How to Disgust Women from Science Careers

Through my twitter feed I came across this video:

It’s a campaign of the European Comission to encourage women to work in science/research fields, where they are underrepresented. So apparently to convince women to use their brains for science, the trick is to show them that the finality of research/development could be as well beautification, make up and fashion. After all who are we for being interested in scientific careers for sake of, say, heal cancer, solving mysteries of the Universe or find alternatives to nuclear energy? No, all we want is privilege to develop new lipsticks!

This video is not only very offensive because it suggests women are interested only in their own standardized feminity, it fails also in adressing the real issues of underrepresentation of women in research and science, such as:

1. Many female students, few female researcher: the issue is not to bring women interested in science, on a student level they are even majoritary in some fields and have average better marks, the problem here is that women tend to not pursue a scientific career although science interests them. The reasons of this gap between female students and female researcher can be structural (see points 2 and 3) as well as cultural, in a world where women making what is perceived as a “man’s job” is not yet fully accepted.
2. Unstable careers: science grants are generally given for 1-2years projects. For example, if a woman quits for a maternity leave, she does can’t be sure the contract will be reconducted at end of the year or if by the time she comes back to work if there is still any work. The other important effect of this is that people who undertake a scientific career have often to move from one country to another before to find a stable position; if the female scientist has a partner or husband, it is generally not accepted socially that she moves and the man generally doesn’t move with his wife. Moreover, if the man is also a scientist (a subtancial part of scientists have a scientist partner), women generally sacrifice their career to follow men.
3. Realm of phallocracy: even when having a position, female scientists are lesser paid, obtain fewer top positions and less talk time in conferences. This disparity is due to the fact that in science/research world, many informal decision criteria count, top of them being that generally decisions are taken by committies of men with few or no women among them.

At the end, what worries me is not really women in science, because they will inevitably build their path and obtain equality, but that in 2012, European Commission misunderstands  the issues they should be qualified for!

To all the Tahrir Squares in the World

At the end of 2010, with the events of Sidi Bouzid, I felt something had changed in Tunisia, but it took me a few days to me like to most of us to realize that it was more than a local revolt. A Revolution. I remember the tears of joy on January 14 and the pride I felt to be Tunisian, and I remember thinking Tunisians changed Arab History forever. At that time I wished so strongly that it could happen to my other country, Egypt, but I was afraid to be too optimistic: when you walk in Tunisia streets, you are afraid of the police, secret services and a powerful extended presidential family, but when you are in Egypt, you fear an Intelligence agency almost at level of Mossad and an army potentially stronger than Saddam Hussein’s, all in hand of one strong olligarchy. But they did it: a wave of millions of people, on Tahrir Square and everywhere else in Egypt made it, they made the Revolution. And since there is no limit to my optimism. There is an empirical statement that basically says: what happens in Egypt, ends happening in the rest of the Arab World.

I dreamt about two things: first, that the Revolutions spread, second that it’ll breaks enough of Israel’s self-confidence and arrogance to force them to accept a Palestinian State. Both of hopes are “in progress”. Everywhere in the Arab World we are seeing Revolutions, and though it seems sometimes difficult, we know and hope, it’ll end coming. Change Square in Yemen, Pearl Square in Bahrain, inspirations of Tahrir Square (in fact, they are inspirations of simultaneous Egyptian Tahrir Square and Tunisian Qasba events, that took place after January 14 and was for real the second revolution in Tunisia in less than one month).

But once again, things went beyond my hopes: Tunisia and Egypt are inspiring more than the Arab World. An Eritrean Revolution is in preparation and a facebook event annouces a start for the movement in May 28 in Asmara. And now a “Tahrir Square model of revolt” is taking place in Spain. In Puerta del Sol, youth is gathering every day after 7pm or so, for protesting: unemployement, injustice, lack of means, like in Tahrir square and Qasba the crowds were gathering every day to protest through the simple act of civil desobediance consisting in sleeping on the ground of the place, just because it challenges curfews and non-authorizations to protest. They are in revolt actually against a whole European political and economical system that broke their country. Almost half of young people in Spain are unemployed. Yet they don’t call for “toppling the regime” like Arabs (“Al Chaa’b yorid isqat an-nizam“), for they have the chance we didn’t have to be able to change their regimes with free elections, but their demands are so similar to Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions that it is clear that they are part of the same wave of freedom. In fact, Europeans do not live in autocratic states, but the fact that European politics totally escapes the direct control of people makes European citizens almost as powerless as were Tunisians under Ben Ali or Egyptians under Mubarak.

This wave of change begins to sweep Europe and represents the only serious effect to oppose the rise of populist right wing in Europe. With this new wind of freedom, Europeans stand to say their problem is not immigration, but the unsocial policies of the econimical Europe, the big capitalist  machine crushing nations in their lost battle against debt. Belt-tightening policies when the banks are back to profit, bonus and risky markets?

And after Spain, don’t we see it coming? Portugal, Greece, Italy,… And one day, isn’t it going to reach the core of politcal economical Europe: France and Germany? Tahrir Squares will blossom all over Europe. Tunisia and Egypt, you changed Arab History, you also  might have changed the World History.

