r Friday, June 5, 2009 www.thenational.ae The N!tion!l Books A nightmare at the museum Big Idea Pankaj review Mishra on India’s neo-liberal admirers Last Word King Abdullah, I’m ready for my close-up Saloon Where time is actually money th

Bring it Aoun

Michel Aoun’s supporters revere him as a reforming hero, the only man able to repair a nation’s woes – and he agrees. Elias Muhanna on the overlooked core of Lebanon’s opposition

When General Michel Aoun, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), took to the stage at a campaign rally in south Beirut two Saturdays ago, a sea of citrus-coloured flags – the orange banners of his own party alongside the yellow standards of Hizbollah – churned before him. The choice of venue was strategic and symbolic. One kilometre to the west lay Haret Hreik, the mixed Christian and Shiite neighbourhood where Aoun was born in 1935. A kilometre to the east, perched in the foot- hills above Beirut, sat the presidential palace, the scene of his defeat at the hands of the Syrian Army during the civil war. And lying just to the south was al Dahiya, the epicentre of Hizbollah’s military re- sistance, much of which was bombed to rubble by the Israeli Air Force in the summer of 2006. The bespectacled general glared out over the lectern into the falling dusk. “Why do they reject the Third Republic?” he bellowed, referring to his rivals and invoking his party’s ambitiously- titled electoral platform. “Is the strengthening of democracy and the creation of a secular state that safeguards equal rights for all of its citizens the reason for their rejection?” Like his electoral ally Hassan Nasrallah, Michel Aoun is a deeply polarising figure in Lebanon. A Christian general who led the Lebanese Army against various adversaries during the civil war – including the PLO, Lebanese Christian militias and the Syrian Army – he has, since 2005, locked horns repeatedly with the March 14 coalition, an alliance of several parties backed by the United States that holds a slim majority in parliament. Now Aoun – whose career in politics stretches from his days as the leader of the resistance to Syr- ia’s occupation of Lebanon to his rapprochement with Damascus two decades later – is at the helm of an opposition campaign that vows to replace the corrupt structures of a troubled republic with a new order. To his supporters, Aoun is a larger-than-life figure who has come to lead Lebanon’s Chris- tians – weak and divided since the end of the civil war – back to their former prominence, and to set the country on a path to national reconciliation and economic sustainability. To his detractors, “Napolaoun” is a power-obsessed megalomaniac who will do anything – even join forces with his former arch-nemesis Syria and its Lebanese allies – in order to fight his way to the top of Lebanon’s political hierarchy. If the opposition prevails on June 7, headlines around the world will read “HIZBOLLAH WINS” even though the Shiite party is likely to hold no more seats in parliament than the dozen or so that it occupies today. It will, in fact, be the gains of the Free Patriotic Movement – and the affili- ated parties of its Change and Reform Bloc – that will push the opposition into the majority, giving Aoun and his allies control of the largest block of seats in parliament. Analysts and commentators have produced mil- lions of words in an attempt to understand Hiz- bollah and its intentions, but Aoun and his move- ment have been overlooked. The FPM touts its am- bitious and sweeping reform agenda, but the party – which sent representatives to parliament for the first time in 2005 – has only a brief track record in government and a leader renowned for his mer- curial behaviour. Predicting the country’s course after the election is impossible, but it is clear that Michel Aoun and the Free Patriotic Movement are poised to play a major role – one that will test the party’s sincerity and determination to reform what it regards as a weak and ineffectual state.

→ Aoun, continued on 4 The N!tion!l 02 Friday, June 5, 2009 www.thenational.ae review th saloon House of cards

