clashes

sometimes i wonder what the clashes that we confront each day in the news are really about.....
on the ports issue - was the issue really freedom of contract v. national security? or was it really xenophobia v. political gain pre-midterm elections? or racial profiling v. treating people as equals? ...
on the clash of civilizations - is the issue really islam v. the west? or is it really, as a syrian-american dared to say on al-jazeera recently, modernity v. the middle ages?
on the cartoons issue - is the issue really respect for religion v. freedom of speech?

and on any of these - who decides which are the clashes we focus on? which subtexts we acknowledge, and which we don't?

it again has been an interesting time to be here. qatar recently hosted a meeting of the 'alliance of civilizations' - a UN initiative that aims to "overcome prejudice, misconceptions, misperceptions, and polarization which potentially threaten world peace." the meeting here, which involved kofi annan as well as a number of regional and religious leaders, tried to find a resolution to the cartoons crisis. a valiant effort, but danish cheese is still conspicuously absent from my supermarket (all the more conspicuous because of the signs saying so and the way the dairy section has been rearranged). the crisis seems less explosive at least, and seems to be fizzling out.... or maybe that is just because there are new epic clashes to distract us... or maybe that's the best we can hope for - this is the way the world will end, this is the way the world will end, this is the way the world will end, not with a bang but a whimper.

the whimpers, and there were definitely some whimpers, about the dubai company and ports issue were quite an interesting topic in these parts. i found it especially interesting in light of the fact that qatar's security is entrusted to a private company - rudy guiliani's in fact. so here i am in country which is important american ally in the region that is secured by a bunch of former FBI hacks hired by the former mayor of new york who created a security firm after terrorists from this region attacked manhattan while my nation is in a whirlwind over a private company from a neighboring ally being contracted by the US government to secure strategic ports in america.... it's enough to make your head spin. and make you wonder what being secure means these days.... security - what kind of idea are you? it's unfortunate that the congressional republicans' willingness to stand up to the president for once only went as far as being xenophobic and didn't show much actually concern for 'security' (whatever that means) by not using this issue as an opportunity to - bang - address some of the very serious security threats at the ports in question in this controversy, regardless of what company is running them. oh well. whimper, whimper, whimper.

have also had some very compelling conversations on gender lately. i participated in a conference last weekend entitled 'arab women, past and present: participation and democratization.' [it was a curious week to attend the conference after i didn't wear my abaya to class one day (!!!). it feel amazing not to wear it. i felt like me, like my soul wasn't being strangled somehow.... and yes, that may sound dramatic, but this is me talking and my inner drama queen finds being here suppressive enough, her only outlet is writing.... ;-) ] anyway, i didn't participate in all of the sessions, but there were a few observations i thought worth sharing... one was from a lecture entitled 'religion as a matrix for participation' - the thought was "men and women feel safer when women are kept within bounds." the talk was not just about islam, but about christianity as well, and the speaker opened her discussion with this idea. i couldn't help but wonder if there is something to this idea.... especially in light of the more controversial exchanges that took place among the various women at the conference with their various identities. one such exchange was during a discussion on islam, sharia law, and women in the workplace while older muslim women feminists (non-qataris) who had spent their lifetimes working for women's rights in the workplace heard comments from young, qatari women students saying, 'islam is the greatest religion in the world because all women have to do is stay at home, drink tea, and get fat. why would we want to work? why are we talking about this?' needless to say, it was explosive. bang. it's safer to stay within bounds, safer not to challenge, not to ask the challenging questions.....

but asking questions seems to be all i do here. and i'm going to be doing so in a more formal way with a remarkable local woman friend of mine here. raised in europe but now living the qatari life, this friend and i often find ourselves lamenting the manner in which misunderstanding and miscommunication seems all that our world's contemporary clashes are capaable of producing. when in truth, there are many subtexts. in the course of coming to know her and her story, i have found myself wanting to share her narrative with others. the particulars of experience that drive any narrative, that create a story, are sometimes capable of resonating outside or across the clashes (or at least i hope so.)... and there is a certain healing power in narrative that doesn't exist in the realms of politics, economics, war, industry, religion, country, identity.... or really anywhere else. so with the help of this friend, and a few other willing qatari women, i will be asking questions. collecting the stories of some of the remarkable local women i have met. if for no other reason than they are worth collecting.... and in an effort to give a more nuanced faced to this region and these people than is being painted at the moment** ... in any event, if you have any questions, send them to me.

meanwhile, the beat goes on here. rather than ramble further, i'll leave you with an image from the remarkable experience of going to the doha camel souq.... the camel souq was amazing - 500 - 1,000 camels (really!). all sizes, colours, personalities (camels make some crazy noises). and the bedouin camel traders who run the souq were so friendly and curious and warm-hearted it was hard not to quit my job at the arab law bureau just to work there instead..... but they were shrewd businessmen. i tried to ask about the price of a camel, but a toothless old man with a gleam in his eye would only ask me questions in response - what kind of camel did i want? did i want a sudanese camel? did i want a camel with milk? ... when i explained that i didn't actually want to purchase a camel, but was just curious, he and his compatriots exchanged glances. but they still wouldn't give me a straight answer and just said it depended on the camel - whether it had milk, how big it was, where it was from, etc. they were wise, these camel traders, behind their smiling eyes. who knows - even if i'm just curious now, i may be a customer someday, and better not to say anything that could someday resurface and cause a clash.... we have enough of those.


** side note on this point - this year the fulbright program launched an 'islamic civilization initiative' which gave extra funding to certain grantees doing projects in the muslim world so that they could spend time when they returned to the US giving lectures and sharing their experiences with americans - to give a firsthand account of islamic civilization in an effort to foster cross-cultural understanding.... however, the bush administration has recently cancelled the program. not surprisingly, unfortunately. the administration wants to entirely control what americans think about islamic civilization and the muslim world.... to have unmonitored americans who had lived in the muslim world talking to americans and giving them an unedited picture of this part of the world and its peoples could be a serious threat to the security of this administration and its agenda... whimper. whimper, whimper.