New York
I'm pretty sleep deprived. Seeing Arabic symbols cascade across my eyes when I do sleep. So, I offer this response to my Open Letter by my friend Nick, the one who started the dialogue. I liked his insight.
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MC,
Interesting response.
It will be hard for you now to have an informed conversation with those who have not been there.
I had asked the question with more than idle curiosity.
I suspect that you might find that, in addition to a political dimension, there are other components.
Back in time I lived in Algeria for 18 months and that led me to develop one of Nick's laws of experiential evolution.
" The curious mind has little chance of recovery from an encounter with a radically different set of social constructs."
I've outlined the things that stood out for me at the time.
1,The Feminine Condition.
The Algerians had what they called " les femmes d'interieur". Women who were never allowed out of the house exccept once or twice in their lives. Maybe to visit the home village for a funeral or a wedding. The men even did the shopping.
One of my neighbours has 12 children. She told me and my then wife that her husband had told her that if she wasnt pregnant every year he would divorce her.
A secretary in the company I was working in, came to the office one day visibly having been beaten up. We found out that she had been out with friends the preceding night and, on coming home at 10 pm, found her young brother waiting for her on the stairs. In the absence of the father he took it upon himself, as the senior male, to administer a " correction" to his sister for unacceptable behaviour.
Most of this is a relic of tribal and nomadic ways. Women NEEDED protection from wandering men. Men needed to be visibly the alpha human or suffer being "overthrown" by stronger males. People with western view dont understand the underpinnings of the rules and "cant believe they do things like that" . Just like Bush believing that he could export democracy to a place where tribal law, respect for a strong and dictatorial, father-figure, leader had been the norm for centuries.
2. Male pride
When I lived there, 65 % of the population was under 15. ( the cheapest form of entertainment is sex) due in many respects the intense Arab respect for the "fine cluster of children that a man could beget". Also due I believe to a need to have a strong and united family to act as a self protection system ( you know the Arab saying about " my village against the world, my family against the village, me and my brothers against the family, me against my brothers.)
We all used to speculate on what would happen when the boys grew to an age where they would have families and children and where there was no work, no status in the community nothing to hold their heads up about. We forecast social upheaval, bloody conflict, and all that goes with being young, full of testosterone and nothing to do. Sadly we were right.
We found out that this made for men who wore their pride on their skins like open wounds, twitching and reacting at the slightest touch.
3. The Male / Female Relationship
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In addition to all the above, the stickiness of traditional ideas was impressive. I became an accepted "friend of the family" for one family. We were talking en famille one night and the sons were telling me that they were going to be different from their fathers. More open minded, more accepting of women, more Western. One of the daughters later told me, when the boys had left, that this was BS. That, while in the University faculties, both sexes were able to commingle, take coffee together at the SAME TABLE, argue about politics. BUT that as soon as there was marriage, a high proportion of the men wanted their woman to wear the veil and stay home. Reversion to the mean . Even then ( 1970) the divorce rate was over 50 %. And the down side of this for the women was that she was contaminated and unmarriagable in the future.
4.Politics
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Personally I have a belief that politics are shaped by social custom and values and have no independent or absolute existence.
( This of course leaves aside the effect of the West screwing up natural ethnic boundaries after the 1st World War)
The economic peak for the Arab world was back in the 50's I seem to remember. Since then the quality of life for the West has improved significantly while the quality of life for the Arabs has regressed. It is not for nothing that this is coincident with the rise of fundamentalism.
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I once watched an interview of a Jewish journalist who undertook to interview as many Arabs of every level as he could across the Arab world. (lots of stones that guy .)
Below are the things that he came away with in answer to the question: "Why does the Arab world hate the Western world so much?"
In order of importance:
1.The major event was economic disparity. Why do we, who were the intellectuals and the elite back in the day, have so little.
Why does the West, have so much.
2.Further back came-----
- the support of the Arab leaders by the USA adn Europe. Leaders who were living the good life and depriving the people.
( This surprised me)
- teh export of immoral values of "skin, sin and sex", by the West , notably the USA
- the one-sided support of Israel by the USA. For them, the Palestinians were just as disenfranchised as the Israelis
Western countries need leaders who will actually listen to those who understand how the minds of the Arab world work if there is to be progress.
Bush et al had this advice and chose to ignore it.
A silly example.
The Arab tradition was to cut off the hand of thieves. Barbarians.
The underpinning was that stealing took away from those who already had little in a nomadic system. Or stealing was a threat to the power of the leader .
Either was life threatening.
The American Wild West tradition was to shoot horse thieves. If you stole a man's horse you killed his chance to work, his mobility, and possibly even his life.
Why do those things look alike.?
I am sure you have read "From Beirut to Jerusalem" by Thomas Freidman. A great intro to the Middle East.
Nick
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