Obama Mania

Made in back to Egypt just in time to catch Obama’s ‘historic’ speech. Must let my children know that I saw the great man in person, y’know?

Unfortunately, my brother’s graduation from CAC (can you believe they graduate the senior class at the pyramids?! RIGHT at the pyramids) was infinitely more fun to attend.

I am not an idealistic optimist, but more of a cynical pessimist, so forgive me in advance for not gushing over the beauty of the speech. It’s a speech, people! It was written—probably by many, many smart people—to target ‘Muslim’ hearts and minds.

Like many people, I wasn’t exactly on top of the world when Obama chose Egypt to speak from. Oh, of course, prestige, we’re the best country in the world, blah blah, but what about all the abuses and less-than-democratic procedures we have here? Coming here = send a message that the US supports the regime whatever it does. But I accept that America’s number one will always be America, and that’s how it should be. Egypt is a strong US ally and we have huge sway in the “Arab/ Muslim world”—if we’re happy, there’s a strong possibility others will follow. But it’ll be interesting to see how Obama—who’s always prided himself on speaking to the normal citizen—can appease both the Egyptian government and the people, who are not exactly in harmony.

After Obama’s Visit (Upper left hand corner and clockwise):

1) Return [the palm] tree to the storage area.

2) Of course the exams get postponed for the guests, do you think we’re at Harvard?

3) The governor left?

4) I saw someone practicing politics in the university sir, his name is Obama!

5) We must return everything to it’s place.

Before he even came, I had reservations about the title of the speech: Muslim World? If he’s talking about number of Muslims, wouldn’t Indonesia have been a better place? Arabs are only about 300 million. And um, where exactly is this Muslim world located? It’s back to the same ol’ point we have to constantly reiterate: Muslims are not a monolithic entity and by saying “America is not—and never will be—at war with Islam (which is most definitely not a geographic location)” you inadvertently paint the two sides in binary opposition.

I was also very wary of all the excitement: Hello? T-shirts saying “Obama: New Tutankhamun of the World?” Turns out they were ordered by NBC and CNN. This kind of excitement means hearts, and not minds, would be judging the speech.

I knew that expectations of the speech were so high and Egyptians so wary (A Brookings institute study says that 41% of Egyptians—the highest statistic in all the Arab countries surveyed—are neutral about Obama) that there was no possible way Obama would be able to live up to those expectations.

And I was kind of right.

Oh, he said all the right things. He quoted verses from the Qur’an. He said al-salamu Alaykum. He said Islam contributed a lot to western civilization. He proudly said he had Muslim roots. He appeased wounded pride and bolstered egos. His words were sincere, said in the right tone, masterfully written to evoke all the right emotions, respectful, and phrased to appeal to the normal man on the street—but they rung empty.

The rhetoric was beautiful. So beautiful that many people missed—or chose to ignore—the fact that nothing much has changed. It’s like instead of a dad telling his kid “no, you can’t go out,” he’d say “It’s pretty late and the driver’s gone home, and I promise to make it up to you. How about I take you out tomorrow?” It’s the same ‘no’ but the latter way appeases the kids. US policy has remained the same. America’s interests are still number one, and that is to be expected.

Obama’s discussion about Israel-Palestine is a perfect example. Israel’s bond with America is “unbreakable.” We get a lecture on the suffering the Jews have been through. Everyone cheered when he said Palestinians have also suffered. But hello? They haven’t suffered in “pursuit” of a homeland, they already had one. And if he’s going to quote numbers about the Jews and Americans that died why not about the Palestinians who died? (Likewise that 3,000 died in 9/11 but nothing about those who died in Iraq)

He said America is against new Israeli settlements. But when he told the Israeli prime minister not to build any more, Netanyahu went ahead and announced—on the same day Abbas was visiting the White House—that they were still going to build. And what about existing settlements? The way he addressed the Israeli-Palestinian saga is perhaps best summarized when you consider that (according to Gallup studies) 73% of Palestinians didn’t care who was elected president—they said it didn’t make a difference.

Sigh.

So that’s my two cents. The question remains, is Obama really and truly sincere in his words? Or is he, as this editorial puts it, simply another Napoleon, a man who “appropriated Islam in order to advance [his] own material interests at the expense of local populations?”

But even though I’m a cynical person, that doesn’t mean I’m still not hopeful. We’ll have to wait and see, as everyone is saying, if Obama can walk the talk. Intentions matter, but without actions, they don’t mean squat.

I miss Lebanese labneh already.

PS: Interesting editorials on the visit from Egyptian Chronicles, Sandmonkey and Islam Online.