Shooting first

Reuters provides a summary of the violence since the cease-fire between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza:

June 20
- Israeli army troops near the border east of the southern Gaza town of Rafah opened fire towards Palestinian farmers working in al-Amoor, according to U.N. sources. No injuries reported.
- Israeli troops east of el-Maghazi camp opened fire towards Palestinian farmers, according to U.N. sources. No injuries reported. - Israeli marine vessels fired towards Palestinian fishermen west of Beit Lahiya, according U.N. sources. No injuries reported.

June 21
- Israeli marine vessels opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats west of Beit Lahiya, according to U.N. sources. No injuries reported.
- Israeli troops at the border north east of the el-Maghazi camp opened fire towards Palestinian farmers, according to U.N. sources. No injuries reported.

June 23
- Palestinians fired a mortar shell into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli army. No one hurt.
- Israeli troops near the border north-west of Beit Lahiya opened fire at a group of people collecting wood, seriously wounding a 70-year-old man, according to U.N. sources.

June 24
- Islamic Jihad militants fired rockets into southern Israel, the militant group and the Israeli army said. No casualties. The rocket fire followed Israel's killing of two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, an area not covered by the ceasefire.

June 25
- Israeli troops east of Rafah opened fire toward farmers, according U.N. sources. No injuries reported.
- Israeli troops stationed near Khan Younis opened fire towards Palestinian farmers. An 82-year-old farmer was seriously injured, according to U.N. sources.

June 26
- Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group belonging to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, fired one rocket into southern Israel, the group and the Israeli army said.

Interesting that even over at al-Jazeera, the only mention of a lapse in the ceasefire is blamed on Palestinian militants, when Israelis seem to be culpable for shooting first and shooting more. "Israelis shooting at Palestinian farmers" didn't seem to put pressure on the truce, nor did Israel's lagging in opening the border crossings -- or sealing them again.

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From Jordan with Love

Life is fairly settled her in Amman. I now live with an elderly Jordanian woman of Syrian descent who used to handle the late King Hussein's personal finances. No big deal. This weekend the gang is off to the Badia desert in northeastern Jordan to spend three days with a Bedouin family. Wouldn't you expect a swing of the culture shock pendulum to occur right before I'm to dropped off in, almost literally, B.F.E.? Typical.

I specifically miss Hell's Kitchen and my recording studio. Not so much homesick as I miss the feeling of familiarity, so right now it's kind of hard to be excited about the whole Middle East track because along with it comes some serious discomfort (and not just the kind from a radical change in diet). It's one thing to know that this is what they call culture shock and another to feel it. I don't want to come home, though; I just want things to start feeling familiar.

Another reverse-Orientalism encounter!...maybe.

Two days ago we visited the Higher Council for Scientific Research and Technology, the government developmental and regulatory body for...scientific research and technology. Ummm, when did we arrive in Soviet Russia? The director of the HCSRT's Badia Development Project, Dr. Muhammad Shabaaz, gave a presentation on rangeland management, desertification, etc. etc., but began with a curious little diddy about the history of scientific research in the Arab and Islamic empires -- the Arab contribution to this or that field, the Arab development of this or that concept that laid the foundation for Western science, on and on.

It wasn't that he said anything wrong, but that he felt the need to say anything at all. Growing up, no one ever bothered to tell me that Baghdad and Damascus were light years ahead of European technologies and living standards until the Renaissance, it was knowledge that people in the know were either ignorant of didn't think was important enough to tell me. College has a very good way of supplementing what you learned in high school (particularly if much of that was filtered to you through a B-list private school curriculum), and so as a ME major of course I had learned this stuff. But it stuck me that Dr. Shabaaz, who took a Ph.D. from the University of Manchester, felt the need to (as I think he may have) counter certain assumptions that he assumed we held, like, 'nothing good ever came from Arab culture.' Which (and I think so) might just be an assumption that a lot of Americans believe based on what they 'know' about Arabs and the Middle East. And Dr. Shabaaz likewise addressed us based on what he 'knew' of what we 'know' about Arab civilization.

Here's a roundup of some other things on my mind lately:

• Last week, one of the Jordanian newspapers, Ammon News, broke a story that Robert Kagan, neocon thinker and one of McCain's foreign policy advisers, said at an NYU public lecture that the presidential hopeful endorses a 'Jordan Option' to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, wherein Palestinians are relocated to Jordan, which should be their "natural homeland." The next day, another paper, the Jordan Times, called Ammon News' BS, having contacted Kagan and NYU and received a vehement denial, but not after King Abdulluh II made a national address to assure Jordanians there would be no major demographic shakeup or massive population influx.
  
