Don’t be afraid to say the F-word

When French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde was chosen to be the managing director of the IMF no news wire missed out on the words “first woman to head the IMF.” In the many interviews she endured following her recruitment she had to answer questions revolving around her marital life rather than her position and what she intended to do with its power. She was described in an article as a “divorcee with two sons,” a description I have yet to read about a man in any position. Answering yet another question about her gender as an IMF director she said, “I honestly think that there should never be too much testosterone in one room.” How else is a woman who comes from the land of the Republican Motherhood supposed to respond?

It is instances like these that remind us of what feminism allowed us to forget. Still, as women are reaching once unimaginable heights they are haunted by thoughts that question their abilities. At one point in time, women's rights were important, fighting for them was important, gaining them was a must, that point in time has passed. The urgency has slowed down, the priorities have been blurred and the word feminism has developed many faces and lost its way in the crowded world of activism.

The word feminism has become synonymous with the idea of man-hating when in fact it has more to do with women than men. The idea was to become equal to what man has achieved and never to downgrade man's role. This misconception has led to the demise of the word, no longer does any woman want to be labelled a feminist for fear of being accused of hating men.

When asked if she is a feminist the American pop singer Beyoncé Knowles said she didn't feel the need to define what she is. This is coming from a singer who brought us a long list of chart-topping girl power anthems such as Independent Women, Survivor, If I Were a Boy, Single Ladies and Run the World. She is also a volunteer and supporter of the CARE organisation that works to empower women around the world, which makes it all the more baffling that she would fear to be called a feminist.

If there should be a reason for this label to disappear from our vocabulary it must not be because of a negative connotation but because there should not be only a segment of the female race that believes in their rights.

Every woman, hell, every man should be a feminist, that is the only way to render this word obsolete.

Throughout history women have fought for one right after another, right to education and the right to be viewed equally by the scrutinising eyes of the law. They fought so the world would understand that theirs is a global issue, one affecting half the planet's population.

Women thinkers, philosophers and activists like Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir and Sylvia Plath have written extensively on the subject of women's rights believing that only a woman can truly portray the struggle of her race. Books like Woolf's A Room of One's Own and de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, which as far as I'm considered, should be read by men before women, caused an explosion of female enlightenment and gave voice to issues rendered dumb by years of injustice.

Yet as we see less and less women embracing the cause, does that mean we have attained equality and that we no longer need the 'dreaded' feminist?

Equality might have been attained in some parts of the world, yet there are many segments of the world still subjugating women and young girls to all kinds of cruelty and injustice for no other reason than their gender. The irony cannot be escaped when a glass ceiling shatters in one part of the world and a girl is being denied education and forced into marriage in another. This imbalance makes it all the more necessary to speak up for those of us who continue to be silenced by ignorance and fear.

Feminism is not dead. Feminism has altered itself, morphing into a more entertaining entity, in order to survive in a world where it has become easier to digest an issue if it came with its own music video.

For women's rights to exist today the idea of feminism has to be subtly reintroduced back into the world. Therefore, for women's rights to be addressed we must sing about female solidarity instead of rallying for it, and if this generation would rather rename it 'Bootylicious' instead, then so be it.

But no matter what we do, we must not belittle the struggle of superwomen, who championed our rights at times when the idea of such equality was unfathomable. Names like Gloria Steinem and Huda Shaarawi must be taught not forgotten, for without their daily battles the world would not have had a Beyoncé today.

This article was published in The Gulf Today Newspaper on 25th Sep., 2011.

Palestine’s creation is America’s salvation

This September marked the 10th anniversary of the Trade Center attacks and while you have been overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of media coverage of this event it is quite possible that you might have missed another major event happening this month.

The Palestinian government will bid for a UN membership. In an unprecedented move proving that it has finally seen the futility of this two-decade old ‘peace process’, Palestine has ended the waiting game and finally opted to upgrade its diplomatic standing at the United Nations instead. 

And why shouldn’t it? After all, the State of Palestine fulfills all the criteria codified in the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States to exist under international law. Palestine has a permanent population, a defined territory, a government and a capacity to enter into relations with other states, which makes its bid legitimate. In addition, more than 120 UN member states already recognise the State of Palestine, which would technically make the voting process a sure win.

