“When you’re travelling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” - William L.H. Moon
Ossama I met in the Old City of Jerusalem, when three soldiers struck a conversation with the obvious foreigner that I were, waiting there for my friends.
“Oh, so you’re Egyptian? Cool. So you speak Arabic? Speak!”
I wondered if he was kidding or was being an arse. He was smiling though. “What would you like to hear?” I replied, in the tone of a singer browsing his repertoire, and in my best Egyptian accent.
Made him laugh. I get this a lot here - people find my accent very entertaining.
Determined to play the reporter and having an obvious age advantage on the kid, I started quizzing him.
“So where are you from?”
“From the north. You know where Kiryat Shmona is? That’s it”. I knew this town, whose main claim to fame is being very close to Lebanon and having been a battlefield during the 2006 Lebanon war. He was surprised when I told him I visited.
“So... you’re a Druze?”
“No, man, no! I’m Muslim!” I blinked in disbelief. Aren’t Arabs exempted from serving?
“And my name is Ossama!” He smiled, knowing the enduring and very unfortunate reference now made to his name. He knew I didn’t miss the joke.
“Aren’t Arabs exempted from serving though?”
I knew they were. Some volunteer, because having army experience on your resume opens lots of doors, including jobs that specifically have this requirement to weed out Arabs.
“Yes. But I am... (cannot find the word in Arabic). Ani metnadev”. I volunteer.
“But why?”
The question seemed to embarrass him so I quickly threw him a rope.
“You always wanted to serve since you were a kid, right? Army was always cool?”
He nodded, grateful for the line I threw him.
“Yes. I have this uncle - since I’ve been a kid, I’ve always done what he does. And he went to the army, and now I am too”.
A little later, he adds: “lots of men of my family went through the service - my uncle, his son, my father. Now me”. Wow.
“So how long is your service for? Three years?”
“Yeah. But I signed for longer. (short dramatic silence) I signed for life”. Double wow.
“How old are you, Ossama?”
“Eighteen”.
I had nothing to say to him but to wish him luck.
He thanked me and headed to the Jeep, as his officer called him.
From an East Jerusalem alley, elections look like this: discrimination, vote buying, libel and anonymous insults, and the concerned ultimately do not have a say.
That really sounds like the Middle East!
The Jerusalem search for a new mayor came to end last night. Nir Barkat won, but I don’t think there’s much excitement in East Jerusalem. Regardless of who won, there wouldn’t have been much excitement there. It's not apathy, really: it's just the way it is.
For a quick overview of candidates, you can check here or here.
If you’re really short on time: you got Meir Porush, a religious extremist and father of a full dozen - a fucking rabbit, I tell ya’ - so ugly his hideous mug isn’t featured on his election posters, but a cartoon version of him (a “fluffy cartoon cross between santa, a rabbi and Dumbledore”, according to the Big Falafel). You got Arkadi Gaydamak, a Russian oligarch trying to buy his way into power and whose Hebrew skills rival mine (and that’s nooooo compliment), and Nir Barkat, a seemingly idiot-savant who made big shekels in high-tech and answers political questions as if, as Gershom says, he was coached by Sarah Palin. And a fourth candidate, Dan Biron, a green party candidate you need not bother know about.
Arabs? Oh, there are Arabs in Jerusalem?
Arabs, it is no surprise, are the most discriminated against minority in the city. A rather large one: 34% of the population, actually. And with religious extremists - the politically correct term being “ultra-orthodox” - being another third of the city (32%, for the sake of precision) living on government handouts, Arabs have effectively been providing for them, their taxes going to support the ultra-orthodox, who do not work nor pay taxes. Meanwhile, Arab neighbourhoods are very much neglected, the infrastructure falling apart, and even mega municipal projects such as the tram do not benefit them: the tram will only go through the Arab neighbourhoods to service the East Jerusalem settlements: it will not stop by the Arabs’ doorsteps, of course. However, the municipality thought it was a good idea to get the tram to take over two-thirds of large EJ roads - such as Shuafat road - so as not to clog the roads used by the Jewish residents.
Ironic, huh?
Anyways - so Arabs have several a serious stakes in these elections, including stopping the rise of the religious extremists. Porush’s prediction that the ultra-orthodox will control the country within 15 years is seriously scary.
