Thanks to “Western imperialism” and the “shrewd ways of international Zionism” Arabs, we are told, remain out of touch with an array of social and cultural crises that have plagued their societies.
Problems and challenges in the Arab world are molded in so clever a way that the blame for them falls on someone else.
Contextualizing social diseases within a larger political framework is often helpful, but in the Arab world this practice is grossly misused. Washington’s Middle East foreign policy tells a great deal about the US political culture, the Middle East’s receptiveness to the abuses imposed by that culture and mute response to the subsequent challenges posed. But these US abuses should provide neither a platform for corruption nor an excuse for Arab nations’ utter failure to provide any sort of alternative. Nor should these abuses serve as justification for the Arab world’s ills and problems such as official corruption, institutional nepotism, political extremism, indifference regarding human rights, racism, and the unscrutinized embrace of globalization.
Equally demoralizing to many Arabs, who are hoping to face these challenges head on, is this overindulgence in cosmetic touches. Governments, or officially funded organizations try to battle their poor reputation by holding conferences, seminars, symposiums and many other “impressive” gatherings to discuss issues such as education, human rights and family issues. They invite “experts” who are often selected by virtue of their glamour-generating names and titles, rather than the value of their expertise. Nothing comes out of such gatherings or is expected.
Meanwhile, the invaluable human assets in the Arab world are squandered. Millions of Arab scholars, scientists, physicians and other professionals feel compelled to emigrate to the West, despite the dire need for their leadership and guidance back at home. Lack of enough opportunities at home is only one of the reasons.
The other is that in corrupt societies, individuals are valued and therefore classified based on anything but their merit. Globalization becomes more problematic in weak nations or “client states” with easily penetrable economies. In Western societies accustomed to the nature and progression of free market economies, a filtering process is not totally unfeasible. Arab nations, deeply rooted in their own tradition, are left hapless before the cheap commercialization of the global market and unfiltered social trends that follow.
I have seen little Arab kids, innocently celebrating the end of Ramadan in a special Burger King tent on the rhythm of a hip-hop song replete with obscenities. As appalling as this may sound, the unfiltered global market culture is undoubtedly forging a collective identity crisis among the young generation in the Arab world.
Erik Erikson, who is known as the “father of psychosocial development” is renowned for constructing the concept of the “eight stages of development” in the life of the human being. According to Erikson, failure to fulfill the growth requirements of any of the eight designated stages ultimately leads to an identity crisis. I see no way around denying this collective identity crisis plaguing the Arab world. Furthermore, the current strategy of hosting fancy yet unproductive conferences with beautiful buffets and generous honoraria is as empty an answer as blindly pinning the blame on an overgeneralized foe. It is uncertain which developmental stage Arab nations find themselves in today. But if this current identity predicament is left untreated, then the subsequent desperation, alienation and extremism we now witness may become the reprehensible norm, rather than the exception.
— Ramzy Baroud is a veteran Arab-American journalist and editor in chief of PalestineChronicle.com and head of Research & Studies Department at Aljazeera.net English.