In an ideal world the State of Palestine would be a done deal yet in the real world, where political agendas overshadow logic and basic humanity, the State of Palestine will never be recognised.

That which stands between the existence of an independent Palestine and the complete evaporation of it, is but a word. This word has come to resemble the antithesis of progress in the world of politics, the word ‘veto’ is in fact the United Nation’s Kryptonite.

Veto is a Latin word meaning ‘I forbid’, and the United Nations Security Council has ordained the powers of this word to five countries. China, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and the United States of America are the chosen ones.

This word gives its owners the power to block any resolution regardless of the amount of votes in its favour. The United States has already threatened to veto the Palestinian bid thereby ending this story before it begins. So why then the extensive diplomatic efforts exerted in persuading President Mahmoud Abbas into backing down?

The US has sent Hillary Clinton, David Hale, Dennis Ross and even brought Tony Blair back from the political rubble of the past, to talk Abbas out of this ‘mad’ notion. The reason for all these persuasive negotiations is that the US knows that even by winning the battle it would most certainly lose the war. This particular veto puts the US firmly in Israel’s isolated corner leaving the unbiased world watching, confused by its unsubstantiated position.

The US government does not wish to once again contradict itself when only a few months earlier its President addressed a rejuvenated Middle East and in his own words acknowledged the need for an existence of the State of Palestine saying; “a lasting peace will involve two states for two peoples.” In this same speech Obama uttered the ‘blasphemous’ words “the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines”.

This sentence sent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into a flying rage and made for one of the most awkward meetings in American-Israeli relations. In this meeting Netanyahu bluntly told the leader of the free world that his vision of Middle East peace is unrealistic and called it an illusion. Never in history has an American president been subjected to such harsh comments on live television. After enduring this humiliating ordeal Obama never mentioned the year 1967 again.

Vetoing Palestine’s bid will confirm that Obama has learned Netanyahu’s lesson and once again shown the world how strong a hold Zionism has on American politics.

The United States is discouraging the bid on the basis that a Palestinian state cannot exist without reaching an agreement with Israel first. Yet Israel is able to exist without reaching that same agreement. After decades of Palestinian compromise on issues such as the right of return of Palestinian refugees of the 1948 war, the Camp David Accords agreement which left the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt barren and the continuous illegal building of settlements in Palestinian territories, when will the world see Israel’s compromise?

The fact of the matter is that Palestine does not require permission from a country that continues to break international laws with no regard for any repercussions as long as they are in its best interest.

How can the United States expect to lead a fair and just negotiation process when the key players on the field are not on level footing? How can one believe that the President of the United States is taking note of Palestinian issues when he himself is denying its existence?

The creation of the State of Palestine will level the playing field and give substance to future negotiations. It will raise the morale of the Palestinian people who, while Arab nations everywhere are waking up to new beginnings and newly developed levels of self-respect, are feeling all the more ostracized. And it will eventually plant, in the Middle East, the seeds of trust that America longs for. 

In his election campaign President Obama promised the American people that he would clean up the tarnished image of the United States. Standing in the way of the inherent right for people to exist in their own territory will see the President breaking that promise.

This was America’s chance to rid itself of Israel’s political chains and take a stance that would undoubtedly show the true spirit of the American people. Nevertheless the threat has been issued and the world has heard it loud and clear.

Even if the ending has already been written and Palestine does not win the battle for the bid, it wins the war by revealing the irony that the land of the free is also the land denying others freedom. 

This article was published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 18th September, 2011. 

You Poured Fuel on Murdoch’s Fire and Cried Help

The past few months saw Britain consumed by an incident, which ignited hundreds of debates and opened doors to arguments that were once sealed shut. The sheer speed in which the News of the World newspaper came tumbling down was shocking to say the least. After 168 years of providing its readers with scandal after scandal and making it its prerogative to pry into the lives of every public figure it could get its hands on, News of the World ended its run with a headline that simply read; "THANK YOU & GOODBYE". In an ironic twist of fate the tabloid went down with the same grandiose publicity that it once prosecuted its subjects with.