Tunisian migrants of Lampedusa: France is shivering

During the last few weeks, Lampedusa was often quoted in European newspapers headlines. After the Tunisian Jasmine Revolution, an increase in the number of Tunisian migrants reaching by boat Europe through the little Italian island at South of Sicily was observed. Reading the news, it looks almost like an invasion: how is Europe going to deal with this massive wave of migration? What is the appropriate thing to do? Issueing to the Tunisian migrants residence permits in the European Union, at the cost of encouraging more and more North Africans to cross the Mediterranean? Or send them back to their currently unstable homeland at the cost of having to face critics for treating African people without any sense of responsability or dignity after being life long partners of dictators such as Ben Ali or Gaddafi? Tunisian migrants, while waiting for the outcome of the debate over their fate, see themselves becoming a point of focus: journalists are almost as many as them in Lampedusa, protests of angry Italian are almost daily, Libyan migrants, escaping war, begin to arrive at the accomodation.

When finally Italy issued 22’000 3 months-visas to the migrants, allowing them to travel in Europe before to settle for a final destination, according to Schengen Agreement, a wave of panick sweeped all over Europe. France, where about 3/4 of the migrants plan to go, promptly reacted: first by stopping the trains between Vintimille (Italy) to France carrying migrants as well as Italian activists, then by calling for a temporary suspension of Schengen Agreement. Never in the history of European Union did one of the Member States ask for such a extraordinary measure. By acting so, France would threaten the unity of Europe, create a diplomatic conflict with another Member State, Italy, and deliberately get in the way of European economy, favorited by the open intra-European borders.

The Schengen Agreement defines itself which kind of circumstances allows a suspension of the Convention: when security of a Member State asks for it. To be able to ask for a suspension of the Schengen Agreement in order to prevent a massive migration from Tunisia, France normally should be able to demonstrate the direct link between the 22’000 migrants and security of the French territory.

As a physicist, I always felt confortable with demonstrations: in general, numbers lie much less than politicians. I tried to figure out how 22’000 people could threaten France’s security.  For the sake of the argument I assumed that 100% of the Tunisian migrants would try to settle in France; the French population would then increase by 0.03% = 3 Tunisians per 10’000 people. Each Tunisian has then to represent a significant change in the life of approximatively 3’300 people in France.

The impact of the Tunisian migrants cannot be as dramatic as depicted by politicians. Nevertheless, integrating them into national statistics is an easy way to show evaluate their contribution to France. For example, unemployment in France represents 9.6% of active population, and the 22’000 Tunisians would not even represent 0.01% of the active population, and more keen to work in the main understaffed sectors in France (catering/food industry, construction industry, etc). The median age of Tunisians in Tunisia is about 30 years in total and 29.6 years for men. The migrants of Lampedusa are in huge majority young men, perfectly healthy, so to say coming to Europe to work. Most of them speak French and come from rural regions of Tunisia, where the biggest part of the economy is provided by agriculture; it is to be noted that agriculture is the most understaffed sector in France.

So in the best case these Tunisians would be able to find a job and participate in France’s economical growth. French GDP per person was of 28’123 € in 2010. In the worst case they would not find any job and would benefit from the french social welfare (known as the Revenu de Solidarité Active, RSA). The RSA is a monthly fare of 466.99 € per person (=5’603 € per year). Meaning that a negative impact of the 22’000 Tunisian migrants in France can be possible if and only if for one finding a job and producing a substantial yearly wealth of 28’123 € worth, there should be at least 6 Tunisians not finding jobs and costing each 5’603 € in social welfare.

In other words, unless the unemployment rate of the newcomers is higher than 85% their contribution to the French economy would be positive. A realistic scenario would admit an unemployment rate for Tunisian newcomers a bit above national rate, certainly around 20% during the first year. By closing their borders to Tunisian migrants and putting in question Schengen Agreement, France is, in consequence, depriving the national economy from a very welcome help. Not only the immediate needs in workers in some sectors where French people don’t want to work would be partly fulfilled, but also in a demographic point of view, their presence can only be a good thing for the aging French population (amongst the oldest in Europe with a serious deficit of young people, only two decades before the “Baby-Boomers” reach age of retirement). History even already shown us that there is nothing to fear from this migration: after all, after the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the revolutionnary chain reaction it induced in Eastern Europe, Romanians, Hungarians or Polish massively migrated; 20 years later, it is pretty clear that no invasion or negative concequence was observed in Western Europe.

There is certainly no reason to think that French authorities are not aware of these facts: for France, as well as for the rest of Europe, blocking the migration process could be painful more than anything else. The opposition to Tunisian migration can then only be ideological: fear from the Foreigners, from the unknown and misuse of this fear for electoral reasons. By calling to the suspension of the Schengen Agreement to avoid the Tunisian migrants and insinuating a revision should be undertaken, French President Sarkozy might well open the Pandora box.  At his own risks.

2011: Arab Spring, European Winter?

