Monday, January 30, 2012

Weaknesses of Dictatorships

An excerpt from "From Dictatorship to Democracy" by Gene Sharp (26-27)

Among the weaknesses of dictatorships are the following:

1. The cooperation of a multitude of people, groups, and institutions
needed to operate the system may be restricted or
withdrawn.

2. The requirements and effects of the regime’s past policies
will somewhat limit its present ability to adopt and implement
conflicting policies.

3. The system may become routine in its operation, less able to
adjust quickly to new situations.

4. Personnel and resources already allocated for existing tasks
will not be easily available for new needs.

5. Subordinates fearful of displeasing their superiors may not
report accurate or complete information needed by the dictators
to make decisions.

6. The ideology may erode, and myths and symbols of the system
may become unstable.

7. If a strong ideology is present that influences one’s view of
reality, firm adherence to it may cause inattention to actual
conditions and needs.

8. Deteriorating efficiency and competency of the bureaucracy,
or excessive controls and regulations, may make the system’s
policies and operation ineffective.

9. Internal institutional conflicts and personal rivalries and hostilities
may harm, and even disrupt, the operation of the dictatorship.

10. Intellectuals and students may become restless in response
to conditions, restrictions, doctrinalism, and repression.
11. The general public may over time become apathetic, skeptical,
and even hostile to the regime.

12. Regional, class, cultural, or national differences may become
acute.

13. The power hierarchy of the dictatorship is always unstable
to some degree, and at times extremely so. Individuals do
not only remain in the same position in the ranking, but may
rise or fall to other ranks or be removed entirely and replaced
by new persons.

14. Sections of the police or military forces may act to achieve
their own objectives, even against the will of established dictators,
including by coup d’état.

15. If the dictatorship is new, time is required for it to become
well established.

16. With so many decisions made by so few people in the dictatorship,
mistakes of judgment, policy, and action are likely
to occur.

17. If the regime seeks to avoid these dangers and decentralizes
controls and decision making, its control

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Abu Rateb & Fayrouz: an Unlikely Duet for Palestine


Shadi:

Teacher, Teacher, asked the bewildered child Shadi…

Teacher Teacher, where is my country?

I hear them speak…about my home…my absent country

About our vineyards and olives...

And birds the intruder expelled…

Every one of my friends speaks of a country he loves…

My absent country fills my heart…

But meet it, I do not….”

Teacher:

Despair not…for the path is long…But we tire not…

And although today you find yourself distant…

By Haifa you will be tomorrow…

You will grow up one day, Shadi…

To embrace the land of Palestine…

And see the armies of justice…

Surrounding Al Aqsa, united.”

If “the role of songs has not been integrated into the political analysis of colonial or anticolonial nationalisms” as Joseph Massad puts it, then the role of the Islamic nasheed (Islamic acapella) has been relatively nonexistent in the study of nationalism especially when discussing the creation of popular conscience in the Arab-Muslim context surrounding Palestine.

In the nasheed lyrics above, Shadi is a symbol for every Palestinian child in the diaspora stripped of his homeland. This popular nasheed widely distributed in the late eighties early nineties would, more than a decade later become the inspiration for the popular Ummi Felesteen (My Mother, Palestine) nasheed by Kuwaiti munshed (performer) Humood Al Khudr written by popular Egyptian cleric Sheikh Yusuf Qaradhawi and it’s sequel Ummi Felesteen 2 which follows a conversation between another symbolic Palestinian child, Hani and his teacher.

Hani:

Uncle, I am a lifeless twig…

Torn, by treachery, from my roots and branches…

I have lost my soul, my mother, and my beloved father..

I have lost my family, my kinsfolk and my neighbors

Teacher

I wiped the tears of the weeping child and told him…

I have heard you…so take my thoughts and my being…

My son, your wound, in my heart, it bleeds…

Have mercy on your childhood…what plagues you…plagues me…

Despair not, if you live, after your family, a loner…

For we are all to you, that caring father…

And all our wives are a mother possessing fervor…

To sacrifice her soul…before her body…”

Hani exhales and declares…

Yes! I am in my land and with my family…

Uncle, you have renewed my confidence and enthusiasm…

Give me your right hand to kiss in thanks…

Mother Palestine, fear not and give up not,

We will sacrifice for you, the old and the young!”

