An Arabian knight and other tales UAE: Father of his country
By Zvi Bar'el
Even if Yasser Arafat had not dominated the headlines of the past month, it's doubtful that the death of the ruler of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, would have assumed the epic proportions that the passing of his Palestinian counterpart did. There are two main reasons, at least, for the absence of Sheikh Zayed from the Israeli consciousness: horseracing and hunting with the aid of falcons are not your conventional Israeli sports. A leader-poet is also a peculiar phenomenon. And who ever heard of an Arab leader - or an Israel leader, for that matter - whose life's goals center around quality of the environment, nature preservation and popular culture?
These and other traits characterized Sheikh Zayed, who died at the beginning of November at the age of 86. His passing, after nearly 40 years of leadership, marked the end of an important historical, cultural and political niche in the Middle East. The mourning notices of Arab leaders that filled the Arab press and Arab television - which momentarily diverted their attention from the Palestinian problem and from the war in Iraq - were joined by unexpected mourners: Unesco (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), Arab artists, riding clubs around the world and environmental preservation organizations. Each of them had good reason to honor the sheikh - namely money, and a great deal of it.
Last April, for example, Unesco awarded a $150,000 prize for the preservation of popular culture - a donation of Sheikh Zayed - to two bodies: the Royal Ballet of Cambodia and an Egyptian project aimed at preserving the historical epic of Abu Zeid al-Hilali. This epic has evolved into a masterpiece of declaimed poetry that has been recited for generations at popular festivals and parties. The story describes the good qualities, courage and generosity of the hero of the Banu Hilal tribe, who went on a quest for new sources of livelihood for his tribe throughout the Arabian Peninsula and in North Africa.
Sheikh Zayed was very fond of popular culture, especially the Bedouin variety. As a youth - he was the son of Sheikh Sultan ibn Zayed, the former ruler of Abu Dhabi - he used to spend lengthy periods in the desert in the company of Bedouin and learned about their way of life firsthand. In media interviews he related that he learned statecraft and a love of nature from them. In 1966, when he succeeded to the throne in Abu Dhabi (before it became part of the UAE), four years after the first commercial oil shipment from the UAE, he decided to utilize the money not only to line his pockets (his personal fortune is estimated at about $20 billion), but to return to the desert part of what he received from it. In one project, Sheikh Zayed ordered the planting of 1.5 million trees in the desert emirate and the creation of a large farm for raising species of wild animals that were becoming extinct.
One of the sheikh's major contributions in this realm was the preservation of hunting falcons. As a hunter he decided by the age of 25 to stop using a rifle and instead to resort to the "natural" method, with the help of falcons (a trained falcon is capable of hunting small animals such as rabbits by itself and of locating larger animals and leading the hunter to them, for the kill). However, this form of hunting developed from a Bedouin tradition into a prestigious pastime, and concern arose that some of the important species of falcons would become extinct, as they were hunted during their migratory season.
Sheikh Zayed established a special fund that paid large sums simply to encourage his countrymen to release the falcons at the end of the hunting season so that they could replenish themselves in their natural habitat. He also donated pairs of falcons to Kyrgyzstan and to other countries where the birds could multiply. At the same time he made a donation toward the establishment of a Bedouin hospital for falcons and equipped it with state-of-the-art technology. A special team of three veterinarians and a staff of 26 operate the hospital, which has become a world center for falcon research.
"Sheikh Zayed had no hobbies," a Jordanian journalist who knew him well says in a telephone interview. "When he took an interest in something, that hobby immediately became a profession and he felt committed to turn the profession into a model of its kind. One day I traveled to interview him about the political situation in the region. He received me in a luxurious tent in the desert and asked me to join him for a hunt with falcons. At the end of the hunt I wanted to start the interview, but just then one of his staff showed up with an injured falcon. The sheikh reacted as though it was his son who had been hurt. He abandoned us all and took the falcon and drove his Jeep by himself in order to take the falcon for treatment."
As a political leader, Sheikh Zayed succeeded where better-known leaders failed. In 1971 he created the UAE after persuading the six emirates - Dubai, Fujaira, Umm al-Qaiwain, Sharjah, Ajman and Ras al-Khaima (though the latter balked at first) - to join with Abu Dhabi and forge one state that would be able to meet external threats. He wanted to add Qatar and Bahrain as well, but they preferred to remain independent.
