Noise, materialism, lies, deception and violence have polluted our global village.
We are tired of listening to meaningless songs and loud music. Our vision is blurred by the multicolored, shapeless clothes, which expose more than they cover. We are unhappy with the world of fashion, which economizes on fabric, maximizes on prices and empties our pockets every season. We no longer believe the hollow rhetoric and the empty promises with which politicians try to win our broken hearts and capture our confused minds.
The other day I turned on the radio, hoping to listen to soft music. Instead, I heard a harsh voice accompanied by deafening drumbeats. I turned off the radio and switched on the TV. I saw a sparsely clad, heavily made-up young woman screaming, turning and tossing. I was not sure what exactly she was doing, until a young teenage girl explained that the figure I mistook for a clown, was a famous, wealthy pop singer.
I changed channels, in a desperate search for interesting or instructive programs. My choices were limited to news bulletins and to programs that either focused on the race for the White House or showed the gruesome weekly world events: The massacres, the violence, the bloodshed, the injuries, the death and the funerals in Iraq, Gaza, West Bank, Beslan and Jakarta. Like most people from my unfortunate part of the world, I felt depressed, sad, and helpless.
I picked up a widely circulated newspaper, hoping it would uplift my flagging spirits. To my disappointment, I found that a humorous column writer had suddenly and unexpectedly metamorphosed into a boring politician. I turned the page and was surprised that the governor of California had used the words “girlie men” to belittle Kerry and his running mate Edward. I said to myself, “that is male chauvinism!”
Nowadays a man or a woman does not need to possess a beautiful voice to rise to stardom and an amateur can be called “composer” and earn a fortune by putting meaningless words to deafening drumbeats.
Politicians no longer need to make sound judgments, mince words, follow logic, respect international laws to be admired, supported, elected and re-elected. Suffice it to use hollow rhetoric, make fragile promises, have loads of money and be surrounded and assisted by professional “spin doctors”, who can make anyone look good, sound sensible and appear honest.
Living in the post-Sept. 11, 2001 surrealistic world, I could not but remember and mourn the beautiful voices, the great composers, the true intellectuals and the honest politicians, who once upon a time enriched our world.
I remembered, in particular, two honest voices that disappeared a year ago.
On Sept. 10, 2003, the world lost the voice of Anna Lindh, the Swedish foreign minister, who was stabbed in an attack in a Stockholm department store.
Anna Lindh occupied one of the most important and most prestigious positions in her country. She was a popular politician, who dared speak her mind and had the courage to express her opinions. For example, she dubbed US President George W. Bush a “lone ranger” for going to war in Iraq and criticized Italy’s EU presidency, saying Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi did not enjoy wide support. She was touted by many as a future candidate for prime minister.
Mrs. Lindh was a good role model for any high-level government official. She could have had bodyguards and a chauffeured limousine. Instead, she opted for a modest life and preferred to use public transport. Once, while riding a train on her way to office and doing some work, the conductor interrupted to say that the seat she occupied was reserved. Instead of getting angry and abusive (as many in her position would have been), she vacated the place, sat on the floor and continued to work.
Ten days after the death of Anna Lindh, the world lost the honest, powerful voice of Edward Said. He died on Sept. 20, 2003,
Edward Said was a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, The Nation’s classical music critic and a contributing writer for many years. His writing regularly appeared in Al-Hayat, London’s Guardian and Le Monde Diplomatique.
He was an accomplished pianist, a devotee of opera, and a lover of classical music. He opened his home to artists, writers, and musicians from all over the world. He had a great love for literature and a deep interest in politics.
Long known to the wider public for defending Palestinian rights, while criticizing its leadership, he was one of the most important cultural and literary critics of the postwar era. His books Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism have redefined the social sciences.
Edward Said was not a charlatan or vendor of meaningless ideologies. He knew when to speak and when to stay silent. When empty drums were beating, meaningless speeches were ringing and useless slogans were the fashion of the day, he did not speak. When the loud voices of the so-called “Arab nationalists” faded and their slogans died, he spoke eloquently on many important topics, especially on the Palestinian tragedy, which he witnessed unfold and intensify.
In the introduction to The Politics of Dispossession (1994) Edward Said describes his support and his skepticism of the “tangled history of the Palestinian national movement”:
Since my mother lived in Lebanon — and after my father’s death I was often obliged to make more frequent trips there — my relationship to the Palestinian struggle and to Arafat developed but never my party affiliation. I refused all inducements to join one of the groups or to work in the PLO, largely because I felt it was important to preserve my distance. I was a partisan, yes, but a joiner and member, no. (xxiv)
Anna Lindh was a wife, a mother, a sensible politician, a sensitive human being, a tireless advocate for freedom and a spokesperson for peace and justice, a forceful voice on human rights and a proponent of true democracy.
Edward Said was an important bridge between the Arab world and the West. He hated the hypocrisies, contradictions, and indignities of what was wrongly considered political commentary, particularly when it comes to the Middle East. He communicated in a language and a style that Arabs and Westerners understood.
I wonder what Anna Lindh and Edward Said would have thought if they had lived to learn about the nightmare at Abu Ghraib prison, the hiding of dozens of prisoners from the Red Cross and the use of brutal interrogation techniques?
I wonder what they would have said and written if they had lived to hear the loud sounds of explosions, the screams of the orphaned children, the cries of the bereaved women, the sighs of the grieving parents, and the groaning of tortured male and female prisoners in Iraq?
The voices of Anna Lindh and Edward Said will be always remembered and greatly missed.
