيث بات التوسع في بيروقراطية الدولة يؤدي إلى صلاحيات استنسابية واسعة وإلى وصول أفراد محدّدين يسيطرون على موارد الدولة ويتمتعون بامتيازات تتعلق بالمناصب الإدارية بشكلٍ لا يتناسب مع حجم الإنتاج الحقيقي لتلك المؤسسات. وإلى منع نمو آليات الإشراف والشفافية والمساءلة فيها (المؤسّسات والدولة) أو حتى نموّ روحية الخدمة العامة لديها. وبما أن وجود البيروقراطيات حالة شائعة جداً فإنّ تضخم آلة الدولة تؤثّر على جدلية العلاقة بين المواطن والدولة، بحيث يصبح المواطن هو الطرف الذي يتكيف مع احتياجات الدولة على حساب حقوقه الأساسية. هذا التغيّر في العلاقة يؤدّي إلى ضرب مفهوم الحقوق والواجبات بحيث تتحول العلاقة بين أطراف المجتمع من علاقة تبادل وتكافل إلى علاقة شدّ وجذب وتصارع مما يدفع المسؤول إلى اعتبار نفسه فوق المساءلة فيما ينقل الأفراد أنماط السلوك المتجذّرة في العائلة أو المجتمع المحلي الصغير إلى الإدارة العامة وينقلون معها أنماط محاباة الأقارب والأصحاب والمحسوبية والإثراء الشخصي على حساب المصلحة العامة
Translation - English The weakness of democratic mechanisms and mechanisms of accountability – both on an institutional level and an individual level—is one of the most important of the many political factors that lead to the spread of corruption.
Hence, we see cases in which the state is in the grip of powerful elites who enjoy a freedom of action and breadth of influence that would not be available to them under a more effective and democratic system.
Indeed, the weakness of civil liberties, the lack of transparency, and the absence of a culture of accountability—which is usually a reflection of the social structure—create a fertile ground for corruption.
On that basis, we hold that a state in these kinds of conditions generally belongs to a repressive epoch according to the assessment of Ibn Khaldoun and other writers who advanced the idea of a social contract—even if this state appears in the shape of a contemporary democracy.
This is result of the formation of bureaucracies as a prominent factor in the state, such that the expansion of the bureaucracy came to lead to several things: to a widening in its discretionary powers; to providing a limited number of individuals in power with access to the state’s resources and with privileges related to administrative positions in a way that is not commensurate with the scale of what those institutions really produce; and to the prevention of the development of mechanisms for oversight, transparency, and accountability in these institutions or in the state, or even the development of a spirit of public service.
And since the presence of bureaucracies is very common, the expansion of the state’s machinery affects the dialectic relationship between state and citizen in such a way that the citizen becomes the party that must adapt to the state’s needs at the expense of his or her fundamental rights.
This change in the relationship between state and citizen leads to a crackdown on the very concept of rights and duties so that the relationship between parties in a democracy is transformed from a relationship of exchange and interdependence into a relationship of push and pull, of conflict, which makes those in power consider themselves to be above accountability. They transfer patterns of behavior that are rooted in the family or in local microcosms of society to the sphere of public administration, and with it they bring favoritism towards relatives and friends, nepotism, and personal enrichment at the expense of the public interest.
More
Less
Experience
Years of experience: 12. Registered at ProZ.com: Jul 2009.
Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Powerpoint
Bio
I'm an Arabic - English translator living and working in Portland, Oregon. I studied Arabic at Columbia University and at the Center for Arabic Study Abroad in Damascus.
I also teach Arabic to high school, junior college, and college students.
I love Syria, Syrian television shows, and looking at the impact of the Internet and social media on the Middle East. I'm the author of Syria - Culture Smart! In my spare time, I volunteer with the online NGOs Global Voices Online and Meedan.net.
Portfolio