Rupert Murdoch, media baron and Chairman of News Corporation along with the Editor in Chief of News of the World Rebekah Brooks were accused of using illegal means to obtain information, mainly by hacking private citizens’ phones and bribing police officers. In true Machiavellian logic, when it came to a scoop News of the World justified all means. Indeed it is just a local Sunday paper that closed down but its demise sent shockwaves all around the journalistic world. For once the British parliament seemed to agree on an issue, calling for law amendments and prosecution of those involved in these invasions of privacy. Newspapers all over the world ran editorials on the incident, some condemning the paper's actions, preaching about ethics in journalism and insisting on drawing clearer lines to stop journalists from infringing on people's rights. Others sided with News of the World pointing out that  what was committed was not a crime but in fact true investigative journalism, whereby the job entails retrieval of information as fast as possible by any means possible.  

Now that News of the World closed down and its two hundred employees safely relocated to another Murdoch-owned enterprise, the dust is slowly settling on this journalistic whirlwind and the eyes are slowly beginning to experience clarity. We might even begin to see that Murdoch, Brooks and the News of the World journalists are not the only ones who should be scrutinised and condemned. After all, this tabloid has had the highest readership in Britain until the day it closed its doors. According to the National Readership Survey, News of the World secured 13.8 percent of the entire British market exceeding all other Sunday papers. And while every other paper in the UK is suffering with regards to revenue News of the World’s projections continuously showed profits.

If we believe the numbers then the ones who should stand trial along with Murdoch and Brooks are the readers. Yes, the readers. A product could not survive without a market, someone had to supply to the relentless demands for gossip and that is exactly what News of the World did. It catered to people's insatiable appetite with a buffet of scandalous revelations that while made for a great feast, ruined people's lives in the process. The reason why tabloids still make profits while respectable journalism struggles to make ends meet is you, the reader. When you would rather read about a politician's torrid love affair rather than his active role in governmental policy, you become a particle in the force pushing papers like News of the World over the lines of ethics and human rights. People have an innate curiosity for the affairs of others and this curiosity is never satisfied. Readers don’t want to know how a tabloid gets its information they just want it. Once a piece of salacious news enters the bloodstream more is needed to maintain that initial high but how do you get more? By eavesdropping? Sticking ones head in someone’s mailbox? Going through their trash? Phone hacking is the tip of the tabloid iceberg and readers know it, yet they choose to cast a blind eye for the sake of satisfying their addiction to gossip. If Murdoch is guilty of the charges against him then News of the World readers should be guilty for aiding and abetting them.

News of the World won many British Press Awards one of which was for ‘Newspaper of the Year’ in 2005. The public fed the fire that was raging in the newsroom and encouraged them to go forward, for with 7.5 million readers and a shelf stacked with awards News of the World’s formula could not have been wrong, or could it?

When News of the World’s web of lies and deceit detangled its loyal readers abandoned it. Shocked at the scandal they gawked and pointed fingers at the paper that once was their sole means of news (according to Enders Analysis, the closure of News of the World will see two-thirds of its readers never picking up another Sunday paper again). In the end, the user blamed the dealer when in fact both were as much a part of the scandal as the other.  

As everyone stood aside opportunity presented itself to the politicians, they pounced at the chance to get back at this paper that has heckled them for years exposing their lies and costing many their positions. And so News of the World was to be made an example of, British journalism will no longer be above the law and with that the free press around the world gasped in unison feeling the hammering of one more nail in its coffin.    

This article was published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 7th August, 2011.

Living Green Has Us Seeing Red

The past few weeks have shown us an image foreign to most UAE dwellers’ eyes. The image of one deserted petrol station after another in an oil rich country, ah the mother of all ironies. Unlike others this sight did not trigger in me the great debates of finance and economics, rather it steered me towards a different course. It got me thinking of the human being’s complete dependence on a vanishing resource, of a human being living an ephemeral life on the hopes that he shall never face its complete depletion.

Steps are being taken everyday by the United Arab Emirates’ government towards creating a country less dependent on oil. And a great effort is being exerted in the renewable energy sector to secure a future less grim than that filled with images of cars in gridlock heading towards the only operating petrol station in town.

The worrisome part of this equation is not on the corporate or governmental level but on the personal one. Everywhere we look we are being reminded of our responsibility towards the world we live in. Eco-friendly campaigns aimed at guilting us into recycling and caring for the environment are all around us yet these efforts do not seem strong enough to paint a person’s entire life green.

