The most important thing to happen in the Middle East in 50 years, huh?

Last week I went to a talk at George Washington University, put on by the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS). It was about the coming "revolution" in Tunisia -- which, we were quickly told, was not a revolution -- and featured Christopher Alexander of Davidson College and John P. Entelis of Fordham University. As an aspiring North Africanist myself, I was naturally there. And if there are American academics -- more accurately, political scientists -- qualified to really comment on Tunisia, it would be these two guys.

Any person well versed in Middle East Studies might have noted just how exceptional this was: there aren't a lot of Tunisia experts here in the States. Of course, did that stop the Middle East policy/political science community (especially here in DC) from sharing their barely-informed positions on the matter? Hardly.

But here we had two bona fide Tunisia political scientists (would've loved to hear from a historian or an anthropologist, but they generally don't get invites to these sorts of things), explaining what was going on. Some really useful stuff, too. For one, that the creation and strengthening of a real political party apparatus is, in the long run, more important than the rewriting or restructuring of the Constitution. But the one that really stuck with me, the one I wanted to go and tweet right away (I hadn't yet returned to tweeting), was Entelis' claim that the uprising in Tunisia would be "the most important thing to happen in the Middle East in fifty years."

Now this was last Tuesday at lunchtime, when the very first marchers were moving into the center of Cairo for their very first protest. We knew it was coming from word circulating online -- that so-called "Twitter Revolution" -- but there was nothing to suggest the kind of upheaval on the way.

No one's really talking about Tunisia these days though. It's been a week since Entelis made that comment, and this all raises good questions about the actual connections between Arab states. The Maghreb -- North Africa west of Egypt, loosely defined -- has long been considered peripheral to US interests in the region, at least as far as the bulk of the Beltway policy community is concerned. As it fades back to its second tier status again so Egypt can rise to the fore, I wonder how we'll remember these past events in Tunisia. I saw tweets the other day that said that history will remember the wave of democratic revolution in the Middle East beginning in Sidi Bouzid, the town where a young Tunisian worker burned himself in protest of police confiscating his illegal vegetable stand.

I tend to believe connections between countries in the Middle East are over-dramatized and overemphasized; after all, the glossing of the various cultures and societies in the Arabic-speaking world is part of the dominant narrative about the region. That is, it's a key part of inherent suspicions about Islam that allow pundits (let's differentiate between them and real experts) to condemn the Muslim Brotherhood. Instead, I often try to emphasize the multiplicities between the various countries in addition to the multiplicities within one. For example, a Muslim university professor in Tunis may differ greatly from a Muslim university professor in Alexandria or Aleppo, just as he or she may be very different than a bank clerk in any of those places. To say nothing of the ways the actual practice of Islam varies across the spectrum in these countries.

In general, we use the "Arab world" or the "Islamic world" as the subject of our analysis too uncritically. We should question the logic -- a good geographer would call it "the imaginative geography" -- that allows us to think of Tunisia and Egypt as the closely connected. How much do you care about Canadian politics? And we even share a border with them.

I still believe all that -- it rarely hurts to think critically about your most basic assumptions -- but the Tunisia-Egypt revolution question has thrown a wrench in the works. The fact that Twitter and Facebook exist and spread the word of the protests seems not so important. What does matter is how people feel and articulate the personal connection and how they see their lives and their identities in flux based on events pretty far away.

Arabic verbs

Just thought I'd share a moment of frustration with my Arabic training. The hardest thing to get my head around to this point -- depending on how you look at it, roughly 3 years into my study -- is the use of verbs. I still for the most part structure sentences around their English translations. When I'm writing or composing, I'll try to adapt this to how Arabic is actually constructed and review my errors. But when speaking, it's hard. Arabic verbs work on forms. Let's take a really basic form that most learn pretty early: to study, or darasa. Its root is a standard three letters (d-r-s). If you want to say I studied, you use the first, most basic form. But if you want to say "I made myself study," you don't say "I" "made" "me" "study". There's a specific form for the self-reflexive form, and another one that means you did it with some considerable effort. In other words, if you wanted to say "I really forced myself to appreciate...", that has its own single word. And I'm terrible at this. If any Arabic students are out there who have a strategy for this one, let me know. I'm clueless.