This may seem like a natural development, but in practice it was an uphill struggle, especially in view of the fact that Dubai and Abu Dhabi had long been on the brink of war, and other emirates didn't understand why they should become one principality under the rule of someone from a different tribe. The establishment of the single state in the 1970s, after the failed attempt to establish a united Arab republic with only Egypt and Syria has since been considered a model for emulation - in theory. In practice, the model has never been replicated in any part of the Middle East.
Later, in 1981, Sheikh Zayed initiated the creation of the Council for Cooperation among all six Persian Gulf states - the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain - thus bringing into being an economically powerful regional organization, which is also involved in other Arab states in the form of vast investments and aid funds. Sheikh Zayed, for example, made large donations to rehabilitate Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip within the framework of the "Zayed City" project in Gaza, which was to consist of 3,000 homes (the project was not completed). He took the lead in donating funds to Arab states in the wars against Israel, but also offered the United States considerable aid in the first Gulf War. He opposed the second war.
It's not easy to figure out which hobby the sheikh spent most money on - the Palestinians, the falcons or the industry that gave the UAE a global reputation within a relatively short period of time: horse racing. Together with his prime minister, Sheikh Maktum ibn Rashid al-Maktum, who is both the sheikh's deputy and the emir of Dubai (which is part of the UAE), Sheikh Zayed built the world's most expensive racetrack in Dubai. Grass, a water pipeline, devoted daily care and stables with all the latest equipment accounted for only part of the investment. The main thing was to make Dubai a byword for breeders and jockeys all over the world, and especially to make them want to compete in that hot country.
The worldwide advertising campaign for the new, unknown racetrack was accompanied by a modest bonus: All the traveling and accommodation expenses of the competitors, the breeders and their families would be paid by the state. In addition, an especially lucrative first prize was offered for the contestants in the final race: $1 million. This year the prize money offered in the races in Dubai will total some $15 million.
No less important are the style and the accommodations of these events. Famous orchestras come to play, great chefs arrive to delight the palate, and waiters scurry between the parasols to serve drinks to the guests, whose dress is not much different from that of the English horseracing tradition. Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Maktum became familiar with that tradition when they visited England in the 1950s.
Sheikh Zayed decided then that the residents of the UAE, a Muslim rather than a secular state, deserve the same opportunities as the British, so in addition to the horses and the falcons, he developed a ramified education network. In the past two years the schools underwent a comprehensive reform, after it became clear that the students were not achieving the proper level in the English language. The sheikh also established a special college for women; according to the data supplied by the state, there are now more female students than male students in the UAE.
However, it turns out that the higher education of the modern young women does nothing for their relationships with men: The number of single women in the UAE is rising. The reason for this is that marriage with a local woman costs a great deal of money, so the men prefer to marry foreigners rather than natives of the kingdom. Sheikh Zayed intervened here, too, by ordering the payment of large cash grants to every young man who marries a local woman. The grant is intended to cover the costs of the wedding and part of the mohar (the groom's nuptial payment).
The deceased sheikh has been succeeded by his son, Khalifa ibn Zayed, 56, who has already announced that he intends to carry on his father's tradition. So another succession in the Middle East passes without a revolution, without bloodshed and without concern about what will happen after the leader dies.
Dubai: The leisure gap
There was one thing Sheikh Zayed didn't manage to deal with before his death: the terrible overcrowding on the roads of the UAE and the behavior of the drivers. The English-language Gulf News, which is earmarked for the hundreds of thousands of expatriates who live and work in the country, sent four reporters to examine the problem of traffic density on the roads. All of them had to travel a distance through the city of Dubai of less than 50 kilometers. The shortest time was an hour and a quarter; the longest more than two and a half hours.
There are two reasons for this. One is the sheer volume of traffic, caused by the 400,000 vehicles in Dubai and the 350,000 that join them on the roads between Sharjah and Dubai. The other is the behavior of the drivers, who seem to be "going into battle" when they get into a car, as one of the reporters put it. The forecast is that by 2010 there will be no fewer than 7 million vehicles in the UAE, which will travel on a little more than 1,000 kilometers of paved roads that are shared by 2.5 million residents (of whom more than 1.5 million are foreigners).
