Africa: poor kids or cool football players?

Rasha Almaqaleh

Awhile ago, there was an advertising poster placed on the city bus stops. The poster shows a sad-looking African kid standing in the middle of a landfill, holding what seems to be a torn-up bag. The advert sends a message about the struggle of kids in poor cities and how living there is such a miserable situation.  

When my son saw the poster for the first time, he didn’t say anything. He just looked at it. Next day, he spent more time pondering around the poster. Finally, he asked: “what is wrong with that child and why is he standing in the middle of the garbage?” I tried to explain to him that the poster is asking people to help poor children in poor cities. Then, he asked about the city of the boy. I said: “ I don’t know!” My son asked : “he is Africano!right?” I said yes! He got troubled and said: “but Africa is cool!”

Until now, all my son has known about Africa was that it was the place where one of the players of Germany’s national football team originally comes from. My son is fascinated by the German team, especially the black player; he would collect their photos and look for the missing cards to complete the collection. He and the other kids in the kindergarten would refer to the black player as “Africano” and my son wanted to be that player and to get a shirt with his number.

When my son saw a sad-looking miserable “Africano, he got shocked because until that moment, all what Africa represented to him was a cool football player, with “chique hair”! I am literally quoting him on the hair part!

Even though this type of ‘help Africa campaigns’ are generally well-intended and the people behind it want to help poor kids, they unintentionally enhance one of the worst stereotypes about Africa. An advertisement like that sums a whole continent which has 54 nations with different aspects of history, culture, currency and hundreds of languages into one word: poverty!

It is true that poverty is a problem in Africa, just like terrorism is a problem in the Arab world. But this doesn’t mean that all Arabs are terrorists! Similarly, not all Africans are poor! Being an Arabic Muslim woman who lives in the West, I know exactly what it means to be stereotyped by the society surrounding me. While Muslim women have the choice to take off their headscarves and not to be necessarily identified as Muslims, African people cannot do anything about the famous stereotype of the Dark Continent and they shouldn’t be suffering because of it.

When I saw that poster of the poor African boy, I immediately thought about the African kids and families living in Germany! How do they feel about it? Isn’t there a possibility that the African kids who live in Germany might struggle because of such advertising? They might be harassed and bullied in school.  Isn’t that poster teaching African kids that they are poor and inferior?!

Imagine a poster that sends a message about fighting terrorism by placing a picture of a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf. Try to imagine how thousands of Muslim women who live in the West would feel about it?

When black people see such ‘poor Africa’ advertisements, I cannot imagine their reaction and how ashamed they are made to feel. An African lady who lives in Germany, once told me that she is really pissed off because whenever she and her family drive their own car, they get some wondering stares from German bystanders. And she could read in their eyes this question: “how come an African family has a car while they are supposed to be poor and have NOTHING?”

On the whole, it is not fair to link people of a specific race, ethnicity, or religion to a negative notion, even if such linking is well-meaning or seems reasonable. We have to be aware of the fact that such way of advertising subconsciously enhances our worst prejudices of each other.  One way to overcome our stereotypes is by linking the people of a specific stereotype to success stories instead of degrading them. That way, Africa would be the place of successful football players instead of helpless poor kids, who are in constant need of help.

Arabs never compromise!

Anis Albasha

Usually, when people find themselves in the middle of a situation where nobody could win, wise people tend to compromise. Those who choose to compromise act according to the old saying which says that “it is better to bend than to break”. But when it comes to Arabs, when having a no-win situation, there is no room for any kind of compromise. In this case, the Arab mentality prefers to break than to bend. This way of thinking is a significant, yet negative, characteristic of the Arabic mentality and it is one of the main reasons behind most, if not all, the conflicts and the tensions in the Arab region.

This intolerant approach which a majority of Arabs share has not been adopted recently. In fact, it has been rooted in the Arabic character since a very long time. Centuries ago, especially during what was known as the Pre-Islamic era, most conflicts and disagreements among different Arab tribes were basically for frivolous and inconsequential reasons.  For instance, 1500 years ago, there was a big war among some Arab tribes in the Arabian Peninsula known as Basoos war. This war lasted for more than 40 years. The reason behind it was the killing of a camel! There was also another war which lasted for a couple of decades because of two horses which were in a race.

