Arabian Gulf, Home or no Home ? Globalization Par Excellence

So you’ve been born in an Arab gulf country but yr not a “local” or “citizen” Yr Arab or say from the Indian Sub Continent you are basically confused about your identity about your belonging you can either pin point home as where you were born and raised or you can point it out to where your parents were born and you occasionally go every summer to visit relatives among other things.

Yup You may have been to Arab schools in the countries of the Arab Gulf or lets say Indian or Pakistani schools chances are you are much easier to re-integrate back into your “original” society and you have a much easir time saying am fully Egyptian, Indian or Pakistani and people don’t find you that much different or odd or guess yr not really a local of your parents origin.
It gets more complicated if you have been studying in what so called is “international schools” which are actually most likely either American or British schools with the same curriculum Americans and Brits study in their countries. You use to listen to American or British music or both watch their movies not only speak their language but also with the same accent that’s if you were to walk in a grocery store in there the cashier wont think twice you were born in there or least brought up from childhood there. Those folks tend to be the ones more open to other cultures and more likely to have been hanging out in school with a more culturally diverse group with in school.

Other teenagers who tend to relate more with where their parents come from and perhaps don’t have that perfect westen accent and tend to have hung out n groups with people of their nationality say the Egyptian group or the Indian folks or the Pakistani lot, then they are more likely to have it easier when they get back “home”.

Its tough since you were born in the Arabian Gulf it becomes even tougher if you can speak the dialect perfectly well and on the street people would think yr a “local” or “citizen” at least that’s from my experience which partly because my khaleeji (Gulfi) like complexion. Its way tougher when you say Home is in that khaleej country but you have no rights there once yr pops retires you can never go back unless on a contract or perhaps as a tourist but unlikely since the passport owners of the countries I have mentioned have different arrangements.

Im not saying that countries of the Arab Gulf should just give citizenship to folks like us that’s would mess things up, the social political and economic characteristics of these countries. Am Just trying to show this emotional and if you may humanitarian dilemma that am partly caught in and am sure many others are caught in it like myself. Sad reality is our parents in the eyes of these governments (as a whole or as a system or in a purely technocratic vision) are only here to serve a function for material return and once yr contract is done or time to retire your function no longer exists and so you too ought to seize exiting on their lands.

And even worse the those who grew up there their entire lives who are also looked at differently in their “home countries” whom could be pretty much culturally confused or least if they are conscious of it. Then you are torn apart where am I from ? Where is Home? Ironic its probably easy for those who lived in such contexts to settle some where in the English speaking west.

And on a side note Even much more pathetic when say to Egypt your parents have been paying “Taxes” or remittances to the government ( one of Egypt’s top sources of income along with tourism and the Suez Canal) and then when you come back yr expected to sever in the military .. As “paying back your country.” when I havent been using any of their crappy pathetic worthless government provided services and my parents paying their corrupt behinds.

Perhaps this is Just my own experience and am trying to be all generalizing about it, at least am pretty sure it is absolutely the case with Arab folks as much more is culturally common with folks of the khaleej. Alhamdullelah my parrents still work Home or if you want to critically call it my “home”

I think this could open up major issues of research for specialists and students of the social sciences but this is mostly my thoughts with a twist of ranting.

peace

New Arab Diplomacy and G.C.C Political Autonomy

I read this PAPER by Marina Ottaway, pretty interesting, it jotted down many of my thoughts which appeared to me like a pattern but I didn’t think much about its significance I certainly knew that the U.S is being isolated and lost a lot of its soft power in the region. The U.S can a no longer manipulate the current regimes to do whatever it demands. There is some autonomy however that minimal autonomy is never used against high profile American interests.

From some of the themes in the Article; Leadership in the Middle East is shifting east away from Egypt (and Syria) towards the G.C.C (Gulf Cooperating Council) namely more towards Saudi and Qatar and to a lesser extent U.A.E and Kuwait.

However all of the efforts of G.C.C policies and initiatives are not planned or institutionalized, they are largely the efforts of individuals of the ruling royal families. These efforts are mostly pragmatic and against U.S Hawkish hardline policies of demoralizing, alienating and isolating its adversaries in the region. Namely Iran, Hezbolla and Hamas. These adversaries however all have direct links with Arab regimes.

King Abdullah of Saudi has always tried on many occasions to have Hamas and PA/Fatah (Palestinian Authority) to Negotiate Also the Same has been done by Egypt, and Egypt has made several broked Deals between Israel and Hamas. Also King Abdullah like all the other Emirs met with Ahmedi Nejad and proclaim that Iran is their neighbor not an enemy, they basically did not give any official positive to America’s desire for a Strike on Iran.