Inside Etisalat’s treasure vault Somewhere in Ajman, amid a sea The vault, which sits at the heart of nondescript low-rise villas, sits of the building, is guarded by a the Ebtikar Card Systems factory, blast-proof steel door. Once you a drab building surrounded by a get past that, there’s a gate of steel three-metre high concrete perim- bars. To open that gate, the factory eter fence topped with barbed wire manager needs to scan his finger- and security cameras. print and turn a key. Simultane- “This is basically the bank of Etis- ously. alat,” a staffer said as were buzzed Inside the vault are hundreds of through the first layer of security. millions of dirhams of future Etis- Every hour, more than 20,000 Etisalat recharge cards are printed out then wrapped in clear plastic by (what else?) the WrapMaster 100. Randi Sokoloff / The National “It’s more like our Fort Knox,” an- alat revenue. A single box of Dh100 other chimed in. cards is worth Dh120,000, and The factory, one of Ajman’s larg- thousands of the shoebox-sized neath. Then they would return the Uganda’s “Sente” system, under means a website in Canada will card industry, knows that the elec- est employers, makes every Etisalat cartons are stacked in piles that seemingly-pristine card to the store which city dwellers use mobile net- be able to bill a customer in India tronic terminals are eating away at recharge card sold in the Emirates. reach for the ceiling. and ask for a refund. But Ebtikar is works to send money home to their through their Vodafone account. Ebtikar’s product. But like an old- And it makes a lot of them: 420 mil- It is worth noting, before anybody on to that game, and now prints the families in the countryside. The In industry circles, mobile banking school newspaperman or record lion this year, the company hopes. starts planning Ajman’s Robbery silver scratch layer in a “sandwich” sender buys a recharge card, but in- is tipped to be the Next Big Thing. industry exec, he’s convinced that Because a recharge card is worth of the Century, that every box of structure, with a film of pure black- stead of loading it to his phone, he This all leaves the humble, low- an innate desire for the physical exactly what its face value says cards is traceable and Etisalat can ness in the middle, blocking UV calls the mobile phone kiosk in his tech scratch card looking distinct- will keep him in business. – and because mobile talk time is easily deactivate the recharge num- light. “In many ways, these cards village, then reads out the recharge ly old-fashioned. The card itself, “Four years ago, all the operators always in demand – printing them bers associated with a stolen box. are far more secure than paper code. The kiosk owner resells the worth just a few fils, is really just a were predicting that the scratch is a lot like printing money. Hence The real risk, says Ebtikar chief money,” Huguet says. credit and gives the money in cash vessel for a 12-digit code. And in- cards would disappear, and they the fencing, and the cameras and executive David Huguet, is persist- Indeed, as the mobile phone to the recipient. creasingly, even luddites who only invested a lot in the new solutions,” the biometric security systems on ent low-level theft: people stead- increasingly becomes a truly uni- The Sente system emerged spon- use their phone for talking buy he said. “But in the last year and a the doors. ily stealing in quantities that are versal possession (more than half taneously, but mobile networks are their credit from electronic termi- half, physical cards are going up The cards are made by machines small enough to remain under the of the world’s population already slowly launching official versions; nals that print recharge codes on again in market share. Why?” with Teutonic-sounding names radar. “This is the only leakage that owns one) recharge credit is emerg- in some countries, you can send paper receipts – a process much He answers his own question like Mühlbaer and Atlantic Zeiser. is possible,” he says. “And all our ing as an alternative currency, par- money to a friend via text message; cheaper than printing them on quickly, in immaculate, French-ac- Every hour, more than 20,000 cards security is built to target that.” ticularly in developing countries the friend uses a code to withdraw German equipment in Ajman, run- cented English. “When someone are stamped out, then wrapped in Scammers used to buy recharge where the banking system has lit- the cash from an ATM. This month, ning them through the WrapMas- is paying 10, 50, 100 dirhams, they clear plastic by the WrapMaster cards, then instead of scratching tle interest in serving most of the Vodafone (which bills more than ter, locking them in a high-security want to have something in their 100, which does what its name im- away the silver film, put the card population. 300 million customers) announced vault and trucking them to stores hand.” plies, and does it well. Then they under an ultraviolet light that let Nokia’s in-house anthropologist, that it will soon open its global bill- across the country. are boxed and sent to the vault. them read the number under- Jan Chipchase, often mentions ing system to outside users. That Huguet, a veteran of the recharge * Tom Gara The princess died

