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Cancel Culture and Risk Management
The Slow Disappearance of Ashtal Petty He likened his current state of being to a large lump of sugar being dumped in a glass of Turkish (or Arabic) tea. The lump would slowly descend, breaking into its constituent granules as it hit bottom. Then regress into a thick lurking goo, translucent yet visible amongst the waddles of dark reddish colours, soon to melt away into oblivion. He could not say precisely when he started feeling this way, or when he first became aware of it; the realization kind of crept on him and rubbed him the wrong way. Ashtal Petty did not suffer fools gladly and that included himself. It was time for a serious talk with his therapist - me. I was rather struck with the cultural metaphor he chose to describe himself. A drink of the Orient, drunk during winter and summer, all year round, really, at the same temperature and in the same manner, day in and day out. A display of consistency in a region that is exhibiting anything but these days. Perhaps it was time to ask Ashtal Petty about his roots; where his family originally came from, what religion he practiced, what language his parents or grandparents spoke at home. That might give clues as to whether there is a hidden issue he is struggling with that is causing what I took to be a feeling of alienation. Pushed away, ignored, neglected by our nearest and dearest, by our friends, by our neighbors, by our acquaintances, we begin to feel as if we are lost in a forest. And, as Anthony Hopkins said in The Edge, when we are lost in a forest, we die of shame. A few sessions later, Ashtal Petty volunteered that he did not vote in the last election. It was unusual for him to bring up politics during our sessions. He normally talks about his two failed marriages, current girlfriends, his job in the City, colleagues at work. Relationship stuff. Talking about politics - well, that would take us into new territory; the kind I was not looking forward to trespassing. I voted for Brexit. Yes, me. A London-living professional; a psychologist with half my patients from other countries. I’ve been trying to understand my vote, since then. Or rather, arrive at a better understanding of why I voted to Leave. I’ve even taken up to meeting with a fellow therapist in the hope that our talks would help shed light on what drove me to disengage. Last week’s session with Ashtal Petty turned out to be our last. He told me of his intention to seek another therapist. That he felt suffocated in my office. That I was not paying enough attention to his answers to my questions. That I was increasingly distracted. That during our last few meetings he thought I looked through him as if he was not there. At his request, I gave Ashtal the names of two therapists I thought could do good work with him. Not too far from my office. I had made up my mind the day before our last session: no matter what, I’m not going to work with him on political issues. I don’t want to talk about our colonial history. What we did in India or in the Middle East. What the French did in Algeria, or the Italians in Libya, or the Germans in Africa. We’re done apologising for all that. I just want my country back.
Majd Shafiq
Jun 14, 2022 · 3 min read
From A Long Conversation With Myself
It was not long before he was born He managed to convince you That your skin is fairest That your blood is purest That your language is divine That your land is holy That your presence is God’s will And God said I want nothing to do with this He clawed you back into a deep well From which no light escaped Its waters rancid Its air rank The darkness that was before Everything came to be And the Devil said this has nothing to do with me Afterwards, he sat on a porch In a wooden chair With a smirk on his face Watching you walk down the street Dazed and confused …
Majd Shafiq
May 31, 2022 · 1 min read
Of Arabs and Jews
A few months ago, and after years of hesitancy, I started reading Edward Said's Orientalism - a tome of book that was first published in 1978 and has had many reprints since then. A fascinating read of how the West cast the East into a category of something to be conquered, ruled, colonized, subjugated, for its own good - at once, projecting into it and seeing its own image reflected in it. Edward Said, a Palestinian American who was a professor of comparative literature at Columbia, was a pioneer in other ways as well. His intellectual honesty and belief in the importance of clarity and exact thinking (Bertrand Russell) saw his self actualization (Maslow) take him to where two roads diverged in a wood, and he took the one less traveled by... and that has made all the difference, to him and to many of us (Frost). I believe Edward Said's crowning achievement is when he teamed with Daniel Barenboim, the maestro of maestros, to establish the The West–Eastern Divan Orchestra - an orchestra based in Seville, Spain, and consisting of musicians from the Middle East including