In a few decades, History books will mention 2011 as the beginning of the so-called Arab Spring. So far, the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions may have not yet fully turned the two authoritarian states into democracies, but the first signs of democratization are encouraging. The outcome of the difficult phase through which Libya is passing is totally incertain; while the most optimist forecasts believe in a quiet transition by the National Transition Council in case Gaddafi forces are defeated, the most pessimist fear a long “Somalia-like” civil war. The Yemeni turmoil is weakening more and more Saleh regime and the Syrian protests are shaking Bashar Al-Assad inherited power more than ever did any of the political crisis the country has been through. The contamination to Iran and to sub-saharian African countries is often discussed by political analysts. North Africa and Middle-East changed for good, and with it global geopolitics. But what will History books say about year 2011 in Europe?

It might well be that 2011 will be remembered as the beginning of the end of democracy in Europe. What would have looked to be as a highly excentric assertion 5 years ago looks today more and more credible. The global financial crisis of 2008 has severely undermined the influence of Europe in the World, but also the sovereignty of European Nations and the social benefits of the European citizen. Instead of reinforcing the European economy, the Euro acted as a propagator of the deep crisis in Greece and Spain (among others) to the rest of Europe. In this context of local pauperization and global instability, withdrawal was the general reaction.

Until 2011, this withdrawal resulting in a radicalization of populations was thought to be a temporary trend, that would disappear once the effects of the crisis damped. But a recent event shows that on the contrary, it might be here to stay: for the first time since the end of the fall of the Berlin wall, an European nation included in its  “genetical code” (its constitution) the seeds of real anti-democratic principles. Hungary (and not anymore the Republic of Hungary) adopted on April 18th a new constitution limiting the independance of justice and increasing powers of the head of the State.

Are we overreacting by considering that the Hungarian new constitution is the first palpable step towards the collapse of democracy in Europe? It may be too soon to know. Nevertheless, the “Hungarian scenario” might well be only the first of its kind, where the rise of the nationalist right wing party first influenced national and european politics, before to imprint the Constitution. Other countries dominated by similar nationalist eurosceptic parties such as Slovakia or Romania are not excluded from following the same path.

The “Scandinavian model” was long considered to be one of the most evolved forms of democracy and the quintessence of social democracy. The first crack of the model might well have happened when the populist “True Fins” party won 39 seats (19%) at the Finnish Parliament on April 17th elections. Finland is one of the strongest member nations of the European Union and the previously unseen success of this euro-sceptic party  openly claiming they refuse the bailout to Portugal could be a real hindrance to European initiatives. What will happen to Europe the day the Euro-parliament will be full of euro-sceptics deputies?

The Hungarian case might well be the first regressive step in the internal governance of an European nation and the Finnish case the first one in the global governance inside the European Union. Optimists would say that Europe sad history throughout the 20th century will prevent totalitarism, as the consequences of this dramatic outcome is still extremely vivid in minds; Pessimists would just stick to the rough facts to conclude that what was unthinkable only a few years ago is already happening inside nations and inside Union. When more than a decade ago Austrian nationialist leader Jörg Haider (FPÖ) made his entry in the government, Austria seemed to be an isolated case; today, there is nothing unusual to the fact that right-wing leaders are in governments and parliaments. Majority of European citizen consider those parties as parties like any others.

Since the beginning of the economical crisis, the European ‘fortress’  denied more and more access to migrants from Africa and Asia and hardened the policies towards the existing European Muslim community. The fear of a negative anti-democratic impact of Islam is sweeping Europe from North to South and from East to West, ensuring the success of populist parties. So far Germany might well be the only European nation resisting more or less to the wave, but how long for? The radicalization even begins to disrupt national identities themselves, like we see in Belgium, with no government at its head since now one year, digging up the antagonism between Flemish and Welloon. The ‘worst case’ scenario might well be fulfilled if french presidential candidate Marine LePen is elected in 2012, because of France key influence in Europe.

If things keep going on this way, 2011 might well be remembered not only for the Arab Spring, but also for the European Winter.

When humor is a weapon against racism

I was in the bus, looking through the window, wandering from one thought to the other. At one of the bus stops, climbed in a group of teenagers, 3 girls and 2 boys. Like all teenagers, noisy and careless about being noisy – most of people here in Switzerland consider this as being misbehaved, and from the angry looks they gave them one could easily say that they were highly bothered. As for me, this ‘annoyance’ is always most welcome to me, as I consider noisy teenagers perfectly embodying life; it is the only period of life where one have an organic reason to be stupid and in the same time to be enugh aware of things to make sharp observations. Should I mention also that they were obviously Arabs, given the mix of some Arab words in their french talk and that were Muslims given the veils the girls where trying to wear – they looked quite unexperienced to it though – and the qamiss the boys were wearing? It might be by experience or maybe am I paranoid but I think I could say that the other people in the bus were not looking at “noisy teenagers” but at “noisy Muslims”.

