Hi everybody!
As I mentioned the other day, I'm reading Robin Wright's brilliant and insightful book Rock the Casbah which traces the origins of the current Arab Spring protest movement and what she calls the "counter-jihad." I read a great chapter last night called "Hip-Hop Islam" wherein she introduces the reader to Islam's rather surprising alternative/rap/hip-hop music scene and the influence it's had on the young Arabs filling Tahrir Square and beyond.
One of the most striking things is the fact that in the twenty-three countries that comprise the Middle East, the vast majority of the population are under the age of 40. Ms. Wright writes: "The young make up the majority in all Muslim countries, in some places close to 70 percent" (124). Unemployment within this young demographic is rampant, so bad in fact that Queen Rania of Jordan is quoted in the book as saying that it's a "ticking time bomb," telling a group of business leaders that "the number of unemployed people under thirty years old...could increase from 15 million in 2008 to 100 million in 2020..." (125).
The reason for these staggering numbers? It's hard to say. However, one factor Ms. Wright mentions is the fact that a strictly Islamic education does very little to develop practical skills that can be transferred into jobs. Plus, in many of these countries, the only jobs available go to those who have an in with the government which rules out most of the population...hence the Arab Spring.
As in any culture, music has an amazing ability to communicate and express the soul of a people. This is especially true of the Middle East. In her book, Ms. Wright profiles several Arab musicians who have made an impact. She writes predominantly about hip-hop and the genre's ability to transcend national, religious, and political identity while focusing on the very real needs and concerns of a community. The difference though between Western and Islamic hip-hop/rap is that Islamic hip-hop is still quite devout and is utterly void of the obscenity that has come to define much of the genre in the West.
Ms. Wright writes about a young Tunisian rapper, Hamada Ben Amor, who goes by the name of El General, whose song 'Rais Lebled' became the anthem of the Tunisian protests before going viral on You-Tube and spreading across the entire region. Because the Tunisian government had effectively banned hip-hop from state controlled radio, El General turned to the Internet to get his music out to the public. El General was arrested and imprisoned. His interrogators asked him to stop singing about the Tunisian president before they would release him. But because El General had become such a celebrity among the protestors, his arrest was widely documented and he was released after three days. He then went on to perform in public to major acclaim.
Other artists profiled in the book include the Palestinian rap group DAM whose 2001 song "Who's the Terrorist?" became an international sensation with more than half a million downloads from You-Tube. Ironically, DAM has become immensely popular in Israel among young Israelis whose own rap group Subliminal has performed on several occasions with DAM. There is also, among others, the female Moroccan hip-hop singer Soultana who was nearly killed in the Casablanca bombings in 2003.
So after reading this chapter I decided to do a search on iTunes to see what, if anything, is available. This led to me putting together an entire playlist called The Arab Spring Mix, that features DAM, Soultana, Subliminal, and a number of Egyptian and Lebanese pop singers whose music provides the Western-influenced though very Eastern-infused soundtrack to the current democracy movements.
One of my favorites is an Egyptian singer named Amr Diab. He's been a huge star since the '80s and his latest album was just released a few months ago. His recent single "Ma'ak Bartaah" is a slick, very danceable techno bit of fun that would sound just about as right in any Western nightclub as it does, I'm sure, in the Whiskey Mist Beirut.
I'm loving my new playlist.
Ciao.
QUESTION OF THE DAY: "What musical artist (of any genre) has moved you recently?"
Showing posts with label Robin Wright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robin Wright. Show all posts
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
The Arab Spring
Hi everyone!
So Syria's President Bashir al-Assad gave an interview with the Western media today defending his response to Syria's prolonged and increasingly bloody civic uprising. He essentially said that he was doing no more than what any government leader would do--specifically the U.S.--as a means of putting down national dissent. This is rich coming from the leader of a country that has at least a half-century history of ruthlessly cracking down on anyone who dares speak out against The Establishment which now finds itself on increasingly shaky territory in a region that has been rocked by unprecedented anti-government turmoil for the last year.
Like many of us, I have followed the so-called Arab Spring with interest though I admit after the initial euphoric months in Tunisia and Egypt I haven't paid as much attention to it as perhaps I should. The civil war in Libya culminating in the death of Moammar Qadaffi was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back for me. It is great that the long-oppressed people in these countries were finally acting out against their oppressors, but the question that kept coming to mind was: "Okay, what now? What plan do these rebel factions have for peacefully instituting a government to replace the one they've overthrown?" It just seemed to me that violence was merely begetting more violence. I believe that while democratic reforms are necessary, I think it is unreasonable and even irresponsible to expect that a region with little to no experience with democracy can be expected to change itself overnight.
I also find the West's response to the Arab Spring interesting in and of itself. In the past week, Egypt has implemented--successfully by most accounts--the first of a three-phase wave of parliamentary elections unlike any the country has ever experienced. This is terrific. However, we must be prepared to deal with the fact that when you give the people a democratic vote, you need to accept whom they vote into office even as the new government may not necessarily fall in line with what you hope to be the final outcome. There is concern being expressed in the media that Egypt's new parliament is weighted too heavily in favor of the Islamists, with the Moslem Brotherhood and the Salafist parties taking the most seats in Egypt's new government. If this is what the Egyptian people want, who are we in the West to say that this is not acceptable? I realize that it calls into question some of the alliances and treaties the U.S. has helped to broker over the years, chiefly the Egyptian-Israeli peace accords, but perhaps it's time for the U.S. and other Western governments to take a step back and focus more on the social and economic problems plaguing our own countries before criticizing or condemning others?
