Make Way, the Arabs are coming

We humans are a curious bunch and it is this curiosity that allowed us to document our every endeavor. Every now and then events happen which we deem monumental to our existence, choosing their final resting place to be among the pages of our cherished history books.

At times the world seems to move in the same cycle, uttering the same words and displaying the same images year after year.

This is not one of those times.

This is a time when intense events are unfolding at a speed that has flung the Arab world spiraling out of its hamster wheel.

The Arab nation had been abused and forced to keep this corrupt wheel turning for far too long. For decades it lay comatose and suddenly its eyes opened. Its people have been pushed to limits that no human should have to endure, limits that made death seem a better option than the world they live in.  Basic human rights have become a luxury that only a few could boast about. Even dreams of a better life were murdered by the realities of government corruption that seeped to the very core of their societies. The only dream that is packaged and sold to ambitious folks around the world is the American one, an Arab version does not exist.

Political debates and arguments are now taking place in every living room and coffee shop around the Middle East. Some proud of the revolutions snow-balling through the Arab world, others hesitant, fearful of embracing them, programmed to believe that no good can come from any Arab decision. The discussions are always political, yet if we peel away the layers of criticism and attempts at the rationalization of events, we will see that this revolution is not about politics at all. It is about the citizens of countries that without them would seize to exist. It is about the every day people who make the world go around.

This revolution started with a single spark that ignited Mohamed Bouazizi’s body in the middle of a dusty Tunisian street. Bouazizi was not a politician. He never dreamed of his death as being a tool in any political agenda’s toolbox. He did not imagine that the burns on a street vendor’s body could raise the prices of oil or impact the economy. He was just a young man who wasn’t even allowed to dream of a better tomorrow.

What shocked the world was that the people who related to Bouazizi’s desperation came out in the millions. Millions of people chose to face death rather than go back to their hopeless lives. They chose to walk bare-chested under a sky raining bullets rather than endure the blatant disregard of their humanity. They were willing to make that sacrifice because they knew that the road to freedom is soaked in gallons of blood yet the destination is worth every drop.

They are being sniped from the rooftops, driven over by cars, bombed from fighter jets, and massacred by the very images that hung framed over their desks as they worked day in and day out. Presidents who when tested have excelled at failing. Living in complete denial until the very end, holding on to the last splinter of the chair that once kept them high above the rest. Refusing to bow down to the wishes of the world, deaf to the cries of rejection and willing to sacrifice more innocent souls for their egos to remain intact. Thirty years are not enough, forty years, still not enough, for power is a beast that grows within man feeding on everything in its path.

This contagious revolution will eventually find its way to our history books as being the era when the Arab political face was reconstructed by its people. When political alliances were revealed to be nothing but false promises and misplaced trust. When tyrants fell in slow-motion as the world watched. This time will be remembered as the moment when the idea of an Arab dream was conceived. 

This article was published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 27th Feb, 2011.

Egypt spoke, the world listened

On January 25^th, 2011, we heard that a group of young Egyptians have started a protest against their government. Slowly but surely and along the duration of the day more and more people found their feelings resonating in the voices of these youngsters. By the end of that fateful day the protest had morphed into an escalating revolution from which the Egyptian people never looked back.

As the world witnessed the bravery of every man, woman and child in the now world-famous Tahrir Square we were unconsciously attending a lesson in life taught to us by the people of Egypt. We watched attentively and listened carefully to every news piece or image we could get our hands on. And when it was all over and our eyes welled up at the sheer joy emanating from the centre of Cairo on February 11^th, 2011, the world learned the greatest lesson in modern history.

The political world learned that its ship could in fact be steered by the people. Aspiring dictators learned to keep looking over their shoulders. Current dictators learned that their delusions of grandeur are indeed just that. Citizens of every nation learned that peaceful protests could indeed be fruitful. The world learned that there is power in numbers. And the lesson we are indebted to Egypt for, our future generations learned that in the face of oppression silence is never golden.

Egypt has always been the school where Arab nations went in search of knowledge and inspiration. Today and in only eighteen days Egypt schooled the entire modern world on the true meaning of freedom and solidarity. Egypt will continue to give as long as it speaks with the voice of its courageous people who will continue to inspire as they keep fighting for a better tomorrow. 

This comment was published in Panorama magazine on 18th February, 2011.

