nettime's_qualquant on Sat, 4 Aug 2007 09:49:05 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> what is to be studied digest [x: recktenwald x2, geer x2] |
Re: <nettime> the fate of Middle East studies "Benjamin Geer" <benjamin.geer@gmail.com> Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@uni-bonn.de> "Benjamin Geer" <benjamin.geer@gmail.com> Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@uni-bonn.de> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2007 21:50:57 +0300 From: "Benjamin Geer" <benjamin.geer@gmail.com> Subject: Re: <nettime> the fate of Middle East studies 2007/8/3, Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@uni-bonn.de>: > Maybe they are "buying" the masses and controlling the elites? There's a lot of poverty in Egypt (44% of the population lives on less than US$2 per day[1]), real wages have been declining in manufacturing, and the informal sector accounts for about 40% of employment[2]. The cost of housing and essential goods has increased dramatically since the structural adjustment policies and privatisation begun under Sadat in the 1970s. Many people are clearly struggling to get by. As for intimidation, the only opposition party with any significant popular support is illegal. Anyone who follows the opposition press in Egypt, or international human rights groups' reports on Egypt, will be aware that the judicial system is a farce, that demonstrations have often been ruthlessly crushed, that the ruling party uses massive fraud and intimidation of voters to win elections, that torture is rampant in police stations and in the security services, and that anyone suspected of being a political dissident can easily be imprisoned for years without charge, or kept in prison for years after they've been acquitted. At the same time, there's a small "middle class" (probably less than 1% of the population) that has a very good standard of living.[3] Corruption is rampant[4]. The country is basically ruled by an alliance between military/police officers and wealthy businessmen. > What is academic research? The kind that's done by specialists and published in peer-reviewed journals. > There are a lot of Muslim profs in the US, > that do that by the way anyway. How many compared to the number of professors who study Latin America? > But what sort of indications are you looking for? For example, numbers of job openings per year for Middle East specialists. > What should be done? I think that as much as possible, we (and in particular those of us who are students or teachers) have to use whatever leverage we have to get universities to do a better job. I'd like to believe that alternative forms of knowledge production, based on networks as in free-software production, could be made to compensate for the failings of universities, but the question is, where would the funding come from? Companies like IBM are funding the development of Linux; who will fund students who want to learn Arabic and do sociological research in the Middle East? Ben - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2007 21:09:12 +0200 From: Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@uni-bonn.de> Subject: Re: <nettime> the fate of Middle East studies Hi, Benjamin Geer wrote: > 2007/8/3, Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@uni-bonn.de>: > >> Maybe they are "buying" the masses and controlling the elites? IMHO "to buy" is not an appropriate term in that context, but maybe your background is different. > As for intimidation, the only opposition party with any significant > popular support is illegal. But isnt that "controlling the elites"? Those who organise parties? > At the same time, there's a small "middle class" (probably less than > 1% of the population) that has a very good standard of living. Sociology. > we have to get universities to do a better job. IMHO society is allready doing a good job by asking proper questions. > I'd like to believe that alternative forms of knowledge production, based on > networks as in free-software production, could be made to compensate for the > failings of universities, but the question is, where would the funding come > from? Many ways lead to Rome. IMHO one should start with a legalisation of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. They are doing alternativ forms of knowledge production as well. Money is no problem. See how perfect Hezbollah was and Hamas is organising things. What do you want to change aka action? Knowledge is nothing. H. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2007 00:36:46 +0300 From: "Benjamin Geer" <benjamin.geer@gmail.com> Subject: Re: <nettime> the fate of Middle East studies 2007/8/3, Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@uni-bonn.de>: > > As for intimidation, the only opposition party with any significant popular > > support is illegal. > > But isnt that "controlling the elites"? Those who organise parties? Yes, but that's only one segment of the elites. I don't have statistics, but it looks to me as if the Muslim Brotherhood's cadres are generally still from the middle and lower middle classes, while the wealthiest Egyptians tend to support the regime. > IMHO society is allready doing a good job by asking proper questions. It depends on who you mean by society. The Western media publish a lot of uninformed nonsense on the Middle East, and it's always seemed to me that a lot of people believe what the media tell them, or just don't know anything at all about the region, like these Americans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE > IMHO one should start with a legalisation of the Muslim Brotherhood in > Egypt.... Sure, but the question is how to create conditions in which that could happen. Maybe one thing that would help is if the US stopped giving military aid to Egypt. I doubt that will happen unless there's substantial domestic political pressure on the US government. > Knowledge is nothing. Some young members of the Muslim Brotherhood recently explained to me that the group's strategy is essentially to educate people until they have the support of most of Egyptian society. It struck me as basically a Gramscian approach. So they see knowledge as very important. > They are doing alternativ forms of knowledge production as well. Yes, but is it making much impact in the West? In France, for example, I've had the impression that an academic like Gilles Kepel, who has appeared a great deal in the mainstream media, whose book _Jihad_ was a bestseller, and who is very suspicious of political Islam, has considerable influence over what French people think about the Middle East. In the US, Bernard Lewis, whom the Bush administration love, seems to have even greater influence. > Money is no problem. See how perfect Hezbollah was and Hamas is > organising things. But who in the West is listening to them (or to any Arab thinkers, for that matter)? Even the European leftists I know reject the idea of listening to Islamists, because they're hostile to religion in general, and to Islam in particular. The only exception I know of is the Socialist Worker's Party in the UK, which sent representatives to the Cairo Social Forum this year, where there were speakers from Hizballah and Hamas. But I've been in Egypt for two years, so I'm out of touch; have things changed much? Ben - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Date: Sat, 04 Aug 2007 01:34:57 +0200 From: Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@uni-bonn.de> Subject: Re: <nettime> the fate of Middle East studies Hi, Benjamin Geer wrote: >> IMHO one should start with a legalisation of the Muslim Brotherhood in >> Egypt.... > > Sure, but the question is how to create conditions in which that could > happen. Maybe one thing that would help is if the US stopped giving > military aid to Egypt. I doubt that will happen unless there's > substantial domestic political pressure on the US government. Dont know. >> They are doing alternativ forms of knowledge production as well. > > Yes, but is it making much impact in the West? Does this matter? IMHO it is not the business of Arabs to make the West listen to them. Maybe the business of Western journalists in Egypt etc to report what is really happening. In Gaza etc. Best, H. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@kein.org and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org