I get regular responses from readers who are eager to communicate with me and exchange points of view. This time, however, readers did not leave a space for me even to question. As soon as my previous column was published, I went to the office and found dozens of e-mails waiting for me. All because of an error that unfortunately appeared in the article. The error was obvious from the figures published. To make things clear, 48 percent of the people said that they would welcome an American invasion of their country in the survey conducted by Al-Jazeera. The other error was in the Iranian figure. The survey in Iran showed that 78 percent of Iranians want to build bridges with the United States.

What is interesting is that people, it seems, do not easily digest figures, even if they are aware of them. A study in the UK earlier this year, for example, revealed that half the British people do not understand what 75 percent means because they do not know how to relate it to 3/4, or that 48 percent is almost half.

What is interesting in that printed error in my article is that it put readers into two categories. The first category is those who explain the error and deal with the situation in a civilized way based on proof. The other category is those who do not agree with the writer and respond aggressively and rhetorically. The reader then accuses the writer of many things.

Returning to the error in my article, I received a call from someone who reminded me: “There is an American saying — ‘If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.’ You are a woman. The only thing that you should be concerned about is caring about your home and your family. Do not try to be a political analyst and stay away from politics if you lack the proper knowledge. Politics is an art perfected by men only.”

I do not claim that I know much about the men’s kitchen — the political field — or even the kitchen of my own house, but what I do know is that what I see in the behavior of the male political kitchen staff does not really give me confidence that something tasty is being prepared. A woman works honestly and hard in her kitchen to prepare different meals and to feed her family. She strives to please everyone in the family and to see to their basic needs. The male political kitchen, by contrast, is chaotic and full of bad smells. Most of the meals they prepare taste terrible and smell even worse. They are either burnt or are uncooked, and they cause indigestion. The reason for that is that the chefs are not really masters of their political art, despite what my relative says.

But we have to look at things from a rational point of view and study the matter from all angles. The truth of the matter is that most politicians are skillful, no doubt about that. But their skills are in lying. A study published in the UK revealed that lying plays a great part in modern democratic politics. The study goes on to say that politics should be more truthful about lying. Lying is now a skill practiced by everyone in the political field. If we go back in history it would be hard to find a place for truth. In the United States, for example, there are major lies that still remain in the minds of every American citizen to this day such as the Watergate scandal of President Nixon’s; the Iran-Contra scandal of President Reagan’s; the big lie President Bush Sr. told the American people when he said: “Read my lips. No more taxes”; and President Clinton lying under oath about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. The most recent lie was George W. Bush’s accusation that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Politics is about mastering the art of lying. If you’re a liar, then you deserve to have your moment in the political limelight. Arab leaders are no different than others. Wherever we turn, we can smell the bad odors that come from cheating and insincerity. But our lies are contained within our parameters as our presence in global politics is almost insignificant.

Most Arab leaders utter words that underneath are nothing but lies. They include statements that cities are free from diseases; that there are no political prisoners in their jails; that women are not battered; that there are no violations of human rights in their countries; and so forth. And then suddenly we hear that a ruler had a new child, or that it is his birthday, and we see tens of thousands of prisoners being forgiven and released on the occasion. We also hear stories of the brutality and injustice of a ruler when he is ousted from power. Also, many Arab leaders make empty promises about reforms, change, and development.

When lying is as common as breathing air in the men’s kitchen, the place fills with all sorts of bad odors that kill people’s imagination and cause nations to feel disgusted with the performance of the chefs in the kitchen. And when the meal has been burnt, smoke fills the place, and things go bad, politicians flee because they can no longer stand the heat in the kitchen. Which leads us to the question: Who is it who can’t stand the heat — men or women?

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(Wajeha Al-Huwaider holds an MA in Reading Management from George Washington University. She is based in the Eastern Province.)

13 June 2003