As their loud conversation was ongoing – they were mostly talking about the celebration they were going to attend in the mosque – one of the girl said a joke, half in arabic half in french (this girl was quite witty in fact), her friends couldn’t help to laugh – so did I. One of her mates told her “look even the Madam is laughing at you“. “I was laughing at the joke. And if the jokes are going on like this all day long, I wonder how funny must be school.“, did I reply. We all went laughing, and then started talking. They apparently wanted to talk about school; proud to list all the jokes and tricks they did to the teachers and other students. As I learnt they were living in France (the scene was taking place in a bus in Geneva, which is next to the French border), in an area I know a bit.

One of the little stories they told me was about one of their teachers that apparently was punishing them everytime she was hearing an arabic word in class. The problem is that her allergy to any mention to a foreign language was even extended to their private conversations during break; it seemed also she never missed any occasion to emphasize on the fact that French rules only have effect on their lives. As a consequence, the young teenagers – that were after all like so many of us here, born in Europe from Arab migrant parents, and do not want any of the two parts that constitute their identity and culture denied – began to “outbid” about their Arabic identity. One of the boys explained me that for the yearly class picture, they took Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian flags they waved just at the moment of the picture. When the teacher received the picture, she told to the class “We are in France here, it is shameful that none of you took a French flag“. The boy replied “La France aux Français Madame” (“France for the French people”, according to a famous moto of the Front National, the french right-wing party). She dismissed him, and before leaving class he told her “A demain, Inshallah“.

The witty girl then told me that they were going to re-shoot the class picture, as asked by the teacher for it was too unacceptable to have those foreign flags on it. I asked them: “And how do you feel about it?“. The other boy just told me “We won’t have the flags, but we will be scowling on the picture.“. To that they all went laughing – again so did I.

Their bus stop arrived are they noisily left the bus – a relief to all other passengers for sure – waving at me “Salam Alikoum Madame“. And while I was seeing them crossing the street through the window, I was thinking: we all understood that it would be helpless to complain to the principal – after all there is certainly something in the highschool rules and regulations against waving foreign flags or speaking foreign languages at school – and sometimes racism takes so subtle forms that only the targeted person can get it deep meaning (the teacher would easily dismiss all allegations, if she was asked), that still the best way to resist is symbolic: using humor, for sometimes a joke can be a weapon against hatred.

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.

What educated people should learn from uneducated people

Education is the key. For everything: development, peace, health, freedom, democracy, human rights, end of racism and discrimination, global awareness, etc. It is with this leitmotiv that most of parents of arab/african migrants to Europe crossed the Mediterranean Sea: to offer to their children the oppprtunity to live in a stable environment where an education of high value is given. Studies show that the difference in education level between migrants and their children is bigger than for natives. Other studies show also that the migrant parents tend to be even more pushy with their daughters than with their sons to accomplish a grade in higher education.

Good news? Yes awesome news, but one little bad point, though. I started to notice a long ago that in general (of course this is not a general statement) that if I look around me for people like me, sons and daughters of migrant arab parents, that the higher the education level of parents is, especially the mother, the lower is the ability of their children to speak in arabic. To be more accurate, I came to the statement that this was particularely true for two categories of migrants: those coming from maghrebi coutries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) and from Lebanon. One big exception though: it is false mainly for Syrians, for every Syrian born in Europe I’ve met, they were all speaking perfectly arabic. To illustrate my point, I remember this video I’ve seen long ago of the son of the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri talking in front of the Lebanese Parliament, reading from a paper his speech written in arabic, with such a hesitant, with so many mistakes that the video was widely spread among Arabs. It seemed so incredible to see the son of such a famous businessman and politician, long depicted as a figure of success in the Arab world, owning even arabic speaking medias, having difficulty and making mistakes.

So the question is: why among the Arab diaspora in Europe the more (in general) moroccan/algerian/tunisian/lebanese parents are educated, the less children are able to speak arabic (not even mentionning writing)? For those who don’t live the diaspora from inside, it has to be pointed out that arabic inside arab communities in Europe is almost exclusively transmitted to children by parents, the small number of arabic courses for children being far from having the capacity of welcoming everybody (and do not even exist in every city). Anyway arabic courses do not help children to really speak arabic, I mean the arabic they would be able to speak with their family and friends, since fus’ha (classical standard arabic) is mostly used for writing; the speaking requires knowledge of local dialectical arabic (including berber languages even if of course strictly saying they are different from arabic) that can’t be transmitted by any other mean than listening and speaking on a regular basis.

It seems to be a total contradiction to imagine that a less educated father and/or a less educated mother are more likely to teach their children arabic. Actually, if you carefully analyze the situation it is not: the four country I mentionned, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Lebanon, have in common a very high tendency to value french culture. In these countries, intellectual elites tend to speak french, even when they are not together with a foreigner not speaking arabic. When you think of it, it is very absurd to be arabic native speaker born in an arabic country, going to school and losing a little bit touch with arabic (for example sciences are tought in french in high schools in Tunisia, lebanese authors like Khalil Gibran or Andrée Cheddid wrote in english or french instead of arabic), meeting your significant other and getting married, migrating to Europe and having kids (not necesseraly in that order) and… forget to speak arabic with them.On the contrary, so many of us, sons and daughters of migrant parents with lower schooling level remember speaking one language at school (english, french, german) and coming back home switching instantly to arabic. (For my case,  for example, my father being egyptian and my mother tunisian, I was trained to switch instantly not only between french and arabic but also between dialectal egyptian and tunisian.)