2010 One last time

As 2010 draws to a close some of us have already drafted our resolutions for the coming year, others like myself, cannot help but take one last glance over our shoulders for it is only by doing so that we are truly able to move forward. When we look back we see that in 2010 Mother Nature demanded our attention with earthquakes that shook us to the core, floods that drowned our homes and volcanic ash that halted our very movement. We proved our ignorance with an oil spill, which after months of stubbornness desecrated everything in its path. She in turn swallowed 33 miners and kept them hostage.

Throughout this ongoing battle we witnessed some of us pull together and others tear apart. We saw environmental activists rush to rescue the oil covered wild life. We watched as thousands gave aid to earthquake ravaged and submerged countries. We experienced the feeling of pride in the human mind when scientists and engineers came together inventing a contraption, which pulled men unscathed from the dark bowels of the earth.

2010 proved to us that one’s convictions are worth fighting for even if it means being imprisoned half your life, the moment Aung San Suu Kyi took her first breaths of freedom.

This past year also introduced us to the United States’ new enemy who, for a change, dons no turban and has no beard. Julian Assange founder of the latest weapon of mass destruction Wikileaks, has for the first time in modern history given the people a chance to eaves drop on the goings-on of the selected few who govern our world. And although most of what we learned was not entirely new, with Wikileaks this information suddenly had the power to officially hold governments accountable.

Segregation seemed to be the word of the year for both Korea and Sudan with Norths and Souths refusing to live in harmony with one another.

Meanwhile, on our side of the globe the United Arab Emirates unveiled its Burj Khalifa, the tallest building on the planet, and Qatar became the first Arab country chosen to host the FIFA World Cup. Yet we also continued to watch as injustices and crimes were committed on our land and in our waters when the Israeli military raided ships carrying aid to Palestinians in Gaza, killing unarmed volunteers and shocking the entire world with its blatantly disparaging excuses. We watched dumbfounded as they raided Al Aqsa mosque and refused to halt their illegal settlement building. We felt Islamophobia shivers all the way from New York City down our spines and had to endure a lowly person rally to burn the Quran.

We heard President Barack Obama announce the end of combat operations in Iraq and while it still remains a battered country we wondered what difference did the US interference actually make in the life of the average Iraqi citizen. We witnessed democracy dying in Kuwait as journalists were imprisoned and members of parliament dragged from their homes and beaten up by their own government.

Indeed we should be drafting our new year’s resolutions but not after we have looked back at the images and heard the sounds of 2010 resonate in our minds, if for nothing else but to sculpt our dreams and hone our aspirations for a better tomorrow.

Here’s hoping that 2010 was a lesson in life we will not soon forget.

This article was published in The Gulf Today and Al Khaleej newspapers on Dec. 30th, 2010.

Democracy alive and unwell

Ever since the notion of democracy had been conceived by the Grecian philosopher Plato and to this very day a universally accepted definition for the word fails to exist. With the word democracy you are allowed to paint a picture of man comfortable in the arms of equality and freedom. With democracy the image is of beauty but is it of reality?

Idealistically, democracy should rise from the people’s need for freedom, from their endless pursuit of equality. It should come from within the country and not be perceived as a foreign idea that if embraced will manifest into a foreign entity that will wreak havoc among the people. The essence of democracy is enticing and that is why throughout history it has been the West’s Trojan Horse. A beautiful idea gifted to the world, which in most times, hides within it the tools for the deconstruction of a country.

One day and on a whim the United States government decided that the former ruler of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, is a tyrant predictably after he similarly woke up one day and decided America is one too. The United States government overthrew, prosecuted and sentenced the tyrant to death all the while aiming to make Iraq a democratic country. Seven years on and not only has the United States failed to democratise Iraq, its mere introduction of the idea had sent its people spinning in a whirlwind of chaos dividing the land and forcing them into a sectarian war.

Later, we witnessed the democracy crusaders attempting to convert the people of Afghanistan. In theory, democracy seems to bring light to the people engulfed in the darkness of oppression. But in all practicality, this idea being successfully implemented in Afghanistan at this moment in time is very optimistic and a far cry from reality. Nevertheless, the ever-optimistic America trudged on with its plan. Yet, no sooner than the voting began than we heard the inevitable cries of corruption and forging of votes. Not to mention the Taliban raiding voting booths armed with weapons and their casual threats of face mutilation and finger-chopping.