We all do the odd recycling here and there and most of us would opt for a recyclable bag at the grocery store instead of a plastic one but a total conversion of one’s lifestyle is a daunting thought. In order for a person to convert fully to the green world he is expected to change his entire frame of mind, he must be prepared to live a life where thinking green will be the deciding factor of all his future endeavors.

Should you be the one to take the leap then realistically there are a few other hurdles you have to overcome. Being green is expensive. Buying any of the alternative energy sources to power your home will set you back a hefty chunk of money. If you wish to use solar power you must invest in solar cells, which come at an unreasonable price for quite a reasonable idea.

But since you have committed to the lifestyle then your movement should also be green therefore it will be a horse, a bicycle or an electric car for you. In this hot and humid region the first two options are unlikely therefore, the electric car it is. If you have moved past the shallow mindset of it being quite ugly, how far do you think the electric car would get you and how fast will you really be able to maneuver in the UAE traffic? When it comes to farther destinations are you willing to forgo your vacation, which you know requires you to use a plane that burns gallons of oil, to reduce your carbon footprint? Before you answer you should know that years of your recycling will be offset by this one plane ride.

If you are still willing to convert then I tip my hat to your bravery because in addition to the above, not many people will be on board with the compulsive details of your lifestyle and you might soon find yourself feeling like a vegetarian in a meat eater’s household.

Being green is a great concept but it requires more than ad campaigns and awareness seminars. Every day cigarette boxes tell smokers that their contents will literally kill them but that does not deter the fingers from pulling one out. What must be changed is the psychology of the human mind, the greed and selfishness of the individual. As long as people put themselves first, Mother Nature will be second and as long as alternative technologies remain expensive and hard to acquire, cheap and available will be the common choice.

From a psychological viewpoint, believing in the importance of a green lifestyle seems to me as difficult as believing in a faith different than the one you follow. You are expected to change your ways and hold a new creed close to your heart. It is difficult to accept at first and as you go along there will be hard roads to tread, many will falter, but you must go on, because you believe with every ounce of your sanity that the end will be glorious.

Sometimes it takes more than persuasion to get people to believe, sometimes it takes a miracle.

Our world needs one now more than ever. 

This article was published in The Gulf Today newspaper on July 3rd, 2011. 

Don't Teach, Inspire

Universities in the United Arab Emirates and around the world have wrapped up their academic year with graduation ceremonies for the class of 2011. Some of which have been televised others appeared as a collection of photos in newspapers across the country. The overwhelming number of graduates ushered into the professional world indicates the success which UAE universities have achieved in educating and preparing the young minds of tomorrow.

Watching the ceremonies this year has led me into a subconscious comparison with the ones taking place in the West. Universities in the UAE have been rehearsing pretty much the same choreography for their ceremonies as far as I can remember. The graduating class of year so and so, usually sits through a speech from a government official, then another address from the Dean and lastly a speech given by the class valedictorian. The following routine is an essential part of university protocol which must take place but it leaves one wondering, where is the inspiration?

As the graduating class eagerly awaits their degrees they are at their most enthusiastic which is the exact moment in time when the utterance of some encouraging words or the sight of an inspiring figure could make the most impact on them.

In the United States graduation ceremonies are mostly remembered for their commencement speeches, which are usually given by a well-known public figure of the university’s choice. These public figures can be politicians, actors, CEOs, generally any public figure, who has made a difference in his field or profession. So there you have a graduating class going through the normal processions and then getting the opportunity to not only meet but also be addressed by a public figure, who has accomplished what any one of those graduates might aspire to be. 

The idea is to expose these graduates to role models who have truly excelled, and to allow their words to resonate in the minds of those in need of courage and confidence to brave the world of 2011. This year the University of Massachusetts went as far as the stars, literally, to give their graduates a ceremony to remember. The university chose NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman, who delivered her speech via video from the International Space Station orbiting the Earth. 

In other universities across America President Barack Obama thanked the graduates for inspiring him, Arianna Huffington proclaimed there is no leader on a white horse the leader is to be found in the mirror, Stevie Wonder sang You are the Sunshine of My Life and Conan O’ Brien delivered a half hour hilarious speech that left the graduates in tears.