Nasheeds have long been an outlet to express frustrations with and resistance to the occupation of Palestine, often reflecting, just as their musical counterparts do (Fayrouz, Marcel, Um Kalthoum, Sheikh Imam etc) a trajectory of historical events and reacting to them, from a strictly Muslim lens. What is interesting in the nasheed phenomenon is that it remains consistent in its stance on Palestine regardless of the moment in history or the political / religious inclinations of the Arab regimes.

Lament is, unlike in revolutionary music, always accompanied by a promise of return, by hook or by crook. The Shadi song is amongst an entire collection of nasheeds emerging in the eighties in conjunction with the emergence of US & Saudi backed Muslim Brotherhood jihad movement in Afghanistan against the USSR. Partaking in the Arab jihad movement in Afghanistan were Muslim Brotherhood members from across the Arab world (Saudi, Kuwait, Jordan, Syria etc) – key to this was none other than Palestinian MB leader, Abdulla Yusuf Azzam – an alleged founding member of Hamas. Azzam’s influence in the backing of the jihad movement across the Arab world would be paralleled by a wave of powerful “revolutionary” nasheed songs promising the reclamation of Palestine, Jerusalem, Al Aqsa distributed by the now widely-available audio cassette tape medium and played extensively across the Arab world. Key to this genre was Syrian munshed Mohammed Mustafa Masfaqa aka. Abu Rateb who performed songs like Ya Filisteen Aldarr (Palestine of Home), Haifa wa Al Quds (Haifa and Jerusalem), Arda Al Israa (Land of The Isra and Miraj referring to the Prophet Mohammed’s journey from Mecca to Jerusalem) and Wallah ma Nseena (We Swear We Have not Forgotten) Performed at the The Intifada Nasheed Festival, Abu Rateb performed one of his most famous revolutionary nasheeds “Zionist, you are not”

Zionist, you are not, stronger than Chosroes (Khosrou) or Caesar…

You are lower, you are smaller…you are made from the body parts of Khayber (referring to the Battle of Khaybar close to Medina)…

So go ahead, own what you shall in land…go! Hector and intimidate!

For every span (of land) atop it you shall be slain…

And borrow what you will of injustice...be arrogant and harass…

The more you borrow, the more our love for the land shall grow..

Oh sons of Zion, patience…we vow to avenge…

For as long as you remain frivolous…

The Lions of religion (Islam) shall roar…

Oh mountains of Jerusalem…we promise…

All my lands shall be purified…

When God’s victory shall come…

For it is a debt that shan’t be delayed..

The nasheeds of the late eighties and the early nineties popularized by the US-backed jihad movement in Afghanistan, ran in parallel to the revolutionary songs of Al Firqa Al Markaziya and AbdulWahhab, while standing in contrast to the Marxist influenced PLO equally told the story of another vision of “revolution”. The consistency of the promise of liberation in the nasheed not only stands the test of time and political control, but also language. This is evident in the contemporary English language nasheeds by performers like Outlandish and Zain Bikha in song his Freedom Will Come:

“I’ve been to the holy land,
A place cherished by children of Abraham
But this bloodshed and carnage, don’t understand
Son raise your head, find the star in the night sky
Freedom will come Palestine, we hear it worldwide”

What does it mean that even after the ‘secularization’ of Gulf states in the 2000s that these same nasheeds continue to be created, written, produced and distributed on mainstream media which has a sizable share of Pan-Arab television market? On channels like Al Risala, 4Shabab, Al Afasi, Noor Dubai lamenting nasheeds declaring promises of liberation and return are performed by Arab Muslim munsheds like Fahad Al Kubaisi with his Ahin Filisteen (Oh Palestine). What does it mean for them to continue to be used and juxtaposed with that very same footage of the Palestinian exodus, the intifadas and the Gaza war on YouTube the world over?