The traffic density and the driving culture have a huge impact on work productivity, on personal pressure and on interpersonal relations. Researchers from the University of Dubai have found that the greatest work pressure is imposed on foreigners. The anger and frustration generated by the heavy traffic are key reasons for the high divorce rate and the strained relations between employers and employees. Such studies lead to one unequivocal conclusion: It is essential to introduce a two-day weekend.
This is the major debate that has been waged in the past few weeks in the UAE: how to extend the weekend and thus increase the population's leisure time, how to give parents more quality time with their children, and how to make it possible for the busy employees to read books, visit the gym and in general conduct a lifestyle that is not so stressful. In the present state of affairs, many people go to pubs after work and get drunk so as to relax after a working day that lasts from 14 to 16 hours. The result is exhaustion, more pressure and ultimately greater tension and stress.
The long working day is due to the desire of employees, especially foreigners, to make a lot of money fast, and this is not a rare opportunity in Dubai. An Egyptian citizen who described himself as a "beginning auto mechanic" on an Internet site that recruits Arab workers reported that in Egypt he makes $250 a month, but in Dubai he was offered a monthly salary of $1,000 and another $1,400 for expenses. He asks if he should make the move. In reply, an official from a Dubai employment agency wrote that he should jump at the opportunity, because in addition to the high salary he will not have to pay taxes. Canadian computer engineers reported on the Web site that they were offered starting salaries of $5,000 a month, plus bonuses. For salaries of this magnitude, employers seem
unlikely to agree to introduce a two-day weekend.
Afghanistan: Films and opium
There is no reason not to believe Marina Golbahari when she says she lives in the land of unlimited opportunities. The fact is that today, at the ripe old age of 14, she already owns a house of her own and is paying for her studies herself. This year she received the vast sum of $4,000 as her share of the prize at the Seoul Film festival for "Osama," a film by Afghan director Siddiq Barmak, in which she stars. The film, which was released about a year ago, has won many prizes, including awards at Cannes and at the New Delhi Film Festival. It tells the story of a mother and her daughter during the Taliban era, who are unable to make ends meet after the Taliban regime closes the hospital in which the mother worked.
Because under the Taliban, women were forbidden to appear on the streets, the girl could not even beg. Her mother therefore dressed her daughter as a boy so that she would at least be able to scrounge for a bit of money for food. The girl, played by Golbahari, cuts her long hair short, dons boy's clothes and calls herself "Osama." The problems begin when the Taliban invite him/her to learn to be one of them.
Golbahari, whom the director found in a Kabul orphanage, spent 45 days on the set and was paid a total of $14. A year later she has already been in four more films and has gone back to school, and in interviews she declares that she plans to develop her career as an actress. It's more than likely that she will succeed; the Afghan film industry, which produced only 50 films between 1947 and 2002, is now undergoing a revolution.
International organizations, charity societies and friends groups are helping to develop film studies in Afghanistan. Teachers of film are working in Kabul on a voluntary basis, trying to eradicate the tradition of Soviet photography and directing that took root here after Afghan filmmakers studied in Moscow. Even Iranian directors are lending a hand to the nascent Afghan film industry. Trade unions of artists, directors, actors and creative artists in general are once more flourishing in Afghanistan, and access to modern equipment, especially advanced video cameras, offers numerous possibilities to film buffs in the country.
On the face of it, Colin Powell, the outgoing U.S. secretary of state, had good reason to be pleased when he viewed "Osama." The film proves how right the U.S. was to make war on the Taliban, he said in an interview after seeing the film. But it turns out that "Osama," even when it is not connected to "bin Laden," is not the be-all and end-all in Afghanistan, and the burgeoning film industry cannot put a brake on the country's slide down a steep slope.
While Golbahari was giving interviews and making films, the U.S. State Department issued a shocking report about the slave trade in children in Afghanistan. The report describes hundreds of cases in which children were kidnapped by local commanders, some of whom are cooperating with the U.S. armed forces. About 750 children were smuggled to Saudi Arabia, and some of them are used for forced labor and are sexually exploited. Reports by charity groups describe the poor state of women's rights and document brutal cases of rape, forced labor, restrictions on movement and white slavery.
