Thoughts form Class Today

Ok, so I am not a history buff.  I have taken a few classes that have involved the history of the Middle East, so much of this is not new to me.  Even this specific view of the history of the area.  I admit that I usually forget much of what I have learned, if I do not use it every day!  But, what I do know, is that it is very difficult to find a comprehensive history of anything that takes in all points of view, and treats them fairly.  All historical authors and professors have their own points of view and their own agendas.  I realize that in this class we are aiming to dispel some false and “narrow” views of America’s history in the Middle East; but I do wish we could hear a little bit more from America’s point of view to compare with the Middle Eastern point of view.  It is thought that kids in schools always learn the “American” way of looking at history; but, though in some cases this is true, much of the time the history is taught through the professors point of view, many of whom are liberal.  Plus, history does not seem to be a major focus anymore in high school.  Many American kids enter college with knowing hardly anything about their own country, let alone anything of the histories of the countries around them.  This means that if students in college do not get to hear all sides of history, their views may be shaped by one or two professors’ opinions.  Let’s face it, American kids are not known for doing much research outside of what they learn in school!

                  I think it is a common misconception to think that most Americans hear the American viewpoint consistently praised here in the US, so that they are “brainwashed” with these ideas.  For me, it is just the opposite.  In fact, if I did not work hard to filter everything that I hear, I could be hating my own country right now.  I am constantly bombarded with anti-American sentiment coming from her own people.  Now I know that our country has made many mistakes and done many things wrong, but she still is nevertheless our country.  And we need to work hard to keep her our country.  This means looking into history with all points of view, including her point of view.  It is then up to the individual to decide which viewpoint, or combinations of viewpoints, he/she will accept.

A Man in Our House

   Last week I watched an excellent Egyptian film called A man in Our House.  It is over two hours long, but is well worth watching!  It is a fascinating film, and I wish we had time to watch it in class!

                  A Man in Our House is about a young man who assassinates the Egyptian Prime Minister.  The part is played by actor Omar Sharif.  Ibrahim Hamdy is a politically active student whose brother dies when the Egyptian government sends people to stop a student protest against it.  After Ibrahim kills the Prime Minister, he is arrested; but when he becomes ill and is sent to the hospital, he is able to escape.  After escaping, he stays with a fellow student’s family in their apartment.  He feels safe there, because the family has never been politically active and the government will not think to search for him there. 

                  While he is staying with this family the youngest daughter, Nawal, falls in love with Ibrahim, and he with her.  The family risks their lives to keep Ibrahim safe, knowing that the government will punish anyone who helps him with at least 3 years in prison.  Meanwhile, Ibrahim learns what it means to be loved by a family, and he says that he has “liven an entire lifetime while staying with them” (or something to that effect).   But Ibrahim is worried about the family’s safety, so he escapes as quickly as possible.  Meanwhile, Nawal and Ibrahim promise each other to stay in contact.  I will not tell you the ending, because it is a movie that everyone should watch if possible!

                  I found this film quite eye-opening.  It is a black-and-white film, and if it had not been for the English subtitle, one would have assumed that this was a classic Hollywood film.  The dress, acting, and even much of the décor in the movie all resembled Hollywood.  The film was touching, and I would recommend it to grades 10 through the first two years of college (and anyone after that, too!).

Here is a clip from the movie!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-10uV1jXkg

Egypt

            In my group, Arabic literature, I have been learning more about Egypt.  I have read the short novel War in the Land of Egypt and watched an Egyptian movie titled A Man in Our House.  Egypt has always fascinated me, but more so in the last year as I have learned more about its corrupt government and ongoing political unrest.  In the past, I have also read a book called the Yacoubian Building, a book by Alaa Al-Aswany that exposes the corruption of Egypt’s government and society. 

