April 8th: International Roms’ Day

April 8th is the International Roms’ Day (Journée Internationale des Roms). The Rom community is about 12million people, forming thus the biggest minority of Europe.  Originating from the Indian subcontinent and installed in Eastern Europe since the Middle-Age, they have been so far, throughout History, among the most persecuted people. Today, though we learn in our schools that they were genocided under the third Reich, there seems to be almost no awareness among our ‘sedentary’ population on how much discrimination and racism are still extremely strong towards Roms.

Indeed, there is no racism as common as the racism towards Roms. As a Muslim Arab living in Europe, I know how it is to be in a group sometimes targeted by hatred and misconceptions; but I also know that nothing extremely dramatic could happen to us, that there is powerful associations to fight for our rights, that as a part of the sedentary society, our economical, mediatic and political weight is big enough to act as a protecting shield for us, to guarantee us a minimum of respect. Roms not having this same situation, they seem to be targeted by everybody and from everywhere without anything able to counter efficiently.

When in France the authorities demolish their camps, when in Italy they are victims of the neo-nazi delinquent violence, when in Greece the police itself attacks them, when in Germany the government funds repatriation campaigns, when in Sweden 80% of Roms adults are unemployed, when in Romania and Bulgary they are subject to massive and institutional persecution, when in Switzerland the policemen write down the word “beggar”by hand in their passeports… do we need more to prove how far can go the democratic human-rights-friendly european societies with their own minorities? There is barely only in South of Spain that Roms and non-Roms seem to coexist in a mutual respect.

The most shocking fact here is certainly how “unshocked” the civil society is about this discrimination and persecution of Roms. After all, the perpetuation generation after generation of these behaviours wouldn’t be possible if a majority of Europeans would not have been that deeply hatefull towards Roms. Roms are generally accused by non-Roms to be thiefs, beggars, tricky, etc. As a consequence, the establishment make laws and (official and unofficial) procedures such as Roms can’t benefit from their full rights, nor reach a state of sustainable and satisfactory interaction with the non-Rom society.

Practically saying, everything is done for unallowing them to access work market, decent housing and freedom of undertaking their traditional lucrative activities; such a situation in itself would be already enough to justify much more criminality than what we are currently witnessing, but instead of being somehow aware of this and remedy to the problem, we see that an increasing repression on Roms is not only agreed by civil society, but also encouraged, for people do not  want to be bothered in having to bear the visible presence of those they discriminate (but besides this, of course, they have no problem in copying without any compensation their music and other artistic techniques). How far do we want to let this happen before to react?

Black and Arab men as described by western medias

The French media scene has long debated about the Eric Zemmour case. The writer/TV commentator was sentenced for inciting racial hatred towards black and arab-type men saying that majority of drug dealers where from those ethnicities. The medias and politicians mostly debated on if the sentence was an attempt to freedom of speech. Some commentators and journalists pointed out the fact that Zemmour’s point of view was deliberately distorting reality: it was a shortcut between ethnicity and crime, not taking into consideration the fact that black and arab men are, according to statistics and studies, the most discriminated population in France (up to 15-20 times more discrimination). Anyway, the only revelant fact about the case is, to my point of view, that once again the medias spoke (indirectly) of what exactly were the Arab and Black men (are they drug dealers really?), without asking them what they were thinking about all this.

Sadly, this has been a general rule in the western medias: Black and Arab men are described by others, they are not given the chance to describe themselves. The subliminal representation spanned by these numerous description by others generally  reinforces strongly the clichés the West (Europe) has built since the early years of exploration and colonization of Africa, as explained long ago by Frantz Fanon in his famous “Black Skin, White Masks“. A simple statistic survery would easily show to anyone that Black and Arab men in western medias are described as follows:

1. Oversexuality, animality: the cliché of a beasty sexuality for Africans is certainly the oldest and the most common cliché about Africans. It tends to “oversexualize” the Arab and Black man and give them a unique function and concern for sex as a result of a denial of their humanity. Reducing Black and Arab men to sex is to reduce them to the animal part of the human being and objectify them. The esclavagist and colonialist paradigm of the animalic African is still very obvious when looking at the posters and TV spots, movies or music videos. Racial sex is among the best ranked sexual fantasies in western societies where sex is a consumer good.
   
2. Predominance of the body on the mind: it is a generalization of the cliché of the oversexuality of Arab and Black men. It tends to reinforce their objectification by over representing their bodies over their minds. Practically saying, perfectly built and helthy black and brown bodies are tools for advertising, while “visible minorities” mediatic personalities are mostly athlets/artists. Intellectuals, writers, thinkers who would be dark skinned is still largely unadmissible on the public and mediatic scene. Dark skinned politicians are still very taboo in Europe compared to US, for example. Although self-proclamed as gender-equality friendly, the european societies are still strongly associating power with masculinity: a Black and Arab man is a threat to the “White man realm”, explaining this under-representation in medias of dark skinned intellectuals and the over-representation of the black and brown bodies. Studies show that in movies and TV shows, not only African-type men are under-represented, but also that when represented they play caracters with lower economical power and lower social status (barmen, etc) than White men.
   
