Doomed Pride
The Arab Street’s reaction to the Lebanon-Syria issue is raising a fundamental issue: does the Arab world want to be part of the international community or not?
It is a real irony that Faruq Al Shara’, the Syrian Foreign minister who represents a brutal dictatorship, was speaking for a lot of people in the Arab world when he made those absurd comments about September 11, March 11 and july 7.
I could imagine a lot of Egyptian, Jordanian and Saudi cheerleaders admiring him for letting the Americans and British “have it”. Of course, those same people will totally ignore how Shara’ cowardly backtracked after the other foreign ministers let HIM have it.
Why is this happening? Why are so many Arabs impressed by pointless machismo? Why side with a dictator against the whole international community? Why is it that when the Iranian President foolishly says that Israel should be wiped off the map, a lot of Arabs cheer? Why is it that Hassan Nasrallah’s fiery speeches are so celebrated on Aljazeera?
Who do we really think we are? What makes us think that we can get away with defying the international community?
In yesterday’s article by Annahar’s Ghassan Tueiny, I found a piece of collective psychoanalysis that is as much perverted as it is convincing. He wrote:
History is beginning to wonder: have we Arabs taken a liking to the taste of defeat, and to the subsequent crying over ruins, as a necessary trade-off for our adoration of fiery slogans and flowery speeches?
The collective psychology of the Arab world reminds me of that kid who thinks it was worth it to have been kicked out of school for calling his teacher an idiot or for hitting another “weakling” student. Even more, he loves bragging about this for the rest of his life.
He still thinks of him as a weakling who took a beating back in school even after that ‘weakling’ graduates and becomes a successful and powerful individual; he still thinks that he is better than him. He keeps on forgetting that he’s nothing but a beggar, a dependent, a parasitic gnat on fringes of developed societies.
What we Arabs are not getting is that we should go back to the school and accept its “unfair” rules. even if it has “idiot” teachers, or “favorite” students (read Israel). Because the point is how much we learn, how much we produce, not how much others are “abusing” the system.
Saddam is now in jail, and he still thinks he’s better than the Americans. Let’s hope Bashar doesn’t go down the same path, because no matter what the Arab cheerleaders say, only he can chose what he wants for his country, prosperity or a doomed pride?
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Hello, my name is Mustapha and I blog in The Beirut Spring about Lebanese society and politics. I started in February 2005 after the killing of P.M. Rafik Hariri.
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well said.
Fasheitelleh khel2eh,
Thanks Mustapha
But the problem is that they won’t be reading your article. Maybe you should translate it to Arabic and post it to on Aljazeera.
Regards,
a 100% Arab and not proud of it
-FAZ
Well said Mustapha.But i have to tell you that Ghassan’s Tuenie article fashitli khil2i as well. You should analyze it only in the context of a reply to Nasrallah’s Jeruslam day speach.
What do you expect from the Arab nations who read the least and where illiteracy is one of the highest in the world and where GNP is only better than some African countries, despite the oil [Can you Immagine the Arab World without that oil]and we still think of ourselves as better than anybody else because we believe “You are the best of the nations raised up for (the benefit of) men;” and worst of all, we really believe it.
Good analysis!
To Anonymous, please don’t mix up between Muslims and Arabs!
“Why is this happening? Why are so many Arabs impressed by pointless machismo? Why side with a dictator against the whole international community?” [sic]
Yeah sure dude, why are these obstinate turbaned savages rejecting the benevolent (albeit “muscular” to use a euphemism in vogue in Neocon collaborationist circles) helping hand the civilized west is generously extending?
Can’t they see for themselves that Saddam Hussein is rotting in a spider hole smaller than Peter Parker’s Midtown studio flat?
Don’t they know that the Cold War and the Gulf War are both over: Marxism, Baathism, and other totalitarian ideologies imported from 19 th century German universities are dead, over, kaput- or to use Neocon/Trotskyite parlance “decomposing rapidly in the dustbins of History”.
Yeah, I like that hygienist political metaphor: these dirty Ayyrabz are just irrelevantly rancid rats rotting slowly in their sub-Saharan Ramadan tents, while History is passing them by.
