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Dilemma for Arab youths
âI donât like the Americans, I donât like the way they treat us in the Arab world, making war and telling us what to do,â says Haytham, a young student at the Lebanese University in Beirut, âbut I like Nike and I like the products they make.â Talking to Haytham reveals one of the biggest inconsistencies facing a large element of Lebanese and indeed Arab youth today; namely the question of how to resolve criticism of the United States with an increasing appetite for its culture. Not being good with cause and effect, they can't see that the two might be tied together... Walk down almost any street in Damascus, or go to a deprived suburb of Beirut or stroll through the American University of Beirut or the Lebanese University and you will see this contradiction in clear view. Open criticism of the US is obvious in debates, posters, and papers but it is coming from a youth wearing American clothes on their bodies, smoking American cigarettes and hanging out in American fast food joints watching American pop stars on television. In Lebanon, not to say in the Gulf states, there is a massive national obsession with that inherently American sport of basketball. There are American basketball players here, former NBA stars, numerous street courts and a national league with lots of money behind it. Basketball fashion, and its sartorial offspring, hip-hop fashion, is everywhere present in American brand sneakers to shirts and caps. Satellite television offering easy access to Western programs as well as that big opener of communication and global culture â the internet â  has created in the youth an awareness, and an unstoppable and undeniable fascination with American culture whether they like it or not. Musically, R&B, rap and the pop of Britney and Madonna are all the rage here pushed through MTV, the Melody Channel, and hugely commercial radio stations. Black and White, an R&B club in the Hamra neighborhood of Beirut is packed with Lebanese adolescents and university students bumping and grinding like there is no tomorrow. The day before they were protesting against Americaâs failure to condemn Israelâs separation wall in the West Bank. American movies are the primary fare of Lebanese cinemas, and going to the movies is by the far the most popular leisure pastime here. Itâs almost impossible to see any non-mainstream film in the cinema, be it art house or independent, though you can rent them on DVD. The result is that all this input of Americana  Lebanese youth hang out easily in Burger King, Starbucks and even McDonalds  has an impact on behavioral trends. Consequently the biggest stars and idols in Lebanon are American rap musicians and Hollywood actors, and sportsmen, even past it singers like Mariah Carey as demonstrated by the 6,000 strong audience who turned up to see her at a recent concert. Naturally that large element of local youth begins to aspire to the lifestyle and image these icons represent. Arab youth culture, especially in Lebanon, is slowly but surely being diluted with the youth culture of the very country these young men and women often accuse of waging war on the Arab world. In other words, our more vibrant, growing, syncretic culture is slowly displacing their simpler, more ossified culture. The outward forms of Western civilization are displacing the outward forms of the older cultures. This is after not even ten years of the internet and international satellite programming. The effect after 20 years is going to be even more pronounced, with the underlying values starting to take hold, whether they like it or not. Despite the fact that Britney has the intellectual depth of an acne scar, the society that made her possible has too much to offer for the yoots to pass it up. They want an "Arab rennaissance," and they're going to get it, but its roots aren't going to be in the Koran. Posted by: Fred 2004-02-29 |
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