  Living in country during the minor social crises, the story, even though it was bunk, effectively tanked McCain's popularity, which was slightly higher than Obama's. But between all three, everyone favored Hillary Clinton; since Jimmy Carter, Bill showed the most active interest in the Middle East peace process of.
  
  Anyways, Marc Lynch has a good discussion on the public furor of the report here and here.
  
  
• My favorite Christian public figure -- James Dobson -- is on the offensive this week against Obama. Enjoyed this post by Jacques Berlinerblau from the Georgetown/On Faith (Newsweek & Washington Post) blog:
  

  For Obama, the Bible is ambiguous, multi-faceted, difficult to interpret, subject to many readings. It is so complex, so multivalent that it demands humility. A believer--especially one who is a politician-- should never arrogantly presume to have identified God’s inscrutable message.

  Many conservative Evangelicals tend, by contrast, to believe that there is a right interpretation of the Bible. This proper reading may be attained through faith, intense biblical study (“Scripture interprets itself”), and guidance from the Holy Spirit.

  The more demagogic ones, however, raise the ante. They assume that they have actually discovered the right interpretation. Equating their interpretation with divine truth, they try to impose God's word on the social body writ large. Their focus is not hermeneutics, but politics.

  Exactly why I loathe Sen. Inhofe.
  
  The religious right is in a hilarious pickle this November, as most of them, including Dobson, decried McCain during the primaries as a liberal in sheep's clothing, and God knows they would never dare vote Democrat. So what's Dobson doing this fall? Not voting. As the old saying goes, don't rock the boat if you didn't vote; does this mean they might just finally shut the hell up?
  
  
• It's official -- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is returning this fall.
  
  
• Report from al-Jazeera about the effects of oil money on Saudi society. From Juan Cole:
  

  The petroleum is owned by the government and profits go to it. It is hard for the government to inject the money into the economy without risking high inflation (too much money chasing too few goods), which would create an effect like a dog chasing its tail. High inflation would eat up the value of the extra money. The extra money is therefore invested abroad. Good for us, bad for most Saudis.
  
  So, yes, high oil prices are making ordinary Saudis poorer, just as with the rest of us.

• Israel and Hamas agreed last week to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire, much needed progress in alleviating the oft-overlooked suffering in Palestine (particularly in the Christian community, I might add), but yesterday rocket fire into southern Israel threatened the already fragile peace. As a result, Israel will not lift its closure of the Gaza points of entry and exit, which are wholly under the former's control. Aside from being the most densely packed tract of land on the planet, Gaza regularly faces 60-70% unemployment, due mostly from the economic squeeze of Israel's control of the flow of goods and labor in and out of Gaza. This is a terribly vicious cycle, wherein Gaza's outrage overflows into violence and against whom Israel enacts collective punishment. The failure of the ceasefire to last will mean more suffering, more starvation, and more heartbreak from both Israeli Jewish and Palestinian Arab families.
  

Hate to end on such a downer, but then again, I don't mind. Really now, I don't mean to prioritize the suffering of one people over another. I know many of my friends are traveling the world this summer to learn about or directly combat injustice, oppression, and poverty wherever it sneaks up.

Time to head home to Rene's delicious, home-cooked Syrian delights!

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What not to do while in Amman

If you ever visit Amman for shorter than six months or so, take my advice and don't shop for anything. Don't even bother. If you do shop, you'll probably do it in one of a couple of different areas: Swefiyah or Abdoun, the neighborhoods of Western-inspired malls and blocks of shops selling everything from Cuban cigars to Syrian lingerie; or Old Downtown, further out east, where you're supposed to go to get your "traditional" Jordanian/Arab goods and trinkets. You're screwed in both cases.

First off, the exchange rate is 1.4 USD for one Jordanian Dinar, which means that goods in Jordan are valued higher than goods from the United States and everything (except maybe food) costs more than it would back home. Second, Jordan imports most everything it retails (as far as I can tell), which means that all of those "authentic" kuffiyahs and argilehs (hookas) that everyone wants to bring back for their friends were actually from a mass-produced lot made in a Chinese sweatshop. Third, and I can't figure this one out, is that the only recognizable brands are the upper crust of Western living: Chanel, D&G, Armani, etc. Everything else is some unheard-of knock-off, and there's nothing in between. So, you either pay 550 JDs for a respectable Calvin Klein suit (over $700), or you buy a ten dollar China job. No middle ground.

There are places to find hidden treasures in the Orient, but they're in a bin with 200 identical pieces of the same thing. Artisans and handicrafts are being driven out of the market in the name of economy and margin. Thanks globalization. I guess the one thing that is mildly comforting is that even if everything is made in China, you can't find the kind of stuff they have here in the States. Just tell people that Shanghi is a district in southern Lebanon, most people won't have any idea where either are anyways.

