And so does Nadine. Thank you for voting on the Kindle question guys! Results shall be discussed this week. On to more pressing issues.
I was going to write a nice, happy, optimistic piece celebrating baby steps in the right direction, along the lines of what Thomas Freidman wrote in the NYTimes today.
Honest, I was.
Because I still remember being seven, sitting cross-legged in front of the TV (the kind with a manual spin dial for changing channels) on the threadbare Persian carpet in our living room in Beirut, watching Amine Gemayel, the handsome then-Lebanese-President/militiaman/murderer and not appreciating the look of disgust that crossed my aunts’ faces as they passed the television screen (they may have spat, memories are fuzzy). Did they not appreciate his hotness? The patriotic backdrop of a red-and-white Lebanese flag flapping behind him, set to our snazzy national anthem?
Why the hate, my little 7-year-old heart cried out. Can’t we just try and be optimistic for once?
Apparently not, because:
A) Arabs are inherently melancholy and nostalgic (and not the “good” nostalgic, either). This is why most Arab literature that gets translated into English only gets read by the same people who swear by the New York Times Literary Review, meaning you’ll never catch a dude on the subway with his/her nose buried in a fun/sexy/thrilling/romantic/funny novel by an Arab writer. This is something I really hope will change.
B) Arabs have a good century’s worth of broken promises under their collective belts, beginning with a promise of self-sufficiency and auto-governance by Brits and Frenchies at the end of WWI which turned into - quite literally - the fuck-up of the century. The tattered trail of broken promises is limping right into 2009 with yet another American president trying to make nice with Arabs. That kind of baggage can turn a ray of sunshine grouchy.
I say “Arabs” and not “Muslims” because most Muslims are not Arabs. Arabs account for only about 8% of the world’s one-and-a-half-billion Muslim souls. Indonesia is actually the country with the highest concentration of Muslims in the world and is - believe or not - a functioning, non-radical-Islamist democracy! Can you believe that? No? I don’t blame you. Though on a related note, how much must it suck to be one of the one-and-a-half billion NON-ARAB Muslims, and constantly see your religion depicted by a few hundred million dudes in white robes and checkered headscarves? Or being an Arab-Christian, like Zahra, in mu novel Cutting Loose (and many, many of my dear friends?)
Back to Obama… so what’s there to complain about now, you ask. And rightly so - we’re finally rid of Bush, surely there must be a silver lining somewhere.
Well, simply put, as nicely as Barak Obama speaks about this political theater that is the Middle-East peace process, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still political theater.
Bigger honchos than Barak have made promises to cut through the bullshit and said that they really mean it this time, and yet the only thing that’s changed since 1993 (date of the Oslo Peace Accords - it was a BIG deal at the time), is that I’m now sporting a few gray hairs on my head.
And with the gray hairs I suppose I should have sprouted some wisdom. But no, I read Thomas Friedman’s NYTimes piece this morning and allowed myself to feel as hopeful and optimistic as an American.
Then I read this Op Ed piece (also in the NTTimes) by an Egyptian journalist, and the picture he paints, in true Arab fashion, is pessimistic, grounded, and gray.
Reality is not usually a fun place to be. I don’t blame Americans for their aversion to it. It plain sucks, to tell you the truth.
And while you’re reading Hossam’s Op-ed piece, I’d like you to do a little compare-and-contrast exercise in your head, between Cuba and Egypt…
…both countries run by dictators-for-life with little to no respect for human rights? Check!
…critical-of-the-regime bloggers are getting fined and/or imprisoned left and right? Check!
…ruling elite hogs most of nation’s resources? Check, with one caveat: Fidel spreads the wealth around a little bit better, ensuring education, housing, and health care for all. Over in the land of the Nile, illiteracy is rampant, millions are homeless or live in shanty towns, electricity is not widespread, and health care? What’s health care?
…both countries getting ONE BILLION DOLLARS IN AID FROM THE US? Ch..uh… no, not quite. Egypt gets military aid (which of course, it can’t use against the only country likely to attack it, Israel), and Cuba gets a big fat embargo.
So why did Obama choose to visit Egypt (and they uber-dictatorial Saudi Arabia, which perfectly embodies Borat’s views on where women figure in society)?
Good question, but Thomas Friedman sure isn’t asking it.
Score one for delusion, and ziltch for a happy, sunny blog post about Obama’s Mideast visits.
Tomorrow: notes on the book club meeting! Thank you for voting! More Cristiano pics! GCC blog tour! No depressing political posts! Yay!
Ex-Lebanese President Ameen Gemayel
