Today I had lunch at my friend’s host family’s beautiful house. We had Maklouba – a traditional Jordanian rice and chicken dish served on a HUGE platter that everyone helps themselves from. It was fun to spend time with them and see a different side of Jordanian society (I’ve been meeting mostly young students). They have a live-in maid from the Philippines and live in a nice, gated neighborhood. Because the Ministry of Public Affairs is across the street from them – there is an M16 - toting guard across the street who Lily (my friend from the program) says gives her comfort walking home at night.
During the course of our meal, Fatima (a stylish, impeccably made-up Jordanian woman) began telling me about her 11-year-old daughter’s obsession with “America.” By this she meant that the kid is glued to Disney channel, idolizes Justin Bieber, and faithfully hangs on Oprahs every word.
“She wants to be President of America, this one.” Fatima jokes.
Her daughter is only in middle school, but is already thinking of going to America to study and is totally keyed-in to her perception of American life. How many American kids her age could name a single Middle Eastern t.v show?
What does it mean to have one society that is so unilaterally focused on the other – taking cues on how to “be cool?”
I would argue that what we are seeing with the Occupy Wall Street protests sweeping across America and abroad, in the wake of the inspirational ‘Arab Spring,’ is actually a sign of the opposite. For seemingly the first time, it’s “cool to be Arab.” They’re not just greedy oil sheiks and one-dimensional terrorists and any other variation of diminishing camel-riding stereotype – they used massive nonviolent movements and social media to bring down powerful dictators.
They are now the ones worthy of emulation.
These shifting political trends must spill over into the cultural realm – still to be seen how they will manifest themselves especially given that most Westerners are starting from a place of ignorance and misperceptions about the Arab World. However, sitting at the dining room table today, I wondered if in ten years time Leen (Fatima’s daughter) will be listening to Jordanian music (as opposed to the Michael Jackson that she plays now!) on her ipod with her new American friends – who controls the “culture of cool?”
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