Quantum Note: The New Middle East
Posted on 27. Apr, 2012 by drmuzaffar in Opinion
By Dr. Muzaffar Iqbal
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
T.S. Eliot (1888–1965). The Waste Land. 1922.
Another spring is in the air in many parts of the world. April, Eliot’s “cruellest month”, is almost over and with it the last patches of snow over the hills. The rejuvenation of earth at this time of the year inevitably inspires hearts and hopes surge even when there is little on ground to support it. This is nature’s most wonderful gift: sprouts on the trees have a direct relationship with the human heart and no matter how dark the ground realities are, one cannot help feeling a bit of hope. Thus, the “new” in the title of this “Quantum Note” is as much a metaphor as it is an adjective for the process which started in December 2010 in Tunisia, and then spread to Egypt, Libya, and Yemen, where it unseated old dictators, Syrian, where it is trying to do the same, and to Bahrain, where it has been brutally crushed.
A starting date is helpful, but one cannot really pin down the working of the new forces in the Middle East to a date or locale; history is too complex, too intertwined to allow such neat commemorations. What is happening in the Middle East is a process which cannot be said to have begun on such and such a date, nor will it end with a spring or two; it is a massive and historical shift in the making, stirring and awakening people who have been asleep for at least three centuries. During these three centuries of their siesta, they have been brutally ruled by foreign and local dictators and agents of foreign powers and they have been so degraded and terrorized that had it not been for their self-esteem and personal dignity, they would have fallen below the level of humanity.
I recall the face of a young Syrian who was visited by a secret agent on the second day of my arrival in Damascus six years ago. He was questioned about who I was and why was I staying in their house. “It was nothing,” he repeated several times afterwards. “He just wanted to make sure that you were okay, you know what I mean, that we were not hosting some al-Qaeda or such. It was nothing.”
Yet, the man who visited the residential neighborhood late at night and had tea with the head of the family, had some secret power; his mere appearance was enough to send waves of terror throughout the whole household and he left with some money in his pocket, but no one wanted to talk about the fear he brought to their lives, no one wanted to acknowledge the presence of a fear which was so obvious to even a visitor like me.
Behind that fear were the memories of Hafiz al-Asad’s reign of terror, when thousands of Syrians were massacred and thousands simply disappeared. The numbers are huge: just in Hema, about 38,000 residents were slaughtered in February 1982, when the Syrian Army put down a Muslim Brotherhood uprising by shelling the city. Numerous other examples exist of state terrorism, but no one was able to raise an audible voice against it.
The new Middle East is emerging from the ashes of this long, cold, and harsh winter of state terror. Its immediate goal is to remove the dictators who belong to another era, but that is just the beginning. This beginning is being made by a generation which has never seen a true spring. These people have never known what freedom is and their children were born in that dark night of fear and hopelessness which has now thrust them out in a world dominated by complex international politics, UN-brokers, regional powers, vying for influence, and most importantly, into a sectarian divide that has rocked the old power structures in the entire Middle East.
The New Middle East is a work in progress and it is too complex a work to forecast any definitive outcome and timeframe. Just a look at what is happening in Egypt is instructive to understand that it will take at least a whole generation of dedicated men and women to bring a certain degree of stability to the work which started in December 2010 in a visible manner although it had been going before that.
The old dictators are desperately trying to hang on to what is no more possible. They are unable to withstand the force young men and women, who have seen a glimpse of joy, hope, and most of all freedom, have brought to the fore. These men and women are no more content with the old suffocation. Time is on their side. Yet, in recognizing the long journey ahead, before a really new Middle East will emerge, one must remember that the per capita income of an average Middle Eastern is $1,200 per year, about one-tenth that of a European. These countries spend a staggering $60 billion every year on military equipment, with countries like Syria spending nearly 50% of their budget on arms. Economic cooperation is almost non-existent among the twenty-three Arab countries which are members of the Arab League; even the existing rail lines between Saudi Arabia and Syria have not been used for tens of year; pipe lines have also been out of use.