Yet Egypt is only forced to deal with the situation because of its borders with Gaza., which were broken causing security issues in Egypt. Otherwise Egypt and Jordan are basically enslaved to American monetary aid and also Egypt more specially has isolated itself from the Regional arena and went inwards to address problems over succession in the presidency.

Qatar has Brokered a Deal between all the factions in Lebanon saving the country off a political catastrophe and what could have been as later showed a civil war. Despite the U.S putting a grim face towards the talks, Hezbolla representatives, were on the negotiating tables in Qatar. Hezbolla is obviously a winner in all this (not mentioned in the paper) but if one pays close attention to the new constitution Hezvollah could be interpreted as having the same credentials as the Lebanese Army where the “Muqawama“ (Resistance aka Hezbollah) and the Lebeanse army have the right to free Lebanon from occupiers (aka Israel) . And a victory for Hezbolla is also a victory for Iran. Not to mention the situation in Iraq I will address this issue later in another post inshaAllah..

All of these many issues among others, are marking somewhat an autonomy of regional policy of the major Arab Regime players and more specifically the G.C.C states. The G.C.C no longer relies on the U.S to buy its oil and now there are other buyers who are equally thirst for oil. Also the Policies of America are just incosiderate and simply contribute to anything but stability.

One Could also draw from Clement M. Henry and Robert Springborg’s Book “ Globalization and the Politics of Development in the Middle East” Which he classifies the G.C.C (and Morocco Which I don’t agree qualifies in their choice) as “Globalizing monarchies” and are the most likely to advance and respond to challenges of globalization in the Middle East.

Strategic Vacuum, G.C.C needs to invest in Military

The Arab Gulf countries obviously have a lot of oil,, and ehm
American Bases.. The whole World is interested in Oil there but obviously the U.S has its bases there, and wont Allow Russia or China any control over that oil.

The U.S is never going to leave Iraq.. yess it will reduce its forces there but only to deploy them else where, Obama can say all he want The U.S never actually left any country it built bases in.. thats since second world war, there are still bases in Germany and South Korea. In fact the U.S has over 700 bases all over the world...

The U.S is power is starting to decline, yet still its Hard Power (Military) is unmatched.
The Gulf and pretty much all the Islamic World have been handed over from one power to another since the fall of The Ottoman Calphate. French, Brits, Other Europeans, Russians and lately the U.S and we will keep on being handed over to other rising regional powers till we are strong enough to stand on our own...

What we see with Iran is essentially the U.S wanting to contain it and especially to reduce its rising influence over the Arabian Gulf and its extending arm to the its western region..

The point is when the Gulf is so rich and with whooping oil prices and plenty of extra cash... maybe folks like in Dubai ought to invest in firearms and start producing their own weapons instead of doing a lot of crazy buildings, its good for the economy sure but can be blown away real quick in potenial futre conflicts

There needs to be a transition from that declining U.S power in the region instead of leaving it to potenial rivals the the GUlf needs to stand for itself..

the question is...
why the G.C.C doesnt invest in Firearms and Military equipment???

.. its good for the economy and the future inshaAllah!.. am not talking about buying the stuff from the U.S or U.K with high prices and reduced options am talking about producing your own stuff!!!

Countries of the Arabian peninsula (G.C.C). Strategy, Security and the Future. A dignified existence

One characteristic of domestic politics in the countries of the Arabian/Persian Gulf is that it is too domestic. What being discussed in media is mostly and always related to domestic politics, conflicts of ideological interests, current economic crises, moral issues.

In Kuwait you have the occasional childish dissolving of parliament which is becoming a farce. In Saudi the constant baffle about women driving and “international community’s” “concern” about “women rights”. Dubai’s Mickey Mouse economic project and occasional rants about prostitution and such. Perhaps am not so aware of the rest of other countries but nothing is of major decisive importance.

What is so insane is that issues that would shape the future of its peoples is hardly discussed.
What about the American Bases that are growing allover the peninsula? what about Oil prices? What about the toppling of the Iraqi regime? what about the War the U.S wants to pursue with Iran.. What about Expats that are screwing up demographics and cultural identity. These are the major issues that should be of intrinsic concern, maybe there is room to maneuver over such issues today but tomorrow there might not be such room…and a dignified existence with pride and sovereignty will be not be possible.

Apparently or what seems to be the case is that G.C.C countries seem to be reacting to variable factors as they face them. There is no solid strategy or vision to what the future is going to be, you might tell me that such issues are being discussed in majalis diwaniyat an so forth but that doesn’t make change..