Post-globalisation identity, language and Arab rights
BY BOUTHAINA SHAABAN (Arab View)
Khaleej Times Online
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/index00.asp
10 April 2008
THE last decades of the twentieth century witnessed a fervent race towards globalisation in all its manifestations, cultural, architectural and consumer goods. Frequent travellers started to look for the same places, food, way of life, and even values wherever they go hoping to feel at home in different and far-off corners of the globe.
But after a while and, once industrially advanced countries started to impose their products, their way of life and, even their values, on the less developed countries, the peoples of the developing countries started to sense the danger looming over their identity, language and the special character of their historic identity, including their language, architecture, food, values, and above all social matrix. Hence, we started to witness today renaissance movements in different parts of the world to reconsider the special identity of a country or people and reduce the great attraction of globalisation and its easy and alluring aspects which, in the final analysis, may not be concordant with the nature, environment, values and aspirations of different people who reside in different parts of the world and who are at different stages of historical developments.
Due to the circumstances surrounding the late independence of Arab countries from foreign occupation and to the continuous threats directed against them, they might be less engaged than other countries of the world with the globalisation process. This means that it may be easier for them than others to recapture their special identity which could still be saved.
What is still deeply rooted in the Arab culture, both Christian and Muslim, is that deeply founded faith in spirituality, in the family and in the special social matrix of a region that is the cradle of the three monolithic religions and the cradle of human civilisation as we know it today.
Hence, the conflict we witness today on this land of the Middle East, is in its essence, a conflict between two sets of conflicting values, it is a conflict that is trying to subjugate the Eastern soul, dignity and character of this region. Besides the apparent greed in the wealth and geographic position of this land, the endeavour is to change the identity of the Arab people with all its rich historical components, and to introduce them into a globalised world in which they lose, once and for all, their special and distinct flavour.
Although the Arabs were less welcoming to globalised methods, they were perhaps among its first victims as regards their language and culture. The reason is that some of the Arabs understood modernity to mean giving up your language in favour of the language of the others. The new odd phenomenon in the Arab world is that you find children by Arab parents who do not know Arabic, as Arabic is not considered by them a language capable of coping with the modern global world.
The very concept of a conflict between your mother tongue and other languages is a wrong concept. None of them should be perfected at the expense of the other. If we add to this trend the fact that the Arabs are not among the best people who read we recognise the danger pending on our language and culture.
In an age characterised by an amazing flow of information in which the Arabs are largely the recipients of information and knowledge, which sometimes, target their hearts and minds, it is essential to stop and think of the requirements of the post-globalised world for the Arabs and their obligations if they want to play an active role both at the regional and international stage.
Suffice it to say that at the time when foreign occupations gnaw some Arab countries, and threaten others, there is no world news agency that reflects the Arab perspective, or at least tell the truth of what is happening to the Arabs. If we add to this the satellite television stations launched by the US and Britain in Arabic, and the radios and magazines targeting Arab audiences, we begin to see the magnitude of the problem. What the Arabs see and read about Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia and Sudan everyday has been designed and spelled by sources which target the Arabs as an identity and a civilization. I have tens of examples to prove this point, but due to lack of space, will cite only one example today.
In the 1990s when the terms of reference for the Madrid Peace Conference were negotiated the term was to “dismantle the Israeli settlements”. After a while Israel started to circulate the term “evacuate the settlements”, and few years afterwards the Israelis introduced “freeze the settlements”. Then a new distinction started to surface between “settlements” and “illegal posts” and the latest in this regard is that “Israel builds new homes for Jews in Arab areas”.
Slowly, but steadily, Israel took settlements out of the equation and only left “illegal posts” meaning that the settlements are legal. This process of linguistic use obviously has a terrible political and legal impact on the rights of the Arabs in the enduring Arab- Israeli conflict. Other examples will be discussed next week.
Dr Bouthaina Shaaban is Syria's Minister of Expatriates. A professor of English literature, she taught at Damascus University and abroad for several years, until 2002. She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or www.bouthainashaaban.com