Just like Mel Gibson in Mad Max, our beloved judge Mehlis is riding his supercharged V8 Ford XB Falcon police car in hot pursuit of “Baathist dead-enders” and other leftovers of the pseudo-romantic “Pan-Arab military-industrial complex” -remember: these guys have big moustaches and like to spend their holidays in Niger where they regularly go on yellow cake cum centrifuges shopping sprees…
See link below for more “reliable info” received from our friends at the Saudi embassy in TeX-Aviv:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max
Finally, I’d like to conclude on a more personal note: Rafiq we love(d) you… you’re the best moustached millionaire martyr I’ve ever had the honor and privilege to serve, Sir… may Allah and Zeus keep you eternally under their wings up there in the skies… I know you’re up there, in Paradise because my Hambali Imam told me so during his latest “freedom-loving” sermon in the great liberal kingdom of Saudistan… blablabla….
Can we really separate them? Aren’t we the resulting product? Until we face reality and stop living in our own fantasy and face it headon, we will never deserve a place in the world among the peaceful and positively contributors nations.
What Good have they done to us in the past?
Nothing..
What Good are they doing to us in the present?
Nothing
What Good will they do to us in the Future?
again Nothing
what should we tell them?
Nothing.. as we do not need them…
Great post Mustapha,
The same goes for our approach towards Israel. I don’t see any Israeli jets violating Egyptian or Jordanian airwaves, or Israel having less than respectful relations with these countries.
Which brings us to the point, do we keep on pretending forever that we are safeguarding the arab cause and bring ourselves to ruin? Or go through a mechanism that safeguards Israel abides by international law and respects Lebanese sovereinty. This will only cast the eyes of the world on Isarel to settle with the Palestinians and find a good compromise.
But in an environment of lawlessness where the threats and fiery irrational slogans are heard on the upper tier, Israel can still act in response to the existential threat.
I agree with what is written, in so much as that we have no chance going against the system. The best chance we have is to fully accept it and use it to our advantage.
http://www.alseyassah.com/alseyassah/opinion/view.asp?msgID=8522
see also his editorial from today.
here it is:
http://www.alseyassah.com/alseyassah/opinion/view.asp?msgID=8513
It looks like al-arabiya has jumped into the anti-mehlis bandwagon:
http://www.alarabiya.net/Articles/2005/11/01/18250.htm
They must’ve figured that standing on the side of the truth does not help your ratings in the arab world…
I enjoyed your post Mustapha, it’s too bad that the comments got ugly in the end. I would just add that Lebanon is at a very strategic point in history. Now is our chance to do what we need to do for our country to make it. The international community is backing us up, don’t push them away by saying “it’s an internal affair”. Now is the time to soleve the problem of Palestinian refugees (or at least disarm them), disarm Hezbollah, get rid of Syria, become allies with America and co. and start being a productive nation that prvides a good living for its children.
Mustapha,
Can’t you delete these VIC’s posts.
And put a sign of “Please No Littering Here”.
How patheic
Thanks for your enthusiastic comments,
Anonymous who wondered how the Arab world would be without oil.
My answer: Much better; Arab rulers would have the incentive to reform their economies and politics without the comfort and the subsidies that oil provides.
Still, this doesn’t mean that Natural resources are bound to corrupt governments. look at Norway and its great energy reserves. This is why we Arabs have to have cultural introspection more than anything.
Anonymous who wondered how the Arab world would be without oil.
My answer: Much better; Arab rulers would have the incentive to reform their economies and politics without the comfort and the subsidies that oil provides.
Precisely what I said many moons ago:
Nor does Democracy succeed today in countries where an unelected minority succeeds in gaining control over windfall revenue - like oil. In those countries, hardly any of the citizens pay taxes.
Parliamentary supremacy was achieved in England because the Parliament had the final say over financing armies. The Thirteen Colonies gained their independence over the issue of tax collections to pay off debts from a previous war. Bourbon France collapsed because its debts forced the King to ask the people for more taxes…
I put it to you that these old régimes were not replaced by simply swapping absolute rulers because the ideas of democracy had greater legitimacy among the people, for everyone knew they had to pay taxes whatever else happened, and democracy was seen as the best way for the rulers or ruled to direct this.