Yet East-Jerusalemites have ultra-high boycott rates of local elections, mainly because of PA pressure threatening to brand as ‘traitors’ those who participate in these elections, accused of acknowledging the occupation of the Eastern part of the city.
There is nevertheless an occasional Arab candidate or endorsement, though generally insignificant.
Obviously not everyone agrees. A two-pager distributed on the 10th and 11th and signed by a supposed “group of Jerusalemite intellectuals and thinkers” (doubtful - see below) criticises the “outside” calls for boycott, giving “the other side, again and again, an excuse to neglect us and not take us into consideration, making us the target of their racist electoral programmes...” while these same calls remain silent as East Jerusalemites suffer from various legal and illegal fees and taxes.
Later in the text, this deliciously cynical bit:
“let’s announce that we’ll boycott elections - at the condition that one of those “officials” (Palestinian Authority officials, that is) completes his call to Jerusalemites and declares that they shouldn’t deal with the municipality, not pay the imposed taxes, reject the destruction orders and stand solid in front of the racist policies seeking to judaize and evict, and that we will assist your steadfastness and fulfill your needs (...) otherwise the only logical alternative now is to the polls”.
The rest of the article hints, not very subtly, at Gaydamak and his promise to appoint an Arab deputy, etc. So much for the “group of Jerusalemite intellectuals”... :-) Yet the argument still holds: participating might be more beneficial than a boycott.
Attracting/coercing/buying the Arab vote?
Clearly the one who tried the hardest was Arkadi Gaydamak. For starters, he’s the only one who bothered to put up posters, in Arabic, in East Jerusalem. He developed a set of goals appealing to East Jerusalemites: Education, Infrastructure, housing, health, unemployment, social security, child support, and freedom of worship.
“Gaydamak, another type of candidates”
The cover of his 4-page pamphlet read:
“I believe in giving Arabs complete equality with Jews, and I realise that this is not applied in reality; consequently I will seek to implement this as soon as I in the mayor office”
And he even had photos of him with Arabs. Ewww! :-P
More interestingly, his party had some young people - Palestinians, that is - talk people into voting for him, praising his merits in the street.
I met two of these guys - Eyad and Ahmed. Eyad wore a Gaydamak t-shirt - in Arabic, s’il vous plait. Ahmed sat in the minivan. As I engaged them in conversation, Eyad began his spiel about the G-man:
“Gaydamak is the only candidate who’s not religious (false). He’s the best candidate for Arabs (I guess). Actually, he’s in this race just for the Arabs (oh hell no)”.
I interrupt him rapidly: “dude, dude, chill: I’m a tourist. I don’t vote. Cut the crap. Now what’s the deal with that Gaydamak chap?”
The response was prompt: “An asshole. They’re all assholes. They’re all after the big chair”.
I loved that!! We joked around, chatted about everything, periodically going back to the elections topic every now and then.
“they give me those (electoral) t-shirts, and I just go dump them somewhere - and go back for more”, shared Ahmed.
Me: “Dude! Don’t dump them! Give me one! I’ll wear it :)”
Eyad gave me a t-shirt, and a cap. Which is how I ended up like this.
Yey, new pyjamas!
Ahmed: “You know, Gaydamak gave $1.5 million to the Maqassed hospital” (in East Jerusalem).
“eh, what do you want. Buying the votes, he is”, I replied - and I meant that he was buying his way into people’s hearts. Apparently Ahmed took it more seriously than I meant it and had the most unexpected answer:
“Yep. 180 shekels”.
“Huh???? He’s buying votes?”
“Yep. 180 shekels a piece. Not too bad”.
I stared blankly. Eyad felt like they had said too much.
I tried to take Eyad’s photo with the T-shirt: he promptly refused. “No! Not in this t-shirt! I’ll take it off and you can take all the photos you want!” Embarrassed, I guessed? I later realised he might have been afraid, too. (which is why I changed their names here).
I also heard them discuss who would be deputy mayor if - when! - Gaydamak won. Apparently, it’s the same tale everywhere: more loyal but less competent Mourad has a better shot than more competent but more independent Khaled.
And I realised: Arabs don’t aspire to the “Big Chair”, because they can’t. However, the seconds in command (or the third or fourth, or someone down there!) is up for grabs. It reminded me of Leonardo di Caprio bargaining the Irish community’s vote in exchange for a secondary seat in “Gangs of New York”.Remember that scene, were he sat with the wannabe Mayor who was telling him that the most the Irish can aspire to is sheriff? Kinda felt like that.