In my quest to learn more about the socioeconomic and political history of the modern Middle East, I came across a recently published book by respected Middle East correspondent and Washington Post columnist Robin Wright. "Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World" (Simon & Schuster, 2011) does an insightful and eminently readable job of introducing readers to the roots of the current unrest. In the book's first couple of chapters, Ms. Wright focuses on how the Arab Spring started--with the self-immolation of a young Tunisian street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi after being accosted by a female Tunisian city inspector who claimed Mr. Bouazizi was operating without a license. Because he was poor, Mr. Bouazizi did not have the seven dollars needed to bribe the official to remain in business. He was humiliated, his livelihood was taken away from him, he didn't know what else to do. So he set himself on fire and this shocking image was soon spread virally through Facebook and YouTube throughout the Middle East. When people feel they do not have a voice, they understandably resort to extreme measures.
While I've only read the first three chapters of Ms. Wright's book so far, I urge everyone and anyone with an interest in learning more about the Arab Spring and its subsequent protest movements to pick up a copy of the book and get educated. By focusing on the plight of the common man and woman and the everyday average citizen, "Rock the Casbah" quickly gets to the root of the issue in a narrative that is compelling and reflective.
Ciao.
QUESTION OF THE DAY: "What responsibility--if any--does the West have in influencing the spread of democracy in the Middle East?"
So Syria's President Bashir al-Assad gave an interview with the Western media today defending his response to Syria's prolonged and increasingly bloody civic uprising. He essentially said that he was doing no more than what any government leader would do--specifically the U.S.--as a means of putting down national dissent. This is rich coming from the leader of a country that has at least a half-century history of ruthlessly cracking down on anyone who dares speak out against The Establishment which now finds itself on increasingly shaky territory in a region that has been rocked by unprecedented anti-government turmoil for the last year.
Like many of us, I have followed the so-called Arab Spring with interest though I admit after the initial euphoric months in Tunisia and Egypt I haven't paid as much attention to it as perhaps I should. The civil war in Libya culminating in the death of Moammar Qadaffi was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back for me. It is great that the long-oppressed people in these countries were finally acting out against their oppressors, but the question that kept coming to mind was: "Okay, what now? What plan do these rebel factions have for peacefully instituting a government to replace the one they've overthrown?" It just seemed to me that violence was merely begetting more violence. I believe that while democratic reforms are necessary, I think it is unreasonable and even irresponsible to expect that a region with little to no experience with democracy can be expected to change itself overnight.
I also find the West's response to the Arab Spring interesting in and of itself. In the past week, Egypt has implemented--successfully by most accounts--the first of a three-phase wave of parliamentary elections unlike any the country has ever experienced. This is terrific. However, we must be prepared to deal with the fact that when you give the people a democratic vote, you need to accept whom they vote into office even as the new government may not necessarily fall in line with what you hope to be the final outcome. There is concern being expressed in the media that Egypt's new parliament is weighted too heavily in favor of the Islamists, with the Moslem Brotherhood and the Salafist parties taking the most seats in Egypt's new government. If this is what the Egyptian people want, who are we in the West to say that this is not acceptable? I realize that it calls into question some of the alliances and treaties the U.S. has helped to broker over the years, chiefly the Egyptian-Israeli peace accords, but perhaps it's time for the U.S. and other Western governments to take a step back and focus more on the social and economic problems plaguing our own countries before criticizing or condemning others?
In my quest to learn more about the socioeconomic and political history of the modern Middle East, I came across a recently published book by respected Middle East correspondent and Washington Post columnist Robin Wright. "Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World" (Simon & Schuster, 2011) does an insightful and eminently readable job of introducing readers to the roots of the current unrest. In the book's first couple of chapters, Ms. Wright focuses on how the Arab Spring started--with the self-immolation of a young Tunisian street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi after being accosted by a female Tunisian city inspector who claimed Mr. Bouazizi was operating without a license. Because he was poor, Mr. Bouazizi did not have the seven dollars needed to bribe the official to remain in business. He was humiliated, his livelihood was taken away from him, he didn't know what else to do. So he set himself on fire and this shocking image was soon spread virally through Facebook and YouTube throughout the Middle East. When people feel they do not have a voice, they understandably resort to extreme measures.
While I've only read the first three chapters of Ms. Wright's book so far, I urge everyone and anyone with an interest in learning more about the Arab Spring and its subsequent protest movements to pick up a copy of the book and get educated. By focusing on the plight of the common man and woman and the everyday average citizen, "Rock the Casbah" quickly gets to the root of the issue in a narrative that is compelling and reflective.
Ciao.
QUESTION OF THE DAY: "What responsibility--if any--does the West have in influencing the spread of democracy in the Middle East?"
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