Thoughts on Said and Enframing

While there are many negative stereotypes about the Arabs, the depiction is not a modern phenomenon. This depiction is the evolution of how the west came to perceive the East. This began when the Greeks excluded those who did not speak the same language as them, referring to them as barbaric. Furthermore, the introduction of Islam posed a threat to the Christian civilization of the west and thus Islam came to be perceived to be competing ideologies. Islam, though not fully understood by the west, began to be viewed negatively.
            In an interview with his about his book, Orientalism, Edward Said, talks about why he became interested in the subject and what the book holds. One of Said’s Interest on orientalism stems from the distorted view of how the Arabs were represented, and how he actually lived. He argues that while the Arabs were represented as chaotic, exotic and backwards, he was in fact living contrary to this belief. Edward Said is from Palestinian origin, but pursued his education and his career in western countries. Although he had written about the western-eastern relationship, many perceive him to be an orientalist. However, I disagree with this statement because today’s world is different than yesterday’s world. With globalization having had an impact on our way of thinking, the lives of the west and east has become interlinked. While he lived, got his education and worked in the United States, this does mean that he is an orientalist. If that were the case, then all Arabs who have pursued their studies in the U.S and have had the privilege to work in western countries should also be considered orientalist.

Edward Said gives a great example of how the Orientalist discourse has continued till this day. After the Oklahoma bombings, he received numerous phone calls from reporters and government officials that asked him if he had some kind of knowledge of who the aggressor was. Of course Edward said he did not know, but they presumed he knew because he was an Arab. At the end, the aggressor turned out to be an American. A more recent example is the Norwegian shooting and bomb that occurred in august of 2011. When the news broke out, news agencies worldwide presumed it was an Arab only to confirm he was a Norwegian. Orientalist thinking is embedded in most of us which is why; we presume it’s an Arab when news breaks out of a bomb or a shooting.  I wonder what the reaction of Said would have been in 9/11 and if reporters assumed he once again knew who it would be.

The book, Colonizing Egypt, by Timothy Mitchel extensively focuses on the subject of enframing. For Mitchel, enframing is a method of dividing up and containing space. It is a technic that has modified the way of life of Egyptians, with the building of barracks, the introduction of a new educational system, and new housing structures. While these technics are used to divide the physical space, there are also other examples of enframing that divide the mental space. For example, orientalism, a technic that mentally divides the societies of the east and west. Orientalism, with its negative depictions of the Arabs, has managed to divide the people of west and east, which subsequently managed to make a hierarchy of both people.

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Challenges of the Egyptian Youths in the Globalizing Era

In a time where most youths in the Western world receive the rights to express their opinions and receive the justice from the society, there are many youths in the Arab world, which are still having difficulty consulting about their struggle for a lifestyle that most western youths can achieve. Youths in Egypt even barely express their plans for the future, and what kind of a citizen they want to be. The text “Being Young and Muslim”, edited by Linda Herrera and Asef Bayat focused on discussing this on chapter 8. They wrote that even though youths are allowed “little scope to question, reject or offer alternative visions for societal change (127), they are not given the opportunities to be directly part of the economy as they lack job opportunities, and receive limited trust from the older generation.

As the current power holders, the older generation does not have any interest in enhancing the skills of these young people by giving them a chance to feel what it is like to be part of the “real world”. Children and “youth” have often remain their ‘silent others’, or their voiceless enfants terribles (129). The writer of the article, “Young Egyptians’ Quest for Jobs and Justice”, Linda Herrera, pointed out how this situation can cause a complicated problem in the future. She mentioned that without regular work, the youth would remain dependent on their families and the government, which is bad for the economic growth. In the era of globalization, youth’s creativity and energy is essential to shape a stable and prosperous future. Without the opportunity to practice the theories of knowledge they get from school, they will have less time to shape and plan their future, which collectively means the future of Egypt.

Herrera brought Karim and Dina to the picture, and used their stories to illustrate the challenges as Egyptian youths they are facing in the globalizing era. Karim, a male youth, age 22, spends most of his time hanging out worrying, sometimes working, indulging in drug, and hoping. Although he has an interest in an academic subject, politics, he does not like school and feels that school is only a waste of time. In school he witness violence, injustice and financial difficulties. In addition to that, school does not determine his success to be able to get a job in the future. Dina on the other had, a religious, veiled 21 year old from a more financially stabled family also have similar perspectives as Karim. She feels that corruption and nepotism has been a negative aspect of her culture for a long time. She and Karim both argue that the government and Mubarak as the head of State is dictating the nation, making Egypt seem like it is ruled by a king instead of a president. She stresses that the government is ignoring the needs of the people and prioritizing self-interest. This is also a challenge to the youth as they lack the chance to continue build their own nation and cope with the globalizing world.