Other candidates gave the Arab vote little importance. Meir Porush has a one page leaflet where he compared himself to Nir Barkat, and instead of making electoral promises to the East-Jerusalemites his strategy was to scare people away from Nir Barkat (who’s buddy buddy with Lieberman, apparently), and bring them to him; since he (Porush), I quote, “will maintain the status quo in Jerusalem(oh! Awesome! Porush, I want your babies!) and will work to apply equality between the Arab and Jewish public from the point of view of services(oh, I thought it was in human and civic rights!! Silly me!), because his slogan is hope and equality between sects and ethnicities”.
Oh. I was worried he didn't like Arabs. Ah.
With the vote over, I guess Arabs will do what they do best: watch the results, observe the transition of powere from afar, and hope that whomever was chosen for them won’t be too disastrous.
I’m curious to know the racial breakdown of the vote. I don’t think Arabs were particularly present. But one day, who knows, they may be.
Today was a pretty exciting day! One event, however, I feel the urge to share tonight.
I got to pray Isha (evening prayer) in the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem tonight. a regular prayer really, with barely 200 people - mainly people who live in the Old City of Jerusalem, and who think of the Aqsa as their neighbourhood mosque.
Anyways. So immediately after prayer, a young man, late twenties I would say, and suffering from Down syndrome, stood up. He faced the sitting men, and began speaking.
He gave a short, a barely three-minute sermon.
Here's the thing though: it was absolutely, and I mean absolutely, unintelligible. We could not understand a single word. (While I normally have no difficulty conversing with my cousin who's in the same medical condition.)
And as the man launched in his sermon, with all the body language associated - the intonations, occasionally enumerating something on his fingers, and saying what I guess was "Praise the Prophet" (Sallou 3alal Nabi) and pausing afterwards to hear the crowd respond, everyone in the room, and I mean everyone, listened.
What was an amused look on people's faces rapidly became serious, as people feigned interest, and attempted to join the man's enthusiasm, after having given up on understanding his words.
I watched 200 people, 200 perfect stangers, respectfully listen to a man's voice, not to his words. They listened because they knew that what he was saying was important. Important enough for him to tell it to us. And we knew that, even if we did not understand, we owed him respect and attentiveness. We accepted him, joyfully, as our teacher.
As he ended his sermon, people responded with what they would normally say to any preacher: "May God preserve you", "May God increase your knowledge", "May you always share your words with us". Some shook his hand. One older man kissed it.
The young man took the praise, saluted briefly, and regained his seat.
Obama's ugliest photo ever. You saw it here first.
Boston, April 2006.
I won’t say anything. (well, I will, but later.)
I will, however, let my friends do the job. These are some of their facebook statuses (statii?) on Election day/night, strictly in chronological order. It’s not just the emotion - it’s also where it comes from: I added the nationality/ethnicity to give you an idea.
Before victory is declared
G (Canadian Palestinian) projects an Obama win with at least 372 electoral votes. Off to bed now. For real.
S (American) is watching CNN over internet and noticed that my office building, including my window, is on TV. Hi Mom! (….huh??) C (American) OHIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
E (Filipino) is happy for THAT ONE.
B (Mexican) - "Barack Obama Elected President", 5:00 CET. Watching Chicago, Kenya. All cheering and crying. Me too. The poetry in politics. The audacity of hope. J (Danish MP) is visiting a huge victory party and yes we can :). I (Nigerian) this is unbelievable history has been made !!!! we need to find our obama in Nigeria!! K (Greek) is really happy for America... well done ! S (Pakistani American) is proud to call Barack Obama her President.
J (Egyptian) is Obama president, i hope he stays alive. (my top 3!) C (American) loves loves loves loves. B (Iranian) what do you think Im doing right now? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! BAREEKALLAH HUSSEIN!!! A (American) dares to feel optimistic!!! Is it over?!!!! M (Pakistani) is teary eyed....
Obama’s victory speech. (BTW, did you see Michelle’s dress? Nice!)