We live in a time where degrees no longer mean much, where job opportunities are scarce and with a generation, which believes that fame, and fortune is achieved as easily as being discovered on Youtube. This makes it all the more essential for graduates, who have chosen to pursue education over other options, to see before them a product of their country who has reached great heights by hard work and persistence. 

Universities in the UAE should consider the idea of inviting guest speakers to their ceremonies every year. The choice should be theirs although it is imperative to emphasise on the local talent. An international speaker is great but a more effective one would be a figure who is a product of the UAE, one who has lived within the same culture and environment as they have. It would be much easier to relate to such a person’s experiences than to one hailing from a different part of the world. Universities can release the names of their chosen speakers ahead of time where a list can be compiled for publication. This decision benefits both the graduates and the universities as well. The proper choice of commencement speaker can get any school’s name listed among the top tier ones and allows for great exposure. 

Graduation ceremonies are one of the few occasions in life where a person can truly believe that anything is possible. Educators have a responsibility to capitalise on this moment and inspire their students until the very end of their journey together, in order to usher them into the world with enough inspiration and motivation to change it for the better.

This article was published in The Gulf Today on June 19th, 2011.

Too much Twitter

A few days ago I posted this statement on my Twitter account: 

“Most used term this year, social media. I’ve about had it! And yes I realise the irony of tweeting this statement so don’t even.” 

We have been reading about the social media ever since its inception but after it has somehow been given all credit for the revolutions happening in the Middle East, social media has become the subject of the year. Endless debates and analyses of websites such as Facebook and Twitter’s role in the Arab revolutions flooded the region drowning other important elements in its wake, hence my Twitter outburst.

Yes, the social media sites have aided in exposing parts of the revolution that governments tried relentlessly to keep hidden and a Facebook page might have set a revolution in motion, but those were nothing but tools used in the building of a national dream. 

Believe it or not revolutions did take place prior to Facebook. 

In 1952 Egypt there was no ‘Free Officer’s Movement’s’ Facebook page calling to overthrow the British backed monarchy. Gandhi’s non-cooperative movement did not ‘tweet’ about its struggle with ending the British rule in India. Neither Castro nor Guevara uploaded videos of their forest march to Cuba onto Youtube and although there was no live-stream of Martin Luther King Jr. from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the entire world still heard his dream. 

Throughout history revolutions did take place and ruthless governments have been overthrown. So before we go overboard in giving credit to the social media we should evaluate what it really did for today’s revolutions. 

Social media sites did not create these revolutions they merely advertised them, in the same way pamphlets and underground newsletters did in the past. They are a medium, granted they have a wider reach, but they are a medium nonetheless. Credit for the revolutions must always be given to the people and the people alone, they are whom we need to be debating and analysing in this case not Zuckerburg’s Facebook and Dorsey’s Twitter.

The exaggerated attention given to social media sites has resulted in an infatuation that has led users to believing that their existence on them is more important than their existence in the real world.

A social media site is designed to make you believe that the more followers you have the more important you ought to be. Therefore, the more followers you have the higher the need becomes to retain them. Every user is given the opportunity to become a critic and many have seized it.

Some users act like politicians running for the Twitter presidency, addressing certain sections of the world, hashtagging, re-tweeting and monitoring fluctuations in their followers’ numbers. Contrary to what our Twitter users/politicians believe the reality of social media remains that you gain followers and you lose them. You really do not need to be developing alter egos to better suit your cyber world persona. It’s not science, it’s Twitter.

To our social media addicts I pose a question: “If a tree falls outside of Twitter, does it make a sound?” 

If you took time mulling this question over then, in the immortal words of Tyra Banks, congratulations you are in the running to becoming Twitter’s next top user. 

Indeed the numbers might be pointing towards a life lived solely through the social media but statistics do not always reflect the ways of the world. There are indeed millions using these sites but there are billions of people walking this earth who are not. Of the many activists that have taken to Twitter and Facebook during the Middle Eastern revolutions hundreds have died on the streets with no social media account to their names. 

The question is are we being led to believe that if some people choose not to be on such websites that we should neglect their actual existence? 

If they are writers do we not read their works? If they are politicians do we not hear their views?  If they are activists do we not pay attention to their cause? Do we leave them behind while we set sail on our fancy boat of modernity, christened ‘Social Media’?