Egyptians, Iranians, Israelis, Jordanians, Lebanese, Palestinians, Syrians, as well as Spaniards. The West–Eastern Divan Orchestra was founded in 1999 and named after an anthology of poems by Goethe about the Orient - this is where Said's comparative literature background comes in. In 2016, the Barenboim-Said Akademie was established in Berlin, Germany, as a state-accredited music conservatory offering Bachelor of Music degrees and Artist Diplomas. The Akademie's President is Daniel Barenboim who is around 78 years old now. Barenboim said "The Divan is not a love story, and it is not a peace story. It has very flatteringly been described as a project for peace. It isn't. It's not going to bring peace, whether you play well or not so well. The Divan was conceived as a project against ignorance. A project against the fact that it is absolutely essential for people to get to know the other, to understand what the other thinks and feels, without necessarily agreeing with it. I'm not trying to convert the Arab members of the Divan to the Israeli point of view, and [I'm] not trying to convince the Israelis to the Arab point of view. But I want to – and unfortunately I am alone in this now that Edward died a few years ago – ...create a platform where the two sides can disagree and not resort to knives." One particular performance by the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra at the Proms a few years ago caught my attention. Perhaps no other piece of music can best describe the wonderful friendship that Said and Barenboim had than Elgar's Nimrod. Elgar composed his Enigma Variations between 1898 and 1899. The Variations comprise fourteen pieces of music, each inspired by a friend or someone who had a big impact on Elgar's life. Elgar described his fourteen Variations as not being portraits of certain individuals but that each piece of music "contains a distinct idea founded on some particular personality or perhaps on some incident known only to two people." One of those fourteen pieces is Nimrod. Listening to Nimrod, one has to wonder what kind of friendship was this that inspired such spiritual heights in Elgar. No doubt, the kind of friendship that was and is between Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim - a Palestinian and a Jew who managed to find peace together and share it with many. I leave you with Nimrod performed by the mighty Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Barenboim - one of the best recordings of this magnificent piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUgoBb8m1eE
Majd Shafiq
Aug 9, 2022 · 3 min read
The Ukraine War's Unintended Consequences
War is a tragedy. And it is truly tragic that at the cusp of the 21st Century we are unable to settle differences between states without going to war. That, at a time when humanity is faced with glaring challenges from new viruses to climate calamities to water shortages, to name a few. Covid 19 and its impact on the world’s state of health and economy is the first episode in a protracted scenario of future catastrophes we will face collectively unless and until we get our act together. For the outside observer, it is difficult to ascertain with any degree of certainty how long Russia and the United States have been gaming Mr. Putin’s move on the Ukraine. What may seem as unintended consequences for some may very well have been part of a long and complicated set of calculations undertaken over time. The validity of the assumptions underlying such calculations, as well as the efficacy of the methodologies utilized to undertake the calculations, are and will continue to be subjects of debate for a long time after this tragic war is over. The swiftness with which Ukraine’s refugees were welcomed by the United States and Europe is heartwarming. Perhaps we did learn hard lessons from the way refugees from other parts of the world were and are being treated. However, the cries of some Western politicians and media that Ukrainian refugees are white Christians and, as such, more deserving of salvation, created an unintended consequence. In the minds of many in the developing world who are not “white” (as if such a yardstick can be used with precision) and are not practitioners of the Christian faith, or are white but practice other religions, these cries were a reminder that racism and religious bigotry still reign supreme in many parts of the world. It is often said that in politics perception is reality. Did the West’s moral authority and standing suffer with audiences in developing countries as a result of these public pronouncements? Will peoples of developing countries continue to rely on Western institutions as anchors and influencers in the former’s journeys towards modernity, liberalism, democracy, and universal human rights? Or is the perception of hypocrisy currently too glaring for comfort? And if the latter, how will this impact reform movements in various parts of the developing world? Less borrowing of theory and practice from the West and more locally developed methodologies? Rejigging