3. Violence: As said above, the clichés on Arab and Black men hide the fear of the “White man” to lose power. In consequence, any attempt to challenge the establishment is seen as an aggressive threat. The cliché of violence is carried mainly by the news broadcasted in a selective and incomplete way mixing suburban violence, African and Arab dictators, terrorists and warlords, drug dealers and gangs, hip hop artists. Western media create an inaccurate image of aggressive African men, to the point that its couterpart became also very common: Black and Arab women and children as victims of violence. Even charity organizations make theirs this representation by displaying only women and children in their visual content.

So, what now? What can be done against this? Resist to the cliché. It is the only way out. Unfortunately too many of us, Africans in Europe have accepted consciously or unconsciously the concepts carried by this representation. This is mostly what we have to stop: stop seeing ourselves the way external eyes want to see us. Stop letting others debate without us on what we are, if we are drug dealers or not, if we carry with us a cultural violence or not. We have to not accept to be just bodies for advertising. Our mediatic representation should be more accurate of what we are. Of course, the medias who created this image do not want to hear about our protests against it. So we have to make it obvious by our own means, using social networks, associations, publications. Use every mean to rise awareness.

Change of mentalities is always a tough fight, but it is worth it, for it is the only real guarantee we have against racism.

Japan, a trendy cause

The Japan earthquake and tsunami’s news and videos shook all of us. I still cannot understand where do the Japanese people take all that courage to face this apocalyptic situation; I really admire them for looking at all this and… don’t give up. I think we all had this feeling looking at them endlessely trying to find their relatives walking through the gigantic fields of wood, steel and concrete in piles, where there previously was a village, made of pretty houses and beautiful streets.

The empathy with the strong and proud men and women is certainly one of the reasons that explains partly the worldwide  generosity towards the japanese victims. I always see positively international solidarity, that remains among the last things where one can watch its neighbour concerned about some natural disaster and say: “thank you for allowing me, sometimes, to keep faith in human beings.”. But this time, I cannot help to be somewhat irritated by something going wrong. It all started with reading something about Lady Gaga selling on her websites bracelets for Japan; then Sandra Bullock offered 1 million dollars while the Black Eyed Peas try to promote the cause. Britney Spears, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry will issue shortly a song. Why do these artists need to show themselves that much when they aren’t doing anything else than what others are doing? When a star earning millions of dollars gives half a million or so, it is not more remarkable than when a student who earns only a few hundreds send 30 dollars to the victims. So why do they need that their donations are given publicity in the media?

Let’s face the ugly truth: these artists know that the Japanese are good customers for their songs, movies, concerts, CDs, DVDs, etc. Given the high purchasing power in Japan and the high sum per inhabitant they dedicate to purchasing cultural goods, the marketing of international artists has always been careful to never forget to target the Land of the Rising Sun. A natural disaster affecting the Japanese economy equals to a decrease in the income of the Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Britney Spears and others. So how to remedy the situation? Easy! By increasing their visbility and popularity in Japan, as well as in other parts of the wrld: for the Japanese, these donations confort them in the feeling those artists care about them, and for American, Europeans and others, itt gives them a positive image.

If it was business, we would call this a win-win situation, but since it’s not business but charity isn’t this but an unclean way to take advantage of a the suffering of hundreds of thousands of victims just to boost their approval ratings? One might object that I am judging them on mere intent… do I? I had the feeling for example that I haven’t seen that much compassion from the entertainment industry during the terrific floods in Pakistan in 2010. The number of victims were much greater (21 millions people directly affected). Pakistan as an emergent country couldn’t offer the technicalities and help the japanese government is able to help its citizen with. In almost one week, the Japanese disaster cause gathered almost as much donation than the Pakistani disaster in more than 6 months. It is not a matter here to compare between the two catastrophes, but just to face the truth: Japan is a trendy cause, Pakistan was not. Lady Gaga & friends try to increase their popularity among their most lucrative fans; states and companies want to save the business; and people… well I don’t know exactly what is their feeling about all this, why they don’t feel a Pakistani man, woman or child deserves help the same way a Japanese man, woman or child. As human beings, we all have to make our share for Japan, the same way they would do for us if we lived something that much tragic (or even if they wouldn’t), but as human beings we should also try to “train” ourselves to not treat differently the suffering, the pain, the anguish of the different victims. When confronted to disasters like this, my dream would be that the world stops to see the Japanese as no more than consumers to attract (for their money and not for the sincere concern about all the suffering they are currently going through), and the Pakistani like no more than “under human beings” that don’t deserve any compassion.

Egypt: tweeting a constitution

So much has been said and written about the use of social medias in the Egyptian uprising. I won’t tell you anything you don’t already know if I tell you that the censorship and the official media propaganda made Facebook and Twitter the favored source of information for a young, urban and educated youth. You’d certainly know too that bloggers among other activists were phished by the Mukhabarat (Egyptian Intelligence) for their strong influence and that the strong political conscience of young Arabs surprised at the same time the old cast of autocrats AND the Western World. You certainly know all of this.

