--- On Mon, 3/16/09, Mario Goveia <mgov...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> Doesn't this take the cake? A woman coming to the
> defense of Arabs, most of whom would consider her a second
> class citizen, and have up to three more like her in the
> wings.
--------------------------
First of all Goveia, you can't speak of Arabs as if they were some MacDonald's
homogenised hamburgers. There are the Levantine Arabs whose history and culture
is very different from the Peninsular Arabs. Then there is what used to be
Mesopotamia. If you call an Iranian, an Arab, he is likely to take you gently
to a corner and show you atleast one of his several fingers.
For the sake of brevity, and because I've spent a good many years in that part
of the world, let me comment about the Peninsular Arab. The idea that these
Arabs are suicide bombers who would like nothing more than blowing themselves
up at the drop of a hat is laughable. The Peninsular Arab is a
mercantile-trader, he loves to sit across a big, wide, mahogany table and tell
you all about his wily deals. What these states have achieved within 60 years
is unparalleled in history, at least not without colonizing entire continents
or having an army of slave-labour pick cotton for them. (For the sake of
historical accuracy, let me state that the Arabs were notorious slave-traders,
and made regular incursions into Zanzibar, Mozambique and Uganda for this
purpose, but they didn't build their 20th century wealth on the slave-trade).
The reason these countries are so successful is not only because of oil but
because that wily horse-trader who used to ply to India
to exchange horses for rice, knew a thing or two about deals.
Secondly, is this idea that women lead reprehensible lives in the Muslim world.
On any given day, you are likely to find a fair, Arab maiden spending her time,
shopping at the mall, having her hands painted in henna, buying the latest
clothes at Marks&Spencers and generally wondering why women around the world
are clamouring for liberation.
All this is not to glamourise life in the Gulf nor to gloss over the problems
that exist there. But which society doesn't have deep-seated issues that need
to be worked on? One thing I've always felt strongly about is the undue
censorship of books and the media, which in the end will create an
intellectually numbed society. But on the flip-side I can also argue that a
free-press and unbridled freedom of speech does not always manage to create a
fully-informed society.
Let me also state that there is anger within the Muslim world, and a lot of it
stems from the unresolved Palestinian-Israeli conflict; a mess created by the
British Empire and perpetuated by the Americans. How it will resolve itself is
anyone's guess.
Lastly, let me say, it is reassuring that Gulf Goans feel compelled to defend
the Gulf, just as UK Goans defend Britain, Canadian GOans, Canada and so on. We
have managed to muster a certain amount of loyalty to the countries we reside
in. Yet, we are fundamentally Goans, and that in the end is the essence of
being Goan. If you ask a third-generation US-German to find Germany on the map,
they'll be hard-pressed to do so. But for Goans, there is something in our
spirit that remains essentially in celebration of our ethnicity. Whether that
has something to do with leading our lives in a cultural vacuum or because we
have a distinct sense of our own identity (something FN might deny), is
something to ponder on.
Best,
Selma