This situation in Egypt pushes them to desire studying in the west as the west give the chance for youths to make something out of themselves, by the freedom, justice and opportunities that they grant for young people. These youth challenges in Egypt are also an issue for many of the Muslim countries. The only problem is the influence this brings to the youth’s perspective on how they can have a good future. This influence makes them feel that modernity may be a path they should take in order to receive the rights that they never have. The impact of this is there involvement in the many globalizing tools, such as the media, the Internet, and society. They sometimes seek for attention in order to grab the older generation and government’s attention. We should protect the youths so they don’t need to seek alternatives to feel useful, and lead themselves into the paths that we don’t desire, such as terrorism.

Rossa D.

The Role of Globalization in Shifting the Economic Patterns

Timmons Roberts and Amy Bellone’s collection of articles related to the Globalization and Economy talked about a variety of current changes in society caused by Globalization. One of the changes they elaborate on was on the economic shift that has been occurring since the 1990s due to globalization. Folker Frobel, Jurgen Heinrichs, and Otto Kreye’s article titled “The New International Division of Labour in the World Economy” mentioned how “world’s citizens” are expecting economic growth and improvement.

The most significant change is a shift away from the consumer-oriented growth, which can be achieved through the reduction of real wages and limits on the growth of living standards. The economy has to focus on reducing the amount of unemployment. With the rise of skilled workers around the world due to globalization, exchange of labor is now a popular way companies take to innovate their products. The easier access to transportation and other efficient services abroad, foreign investment are also becoming more common.

Because of Globalization also, “the state has been compelled to provide grants, loans and tax concessions to private business on an increasing scale, hoping to increase domestic investment., reduce the rate of unemployment, and thus avert the danger of potentially explosive social tensions” (162).

Globalization has encouraged export and imports of states, because of the relation building between them. Many countries become interdependent for imported goods. Another change globalization has brought is our economic transition from industrialism to informationalism.  Globalization has presented to the world the importance of information changing. Invention and industry that use to be the most important aspect of companies is now not as fundamental. The new informational mode has taken over the industrialism mode, as most essential technologies has been founded. Under the influence of globalization, the numbers of information flows need efficient articulation of our production and management system.

Nowadays, companies cannot just invent but they need to invent goods that society actually needs. To know this, information becomes the essential subject.  Besides that, “the increasing distance between buyers and sellers, have created the need for specific marketing and effective distribution by firms, thus triggering a flurry of information-gathering systems to establish connection between the two ends of the market” (180).

Philip McMichael also talked about the role of globalization in economic shift in his article “Globalization: Myths and Realities”. He also agrees with the need for reducing unemployment and managing the “debt regime”.  As globalization increases the bonds of states, debts need to be dealt with in order to promote economic growth and minimize future risks of financial crises. This also means eliminating any possibility of a future debt crisis, as we have seen from passed experience in the Asian Financial Crises and the current financial crises, that crises of a state can pull other states to a crisis.

To summarize, globalization has an important role in our economic system and will continue to have it. Globalization has made states more inter-connected with each other, which means we need to keep the economy neat, and avoid falling into a crises or economic downturn as he fall of one state nowadays, may pull other states to fall with too.

Rossa D.

Not all Muslims are Terrorists

Although there were a couple of articles assigned for this week, I was particularly interested in the article by Mahmood Mamdani titled, “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: A political Perspective on Culture and terrorism. What is interesting about Mamdani’s article is that he mentioned how people often think of terrorism from only the historical perspective and ignoring the political. People often blame Osama bin Laden’s Religion, instead of the political message he was trying to convey when he attacked the world trade center. In consequence, people blame Islam and thinks of all Muslims as terrorists. However, this is not true, not all Muslims are terrorists.

Globalization has made international trade and foreign relations a big deal. In fact, when the world trade center fell to the ground, the world seems incontrollable. With the dependency of society on modern technology, even a tiny incident may harshly disturb a system. The 9/11 incident is unforgettable for many, and is still causing them to hate the Muslims. However, why is it that the Muslims are blamed? Many of the Muslims in South East Asia did not have anything to do with the incident. Contemporary Islam is a global civilization: fewer Muslims live in the Middle East than in Africa or in South and Southeast Asia.