In defense of the Strokes

Working on some Arabic and was using Albert Hammond, Jr.'s first solo album, Yours to Keep, as background music. I was really enjoying it and decided to head back to the Strokes back catalog. Part of the inspiration was an overheard conversation between two housemates here in Fes, one a British student asserting that they usually liked "indie" but "not like Strokes-indie". I tried to defend them. Kings of Leon they are not.

Maybe this video is a good indication of what people don't like. It's so saturated with classic rock and roll cool that it nearly drowns itself. The video has nothing to do with the song, but rather just perpetuating the idea that the Strokes spend most of their time in dive bars drinking long necks and smoking cigarettes. Nevermind that there's hardly a place where smoking inside is legal these days.



Still though, do I wish that I could spend a late afternoon watching soccer and playing pinball at a dingy pub with Slash and the guys from Guided by Voices? As a matter of fact, I do. The Strokes have always been, were from the outset, too cool for school. I'm not sure I would've liked them any other way.

Illegal hits

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5706132

I just read this article and watched this video. I know I intended to blog mostly about Morocco, etc., but this caught my attention and I think is worth mentioning.

Schlereth Sounds Off here about 'illegal hits' in the NFL. He seems mostly right. You've got to protect the players to some extent, and it's tough because the game has gotten pretty damn fast and physical. So often the defensive player is charged, but the extremity of the impact seems to me -- amateur physics alert here -- to be caused equally by how fast the offensive player is moving. Granted, unsuspecting, stationary offensive players get smashed and injured and concussed, but these are collisions, right?

Second thing, Schlereth -- or "Stink" -- makes an analogy here to soccer. He suggests that if we don't allow these kinds of smashing hits, then what we have is soccer. Pretty inaccurate. It's more like rugby, where you have to wrap your arms around the ball carrier when tackling and can't go high. I'm not advocating an NFL rule change, but I will say that rugby fans aren't left wanting for more high impact collisions. There's still plenty of smashing and violence on the rugby pitch.

Also, I generally think the "soccer is for wussies and therefore un-American" is a little played out. It's a pretty worn analogy and was pretty thin to begin with. Is there a single soccer player who could survive the entire 11 minutes of an NFL game when the ball is actually in play? Maybe a very, very small few (excepting of course the kicking positions). But the lack of violence isn't THEE reason Americans "don't like" soccer (which they increasingly do). It may definitely be what we love about football, but violence is absent from baseball, for example, and it's still loved. For very different reasons.

I do fear for the future of soccer -- and not just in America -- because of the "wussiness". It's not the diving so much that's a problem, because drawing fouls is a part of the sport just as much as it is basketball. Is the grimace on the face of a driving small forward as he gets hand checked really necessary? What sets soccer apart, unquestionably, is the feigning of injuries, which is an abomination, in my opinion. Fair game to go down with a slight shove and try to get a penalty to tie the game in the last minute. Officials should be able to tell the difference. But why roll around on the ground and try to get another guy tossed? It's too much. It ruins it for me, and there are a handful of highly talented players who I will never appreciate because of this.

As for the NFL, they've got to seriously consider this issue in the offseason. They need major rule changes if they're going to keep dealing out the fines they are. I'm not advocating either way at the moment, but I don't think the fines are justified. Frankly, as a fan to whom 50k is a massive chunk of money, it's actually kind of insulting that a guy gets docked that kind of pay for a hit that the league, its TV coverage, and its merchandise all wholeheartedly endorse.