                  The novel War in the Land of Egypt is about a poor man’s son that is sent into the military in the stead of a rich man’s son, all because of a bribe to get the poor man’s land back.  (I will not tell you the ending because it is one we may all read as a class!)  A Man in Our House is an excellent movie that tells the journey of a young man who assassinates the Prime Minister of Egypt.  The Yacoubian Building is a novel with several different characters living in a single building, all experiencing different struggles with the government or societal systems.

                  As I was looking for more information pertaining to continuing unrest in Egypt, I learned that its leader, Mubarak, is very aged and will probably die in the near future.  He has no successor right now, and the politically unstable situation that exists now could explode after he dies, with different factions/leaders fighting for control of the government.  This is especially true since there have been many movements against his government, and against the rising prices of food and low wages.  I also discovered that there was a recent shortage of bread, and how some people waited in line for hours just to buy bread for their families at a price they could afford.

                  I included three links below, two YouTube newscasts and one newspaper article on Mubarak.  They are very interesting, so I hope that you get to watch them!  My group goes first, so I am sure we will be discussing many of these issues in the next couple of weeks!

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-05-04-as-mubarak-turns-80-egypt-faces-inflation-unrest  -- Mubarak article

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhI-FSKgTfs  --Al-Jazeera newscast

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lavfa2VXq0  --other newscast on bread shortage

 

Aunt Safiyya, the Second Two Chapters

                  We had some very interesting discussion about the last two chapters of Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery in class the other day!  I thought that our discussion on gender roles in the village, especially the roles of the mother and father, were particularly interesting  (I know, I have to come up with another word other than “interesting”!!!  Someone help me, please!!!)  Both characters intrigued me, and I never knew quite what to expect out of them, or even how to analyze them after the end of the story.

                  The mother’s relationship with her son, her daughters, Safiyya, and her husband was quite shocking.  The fact that she openly favored her son over her daughters, and was even slightly abusive to her daughters when they did anything wrong, took me by surprise!  I expected that the mother would have had sympathy toward her daughters, I guess like my own mother has toward me.  Also, she favored Safiyya over her own daughters, because of her beauty and prospect of advancing the family’s honor by a prosperous marriage.  The whole character of the mother was harsh, though maybe some of her harshness was due to the roughness of life in the village.

                  The father was an even more complex character, and I am still not sure whether to think of him as harsh, or as tender and understanding.  I think he was a little bit of both.  The author seemed to have a fear of him throughout the whole book, as though not sure of what to expect from him.  But there were also tender moments in the book where you saw his wisdom, strength, and understanding.  He never seemed to overpower his wife, for example.  He also insisted that his daughters be educated.  And even when there was so much conflict over Harbi, he risked his life to make sure he was safe, and then did his best to keep family relations as peaceful as possible (though he never was successful).  All in all, I think his character was a noble one.

                  I really enjoyed this book, and there is much more that could be said about it, especially with all of the interesting topics we found for discussion.  I think the whole class will really enjoy writing a paper on this book and some of its topics!

Short Arabic Plays

                  The first book that I have chosen for my group, Arabic Literature II, is the book Short Arabic Plays.  It has been immensely interesting so far, and I cannot wait to finish it!  So far, I have read three plays: “Where the Power Lies,” “The Traveler,” and “The Alley.”

                  “Where the Power Lies” is a play that exposes the corruption and laziness of government officials in the Middle East.  Its main characters are civil servants that “work” in little offices that are supposed to handle applications (though it is not clear what exactly the applications are for).  “Work” is in parenthesis because all they really do is chat with each other and make plans on how to get out of doing their work.  Their corruption is shown in that they treat every applicant that comes into their office differently, based on the applicant’s wealth, power, and even appearance.  There is specifically a poor applicant whom they continually refuse to help, until he pretends to have “connections.”

                  “The Traveler” is the most interesting play to me so far.  There is only one actor in the play, who is acting on a stage full of scattered luggage.  The play is performed with a thorough soundtrack, including an announcer who keeps telling passengers to board different flights.  The actor cannot decide which flight to board.  There is one leading home, one leading to the future, and others.   The announcer also keeps telling any of the passengers who want to find “love” to find the nearest person and investigate for “potential.”  It is a rather amusing play, though sad in the end, because the actor is left confused and unable to decide where he wants to go with his life.