Mamdani discusses how the Islamic culture seems to have no history, politics, and no debates. The papers these days often show how all the Muslims just conform to the culture, where in reality Muslims conform not to the culture but to the religion. The mistake that people often make is separating the moderate and genuine Islam. They understood that the liberal Muslims follows moderate Islam, which does not encourage fundamentalism, and that the genuine Islam, who follows traditional teachings have potential to be terrorists. The truth is terrorism does not really derive from any aspect of Islam. Terrorists just use religion for a reason to make a political move. The impacts of their move were global. Now almost every man with a Muslim name had difficulty entering the United States, and in the era of Globalization and Migration, this emerges to be even a bigger problem. Abu El-Haj also talked in his article titled Reimagining Citizenship as Critical Practice about the harsh treatments that Muslims encounter across the United States. El-Haj shared the stories of Muslim youths in the US, where they were threatened, bullied, and hated. In an era of Globalizations, where many Arabs are moving in the US, this false image of American youngsters about Muslims has negatively affected the lives of others.

From this example about terrorism, we should learn that globalization does not only increase interconnectivity of states and international trade, but it also makes every cross-cultural incident or any incidents that involve different cultures important to be examined and dealt with. People can no longer hide small problems, as global interconnectivity will find any kind of secrets. Internet access to websites such as wikileaks will make information easier to access, but more difficult to determine its validity. Therefore, because globalization could not and should not be stopped, society should also prepare for it, in order to minimize the negative impacts it can bring to our world.

Rossa D.

How Globalization Influence Liberation

Globalization’s influence to liberation has been discussed in both Mark Duffield’s article “The New Development-Security Terrain and Mohammed G. Alkadry’s article, “Colonialism, Globalization and Democracy in the Decolonized Middle East”. Duffeild mentioned in his article that under the influence of globalization, governmental decisions that used to be hierarchical, territorial, and bureaucratic are now more polyarchial and non-territorial (Duffeild, 343). Governments and international organizations are getting more interested in collective interests, such as global peace and security and this is mainly influenced by globalization, as cultures and societies become more interconnected to each other. Through examining the impacts of post-colonized societies in the Middle East, Alkadry also pointed out that many societies desire for independence from institutional orders such as colonizers and more networking relations with other states.

Alkadry discussed the political situation of countries under colonial powers. He mentioned how colonial powers in the Middle East opposed any attempts of local leaders creating any form of democratic institutions. Colonialism became a form of confinement, a situation opposing liberation. Globalization influence the forming of liberation as it passes the message of freedom, human rights, and security.  Globalization forces colonizers out of their occupied territories which brought the Middle East to where it is today, modern, diverse, but rich with traditional cultures. Colonial powers, by delineating arbitrary states, affected the notion of civil society and solidarity, which are important to the Islamic traditions. In other words, by eliminating the sense of solidarity among the Arab societies, the colonizers are indirectly responsible for eliminating the sense of interconnectedness Middle East once had. Globalization’s role in influencing this, has positively redirected the Middle East back to their solidarity traditions of sharing and interconnecting.

Globalization has underlined the importance of freedom and thus prioritized what the people wants and needs. People want the sense of belonging, security, equality and respect. Globalization enforces these rights which are generally human rights. Globalization encourages the international community to interconnect with each other, and build the need or reason for countries to network, creating a global circle, where no one is alone. Although not all Middle Eastern countries crave for complete liberation, the idea of Globalization has made clear to governments that society needs interconnection, relation with other states. Governments has come to realize that no states can work alone, and that solidarity is needed from other states to overcome problems such as conflicts, natural disasters, and threat of international security. Globalization shows that colonialism is only disadvantaging many sides, as it pulls away state’s opportunity to interconnect with other states, which reduces chances for world peace and security.

Rossa D.

Globalization through Electronic Media and Mass Migration

In the text Modernity at Large, Arjun Appadurai discusses how forces of mass migration and electronic mediation lead to globalization.  This book is proposing the “theory of rupture that takes media and migration as its two major and interconnected diacritics and explores their joint effect on the work of the imagination as a constitutive feature of modern subjectivity” (p.3). The point that the author was making is that first of all, the development of electronic media changed the wider field of mass media, and other kinds of media, making its purpose of use beyond information, which more impacts the world. Second, the author also point out how mass migration, where the increase of refugee numbers and migrants have led the world toward globalization.