Is it because they have been themselves to school that they are more keen to rely on school to ensure fully the linguistic education? Or maybe because education paradigms in their native countries have succeeded in implementing the idea that arabic was not so useful after all compared to something as prestigious and succesful as english or french, and that it is not a big loss that their children didn’t learn it? Or because less educated parents are less fluent in other languages than arabic, “forcing” children to keep talking in arabic with them if they want to communicate? Or because less graduated parents equals to less takening careers or a more “traditionnal type” family, then more free time dedicated to children? Certainly a mix of all these different reasons.

Anyway, this appeals to an interesting conlusion: there is certainly something educated people should learn from less educated people. They should give a bigger attention to what they transmit to their child. Parents transmit education, values, but when they are migrants they transmit also culture and language. They are the essential and sometimes the unique link for their children with their country of origin. If they want their children to “feel at home” back there, there is no other option: they cannot chose the easy path. It is twice as difficult, but worth it.

La Nostalgie de l’Age d’Or Arabe

Je me rappelle d’une discussion que j’ai eu un jour sur un forum littéraire à l’occasion de la sortie du roman “Bohran al Assel” (“La preuve par le miel” en français) de l’écrivaine syrienne Salwa Al Neimi, dont le propos est de montrer l’ensemble des nuances linguistiques de la langue arabe pour exprimer l’érotisme. Je défendais mon avis à propos de la littérature érotique de langue arabe actuelle: surfaite, artificielle et par trop commerciale. Certains titres peuvent se détacher par une réelle qualité littéraire et une vraie force de narration, mais la majorité des romans érotiques arabes, éminemment lucratifs et à la mode, sont incapables de dépasser, malgré tout le marketing qui les porte, leur condition réelle de paralittérature faible. Mais voilà, dans un monde qui préjuge sur ces sombres et menaçants Arabo-Musulmans, il est encore plus fascinant de lire les aventures sensuelles de ces lascives Arabo-Musulmanes; la preuve, en général ces romans ne connaissent de succès commercial que dans leurs traductions, alors qu’à l’exception de rares exemples, au grand dam de leurs auteurs, la version originale ne suscite ni engouement ni, pire encore, indignation brutale (être censuré dans le monde arabe, c’est une aubaine pour une reconnaissance internationale). Des romans qui naissent et meurent dans l’indifférence suscitée par leur médiocrité purement littéraire. Je ne nie pas la censure chez nous; au contraire; premièrement je pense qu’elle est bien plus marquée pour les livres politiques, deuxièmement il est important de noter que le plus grand facteur d’inaccessibilité à la culture, au contenu subversif ou non, dans le monde arabo-musulman est le prix des livres, des séances de cinéma, des CD, des concerts.

Pour d’autres participants de ce forum, ils voyaient très positivement cette mode actuelle des romans érotiques qui, selon eux, serait nécessaire non seulement aux Arabes, héritiers d’une longue tradition dans l’érotologie, mais également aux non-Arabes, qui pourraient ainsi voir autre chose de nous que les clichés qui nous collent à la peau depuis le 11 septembre. Je m’étonnerai toujours qu’à chaque roman érotique arabe publié, il y ait toujours quelques uns (parmi lesquels invariablement l’éditeur et Malek Chebel) pour venir avec emphase parler de cet Age d’Or de la littérature arabe, celle qui produit en cette époque glorieuse les “Mille et Une Nuits” ou le “Jardin Parfumé“.  Chaque livre érotique arabe devient en soi une sorte de bataille fantasmée contre l’”obscurantisme” religieux et se trouve l’occasion de rappeler qu’il fut une époque où l’érotisme était un sujet noble pour les savants arabes et que souvent ce furent des théologiens éminents qui écrivirent des traités sur le plaisir ou l’amour (ce qui est vrai, de très beaux textes ont été écrits; ma faveur personnel va au sublime traité sur l’amour galant “Le Collier de la Colombe” d’Ibn Hazm). Mais si je suis pour les romans érotiques qui sont écrits par envie pure de s’exprimer sur le mode sensuel, j’ai de la peine à cautionner la “littérature-justification” qui veut prouver au monde, arabe et non-arabe, que oui, nous, les Arabes, nous aussi, nous savons et aimons les plaisirs du corps. Ecrire pour exorciser un complexe civilisationnel, en quelque sorte. Triste utilisation de l’érotisme, qui ne lui fait même pas honneur.Je ne pense pas que c’est efficace de nous caricaturer en civilisation outrancièrement érotique juste pour pouvoir dire aux autres et à nous-mêmes que nous sommes normaux puisque nous baisons et que nous sommes pas les monstres que certains pensent que nous sommes, mais je ne peux contester que ce procédé au fond découle d’une sorte de malaise réel et généralisé, que j’appellerai la Nostalgie de l’Age d’Or Arabe.