There must be some basic prerequisites present before democracy can settle comfortably among the people. Elements such as education and literacy and an overall understanding of this ideological concept the people are expected to readily adopt. There also has to exist some sort of political stability within a country before it begins taking the shape of a democratic entity. And most importantly a country should have the choice of whether or not it wishes to be governed by this particular type of democracy. Because it is not enough to be labelled democratic, there is more to this self-governing idea than just a name.

The democratic experiment continued to fail around the world as we witnessed the 2009 Iranian presidential elections. We saw democracy crumble in the streets of Tehran as its people took to them in protest, accusing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of election fraud.

Meanwhile, in Arab countries we continue to be told that democracy resides. Yet their leaders go on winning every election by staggering numbers in the 99th percentiles, numbers that never waiver regardless of the public’s opinion on their governance. 

The world considers them democratic countries but are they really so when they start silencing and manipulating the media? And when they impose regulations on telecommunication companies in efforts to hinder the sway of voters at the first sight of a true opposing candidate? Arab countries are tackling a political genetic mutation, a ‘democratorship’ if you will, and so we continue to witness unabashed non-democratic actions from these democratic countries.

The closest the Gulf has come to democracy is through the Kuwaiti parliament known as the Kuwait National Assembly. Although it faces the occasional conflicts with Kuwait’s Crown Prince it seems to work for the people of Kuwait because it rose from the people of Kuwait. It works because Kuwaitis saw a need for it and chose to utilise it as best they could. Kuwait is officially a constitutional monarchy, which simply means that its legislative power is shared between the Crown Prince and the National Assembly. 

This notion of democracy seems to be the proverbial carrot dangling before our faces teasing us to forever pursue it, within our reach yet unreachable. The solution is to stop looking forward and look around for a change. Look up, look down, look to your right and to your left for the answer could be around you while you continue to move ahead. 

Contrary to Western beliefs, democracy is not solely a Western idea. In Islam the Quran has instructed the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) to “consult with them upon the conduct of affairs.” (Quran 3:159). And for a society of similar publics “whose rule is based upon consultation (Shura) among themselves” (Quran 42:38). Democracy does not need to be in the Western form for it to exist. It can grow, however, it wants as long as its aim is equality. 

Democracy’s aim is to treat people as equals by providing similar rights and ensuring their comfort and happiness. If that is its sole purpose then, by definition, in a land where people are already happy and content there exists no need for democracy. Democracy’s existence in a place where that aim has already been realised seems to be both irrelevant and confusing. 

Democracy should always be viewed through a more philosophical perspective rather than a political one because after all democracy was born to a philosopher and murdered by a politician.

This article was published in The Gulf Today on 24th October, 2010.

Orwell saw the black in Blackberry

When George Orwell was writing his political sci-fi novel Nineteen Eighty-Four he had no idea how close his imaginative classic would come to eerily predict our future. It took a few years past the year 1984 but in 2010 our world is resembling Orwell’s futuristic one and realising his grim outlook.

The industrial age gave us the means to pave the technological road, which led us to the age of information. Information or the excessive access and manipulation of it have eventually landed us in the era we live in today, the time we could quite easily dub, the age of paranoia.

Civilisations tend to embrace technological advancements in the hope that with them comes progress and enlightenment. But sooner than the world realised, technology spread like wildfire and before we knew it every man and child had the entire world at their disposal. Overnight, the power of information was available to all, even the once harmless person was now equipped for destruction.

Civilisations also cannot thrive without maintaining order and controlling chaos. Yet this virtual world they helped create and nurture has now turned into a living, breathing monster they cannot seem to control. Information technology has become their Frankenstein.

Once the monster broke loose governments strove to maintain control over the potential chaos it could cause. With the countries’ security at risk governments quickly started to monitor the instigator of all fears, the borderless world they helped create, the Worldwide Web. Emails, chat rooms and blogs became breeding grounds for anarchy and a major concern to government security.

Social networking websites had to revise their privacy policies because when it came to the Internet no stone would remain unturned, no page unmonitored. The social-networking site Twitter has donated the entire world’s status updates (tweets) to the United States’ Library of Congress claiming they took this step for the “preservation and research” of tweets.  Why would the Library of Congress want to preserve and research random peoples’ updates? Regardless of the reasons, whatever you decide to use your 140 characters for, rest assured they will be archived and never be erased. Once you send that tweet you can never take it back.

Countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom took the monitoring to the streets, and to their publics’ outrage, have introduced the use of closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) as a tool for crime prevention. The UK has not divulged the total number of CCTVs being used or whether or not this method has directly lowered crime rates, although according to several independent studies CCTVs have reduced crime in the UK by only four per cent. Their effectiveness is very low considering their massive cost on the taxpayers and on their civil liberties.

It is supposed to feel comforting having an eye watching you on every street corner yet there is something quite unsettling about it. Looking back at Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four his Big Brother Surveillance prophecy has indeed been manifested through today’s CCTV.  

After the Web monitoring and the street watching comes the latest fight against terror in the form of cell-phone tapping. The new terrorist on the governments’ block is the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM). RIM has made it on this list because of their smart-phone device, the Blackberry. The company’s effort to differentiate its product by offering their customers complete privacy, a safe-zone if you will, through the use of this device is its crime.

Yes the big picture is clear and we are reminded of it everyday. Yes, terror is among us. Yes, national security is of utmost importance and governments have the right and obligation to maintain peace within their territory. But while we are staring at and being consumed by the bigger picture have we managed to neglect the smaller one within it?

The conflicting rights are bewildering and can place a person at a thorny crossroad. On the one hand we have to think of our safety as a nation and on the other we have to be concerned for our right in pursuing a private life. National security is sacred and should be fought for but are we willing to sacrifice personal privacy as our not so glorified casualty of this fight against terror?

Should we wilfully accept that every word we type on Twitter be documented by the United States’ security service? Every letter we type in haste or anger be a weapon used against us?

Should it be normal to walk down a street and not feel like you’re being watched but be certain of it?

Should law-abiding citizens be scrutinised and punished in the name of national security?

It is quite a dilemma that once absorbed, forces a person to re-sketch the parameters of his private space and rethink his every step, for you never know who is out there watching, listening and ‘documenting’. 

Most of what Orwell prophesized in Nineteen Eighty-Four has come true in some form or another. In Orwell’s fictitious world “You had to live – did live, from habit that became instinct – in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard and, except in darkness, every moment scrutinized”.

Here’s hoping his Thought Police aren’t next.

This article was published in The Gulf Today newspaper on August 30th, 2010.

BLOOD ON THE DECKS OF PEACE

"While our Arab league deliberates, the ships bringing aid have become the ones in need of it."

After months of planning and preparation the Gaza Freedom Flotilla consisting of six ships boarded by 700 brave volunteers set sail last Sunday night carrying aid to the 1.5 million besieged people in Gaza. Bravely attempting to sail through and peacefully penetrate the Israeli blockade was their mission. 

700 civilians who could no longer sit aside and wait, who could no longer go about their daily lives carrying the weight of their suffering brothers and sisters on their backs. Aware of the risks involved and the unpredictably hostile nature of the Israeli military they left the comfort of their homes and said goodbye to their families convinced that this movement is of absolute importance to the Palestinian people. What they were not aware of while boarding the decks and sailing into the darkness is that their journey will be of absolute importance for the whole world.

It has marked a day in history, a day when Israel lost control of its media cover up. A day that moved many of the younger generation to tears at hearing the news of how this brave journey ended. Nineteen have been shot dead by the Israeli navy who opened fire on the peaceful visitors long before exiting international waters. With communication from the boats severed we had nothing to go by until after the deaths.

The International media’s semantic magic show decided to instantaneously make the word “aid” disappear from their headlines. And as per usual the rest of the world got to hear Israel’s side of the story, which always goes something like this “so and so attacked us” and “it wasn’t us it was them” etc. You know how it goes, you have been hearing it for years. It’s ironic how it is only in Israel that attackers are always the ones dying.

We are stunned by the news but what shook us to the core is the slowness in the Arab governments’ response. The Turkish government moved immediately after the news was heard and so did the Iranian one. Meanwhile, it took our proud Arab nations half a day to appear with their condemnations followed by their announcement that the Arab league will meet no later than tomorrow?! What can be more urgent than a merciless attack on innocent aid workers?

While our Arab league deliberates, the ships bringing aid have become the ones in need of it. And on the Gaza shores the news fell the hardest for the flicker of hope sailing towards them had been once again snubbed by Israel and once again the walls of the siege seemed to rise higher and stand stronger.