the balance between local and imported inputs in a reform process may not be a bad thing - it adds momentum to existing efforts, as well as increases ownership and traction. The economic impact of the Ukraine war is beginning to be felt globally. The added strain on supply chains and additional increases in commodity prices and inflationary pressures, already with us as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic, do not bode well for many countries. The war’s impact on the global financial system is yet to be seen. However, the swiftness of economic and financial sanctions imposed by the West on Russia and many of its global business leaders will have several unintended consequences. As analysts have noted already, it should come as no surprise that attempts will be made to create an alternative to the SWIFT banking system. The new system (or systems) may be joined by not only Russia and China but many other developing countries as well, as the latter seek to hedge their economic and financial fortunes, and bets. Also expected is the rise of alternative currencies to the US dollar to use in global trade. To what extent will these currencies also become repositories of wealth and not just mediums of exchange remains to be seen. The freezing of assets and bank accounts of oligarchs and business folk close to Mr. Putin has moved swiftly on a global scale, including in countries that were previously considered safe havens for such individuals. An unintended consequence to this action is that not only oligarchs but wealthy individuals worldwide, whether their monies are clean or the result of corrupt practices and sweetheart deals, will start thinking twice about storing wealth in the West, or in other countries than their own. The global political winds are shifting too rapidly for comfort these days. Wealthy individuals from developing countries will start bringing monies back home and attempts at legitimizing ill-gotten wealth will commence. Tax amnesties will be enacted and financial settlements of economic crimes concluded under such banners as economic crimes laws. The sharing of wealth on a national level will accelerate as many political regimes seek to augment legitimacy by allowing citizens to have stakes and vested interests in the economic development of their countries. IPOs and stock markets will flourish. The political positions of many developing countries vis-à-vis the Ukraine war was made clear a few weeks ago in the United Nations when 35 countries, including China and India, abstained from voting to condemn Russia’s actions in the Ukraine. Perhaps this reflects a lack of a global moral consensus as to who is right and who is wrong in this war. And perhaps this reflects geopolitical realities a la Metternich’s real politik. Or both. Regardless, an unintended consequence to this tragic war may be the formation of something akin to the The Non-Aligned Movement; a group of developing countries that teamed in 1961 and declared their lack of alignment with either West or East. The founders of the Non-Aligned Movement are now household names and have come to signify standing for and defending the rights of the dispossessed and the underprivileged: the Indian Prime Minister Nehru, Yugoslavia’s President Tito, Egypt’s President Nasser, Ghanaian President Nkrumah, and Indonesian President Sukarno. If such a new coalition of developing countries comes to be, then we will see a multipolar Cold War II, not World War III.
Majd Shafiq
May 3, 2022 · 5 min read
My Friend The Tailor
In a game of five-card draw poker, a player is dealt a hand of five cards and he can only change two of the five; the other three cards, well, the player is stuck with for the rest of the game. I said this to my friend the tailor, trying to make an argument for altering one's clothes when they don't fit. He raised his eyes from the cloth he was measuring, gave me a stare with pressed lips and said nothing. My friend the tailor knows when to hold them. Words, that is. I was standing in front of my friend's long, narrow mirror trying to fit into a jacket that was tight in the shoulders area and long on sleeves. I wrestled with it for a few moments, taking constant looks at the reflection of an image I was certain was of my own making. Why did you buy this one, my friend the tailor asked. I am sure there was another jacket in the same shop that would have fit you much better, may be even perfectly. It was probably hanging on the same rack. You just did not see it. I frowned and puffed my cheeks. I thought of going back to the shop to try and return the jacket or exchange it for another. But the sale was probably over by now. And the other jacket, which I did not see, was probably taken by another customer and is probably making him a bad fit at this very moment. And it was snowing outside. The words of my friend the tailor kept ringing in my ears as I walked out of his shop in the freezing cold: whatever you wear, make sure it makes you happy!
Majd Shafiq
Jun 28, 2022 · 2 min read