The term social media is in fact an oxymoron for there is nothing social about this media. There is nothing socially satisfying about tweeting to no one in particular. It is not a revolution, it is just a way for us to vent out and hope that someone in the cyber world is listening to what no one in our real world actually wants to.

This article was published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 12th June, 2011.

Writing a Wrong

Historically the Western mind has been mesmerised by the Middle East often painting pictures of it as a land of mysteries browned by the desert sun. In the United Arab Emirates, our parents recall during the British occupation that Englishmen stood the children in line and took photos of them. These very Englishmen would later put the photos in their books as they penned the history of our country. This was also the case for the rest of the Middle Eastern region, an Arab history conveyed to the rest of the world through foreign eyes.

Edward Said, the late Palestinian literary theorist and powerful political voice coined this phenomenon ‘Orientalism’, describing the Western study of Eastern cultures. In recent years, the Arab world’s fluency of the English language has allowed the West to hear our own description of our past and our concerns for our future. We no longer needed the Englishman to tell our stories and no longer did the philosophy of the Arab mind need to be translated by the West.

Nowadays, Arab writers and commentators writing in the English-language are a plenty. The language barrier has ceased to exist. The true crisis lies in failing to identify the thin line between writing in a foreign language and writing with a foreign tongue. It is sad to see that many intelligent Arab writers are adhering to the Western perspective and echoing its same rhetoric in return for international recognition. 

In the past we have seen such antics working especially in the literary world. Salman Rushdie, the Indian novelist, had written four novels prior to his Satanic Verses but it was this book, that portrays a skewed perspective of Islam which catapulted him into the farthest heights of fame, winning him awards and even having him knighted by the Queen of England for his “services to literature”. Selling out on one’s ideology and beliefs in return for the West’s approval is shameful.

Many Arab writers have been blinded by the glaring lights of Western fame and have found that Arab opinions dressed in a Western man’s suit can get them far, but at what cost? We possess the language that now bridges the gap in perspectives but instead of using it to tell our story we are telling theirs. While we are grateful for their work, it is painful to see writers like Noam Chomsky and Norman G. Finkelstein, both Jewish Americans, fight for Palestinian rights and the Arab perspective more passionately than many Arabs do.

For years, anytime an Arab writer or publication expressed their opinions the Western commentators played the ‘Arab victimisation’ card and dismissed them as just that. On the other hand, if writers such as Chomsky or Finkelstein discuss the same issues they are labeled ‘truth-tellers’. Still, it is one thing for the Arab voice to be suppressed by the West but it is a whole other issue for it to be choked by our own hands. When Arab commentators repeat Western rhetoric then our voice becomes redundant thereby rendered useless.

This month, Al Jazeera English will receive Columbia University’s top journalism award for “singular journalism in public interest”. One of the substantial reasons that Al Jazeera news channel gained momentum and weight for its news coverage is because, regardless of its own agendas, it never followed a Western one. Its notoriety came not from adhering to a certain Western standard, but for standing up against it and revealing to the world the other side of the political coin.

Writers, especially of politics, should never take information at face value and steer facts towards a logic that goes against their beliefs. In journalism and intellectual commentary one should not take certain issues to the merest truisms.

In politics, the pen is at its heaviest because it is weighed down by the collective responsibility it holds towards its people and their future in the eyes of the world.

It is best to retire one’s pen than succumb it to a life of self-betrayal.

This article was published in The Gulf Today newspaper on May 15th, 2011.

Obama Kills Osama to Remain Alive

Almost a decade after Osama Bin Laden’s inauguration as the most wanted man on the planet it took American soldiers 40 minutes to kill him. Today the American people rejoice with the feeling of utter relief for the bogeyman hiding in the dark closets of their minds is gone.

The truth is, it cost the United States billions of dollars and thousands of human lives to eliminate a man who was apparently hiding in plain sight. After years of scouring dusty caves it was revealed that Bin Laden had in fact been residing in a mansion in Pakistan. Osama Bin Laden’s death comes as no shock to the Arab world. We believed it inevitable but it was the timing that was unforeseen.

Had Bin Laden been killed only a few months earlier the reactions of the Arab world would have been resentful and possibly more heated. But as the news comes to us at a time where the plates of the Middle Eastern political world are shifting, Arabs seem more subdued and indifferent. Osama Bin Laden neither had a presence in the Arab revolutions nor reacted to them.

