5 posts tagged “arab”

just caught some of the excellent BBC world debate at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East starring tony blair (who gets more and more impressive), ehud barak, salam fayyad and gamal mubarak. sharing the stage with these world leaders were 19 middle eastern youth delegates (plus a south korean for some reason). the debate was supposed to focus on the issues facing the middle east's youth, but the only topics covered in the last 20 minutes or so were centered on the palestinian-israeli issue.

i have to say i was surprised the issue featured so prominently but perhaps it had more to do with the panel than with the true interests and concerns of youth in the region. certainly my personal experience has lead me to believe that the palestinian issue doesn't feature that prominently in most young people's thoughts on the future of the region. the focus is usually on economic development, freedom of speech, human rights and democracy and more recently the iraq-us thing.

of the 20 youth delegates, a few really stood out as being interesting, thoughtful, well-poised voices. first and foremost was jordanian naseem tarawnah who runs the excellent black iris blog. israeli (i think) shira efron asked some excellent, prodding questions about the futile nature of attempting progress without inclusive discussions (very timely with all the appeasement talk going back and forth between obama and mccain right now). and i'd like to know more about saudi hani zedan. all these kids are definitely going places, and hopefully taking us with them.

i'm not a fan of the idea of a state based on religion, and i am not particularly well-versed in israeli-palestinian history, nor do i plan on delving into it too much. but i do have a few general thoughts on israel and the arab perspective:

+ israel exists. it isn't going anywhere so put the past behind you and accept and over time even try to love thy neighbor (and no more israeli scapegoating already);
+ palestininian leadership has been embarassingly ineffectual even by super-sub-par middle eastern standards, they need to get their shit together (fayyad who i had never heard of before tonight seemed nice but didn't come across as a leader);
+ states and political actors like iran, hamas, syria and hizbulla are evil, come out and be frank about it (disown them).

with either obama or mccain running the world from next year and tony blair repping the quartet, who knows, real peace progress may actually take place in the coming years. as ever i am optimistic.

i always look forward to mona eltahawy's posts. her latest on the blossoming arab blogosphere has inspired me to share some recently discovered / subscribed egyptian blogs:

Sana Munasifi touches on a great point in her recent review of the Fifth Annual Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Festival. She highlights the recently opened Abu Dhabi branch of the Arabian Oud House as an example of the type of grass-roots, ground-up, regionally relevant and contextual initiative (= investment) that may ultimately produce results (= returns) with more significant impact than those from grand Saadiyat like projects.

The way I see it, why not do both if you have the means to? And I imagine Abu Dhabi has the means to do almost anything it wants.

I sensed an outcry amongst the Dubai cultural movers and shakers when Saadiyat was launched which I always found astonishing. For years the standard art-opening conversations included rants on the regional governments' lack of investment and interest in the Arts & Culture industry. Yet when Abu Dhabi announces the biggest Arts & Culture project undertaken in modern times, there is a backlash about the way the money is being spent (trophy-museums, blatant tourism projects, unoriginal etc). As someone who has been active on a grass-roots level in the burgeoning regional culture scenes I have always believed that the most interesting movements and developments emerge through individuals and small groups and that these ground-up movements would benefit from a larger cultural eco-system which the mega projects planned in Abu Dhabi and Doha and Dubai will undoubtedly provide.

Back to Sana's article, she raves about a new find for me: Iraqi Oud player Naseer Shamma:

"Mr Shamma broke with oud convention with his work "Oriental Orchestra". Thisperformance at the festival saw 67 international musicians playing 15 ouds, ten kanoons (similar to the harpsichord) and nine nays (a kind of flute), with drums, tambourines and other instruments. The concert included solos and call-and-response phrases between Mr Shamma and different instrumental groups, but most songs featured the full orchestra. The multitude of minor tones created a clangy, dissonant sound, which was, as Mr Shamma admitted, shocking in its unorthodoxy. But the jingle of the orchestra injected his compositions with new, lively personality. It was a welcome change from the regional classics performed throughout much of the rest of the festival."

And she makes lots of great observations- my favorite:

"The festival, like much in the Emirates, was rife with status symbols. Seating sections included VIP, VVIP and Pearl and Diamond seating (I'm still unsure which was more elite)."

I am a real believer in Abu Dhabi, I think it (along with Doha) will be a fascinating global city in a few decades. Mohamed Bin Zayed and Hamad Bin Khalifa are currently the Middle East's most interesting leaders.