But since the stepdown of Mubarak, does the new democratic state still need so much activism on the social medias, or the newly free traditionnal medias (television, radio, newspapers) are enough? Now that everybody can openly speak their minds, will the social medias go back to what they were originally used for, socializing and entertainment, aren’t they? After all, in a democratic US and Europe, teenagers and young adults mainly tweet and facebook about their moods, party pictures or congregate into groups of interests for artistic activities or social events. As far as we can witness today in Egypt, no, the political role of social media information is not over, but the use has slightly changed: it went from an information channel when under repression, to an open debate scene since revolution.

The young egyptian bloggers do not have to hide anymore, they are even invited on TV broadcasts, their faces are known and their columns are published in newspapers. But even if this bit of “prestige” made to the political numerical scene on the traditionnal media scene is quite honouring, the #jan25 youth  (if you are familiar with the twitter popular hashtag for the egyptian contestation movement) do not seem to fall into line. Yes they read the news, yes they watch TV speeches, youtube video’s and Al Jazeera (Arabic or English), but they build away from any influence their own opinion – and they share it. The referendum for the new Constitution of the Republic of Egypt (dostoor in arabic) has been the occasion of a vaste, multipolar open debate. Twitter is used as a giant web 2.0 agora where thousands of voices can express at the same time without one shouting louder than others. Display pictures are replaced by “No” written in white on a red background or “Yes” on a green background (and all the derivatives and parodies), a simple way for every twitterer to declare what they intend to vote. Arguments and critics on amendments go back and forth, with or without # or @. Relevant civil actions are relayed, when they are too small to interest a traditionnal media (a newspaper will not “use the time” of the journalist it employs for a flyers distribution on the Tahrir square) or brainstorming sessions are improvised (like the #EgyptHas one a few days ago aiming in listing everything that would encourage tourists to come). And inbetween, some breaknews from other arab revolutions, the Egyptian feeling very supportive of Libya, Bahrein or Yemen, and some entertainment with songs or a funny video.

This large online agora is one of a new kind: it is not a sum of persecuted voices that cannot express elsewhere, it has become a normal way of political expression besides all the other means. The Twitter and Facebook do not make a revolution and a democracy, it is the sum of all the interactions in a civil society that do, and the social medias have been now as normal as anything like a text message, e-mail service or as complementary as an organized meeting: what matters is how they are used, if they are used to transmit the free opinions of people and their true minds, or if they are used and misused to spread propagands.  The main difference I see with the american/european social media scene is that the Egyptian couterpart is much less hierachized and specialized: the western world political content tweets and retweets go more into public figures or institutions with thousands of followers, witty bloggers and their fans, supporters of one or the other political parties (the young green party, etc) or activists among specific networks of similar interests, while the Egyptians seem to be in a more generalist perspective: very few are part of any institution of a kind, official stakeolders (like political parties) have a very limited social media activity (even for example somebody like the former Atomic Agency General Secretary, Nobel Prize winner and candidate for Egyptian presidency Mohammad Al Baradei have not that much impact on the social medias). Just speak your mind in 140 characters, use the appropriate tag to be accessible to the rest of the users who are discussing the same thing than you, and Marhaba!

This “non-organization” specifity of the Egyptian agora makes the work of those who want to influence opinions through mass numerical media difficult, if not impossible: for every single info shared, for every argument expressed, there are 10 people objecting and analyzing on the live, and the “non-organization” of the crowds makes it almost impossible to categorize people into “pro-” or “anti-” something. Meaning it is their clustering into categorizable group of ideas that make people be possibly analyzed and inflirtated by strategic media specialists who look for subtle yet efficient ways to influence. So that’s something that we should maybe learn from this for anywhere in the world: if you want to be targetable as less as possible to political communication campaigns and to opinion formating, do not stick your presence on social medias on the clusters around opinion leaders, affiliated groups or currents; you should rather follow people like you and me, normal citizen that share their views, don’t exclude other currents of thoughts than yours, use your critical mind for everything that you read from others without hesitating in criticizing an illogical opinion. Because, if we are agree that dictatorship restricts citizen freedom of speech and act in ways we know, we should also be aware that the opinion formatting and mind manipulation the advertising and political communication specialists trying to implement to increase the number of their devotees,is not exactly what we could call democraty.

Egyptians are this morning on their way to vote for the constitution. Thanks to smartphones, the Constitution referendum was not only debated fow weeks, it is now too precisely observed and reported over regularities and irregularities: still need external observers?  We read messages like: “At voting station in school in Helwan. Looks clean and well organized. Judges in every booth, teachers running process.Ok” or  “people reporting ballots not stamped in Heliopolis #dostor2011” or “I voted in AlManial ElE3dadeya things are very positive, police officers are helpful & all papers are stamped. Things are great.“.

Whatever the result of the referendum is, this morning we can say that the new democratic Egypt is here and intends to stay: the voices of the young and the less young are heard in polling stations, but also on the virtual public scene. Whether the result will be a “YES” or a “NO” for the Constitution amendments, the Egyptians have already won their first electoral battle: they went massively to vote and they freely chose. Sounds very promising: a poitical sciencce empirical theorem states that anything significant that happens in Egypt, tends to spread and happen afterwards in the rest of the Arab World.