Ten years after the September 11 attacks Bin Laden’s status and influence on Al Qaeda has dwindled. While killing him nine years ago would have been credited as eliminating a leader, killing him today is viewed more as the death of an iconic figure for Al Qaeda, a mascot if you will.

The timing of Bin Laden’s death is nothing short of genius. With the Arab uprising in full swing there seems to be a list of dictators/villains to take his place. Bin Laden filled in the spot vacated by Saddam Hussein’s death and so the question is who will succeed Bin Laden on America’s most wanted Middle Eastern face of evil?  

The American presidential elections have to also be factored into this equation, which resulted in the quick sudden death of the world’s most feared man. George W. Bush Jr. declared the war on terror to secure his second term at the presidency and while President Barack Obama proved the impossible by being the first black President of the United States at the end of his first term his promise of ‘change’ hasn’t yet made a huge impact on the average American. And while Obama tried his best at playing the peace card he finally realised that Bush Jr. had played it right all along knowing that nothing matters more to the American people than regaining their throne as the most powerful and untouchable country in the world. 

Revenge was the final dish on Obama’s table, served cold, the American people ate it graciously. Has this move secured Obama’s second term at presidency just as it did for his predecessor? We await the answer in 2012.

This article has been published in The Gulf Today newspaper on May 4th, 2011.

Cupcake and Abaya Nation

Emirati women have always been leaders in the pursuit of self-actualisation. With the birth of the Emirates they saw their dreams manifesting into realities at the hands of our father and the founder of our beloved country the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. It is because of his extraordinary efforts in encouraging women’s education throughout the Emirates that we are here today.

In the 1970s Emirati women sought knowledge with an insatiable thirst and had the courage to venture into worlds previously unknown to them. Nevertheless they ploughed their way through male dominated arenas and proved their abilities admirably. From being mothers in their homes they became teachers in our schools, filling positions that prior to their involvement saw only hired teachers from across the Middle East. Our pioneering Emirati women of the 70s were role models then and remain ones today.

By the 1980s, Emirati women constituted 6.2 percent of the UAE’s workforce. Today this figure has risen to well above 50 percent proving beyond any doubt that their long sought-after dream of financial independence had been achieved.

Today, in a bold yet welcomed step many Emirati women have decided to leave their jobs and seek private business ventures instead. Soon after, we began to see local businesses entirely owned and run by Emirati women. At first these business ventures came in the form of abaya stores. The abaya is the Emirati woman’s national dress and therefore understandably it became her first outlet for fashion expression.

It was indeed refreshing to see Emirati women designing their own national dress for who better to translate the experience of wearing abayas into fashion than the women that live in them on a daily basis. This move transformed a staple of UAE society into the ultimate fashion accessory, pushing its prices upwards from a few hundred dirhams in the 1990s well into the thousands today. This proved that abaya stores are great business models and profitable ventures. Soon every women stopped wanting to buy abayas and started making them. The country became littered with abaya stores and, in an odd twist on the theories of supply and demand, the more stores there were and the higher the prices got, the more people demanded them.

Once the national black cape market had been saturated our Emirati woman moved on to something a little bit sweeter, dessert making. In a decision reminiscent of the 1950s American woman’s pie baking ventures the cupcake craze was born in the UAE. Some opened up cupcake stores, others baked them from home and delivered them to designated locations. This also proved to be a venture too sweet to fail and with that the skies of the Emirates filled with the smell of freshly baked cupcakes.

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with replicating business models that have proved successful, it seems that Emirati women have backed themselves into an icing slathered corner. If you ever had an opportunity to walk around university fairs that showcase students’ business models you might get the impression that ideas have stagnated and become sandwiched between food and fashion.

What happens to the remaining business sectors? Have they become barely visible through the rows of abayas and the ensuing sugar rush? Young Emirati women should realise that there lies great potential and room for profits in different business areas offering them not only ease of entry but also an opportunity to be female pioneers.

Innovation is a word we live by in the UAE. Always seeking new heights, always pushing forward, we must not lose this passion for excellence. Daring to be different has its risks but brings with it change and variety. Emirati women have proven that they are worthy competitors in the work place and must now aim to prove that in all private business sector too.


This article was published in The Gulf Today newspaper on 17th April, 2011.

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.