Grief: Balance of Equals

Every generation has its heroes, so I don't belittle the signifance of Michael Jackson's contribution to popular music and to his family, in particular this will be a difficult time.

I believe, without exception that on a world scale, we're all equal, it is just that some people accumulate more wealth and fame and so on but in the presence of our Creator, Allah, we're all the same. That means when people are maimed, injured and killed in the various conflicts around the globe, ever loss is as tragic as the loss of a superstar. Wasn't it MJ's sister, herself, Janet who once said that when the lights are out, "in complete darkness we are all the same".

Don't Let Your Eyes Deceive You

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It is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us

My concern with the whole Geneva Conference on racism is how many countries boycotted the event - Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland and the United States. It's perhaps naive to think that there aren't occasions where people are forced into a boycott, but to not participate raises a concern about commitment to the premise of human equality. If we are divided because racism exists, then other struggles for equality - gender, cultural identity, religion and class will never happen. As someone anonymous once remarked: "There is only one race - the human race". The boycotting countries have a certain something in common - politically they are perceived as "white" and most yield influences that could have been exercised positively in the fight against racism.

I don't know of any society where there isn't some guilt or that hasn't had to deal with some kind of internal issues with race and racism, but there are historical examples of where entire social systems have been built on racial exploitation and legal division. These have tended to be in places where Europeans have held power, either as colonialists or in the post-colonial world. You'll find many European expats here in the Gulf enjoying a very privileged lifestyle, not accessible to the poor South Asian labour force.

Here from where I sit in the Arab world, there is a political perception of the Iran which is unique to the Arabs - reactions to Iran coming from Europe and the West are different. The subtleties of this are often not understood, but exploited into a "them and us" situation which is essentially anti-Iran, anti-Ahmedinejad and ultimately anti-Muslim. Isn't it precisely this very attitude that leads us towards the racism that we should be challenging? Iran - whilst not perfect, is what the West-leaning Gulf isn't; it's actually a multi-party system where universal suffrage exists for all people over 15. According to my last check, the current Leader of Britain, Mr Gordon Brown, was not elected by the populace and governments in the Gulf are almost completely made up of ruling families.

The conference may have been a sham, but that was due to other forces of distrust. Many may conclude that much of the non-participation was about a cynical desire to preserve the global racial inequality status quo and not just because Iran was there.

“In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you.” Janet Jackson, Rythmn Nation 1814

In Complete Darkness We Are All The Same

Spectrum of Diversity

According to Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840), there are five colour typologies for humans: white people, black people, yellow people, red people and brown people. This is of course, a very rigid definition. It says nothing about culture, language, migration and social identify and is a definition that most rightly minded people would question today. Blumenbach was a proponent of "Scientific Racism" - a kind of pseudo-Science used to justify racism. Think American Slavery, Nazism and Apartheid to name a few. Thank goodness it's not the 17th century today...

... but, have we really moved on? Just look at the world today. We are still divided, even if not always by colour (whatever that is). Earlier this week, Penta Inspectors reporting back to the Education Council descended their presence on Al Shawamekh, our coveted boys' school here in Bani Yas. They did what lots of inspectors do, sat and pontificated, snooped around, interviewed people, did the obligatory lesson obs, drank tea with each other and so. Penta fulfill a role as an Ofsted-type inspectorate and would claim to be staffed by people who will have had some school leadership in the UK etc. Most, I figure are here in Abu Dhabi to enjoy the sun and splash around in a pool.

Al Shawamekh is a middle school for boys, and typical of government schools here is staffed entirely by teachers from across the Arab world - Egypt, Palestine, Jordon, Syria, Yemen, the Sudan and the Emirates. One of the inspectors was a remarkably rude and obnoxious person who asked me if I was the ICT teacher after witnessing a little disturbance outside a class. He wouldn't have asked me if I was white because he made the assumption that Advisors in school were likley to be "Western" and since I don't follow the "look" (racially speaking of course), the disorderly class was seen to be as a result of the nearest brown adult. Suffice to say, I was glad to see the back of this rude and racist man when he went.

Race is one of those things that we must be extremely sensitive to, so I followed with interest some of the goings on at the Durban Review: World Conference Against Racism in Geneva, Switzerland this week. Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was one of the most high profile speakers and not surprisingly, he upset a few people with his ideas this week. It didn't start off well - there were hecklers at the very beginning who threw items at him and the European Union reps walked out at the beginning of his speech. We see Ahmedinejad through a largely one-sided political frame, and so it's understandable why many folk would be annoyed at his utterances. He's a maverick to some, an enemy to others, and respected by those who respect him.

continued in next posting ...

“In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you.” Janet Jackson, Rhythmn Nation 1814