CAIRO: The Obama administration and the economy are the subject of recent public opinion polls conducted in Egypt and other Arab states.
A Gallup poll on Arab views of US leadership found a significant leap in approval among Egyptians. In May 2008, 6 percent of Egyptians said they approve of the job performance of US leadership. But as of March 2009, 25 percent of Egyptians approve.
A World Public Opinion poll revealed that 49 percent of Egyptians have confidence in Obama to do the right thing while only 8 percent had such confidence in Bush. The Brookings Institute released the results of a public opinion poll at the end of May which looked at Arab opinions of the Obama administration, its goals and its cabinet. A few weeks after taking office, 41 percent of Egyptians were somewhat hopeful, 38 percent were neither hopeful nor discouraged and the remainder sat at the margins of hopefulness and discouragement.
Egyptians ranked Iraq and the Arab-Israeli conflict as the most important issues which the Obama administration must assess. While polls in the last few weeks have predominantly focused on opinions about the US vis-à-vis the Middle East, two new Gallup polls investigated some of the more long-term domestic issues facing Arab states. Gallup released a report regarding views of entrepreneurialism among Arab youth just last week. Egyptian youth sit firmly in the middle among other young Arabs in many categories.
Sixty-five percent of youth in Egypt believe that entrepreneurs create jobs, but 70 percent think that entrepreneurs act with their own wallet in mind. A remarkable 24 percent of youth across the Arab world say that they plan to start a business of their own in the next year. Just 4 percent of American youth can say the same, according to Gallup. However, just 30 percent believe that the government makes it easy for individuals to start their own businesses. Perceived problems with permits and paperwork are considered prohibitive. This figure is comparable to Egypt s neighbors. In contrast, 56 percent of Saudi Arabian youth believe the government makes it easy for them and just 13 percent of youth in Iraq agree. And in a Gallup poll released this week, researchers assessed the prospects and quality of life for young Arabs. Health, work and family were all reviewed.
Egyptian youth were exceptionally pessimistic with regards to job opportunities, just 18 percent stating it is a good time to be searching for work in the area in which they live. Compared to Arab peers, Egyptian youth report higher than average figures of negative emotions like sadness, boredom and anger. Interestingly, when asked how they thought their life was five years ago, how it is today and how they expect it to be in five years, Egyptian youth felt their lives were progressively improving when scaled on a ladder from 0 to 10.