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The greenhorn combats reverse-Orientalism

Salaam wa alaykum fii Amman asdiqaaii!

Arrived last night and met our SIT trip's academic director, Dr. Raed Tabini, at the airport. Checked into my home for the next 5 days, the Al-Manar Hotel in the Shmeisani district, in the financial hub (I'm guessing) of Amman. Al-Manar is located right next to the main branch of the Bank of Jordan, for those familiar with the city (all two of you). Dr. Tabini and I roamed the proverbial Arab street last night and had some shawarma and lemon & mint drank (delicious!) at a local cafe. I can tell that choosing a cafe will be a newly arduous process each time, as there were about eight within one city block that all looked equally bad ass. WOULD have taken pictures and posted them here to prove my point, but my micro USB cable is definitely in Tulsa. Give me a couple of days.

Day one's theme is all about my encounters with reverse-Orientalism. If Orientalism is the process and system by which the body of knowledge in American media/political culture on the Arab world and Islam is generated and reinforced (exposing Americans almost exclusively to its grim side and establishing that as the main point of reference for all of the cultures and peoples of the MENA region), then reverse-Orientalism is the similar discourse on the body of knowledge in the Arab world on Orientalism. An interesting dynamic, no? Three experiences to highlight:

• In the car ride to Amman, Dr. Tabini stressed how this summer would be an excellent time for me to normalize my opinions and perceptions of Jordanian culture, that it's not what the Western media portrays it to be.
• Over breakfast, one of the hotel staffers and I chatted about my being in Jordan for the summer. During the conversation, he explained how I would come to have my perceptions of all Arabs as terrorists and fanatics changed by my observing normal, day-to-day life. He told me of growing up, fearing Americans because they all wanted to kill or see Arabs be killed (que torso chop demonstration), but when he got to high school and college and started taking English classes with American student teachers, he realized that they are good people, generally have good morals, and are in fact brothers as Christians and Muslims affirming a mutual faith in monotheism (لا إله إلاّ اللهّ).
• While being panhandled, I was assumed to be a Christian (que Hail Mary), because I obviously wouldn't give money to an "other" Muslim.

This also reminds me of the time I visited the mosque if Fayetteville, and after the prayers one of the congregates pulled me aside to make sure I didn't think he and the community anything like Osama bin Ladin (of course I assured him I didn't). What's interesting about these encounters is that these men took time to dispel notions they assumed I, or other Americans at least, hold regardless of what I actually believe and didn't really bother to fact-check otherwise. I think it speaks to the power of the Orientalist tendencies that have been pervasive in American media/political culture, and how those tendencies have been transferred to the subject and invoked a defensive reaction that does the same kind of assuming taught it by the Orientalist: a la reverse-Orientalism.

Not saying that this is a de facto Jordan-wide phenomenon (as the post-colonialist in me could never do), but I'm anxious to see the degree to which these kinds of beliefs are held by other people. I would also like to know to know a bit more about these assumptions: are they held specifically about me, in that do my interlocutors assume I hold Orientalist beliefs, or do they just believe them to be common in America and want to deal with things I may have heard but may or may not actually believe. It will be interesting to see what kinds of sources perpetuate this reverse-Orientalism: is it an experience with Western media, the portrayal of Western media in Arab media and culture, assumptions about the motivations for American foreign policy, etc.? One thing to note, that regardless of what they think I think about them, Jordanians have been incredibly friendly, hospitable, and somewhat surprised when I speak Arabic, which is sort of my Glock 9mm conversation starter.

OK, there, I just proved all of you wrong who said I wouldn't actually update the Dulce. Feel the pwn.


*Editorial note: I should add (thanks to the tip from Dolly!) that I think this differs, however slightly, from "Occidentalism," the sorts of perceptions, stereotypes, etc. of Westerners in general, as perhaps a specific subset of that discourse that is in direct response to Orientalism. Surely all cultures have certain opinions and beliefs, some more true than others, of alien cultures; what I find particularly interesting is the knowledge of others' knowledge.

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Middle East greenhorn gets his ears wet

Months of planning are coming down to the wire, and in two days I will finally be able to say that I have been to the Middle East. I'll be in Jordan for the next six-ish weeks, mainly in Amman, but also with time at archaeological sites like Irbid, Wadi Rum, Petra, etc., eco sites like the Dead Sea and the Badia desert, and a week-long stint in the Arava desert in Israel (down by the Sinai). I won't spoil much ahead of time here, mainly because I need to get my zees right now, but keep track of me with what will hopefully be exciting and, insha'allah, timely updates on this blog. Maa salaama!

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