Indiana Jones and the Medina of Fes

Just kidding. But seriously, some station on the satellite is playing an Indy marathon this week. We're on day 2. Just wanted to make a few notes:

- You'd think, after all these years, that Indy might've found a slightly less high-maintenance, slightly more adventurous female companion.

- All Indiana Jones movies must contain at least one scene featuring parallel moving vehicles, going at high speed, in which the passengers switch places during a skirmish between the two. Last Crusade has at least two such scenes. Also on this note, I'm not sure there's a character in the history of film better at running his adversaries off the road in a variety of vehicles.

- When Indy beats someone up and takes their costume/uniform, that person will not die, but they will not wake up for some time. They will never be heard from again, however.

All for now. Fes is good. Missing home a lot but it's going well over here.

New P***ographers cancelled at Calvin College

You may have read about how Calvin College in Michigan cancelled an upcoming New Pornographers show on campus because of the band's name.

I have to say, I was hoping to be more entertained by their reasoning and official statements (the school's, I mean), but really, it sounds like they basically said, "Listen, we know their music is inoffensive, we tried to tell our influential faculty/boosters/parents/whomever that same thing, but they were unwilling or unable to listen. We apologize for their ignorance."

Check it out here: http://pitchfork.com/news/40053-christian-college-cancels-new-pornographers-concert-because-of-the-bands-name/

Live from Fes

I promised several folks I'd update from Fes, Morocco, where I'll be for the better part of three months. I'll be studying Arabic at ALIF (www.alif-fes.com) and hopefully doing a little research to help with PhD applications.

I arrived on Saturday night and lugged a truly massive backpack -- there should've been a picture -- across the Ville Nouvelle from the train station to the Hotel Savoy. I rinsed out my shirt in the sink, changed into some shorts, and went for a stroll before settling down to eat tajine kefta at Cafe 24/24, which lured me in with promises of La Liga games being broadcast in Arabic.

The next day, Sunday, I decided to take on the infamous Fes medina, the old walled city. I've toured the medina four times, by my count, and each time had literally no idea where I was going. Each time was with a guide, however, which makes life quite easy but also means you inevitably end up stuck in a few rug shops on the way. This time I had the Rough Guide map, and it more or less got me to the spectacular blue-tiled Bab Boujeloud in relatively short order ("bab" = door or gate in Arabic). Its the most famous bab in Fes, and the most common medina entrance. I walked one of the two main drags for a while before setting off down a side street. Once you commit to turning off, you have to accept that you will most likely not find your way back. Streets make odd turns, and ones that appear to go due south, for example, will inexplicably turn east and continue. It's also quite hilly so you can't always see what happens at the top of the crest or where the street goes.

It is, however, truly spectacular and in all my medina walks there is nothing like it at all. I eventually was dumped out on the far south side of time, well beyond the Bab Ftouh and made my way around the city, eventually ending up under the Borj Sud, a watchtower where guides take tourists to get a full grasp of the size and scope of the medina. I ate a picnic lunch in a small cafe before leaving the medina. It was packed with men of all ages glued to the TV, watching the C movie "Drive" (seen it, anyone?), drinking sodas and smoking kif in the back corners.

I'm finally settled in to what is basically a dorm: an old late 19th century villa converted to 14 rooms with shared showers and a kitchen, filled with students at my language school. I have a double but no roommate as of yet. Its quite nice though -- we have wireless so Judy and I have been able to skype regularly, the kitchen is stocked with cookware, and there's a TV with literally 300 channels including Tamazight (Berber) TV, TV Chad, and a bazillion from Egypt and the Gulf. MTV Lebanon. Dubai Horse Racing. You name it. All in Arabic (save BBC World and a couple French ones).

Off to class today. I'm the only person in my section, we'll see how that goes. Looking forward to getting to work.

And I can't close without a Skins mention. Yes, I saw the highlights on ESPN.com and Judy filled me in on everything. Unbelievable. I wore my hat with pride yesterday.