S (Lebanese) is watching history being made and it's called Obama! J (Republican!) is thinking, "and now the fun starts..." You guys think it was bad when we went after Clinton. Just wait. =) T (Arab American) has goosebumps. H (Palestinian American) is WooHoo!!! R (American) loves her new first lady. F (Nigerian American) is glad Nevada went blue and she doesn't have to move to Canada and now she is going to the Palms to celebrate Change! A (Arab Canadian) is woot woot.
Right to left: An American, an Egyptian, a German, a Norwegian, and Korean('s hands).
A couple of hours (and a nap) later.
M (Kashemiri American): "Barack Mubaarak!" inshaa'Allah! Translation: May Barack be blessed/lucky for us all! God willing! Special congrats to African American Brothers & Sisters! :). S (Moroccan) ... Barack-a men Bush, Mc Cain ghir Obama daba... (note: I have no idea what she wrote). E (Israeli) is in tears after listening to Obama's victory speech. D (Spanish) sí nena!!! ('yeah, baby!') S (Greek American) thanks the international community for their outpouring of support! Σας ευχαριστω! M (French) lived the Obamania in Brussels! Y (Chinese) feels good with President Obama and is interested in visiting the town of Obama, Japan.
S (Lebanese in Saudi) is celebrating Obama's victor with a bottle of...Saudi Champagne ;). A (Haitian American) is finally an UNCONDITIONAL, UNAPOLOGETIC, fullfledged, card-carrying AMERICAN! the weight of our historic burden has lifted off my sholders! M (Austrian) well done Mr. Obama :), finally the U.S. took the right decision!!!..they 'really' did it. K (overexcited Norwegian) is YIPPI YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what a day!
K became a fan of “Everybody Loves Raymond”. (well, he wasn’t watching I guess.)
Z (Kazakh) is impressed and excited for the United States! Congratulations America! S (Egyptian) "Will Obama make a difference? Hanshoof! (we will see!) H (Egyptian) and Obama will be America's 44th but 1st black president. (no shit! I hadn’t noticed!) C (French) wants to get a green card and join Obama. D (American in Mongolia) is rejoicing!
M (Irish) says god bless america and no where else! R (Arab Swede) is we all live in amerika, underbart, coca-cola, wonderbra! R (Arab American) is thanking God. YES WE DID. J (American) is living in a better america.
"I can't vote for you but I'll cheer anyway!"
E (French) C'est encore loin, l'Amérique ? (Are we there yet? (in America, that is) J (French) is Obama à peine élu et c'est déjà jour férié au Kenya. Il est très fort. J (Brit) wants change to now come to the UK...David Lammy for Prime Minister! ;-) D (Canadian) is hoping Obama continues the grown-up theme and appoints a few grown-up Republicans to his administration - keep Gates for a while, maybe Hagel, others? E (African American) There is a black woman in the white house and she is def not the MAID! (my top 3!) T (Egyptian) is فرحنا ليكو كتيير...عقبال ما نفرح لنا. (we’re very happy for you... hoping we’ll be happy for ourselves, too) J (Austrian) has never seen such a euphoria, Still got goose bumps from the speech, almost bloody cried!!! D (American) is America FUCK YEAH! S (American Indian) likes his coffee like he likes his Presidents. (my top 3!) J Hussein (Finnish - who just added her new middle name!) is having an amazing day!!!! H (Egyptian) is saluting Obama, remembering M.L.King, and believing in the power of the dream :). C (African American) is thinking that last night at The Park in DC was the best night of his life...Obama! A (Arab American) wants some of whatever everyone else has been taking. O (Israeli) finally believes it. Yes America, you can. E (Azeri) While we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond: yes, we can. S (Lebanese) thinks that the 21st Century started yesterday 11/04/08, eight years too late.
Obama said last night: “The new dawn of American leadership is at hand”
I am under the impression that the level of foreign support to Obama's US is now akin to the immediate aftermath of September 11th. While it is true that O will not be president before a couple of months, he will nonetheless have an unprecedented foreign base. I hope he successfully capitalises on it... And yes, I could start being cynical (he’s not the nice underdog anymore, he’s a US president...) but I’ll just join the collective euphoria for a little while!
I'm an economic consultant, perpetual expat, often lost, curious, religious, secular, illogical and hesitant.
This blog is somewhat of a travelogue, a political and economic commentary board.
Your comments and emails are both welcome and encouraged; this blog is meant to be read and it's nice to know that it is! Agree, disagree, object, discuss...
Thank you for wasting your working hours here.
-450.jpg)