Perhaps a closer reading of Palestine-themed nasheeds would offer much needed insight, just as Massad’s trajectory of Liberating Songs and add yet another layer to a matter of already overwhelming complexity.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

In the Company of Storytellers

If you can't find me over the next few months, it will be because I will have my head buried in the words of some of the most mesmerizing English-language storytellers of all time.

The Emperor by Ryszard Kapyscinski

News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The White Album by Joan Didion

Up in the Old Hotel by Joe Mitchell

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

Only Love Can Break Your Heart by David Samuels

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace

Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

In the Freud Archive by Janet Malcom

Seabiscuit by Laura Hilenbrand

See you on the other, sometimes darker, sometimes more colorful side.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

سقى منزلينا، يا بثينَ، بحاجرٍ،

سقى منزلينا، يا بثينَ، بحاجرٍ، على الهجرِ منّا، صَيِّفٌ وربِيعُ
ودوركِ، يا ليلى ، وإن كنّ بعدنا بلينِ بلى ً، لم تبلهنّ ربوعُ
وخَيماتِكِ اللاتي بمُنعَرَجِ اللّوى ، لقُمريّها، بالمشرقين، سَجِيعُ
يزعزعُ فيها الريحُ، كلَّ عشية ً، هزيمٌ، بسلافِ الرياحُ، رجيعُ
وإنيَ، أن يَعلى بكِ اللّومُ، أو تُرَيْ بدارِ أذًى ، من شامتٍ لَجزُوع
وإني على الشيء الذي يُلتَوى به، وإن زجرتني زجرة ً، لوريعُ
فقدتكِ من نفسٍ شعاعٍ!، فإنني، نهيتُكِ عن هذا، وأنتِ جَميع
فقربتِ لي غيرَ القريبِ، وأشرفتِ هناكَ ثنايا، ما لهنّ طُلوع
يقولون: صَبٌّ بالغواني موكَّلٌ، وهلْ ذاكَ، من فعلِ الرجال، بديع؟

رمى الله، في عيني بثينة َ، بالقذى

رمى الله، في عيني بثينة َ، بالقذى وفي الغرِّ من أنيابها، بالقوادحِ
رَمَتني بسهمٍ، ريشُهُ الكُحلُ، لم يَضِرْ ظواهرَ جلدي، فهوَ في القلب جارحي
ألا ليتني، قبلَ الذي قلتِ، شِيبَ لي، من المُذْعِفِ القاضي سِمامُ الذّرَارِحِ
قمتُّ، ولم تعلمُ عليّ خيانٌة ألا رُبّ باغي الرّبْحِ ليسَ برابِحِ
فلا تحملها، واجعليها جناية ٍ تروحتُ منها في مياحة ِ مائحِ
أبُوءُ بذَنبي، انّني قد ظَلمْتُها، وإني بباقي سِرّها غيرُ بائحِ

تذكّرَ أنساً، من بثينة َ، ذا القلبُ

تذكّرَ أنساً، من بثينة َ، ذا القلبُ وبثنة ُ ذكراها لذي شجنٍ، نصبُ
وحنّتْ قَلوصي، فاستمعتُ لسَجْرها برملة ِ لدٍّ، وهيَ مثنيّة ٌ تحبو
أكذبتُ طرفي، أم رأيتُ بذي الغضا لبثنة َ، ناراً، فارفعوا أيها الركّبُ
إلى ضوءِ نارٍ ما تَبُوخُ، كأنّها، من البُعدِ والإقواء، جَيبٌ له نَقْب
ألا أيها النُّوّامُ، ويحكُمُ، هُبّوا! أُسائِلكُمْ: هل يقتلُ الرجلَ الحبّ؟
ألا رُبّ ركبٍ قد وقفتُ مطيَّهُمْ عليكِ، ولولا أنتِ، لم يقفِ الرّكبُ
لها النّظرة ُ الأولى عليهم، وبَسطة ٌ، وإن كرّتِ الأبصارُ، كان لها العقبُ