It's difficult to explain the gaps between the reports on the country's development and progress, and the harsh reports of the humanitarian organizations. The difference is apparently due to the domain in which each of them operates. In the capital, Kabul, there is a Thai restaurant and an Internet cafe along with new real-estate projects, most of which are being built by philanthropic organizations and foreign companies, and even a few new roads. But the government's control ends a short distance from Kabul; the rest of the country is ruled by local leaders, tribal chieftains and clerics, such as gave rise to the Taliban.
So even as Barmak, the most famous director in Afghanistan - he is in fact the only professional director in the country - is giving interviews about the flourishing film industry, a Supreme Court justice there, Fazel Hadi Shinwari, is proposing that women be deprived of the right to drive. He has also ordered a stop to the appearance of female singers on television and this month also succeeded in persuading the government to stop all entertainment broadcasts on all the cable channels throughout the country, some of which also broadcast the film "The Ten Commandments." According to Shinwari, it is inconceivable to show Moses, as played by Charlton Heston, wearing skimpy clothing and being around women.
Is Afghanistan reverting to the Taliban era? Not necessarily. There is at least an important commercial difference between the two periods. During the Taliban era the production of opium in Afghanistan fell to its lowest level of all time. In the new, democratic era, opium production has surged to the point where, according to estimates by international agencies, it accounts for 75 percent of the world's production - 3,600 tons last year.
Egypt: Suha's slips
The term that Yasser Arafat's wife Suha used when she made her dramatic appeal to the Palestinian people very much upset Ali Salem. Salem, a resident of Cairo, is an important Egyptian playwright, satirist, writer and publicist, who paid a heavy price for visiting Israel (and wrote a book about it) and for his readiness to go on talking to Israelis. Two weeks ago, when he heard Suha Arafat describe the Palestinian leaders who wanted to visit the hospital in Paris where Arafat was being treated as "ambitious to succeed him" or "impostors who want to succeed him," he loosed some vitriolic barbs.
"No one noticed the terrible mistake made by Mrs. Suha al-Rawil, who is known as Suha Arafat ... when she published her Revolutionary Proclamation No. 1," Salem wrote in the newspaper Al-Hayyat. "All the commentators focused on her remark about `burying him alive,' which was the accusation she leveled at the Palestinian leaders, but they failed to notice that her cruelest attack was on the rules of the Arabic language." Here Salem launched into a thorough analysis of the vowel forms that Suha should have used and concluded that she made the terrible grammar mistake - of turning the subject into the object - not because she didn't notice, but on purpose. He finds the proof for this in the Arabic word she made up to convey the idea of "impostors who want to succeed him," as she could have said "successors" in simple Arabic, but did not do so.
The goal of this linguistic innovation, Salem concludes, is to create a term that describes the close connection between the leadership and the money that has its source in that same leadership. And because leadership is not succeeded to, apart from rare cases, the discussion here is about the question of the bequeathing of the money the leader left. "Or, as the Egyptians say, `Money is equivalent to the soul,'" so that the struggle for it is like the struggle for the soul.
"Here we have to ask what part the wife plays in the inheritance of her husband, the leader," Salem continues. "Are all the bank accounts, the real estate and the other treasures that are registered in his name his private property and therefore able to be inherited? It is known that every leader, for leadership reasons of course, invests part of his nation's money in his private name. Where, then, is the boundary between his private fortune, which can be bequeathed, and the fortune of his nation? True, we have to take into account that in our Arab world, the nation donates all kinds of allocations and gifts to the leader, some of which are earmarked for him personally, so that he can use them for leadership purposes ... Will the law allow his family to inherit all that money? Because if the leader is the symbol of the nation, his family is the nation itself, so does this mean that the money will be distributed among all the symbols of the nation? Is something coming to the opposition, too?"
Salem does not let up on Suha. To clarify what she did concerning the succession and the inheritance, he teaches his readers a common Egyptian term - a "chair on the cage." Gas lamps were once used to illuminate parties and wedding balls before the age of electricity. Whoever was not pleased by the wedding arrangements would throw a chair at a gas lamp and shatter it. The drama would begin when everyone threw chairs at everyone else and at the rest of the lamps. Suha Arafat, Salem writes, "threw a chair at a cage, and that was the goal of her declaration: so the financial inheritance would at last get onto the agenda." There is only one conclusion to be drawn: "We do not need leaders in this region, only heads of state. And if there is no escaping a leader, may his name be Master Parliament, Master Separation of Powers, Master Central Supervision Mechanism Over Accounts, Master Law."
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