The human kind has led the world towards modernity and change. It is us, who chose to control the world by out powering science and nature. We decided to hide problems and make problems, and in result, we have created a world where problems can only be seen through one dangerous yet very important subject, the media. Appadurai discusses this as he said, “Electronic media give a new twist to the environment within which the global often appear as flip sides of the same coin” (p.3).  A great example that can prove this is the issue of Global Warming. Why is it that we discovered that the carbon and emissions is a threat to our earth after it has reached its peak? Scientist has vaguely known about this since years ago. However, it was only until the media has put their attention to it then we as citizens of the world started realizing that companies who are producing these dangerous gases needs to stop. Why is it that we care so much about the latest fashion, and ignore the fact that these fashion companies use child labor for cheap labor? It is because of Media. Media has decided for us what is important to see and what is not, and has manipulated how we react to world problems, as well as how we handle it. Electronic has made this influence even stronger as they became our most accessible information source, which brings us closer to globalization.

In addition to electronic media, Appadurai also mentions that Mass migration is another significant trigger of globalization. Mass migration is the reason for the shifts of culture in the world. The moving of tourists, immigrants, refugees, exiles, and other groups has effect the politics of the world, and more importantly the system of how a nation works. Because of mass migration, political rights has become more of an issue, forcing governments to let these moving parties live in their country. This created culturalism, where identities become mixed with other identities, creating new and different ways of living. This is also an important cause of globalization. These two broad causes of globalization are responsible for the change of our society. Our society has become more culturally bonded in both positive and negative ways. Both the Internet and mass migration have allowed societies and groups from around the world create connections and relationships that are crucial but also risky.

Rossa D.

Maudoodi and Jameelah

The correspondence between Maudoodi and Jameelah is an important study in studying the relationship between Islam and modernity. Throughout the course of semester, the question of whether Islam was compatible with modernity was frequently questioned. The exchange of letters between the modern worlds highlights some of the answers to this question. Both writers speak from a Muslim perspective and advocate Islam should not be considered modern but a field separate from modernity.
                The conversion of Maryam Jameelah from Judaism to Islam seems have been an odd move, not only because of the feud and disagreement between the two religions, but more importantly because Judaism  has been able to integrate into the modern world, while Islam has not.  When Jameelah converted to Islam, in terms of modernity, it was a step backwards. However, her decision to convert came in the 1960’s, a time when America was going through a major transformation in terms ideology and ideas. It seems that Jameelah’s conversion came as a consequence from not fitting in with her surrounding environment, which raises the question if her conversion was a matter of isolation or because she truly found the Islamic ideology logical to the world she lived in.

I believe it is both, but one as the consequence of the other.  Because of her state of isolation and her parent’s liberal values, she found refuge in the ideology of Islam. Her conversation was a direct result of the modern world that she rejected. The conversion to Islam seems to have been an attempt to get away from the modern world and go back to Islam. However, this does not mean that Islam is not modern.  She rejects comparing Islam from a western perspective and rejects that Islam is modern, not because she thinks Islam is not modern, but because she thinks Islam is not a modern phenomenon. She argues that true Islam is pure because it advocates for peace and unity. Her conversion to Islam and immigrating to Pakistan shows that the modern can be compatible with Islam, but Islam is not compatible with modernity.
                While both Jameelah and Maudoodi reject the practices of the modern world, there are many instances where their rejection of modernity does not fit with the ideology of modern practices. Maudoodi and Jameelah seem to criticize every aspect of the modern world, from its practices of the economic system to the secularism of the state to the idea of nationalism itself. However, for both Jameelah and especially Maudoodi, It is difficult to ignore what the modern world offers. Not only was Maudoodi treated for his medical condition in a hospital, a modern structure, but also for planning to build a university with Islamic values. The university whether it has an Islamic religious agenda or not is also a modern phenomenon. Also, encouraging his daughters to seek degrees in modern subjects seems to be inconsistent with his rejection modernity. Jameelah also seems to have been inconsistent with her rejection to modernity and modern practices. If it were not for modern technology she would not have been able to write the letters to Maudoodi, or even travel to Pakistan, not only did she use ships, but also a train both a modern technology to travel to Pakistan. Despite their inconsistency, their overall argument seems to be that modernity is corrupting the world and it is important that Muslims stick to Islamic tradition so they could not become corrupt.

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