Thus, even to dream of a truly new Middle East is not an easy task. There are no short cuts. Even after the ruling dictators have left, there will be a long way before the new generation of men and women can hope to see the flowering of buds on the trees. Yet, no matter how long the journey is, the first step already reduces it by one foot.
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5 Responses to “Quantum Note: The New Middle East”
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Afriq
27. Apr, 2012
The real true revolutions have been hijacked by FUKUSA axis and that even the birds, bees and the flowers know so i have to ask “Et tu, Brute”
Mixing your séjour with some beautiful words does make the terrorism + hell leashed by FUK USA axis an “Arab Spring”
What we are being subjected to in Syria is US/UK fece state TERRORISM. We are living a hell so do not speak for us.
Desperate Syrians: Skype Video Interview With A Syrian Citizen
A resident of Aleppo brings us up to date on the Syrian situation.
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=630241?rss
Personal account on the demonstration for peace in Syria, held in Germany on April 22 Photo: Sign at the demonstration saying: “Not our `friends` (the so-called Friends of Syria terrorists) decide, but we do! Because we are the People!“
The fiends of Syria +vialry viagra’s bum boys Qatar, saud+arab league scum DO NOT SPEAK for us.
WE THANK President Bashar Al Assad for doing everything he can to crush these al-cia-doh goons + the lybian rats.
We than Russia, China + ALBA states for their support.
We will choose a DICTATOR when faced with barbaric insanity of colonialist – SURELY Dr Iqbal for someone whose father fought against the cancer called colonialism should know the first rule of fighting for not the new but anti-new Middle East – My Middle East should know
Whatever you got from/for this article – it is soaked in blood & flesh of my family, my friends, my community and MY UMMAH and we will not forget it
Mr Putin we speak for ourselves not the butcher houses/hall/nations/nato’s popes, whores…..
WE SPEAK FOR OURSELVES – thank you
Khalif
27. Apr, 2012
The Young Mr. Mechakra Denounces the LIES of Al Jazeera FROM
Source: ALGERIA ISP
ALGERIA ISP / A young Algerian Mechakra Gentleman, who launched a challenge to expose the lies of the television channel Al Jazeera. He moved to .
That day, the television channel Al Jazeera broadcast images live in Syria Homs Al Khalidiya neighborhood is on fire with thick smoke covering the sky in the neighborhood, after a bombing of the Syrian army.
At the same time, the young Algerian shows the real images of El Khalidiya district of Homs is in a normal situation, without incident, the cars drive normally, and the sky is blue.
He explained that the television channel Al Jazeera broadcast lies and asks the world to stop using the lies of Al Jazeera.
Mechakra Congratulations!
Khalif
27. Apr, 2012
the link
http://libyaagainstsuperpowermedia.com/2012/04/27/libya-the-young-algerian-mr-mechakra-denounces-the-lies-of-al-jazeera-from-homs-april-26-2012/comment-page-1/#comment-10942
Afriq
27. Apr, 2012
Boko Haram, the Case of a Hijacked Revolution
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=630298
In a recent conducted with Dr Abdulrahman Hamisu, an expert from the University of Abuja, made a shocking observation:
"Let us take ourselves back to the predictions of America that by the year 2015, Nigeria is going to break into different entities. And if you look at what is happening today, it tallies with the steps and the methodology that has to be used in order to attain that aim. It was reported that many CIA, FBI and Mossad agents were allowed access to Abuja in order to ‘assist our security agencies’. From what is happening in the Middle East and other places where CIA and Mossad have been to, (it has) shown clearly that the same pattern that is been used (in the Middle East) is currently been replayed here in Nigeria; only that there is a slight modification because of the difference in the actors in Nigeria".
Others also believe that in Nigeria, the terrorists are not fighting against (anybody), but are fighting for a foreign enemy.
In a related interview, Mr Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, a Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Coordinator (Nigeria), had this to say:
"There is no way a fellow Nigerian will kill another Nigerian, and you could see that this crisis is coming from different perspective; some people from the outside, are determined to bring down this country".
Afriq
28. Apr, 2012
Dr. since when is naTo US/UK terrorism:
"a glimpse of joy, hope, and most of all freedom"
it is and will always be: COLONIALISM +TTERRORISM