During those absurd wars which took place in the Arab region, there were some individual attempts to mediate between the warring parties in order to reach a settlement that would end the fighting. However, all these attempts failed because of the fanatical approach adopted by the Arabic mind which believed in the concept of “everything or nothing”. In other words, for those Arab people who lived in the ancient time, killing, defying and fighting were considered as symbols of strength and dignity even if they cause they fight for is   irrational or unjustified. By contrast, terms like “compromise” or “settlement” would be taken as signs of weakness and humiliation. Sadly, this dogmatic approach is still strongly present in the contemporary Arabic mentality. Therefore, when they fight against each other, Arabs of today would never look for a compromise or listen to the voice of wisdom. As a result, wars among Arabs end only when the involved parties become spent and exhausted. Otherwise, these wars might go on indefinitely.

Let’s take another example from the very recent history which demonstrates the same reckless attitude which has been adopted by most Arabs. On March 26, 2015, backed by nine ‘Arab’ countries, Saudi Arabia launched a full-scale war against its southern neighbour Yemen. Saudi regime claimed that this war was to prevent the entire country from being controlled by an allegedly Iranian-backed Shi’ite militant group known as the Houthis as well as in order to support what Saudis describe as the 'legitimate' Yemeni government against its opponents. Away from these unfounded allegations, let's have a look at the real conditions on the ground which illustrate the imprudent way of thinking of those people who waged this war.

Back to 2015, Saudi regime claimed that its military campaign against Yemen would achieve all its objectives within 'three' weeks. Now, the war has entered its third ‘year’ and none of those goals announced by Saudis has been achieved. The only achievement of this war is to bring Yemen to the brink of collapse by destroying its underdeveloped infrastructure, killing tens of thousands of civilians and by imposing a comprehensive land, sea and air blockade on the country. According to different reports,  more than 7 million people in Yemen face the risk of starvation, while 19 million people - two-thirds of the population - are in need of humanitarian aid. 

On the other hand, after more than two years of genocidal war against Yemen, Saudi Arabia is losing all along the line. According to several reports and analysis, Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen has been an unmitigated failure and has failed to achieve any of its aims.  Though Saudi Arabia has spend billions of dollars on the latest weaponry recently, it is still unable to defeat a poor foe who has no air support, no superior weapons and who most often fight with small arms. In fact, this spending spree by Saudis has only been a gift to U.S. and British-based arms manufacturers. Moreover, Saudi Arabia’s Forces have proved incapable of defending the country’s southern border against repeated retaliatory incursions and infiltration by the Houthis and Yemeni Army units allied with them.

Furthermore, some analysts said that this war could be the undoing of the current regime in Saudi Arabia. Given all these facts, will Saudi Arabia think about all these consequences and think of a compromise? Will Saudis stop this futile war which could lead to the collapse of their regime? When I talk about Yemen and explain the tragedy of the war there, people ask me 'when will this war stop?' or 'do you think there is a hope that this conflict would end soon?' My answer for these kinds of questions is always ‘no’. I do believe that this war would end only when Saudi Arabia is defeated or when the Saudi regime goes bankrupt. Of course, I am not happy to say so, but this is truth which is supported by the facts of both the ancient and contemporary history of Arabs.  

 This approach which does not believe in compromising is not confined to wars and battles but also extends to include many aspects of life in the Arabic societies. At home, at work, on the street, with neighbors, Arabs do not tend to compromise. On the contrary, they tend to escalate and leave no room for reconciliation. Many problems in our life could easily have ended if the parties involved had made some concessions. But as Arabs, we lack this art and we don't have the desire to learn it and adopt it as a lifestyle. There is an old  famous Arabic poetic verse that can summarize this way of thinking we have as Arabs. In that poetic verse, the poet describes the pride of his people by saying that when all people go to the river for drinking, only the poet's tribe would drink pure and fresh water while others have to drink dirty mud water from the same river. This poetry is taught in Arabic schools and is reviewed as a wonderful example of pride and audacity. 

To conclude, if Arabs want to live in peace, they must abandon their fanatical approach and realize that no one can have it all and a little compromise won’t hurt. Arabs should learn that compromise and settlement are not synonyms of weakness and surrender, rather they should look at these terms as signs of intelligence and wisdom. We Arabs have to get rid of our long-rooted legacy of intolerance and hubris. We should realize that, when we master the art of compromise, we all can drink pure and fresh water from the same river.