Il n’est pas difficile d’observer que cette nostalgie de l’Age d’Or arabe, ce n’est pas un sentiment limité aux éditeurs commerciaux. Les scientifiques, les philosophes, les imams, les journalistes, les vendeurs de falafel et les piliers du café arabe du coin, tout le monde est nostalgique. C’est une histoire que chaque Arabe a vécue, enfin je pense. Un jour, un évènement, une injustice, un deuil; alors il regarde autour de lui, et l’état de délabrement du monde qui l’entoure l’écœure. L’atterre. Les choses vont si mal qu’il se demande comment avons-nous fait, nous les Arabes, pour en arriver là. Comment a-t-on pu passer des passés glorieux et conquérants, lumineux et fiers, à ce présent où l’échec et la douleur semblent être le lot quotidien de chacun d’entre nous. Il se souvient des paroles des poètes d’aujourd’hui, de Nizar Qabbani qui nous fustige à la mort de sa belle Balkis d’être le seul peuple au monde qui assassine le poème. Quelle déchéance! Il se rappelle alors de ce qu’on lui racontait dans son enfance sur l’époque des arabes astronomes et mathématiciens, et des poètes libres d’écrire l’amour et la politique et sur le rayonnement andalou. Dans un soupir il exprime sa lassitude, sa Nostalgie de l’Age d’Or Arabe. Amertume.

Nous les Arabes d’Europe, nous modulons en plus cette nostalgie sur un autre canal: regret de la grandeur passée de la civilisation arabo-musulmane conjuguée au frappant contraste que nous vivons dans nos allers-retours entre nos pays d’accueil et d’origine. Liberté d’expression, infrastructures qui fonctionnent, etc, etc. Sublime Occident pourvoyeur de tous les possibles et de toutes les humanismes, à l’aune duquel nous rêvons le progrès de l’Orient.

Sauf que la quête de toute histoire d’amour, c’est de continuer d’aimer bien après avoir passé le stage de l’idéalisation. Je n’ai su aimer vraiment “mon” Europe et “mon” Afrique que lorsque j’ai su sortir de leur idéalisation. Ce qui est étrange, c’est quand cette trajectoire se superpose précisément avec le passage de l’adolescence à l’âge adulte. C’est un peu comme se rendre compte que ses parents ne sont pas infaillibles, enfin je crois. Et tout comme il faut, pour vivre une enfance heureuse, un jour avoir cru – vraiment cru – que Papa, c’est Superman, peut-être que pour vivre une “identité heureuse d’Arabe/Africain d’Europe” il faut avoir passé par une phase de transition où la certitude est là d’appartenir à une Europe infiniment lumineuse tout en étant descendant d’une tradition arabo-musulmane porteuse de tous les raffinement et de tous les savoirs.

Je ne sais exactement ce que j’ai cessé d’idéaliser en premier, le passé glorieux arabe ou le présent glorieux européen (suisse, pour ma part). Je pense que ces deux désacralisations furent très fortement connectées, voire interdépendantes, de part les liens très étroits tissés entre les deux contrées par l’Histoire, souvent tragique et conflictuelle. Il faut dire que le contexte qui sévit depuis plus d’une décennie maintenant en Europe m’a largement aidé. Il aura fallu l’attentat du 11 septembre et la crise financière qui fait rage aujourd’hui encore pour lever le voile sur le réel malaise qui travaille l’Europe depuis la fin de la guerre froide. Le repli identitaire, le virage à droite et la peur de l’autre, l’africain/l’arabe/le musulman en première ligne. Aujourd’hui, je dois même parfois me dire “pauvre Suisse”/”pauvre France”/etc quand j’entends et lis certaines choses. La blogosphère francophone, obsédée depuis quelque temps par l’Islam, les Musulmans, les Arabes, les Africains, les immigrés, leurs desseins secrets de tuer la France et de l’envahir, ou d’islamiser la Suisse en la quadrillant de minarets, est le reflet de cette baisse de productivité innovante et constructive dans la pensée européenne. Heureusement, ce n’est pas un constat généralisé; il ne s’applique qu’à une frange, bien que cette frange dicte de plus en plus la loi.J’en suis arrivée à un stade où bien que profondément amoureuse de mon Europe et ce qu’elle a pu donner de meilleur, je suis convaincue que pour son bien, il va lui falloir mourir symboliquement et renaître de ses cendres. Nous sommes sur un continent globalement matérialiste où vivre dans des conditions financières certes plus difficiles que par le passé mais encore un million de fois meilleures que ce que vivent à peu près 80% du reste de la population mondiale, suffit à vaincre pas mal d’esprits et d’espoirs. Il paraît que les Français, les Suisses, les Scandinaves, selon les études, sont plus tristes et malheureux de leur quotidien que les Somaliens ou les Afghans. En Europe on ne meurt plus pour des idéaux, on meurt pour France Télécom, Peugeot ou Nestlé. Une étude montre que la profession en Suisse qui cumule le plus fort taux de suicide, de consommation de médicaments psychotropes et de drogues (cocaïne, etc)… est celle de banquier! Aurait-on cru un jour que l’être de plus malheureux du XXIème siècle, ce serait un banquier suisse?