We are here to tell Gaza and the people of Palestine that this movement has set the precedent for many more to come. The people have not forgotten you and are ready to fill your seas with their blood delivering the help you need. Today the world’s view has changed in many ways. Israel can stop a flotilla but it cannot stop our longing for freedom. To the families of the people lost on board the Freedom Flotilla I give my sincerest condolences and ask you to keep your heads up for you now carry an emblem of pride on your chests and in your hearts forever.

As for the Arab governments, you could learn a thing or two from these brave martyrs who sailed into the darkness only to see the light.

This article was published in The Gulf Today newspaper on June 1st, 2010.

CARRIED AWAY TO ABU DHABI

In a period when the western critics and bashers have been having a ball at our expense, should we be relieved or concerned that our capital is making an appearance in cinemas all over the world this May 27th?

The trailer to the much-anticipated sequel of Sex and the City has dropped and the girls’ next adventure unfolds in no other place but our capital Abu Dhabi. The trailer shows Carrie and the gang whisked away from New York City for an all-expenses paid week in Abu Dhabi. It shows the girls riding camels, lazing on the poolside of extravagance and hitting the nightclubs that are apparently full of belly dancers. Your typical Edward Said notion of Orientalism, only dressed in designer from head to toe. 

The movie was initially set to be filmed in Dubai yet the authorities refused to give filming clearance. The grapevine has it that clearance was to be granted if the movie’s name was changed to Love and the City but that offer was obviously not accepted. The movie was finally shot in Morocco, but the destination in the film remained our capital Abu Dhabi. 

The media is finding it ironic that Sex and The City 2, just like its prequel, might not even be screened in the Emirates. But the refusal of filming in the country and the absence of the movie in our theatres are both attempts from the UAE to control and maintain brand Emirates. In a period when the western critics and bashers have been having a ball at our expense, should we be relieved or concerned that our capital is making an appearance in cinemas all over the world this May 27th?

The local reactions are mixed. Some people are welcoming what they view as a pleasant and fun image of the country that has been suppressed with all the negative media about the financial situation and the latest tragedy of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh’s assassination. 

Others are concerned with the hidden message that the movie might be sending. After all, the trailer invites the world to “discover how much fun forbidden can be.” The portrayal of Abu Dhabi as a playground for the rich, where everything and anything goes, is far detached from reality. Yes, our capital is a decadent city that boasts many luxuries and splendour but it is also where all our culture and traditions are embedded. It is Zayed’s city, where extravagance and subtle conservatism are the essence of its beauty and pride.

Many Arab and African countries have been featured in Western movies in the past. The most famous of which Lawrence of Arabia, starring Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif, was shot in Jordan and Morocco. And the latest depiction of the war in Iraq, conceptualised by Kathryn Bigelow, in her Oscar winning movie The Hurt Locker was also shot in Jordan. 

If there are any concerns or objections, they do not exist out of mere refusal of filming a movie or using the country’s name, they do not come from ignorance but spur from the logic and political realisation that such associations should be monitored and selected according to what the country deems to be an appropriate representation. 

The United Arab Emirates is known around the world for its patronage of the arts, embracing the art world in all its forms. Abu Dhabi is creating an unprecedented step towards realising the dream of bringing the arts even closer to its people by building goliath art museums such as the Louvre and the Guggenheim. Both the Abu Dhabi and Dubai international film festivals continue to thrive with worldwide works being selected and viewed every year. Culture is alive and well in the UAE.

In certain interviews that touch upon the subject we find the cast of the movie explaining that whatever may have been said about the culture is all in good humour and that it is simply an attempt to remain true to the characters. Yet the concern is neither about the characters nor the movie. Many of us in this region are quite familiar with what Samantha’s character would do and Miranda’s would say regardless of the setting, for the TV show, the movies are based on, aired in its entirety on certain Arab TV networks. The concern comes from the distorted and highly exaggerated impression the movie will give about the country.

Quite how far the movie has gone with its representation of Abu Dhabi will only be known on May 27th. Until then, we are left with an image of Charlotte’s little girl asking, “is it like Jasmine and Aladdin”? and Carrie sheepishly answering: “Yes sweetie, but with cocktails.”

This article was published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 23rd of May, 2010.