2010
“Bismillahirrahmanirrahim (Beginning with the name of God)”. That, starting the essay with calling the name of God, may sound a bit unusual for those who expect a more or less academic paper. But in my humble opinion, it will most probably attract attention while criticizing New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and his essay named “One Country, Two Worlds”. Friedman, as a very good writer in the meaning of drawing readers’ attention with a smooth and remarkable bunch of words, is likely to be mistaken to state his arguments on globalization by using a politically incorrect and practically unacceptable language and perspective in the mentioned article. In this paper, I will discuss how he is incorrect in his perceptions that he oversimplified and generalized Egyptian people and their traditions while making a comparison of them with Western traditions and as a result forming an imaginary Western superiority.
He starts the column with two images that grabbed his attention during his visit in Egypt. One is “the cell-phone symphony” as he calls, which happens in a train riding from Cairo to Alexandria. He underlines his discomfort with ringing phones and people talking with them. For me it is a bit ridiculous as cell-phones may be ringing publicly in every country and Europe as well and additionally people carry cell-phones in order to use them outside of their home. I seriously think that this perception is a way of lowering Egyptian and so-called Eastern portrait. Then he sees some Egyptian villagers from the train using old-style tools to work on their fields and makes a comparison between this and the technological cell-phone symphony. The fact is that it is probably more practical and cheaper to use tools that are not machinery in a small field. But he is most likely in a self-deception that every moment he experiences in this “Eastern” country seems annoying to him and they are like opportunities for him to create an inferior picture while comparing them with globalized and technological Western culture.
Second one is his encountering with the elevator operator, who is also described by him as a peasant earning money in a state building, and his praying before pushing the elevator button. He creates a link between Islamist practices and daily life traditions of one region and as a result he draws a conclusion that it is a dichotomy where technology and inferiority come together to form a “One Country, Two Worlds”. He creates a vision that dichotomy happens only in Eastern countries not in Western ones and only inferior people use a language of religion or God. On the contrary, people say “God bless you” to each other when they sneeze in both Christian and Islamist traditions. Besides it is written “In God we trust” in the American dollar and many state buildings in which there should be no linkage of God as those are irrelevant, the state institutions and the belief systems.
From those examples he comes to the point that globalization is a need for Eastern people but it is a difficult project to make real as, in his perception, Eastern people are communal and on the other hand globalization needs an individualistic sphere. He blames Islamist traditions and Eastern practices while explaining his argument that it is difficult for people who live in “two worlds”. In reality what he is doing is making a picture of inferior East and superior West by using an oversimplifying and generalizing language. In his opinion, although it is not very easy to adopt, he sees Eastern people’s emancipation with implementing globalization and its principles which are concepts of Western traditions. That is clearly a way of creating the thought of “superior West” by using religion, traditions and practices.
In conclusion, what he fundamentally lacks is his objectivity and his emotional arguments while creating a link between globalization, religion and culture and to leave rest of the possible variables aside. What he accomplishes with this essay is not only an inferior portrait of Eastern culture in the eyes of readers, but more than that, a superior Western culture which rhetorically has a ego to be fulfilled repeatedly.
“Bismillahirrahmanirrahim (Beginning with the name of God)”. That, starting the essay with calling the name of God, may sound a bit unusual for those who expect a more or less academic paper. But in my humble opinion, it will most probably attract attention while criticizing New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and his essay named “One Country, Two Worlds”. Friedman, as a very good writer in the meaning of drawing readers’ attention with a smooth and remarkable bunch of words, is likely to be mistaken to state his arguments on globalization by using a politically incorrect and practically unacceptable language and perspective in the mentioned article. In this paper, I will discuss how he is incorrect in his perceptions that he oversimplified and generalized Egyptian people and their traditions while making a comparison of them with Western traditions and as a result forming an imaginary Western superiority.
He starts the column with two images that grabbed his attention during his visit in Egypt. One is “the cell-phone symphony” as he calls, which happens in a train riding from Cairo to Alexandria. He underlines his discomfort with ringing phones and people talking with them. For me it is a bit ridiculous as cell-phones may be ringing publicly in every country and Europe as well and additionally people carry cell-phones in order to use them outside of their home. I seriously think that this perception is a way of lowering Egyptian and so-called Eastern portrait. Then he sees some Egyptian villagers from the train using old-style tools to work on their fields and makes a comparison between this and the technological cell-phone symphony. The fact is that it is probably more practical and cheaper to use tools that are not machinery in a small field. But he is most likely in a self-deception that every moment he experiences in this “Eastern” country seems annoying to him and they are like opportunities for him to create an inferior picture while comparing them with globalized and technological Western culture.
Second one is his encountering with the elevator operator, who is also described by him as a peasant earning money in a state building, and his praying before pushing the elevator button. He creates a link between Islamist practices and daily life traditions of one region and as a result he draws a conclusion that it is a dichotomy where technology and inferiority come together to form a “One Country, Two Worlds”. He creates a vision that dichotomy happens only in Eastern countries not in Western ones and only inferior people use a language of religion or God. On the contrary, people say “God bless you” to each other when they sneeze in both Christian and Islamist traditions. Besides it is written “In God we trust” in the American dollar and many state buildings in which there should be no linkage of God as those are irrelevant, the state institutions and the belief systems.
From those examples he comes to the point that globalization is a need for Eastern people but it is a difficult project to make real as, in his perception, Eastern people are communal and on the other hand globalization needs an individualistic sphere. He blames Islamist traditions and Eastern practices while explaining his argument that it is difficult for people who live in “two worlds”. In reality what he is doing is making a picture of inferior East and superior West by using an oversimplifying and generalizing language. In his opinion, although it is not very easy to adopt, he sees Eastern people’s emancipation with implementing globalization and its principles which are concepts of Western traditions. That is clearly a way of creating the thought of “superior West” by using religion, traditions and practices.
In conclusion, what he fundamentally lacks is his objectivity and his emotional arguments while creating a link between globalization, religion and culture and to leave rest of the possible variables aside. What he accomplishes with this essay is not only an inferior portrait of Eastern culture in the eyes of readers, but more than that, a superior Western culture which rhetorically has a ego to be fulfilled repeatedly.