Quant à l’Age d’Or arabe idéalisé, il m’a fallu mettre à plat ce que cette expression sous-tendait pour pouvoir la jauger avec objectivité. Bien que je parle arabe et que je vienne de deux pays parlant arabe, me dire “Arabe” est un abus de langage, en quelque sorte: à l’origine, sont Arabes les personnes  issues ethniquement de la péninsule arabique, ce qui n’est pas mon cas. Mon Afrique du Nord génétique et culturelle me le dit, je trouve mes racines dans la Berbérie africaine (et d’ailleurs le mot “Afrique” vient du berbère “Tafriqt”, comme je l’appris plus tard), métissée d’un ensemble d’influences de ceux qui sont passés chez nous: Romains, Arabes, Ottomans, etc. Puis il m’a fallu aussi relativiser la “splendeur” de cette époque: les cours des rois étaient en effet le lieu d’une ébullition intellectuelle et artistique, mais la vie de courtisan, ce n’est pas représentatif d’une société. Ce n’est pas parce que des sultans commandaient des livres érotiques à des écrivains que ces mêmes livres se retrouvaient entre toutes les mains, que tout le monde était libre sur toutes les questions. Les rapports avec les intellectuels religieux étaient aussi parfois tendus comme le prouve l’exemple de vie Ahmad Ibn Hanbal (que Dieu l’agrée). D’éminents astronomes et mathématiciens, d’exceptionnels philosophes arabes ont en effet marqué l’histoire de leur talent et leur finesse de la compréhension du monde, mais n’évoluaient-ils pas dans un microcosme fermé au peuple? Existe-t-il un Age d’Or si la majorité n’en bénéficie pas, de ces lumières? Il m’a fallu accepter que l’Age d’Or arabe, il n’y en a jamais eu; d’Age d’Or européen non plus, la Renaissance n’étant qu’un mythe persistant pour enjoliver une réalité souvent honteuse.

Réussir à admettre que l’Histoire de l’humanité n’est pas vierge d’inhumanité, que les époques glorieuses ne sont que des mirages trompeurs, c’est bien le premier acte d’amour véritable que l’on peut consacrer à notre espèce: continuer à l’aimer, malgré la connaissance réelle de ce qu’elle est. C’est aussi le seul moyen pour ne pas être trop petit par rapport à son propre héritage: imparfait, il vient d’hommes et de femmes aussi incomplets que soi.

My African Dream

Entre transformations physiques et émancipation intellectuelle, l’adolescence est l’âge de toutes les remises en question. C’est d’autant plus vrai pour un fils ou une fille d’immigrés: à tous les questionnements usuels et à tous les désagréments hormonaux, on ajoute un ensemble de mystère existentiels presque inextricables. C’est en quelque sorte le moment de “choisir son camp”: se réclamer d’”ailleurs”, en continuité des parents, ou se proclamer d’”ici”, en adéquation avec l’environnement dans lequel il/elle évolue? Et comment ne pas ressentir l’amer goût d’avoir trahi la moitié de ses amours, quel que soit l’un ou l’autre camp choisi? Existe-t-il une façon d’éviter de choisir, laisse-t-on les circonstances choisir pour nous, est-il possible de choisir les deux à la fois?

Egypto-tunisienne née en Suisse, je pense ne connaître personne qui ne m’ait au moins une fois posé la question: te sens-tu égyptienne, tunisienne ou suisse? Es-tu plutôt arabe ou plutôt occidentale? Cette interrogation m’a parfois lassée par sa récurrence, mais m’a souvent fait sourire: au fond, si on me pose la question, n’est-ce pas parce que mes gestes, mes faits, mes paroles, ne me placent ni dans un bloc ni dans l’autre? Il est vrai que je me sens en phase avec cette multiplicité culturelle aujourd’hui; cela n’a pas toujours été le cas. Dans les jeunes années de ma vie, j’étais plutôt tiraillée; j’étais un jour suisse, l’autre arabe, et ainsi j’alternais. Pour moi et pour tous les jeunes dans la même situation que la mienne, il y avait le besoin de s’identifier à quelque chose de grand, un idéal de la libération auquel adhérer en même temps qu’il ferait taire les hésitations et ce satané sentiment de n’appartenir jamais totalement ni à l’Europe, ni à l’”Arabie”. Souvent les figures historiques ont un effet de fascination sur nous encore supérieur à celui qu’ils ont sur les “autres” ados: El Che, Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Yasser Arafat, les étudiants de Tienanmen. J’aurais eu moins de 18 ans en 2008 que je n’aurais pas résisté à un “Yes We Can” au soir de l’élection historique d’Obama (bon j’avoue, l’ado qui vit en moi s’exprima par un voile humide sur mes yeux pendant quelques secondes de voir cet accomplissement historique pour l’humanité, avant que l’adulte pondérée, avec une déception non feinte, ne rappela qu’une bande de banksters et le recyclage des apôtres des intérêts cyniques en tout genre, c’était tout ce qui promettait de sortir de ce “changement” qui n’était que de façade). C’est l’âge où on gueule sa haine du capitalisme et du colonialisme, les pieds confortablement chaussés des dernières Nike et branché 24/7 sur MTV.