                  Finally, “The Alley” is another play with only one main actress.  It is a play in which the actress reveals her childhood memories about life in Palestine before and after Israel was created.  The name comes from an alley that she frequently visited near her house.

                  I will keep everyone posted on the rest of the plays!

 

                 

 

Reel Bad Arabs film

                  Reel Bad Arabs was not a new film for me.    Though I think that is a very solemn film, and deserves careful consideration, I also have a few issues with the film.  There is no doubt that the producer has a way of grabbing our attention, and even making viewers feel guilty (not that he was totally wrong in doing so), though I do not think he was totally fair in all of his accusations.

                  First, there is no doubt that Hollywood has its prejudices and stereotypes, many of which are negative.  There is also no doubt that Hollywood desires to influence its viewers with these stereotypes and prejudices.  But just because it is attempting to influence its audience does not mean that it is actually representing them, or even that it is successful in its pursuit to influence.  For one thing, in order to be successful, people must watch the movies.  This may sound obvious, but many (in fact almost all) of the movies shown in this film I have never seen.  Hollywood represents a small part of the American population who attempt to provide entertainment and/or push certain points of view.  But there are many people in America who do not agree with Hollywood’s points of view.

                  Also, though this was not the object of the film, I think something deserves to be said of how the Arabs view Americans on television, especially the “typical” American woman.  Many of what people in the Middle East see of Americans on television are soap-opera like shows, with images of lusty blonde woman with too much eye makeup and bright-red lipstick.  Thus they tend to think of all American woman as filling this stereotype.  This is definitely a topic I am interested in researching more thoroughly.

                  This being said, I do think that the producer hit home with Aladdin.  I do think that it was extremely inappropriate for Disney to open a children’s cartoon with a song that had such violent words (“where they cut off your ear...”).  But because he did not mention the fact that Disney reworded the song and apologized later on, I did not feel that I could trust the rest of his accusations without more research. 

                  Finally, this film did cause me to think about my own stereotypes, both positive and negative, and whether any of them are based on fact.  It also made me realize that Hollywood is a form of entertainment, and should be viewed through critical eyes.                    

The First Two Chapters of "Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery"

Ahhlan wa sahhlan!  That means "Welcome" in Arabic.  I have never blogged before this class, so bear with me!  But I have really enjoyed this class so far.  And I have really enjoyed reading Aunt Safiyya well as!

  The first two chapters of Aunt Safiyya were intriguing, enlightening, and saddening.  The story is intriguing because of both its structure and its content.  I thought it was very interesting how Bahaa' Taher opens the book by introducing the monastery, of which we do not yet see the full importance, instead of developing Aunt Safiyya's character first.  Most American authors start by introducing the main (s) and/or circumstances first, whereas in much of the Arabic literature that I have studied so far, the main character is not confirmed until the middle or end of the story.  The content is also intriguing in that the author intertwines different religions (Coptic Christianity and Islam), different social classes, and different beliefs towards women in the Middle East, all into his own life in a small village.

The first two chapters were also enlightening, in that I realized even more the importance of words and language to the Arabic people.  There are many different phrases that have been used so far, such as "may God have mercy on us all," "son of my father," and "there is no strength or power except in God."  The middle phrase was a term of address to someone, and the other two were used as replies.  I found the dramatic use of language to be quite fascinating.

  Finally, I found the first two chapters to be saddening, as did everyone else, I am sure.  It was very sad to watch Aunt Safiyya grow into a beautiful, sweet, and innocent young woman, and then see her disintegrate into a wrinkly, stern, and even "scary" old woman.  The fact that both of these processes happened within a single chapter amazed me.

I cannot wait to see how Bahaa' Taher brings the monastery and Aunt Safiyya together, and how Aunt Safiyya's character is developed even more fully...