Jusqu’au jour où dans ma vingtaine à peine entamée, je décidai que le problème n’en était pas un: je pouvais simplement me considérer comme citoyenne du monde, porteuse de valeurs que je tentais à définir de façon la plus universaliste qui soit, que ma naissance dans un lieu donné à un moment donné avec des parents d’une culture donnée n’était qu’une somme de hasards, et que donc l’essentiel n’était pas là. La langue que l’on parle, me dis-je que ce n’était qu’un véhicule de communication, et qu’il il était donc absolument indifférent de s’exprimer dans un idiome plutôt qu’un autre. Que les traditions et les coutumes, conglomérat de superstitions et de nécessités d’autrefois, ne portaient rien de plus profond que du protocole ou rituel répété sans remise en question. Que l’objectivité, la philosophie rationaliste et la science seraient mes bases morales. Vivre ma vie avec des principes plutôt que des appartenances, c’était un beau programme.

Mais malheureusement, ou plutôt heureusement, ça n’a pu marcher que sur le papier. En effet, me nier pour prétendre me réinventer fut la violence la plus brutale que j’aurais pu m’infliger. Au fil des années, alors que j’essayais de prêter la sourde oreille aux battements spécifiques de mon coeur à chaque fois que j’entendais la mélodie de la langue arabe ou à chaque fois que j’entendais évoquer la neutralité suisse et son modèle unique d’ouverture à quatre langues et deux religions, je m’enfonçai de plus en plus dans la contradiction et le malaise. Le nationalisme, le patriotisme, le communautarisme, tout ça, tout ça, ça ne devait pas être moi. Je déprimai de plus en plus profondément, et un jour le voile se déchira: j’arrêtai de me fuir pour m’accepter telle que je suis. A la fois entièrement égyptienne, entièrement tunisienne, entièrement suisse. A la fois orientale et occidentale.

Et plus: le jour où je sus mettre un mot sur mon identité, je sus qui j’étais: Africaine d’Europe. Non pas Africaine en Europe ou Africaine-Européenne, mais réellement Africaine d’Europe. Mes parents ont migré physiquement, ont commencé une vie à partir de rien dans un pays où ils ne connaissaient personne. Ils ont emmené avec eux tout ce qui pouvait tenir dans des valises et dans une tête et dans un corps, et ils l’ont replanté en moi, puis ils m’ont nourrie et laissé me nourrir du terreau fertile de leur terre d’accueil. Moi, il m’a fallu un jour accepter de faire le trajet inverse, de comprendre profondément l’origine de ce qu’ils avaient planté en moi, pour gagner mon émancipation par la connaissance de qui j’étais.

Parce que le voyage  fait partie intégrante de l’aventure familiale, l’identité dont résultent ces jeunes fils et filles d’immigrés est en fait une sorte de nomadisme culturel. Nous sommes des caravanes, avec des points d’attache sur la route, des refuges et des oasis qui se succèdent, des moyens d’orientation dont notre survie dépend. Nous assigner un foyer permanent et une vie sédentaire est si contraire à notre nature que c’est la voie la plus sûre vers notre perte, notre oubli, notre mort morale. Peut-être que les Africains d’Europe, c’est un peu les nouveaux gitans (avec lesquels d’ailleurs tant de points communs nous rapprochent que j’ai dû recevoir plus de réponses dans les notes des violons tziganes que dans les discours implacablement républicains de Nasser ou Bourguiba). Nos langues, nos musiques, nos littératures, nos us et coutumes, un mélange hétéroclite d’Afrique et d’Europe vivent simplement à travers notre présence quelque part ici ou là.

J’ai eu dans mon enfance mon American Dream: j’avais écrit dans mon journal intime de petite fille qu’un jour je serai cosmonaute ou présidente des Etats-Unis d’Amérique. Les rêves d’enfants ont ceci de particulier qu’ils ne connaissent pas l’impossible; l’adulte par contre sait les limites de sa condition, et donc arrête de rêver. Mon African Dream, ça a été la chance de découvrir tout un espace de moi-même que je n’avais pas encore exploré et donc où tout restait ouvert, que cet espace était ouvert en chaque Africain d’Europe, et que chaque jour, la jeune “Nation” des Africains d’Europe construisait encore notre culture commune, qui sera reconnue à part entière par les autres cultures, dont elle est à la fois descendante et indépendante. Et à chaque fois que dans le bus ou dans la rue je marche et que j’entends un “bled” ou “toubib” dans la bouche d’un “Suisse de souche”, j’ai un petit sourire: un Africain d’Europe est déjà passé par là.