In the latest UAE-based novel, Anastasia Romanov avoids assasination by dashing off to Dubai In March of 1917, Tsar Nicholas For Marie Romanov’s birthday, Because she is recovering in Romanov II of Russia gave up his Nicholas invites Peter Fabergé (he Rashed’s family home in the foot- throne, handing over power to a of egg fame) to the Winter Palace hills of the Hajar, Anastasia misses provisional government meant to discuss jewellery designs. Anas- her family’s execution, and the to facilitate Russian’s transition tasia wants pearls, but Fabergé in- rest is counter-history. It would be to democracy. That didn’t go so forms her that she will have to wait cruel to potential e-readers to spell well; in October the Bolsheviks four months. out exactly what happens next, but, took power by force, and the coun- “This is not something I can rush as the tagline on Foster’s website try descended into civil war. The your Grand Duchesse. It takes (“Today in Dubai — has DNA test- Bolsheviks placed the tsar and his time for the right pearls to be- ing begun?”) indicates, the Rus- family under house arrest in Yeka- come available, they must then be sian princess comes to enjoy her terinburg, a city in central Russia. shipped to Petrograd... They come expat lifestyle quite a bit. On July 17, 1918, as loyalist fight- from Arabia... A small fishing vil- In August 2007, a Russian archae- ers still faithful to the former tsar lage called Dubai.” ologist discovered two partial skel- drew close to the city, the Bolshe- Cue elaborate plot by a spoiled etons near Yekaterinburg. For over viks took the Romanovs into a sub- princess to sneak out of the palace a year, the remains were independ- basement, executed them and hid and onto a ship bound for the Gulf. ently tested by several laboratories their corpses. In this, Anastasia is aided most around the world; just this March, Almost immediately, people prominently by Regina, a common it was announced that every Ro- began claiming that not every Ro- girl who resembles her a bit. manov child, including Anastasia, manov died that night. Specifi- In the small but bustling fish- died in 1918. cally, they claimed that the tsar’s ing village that is 1916 Dubai, af- This doesn’t worry Foster, an youngest daughter, Anastasia, had ter a brief audience with Sheikh Australian classical composer and escaped: with help from a compas- Maktoum, Anastasia heads into lifelong Dubai-phile. “The DNA sionate guard, with help from the the desert to visit the Al Maha tests prove some things but not doctor, with help from a priest, Oasis and Hajar Mountains. Two everything. The novel is a fantasy, with help from the German gov- hours out of Dubai, however, her an opinion, but all the historical ernment, with some good luck. expedition party is hit by a sand- research was very carefully done. Several would-be Anastasias came storm; Anastasia is thrown from I just felt very strongly that some- forth seeking public recognition her camel, blown far from the thing like this could possibly have of their royal blood. The theories party and buried under the sand. happened. And I think still think it were kept alive in large part be- Those who survive assume she is is at least possible that Anastasia cause the Romanov burial site dead. But she is soon discovered is buried somewhere in the forest was not discovered until 1981 – by Rashed, a young Bedouin trav- near Yekaterinburg.” and kept secret until the USSR fell elling Dubai to sell produce and Foster has already written sev- in 1991. When it was, it was two crafts in the souq. eral pieces of music based on The bodies short. Pearl of Dubai, including a large Over the years, this scenario and orchestral work called Anastasia its possible implications have and Rashed. He is hoping to put on inspired a veritable pantheon of a show in Dubai, with the Russian Anastasia entertainment: plays, National Orchestra performing his films, books, television serials, at The book represents works. “Because of the troubles, least one video game – and now we’re waiting for sponsorship. But The Pearl of Dubai, a novel available the intersection if it happens it will be spectacular; exclusively as an e-book download of two genres: we’ll have snow in the desert, a typ- ($15 Australian) from the website speculative ical Dubai show.” of its author, Grant Foster. The Until then, Foster is putting the book represents the intersection Anastasia narratives finishing touches on his second of two small but distinct genres: and stories that novel, a work of science-fiction. speculative Anastasia narratives “It’s about a group of children who and stories that conceive of Dubai conceive of Dubai go into a forest. They’re told never as a sandy setting for the dramatic as a sandy setting to go there, and when they do they convergence of world-historical for the dramatic come across all sorts of aliens. forces (see Six Sacred Stones, The They go to different planets.” Godstone, Desert England). convergence of “They also come across this wom- The Pearl of Dubai opens be- world-historical an and become puzzled by who fore Nicholas has abdicated; the she is. As the novel progresses it Romanovs are going about their forces becomes increasingly worked out. royal business. Palace romances You would know of her, but I can’t abound. Whispers of discontent tell you. You would know her name, trickle in through the high walls. let’s put it that way.” Rasputin mutters lots of menac- ing things. * Peter C Baker The N!tion!l Friday, June 5, 2009 www.thenational.ae 03 review th

thethe big idea week the tangled web !!! " Rare bumblebee coming back to UK A bumblebee which is extinct in the UK is to be reintroduced from New Zealand under plans being announced. The short-haired bumblebee was exported from the UK to New Zealand on the first refrigerated lamb boats in the late 19th Century to pollinate clover crops. It was last seen in the UK in 1988, but populations on the other side of the world have survived. Now Natural England and several other conservation groups have launched a scheme to bring the species home. Poul Christensen, Natural England’s acting chairman, said; “Bum- blebees are suffering unprecedented international declines and drastic action is required to aid their recovery. “Bumblebees play a key role in maintaining food supplies – we rely on their ability to pollinate crops and we have to do all we can to pro- vide suitable habitat and to sustain the diversity of bee species. “This international rescue mission has two aims – to restore habi- tat in England, thereby giving existing bees a boost; and to bring the short-haired bumblebee home where it can be protected.” As many as 100 of the bees will initially be collected in New Zea- land and a captive breeding plan es- tablished, with the aim of eventually releasing them at Dungeness, Kent, where they were last seen. They will be flown back on planes in cool boxes, and will not be disturbed, according to Farmers and villagers clash with West Bengal police after the forced confiscation of land intended to house a Tata Motors plant in 2007. Corbis Natural England, as they will be in hibernation during transit.

BBC news.bbc.co.uk British estate produces Kiwi favourite Tregothnan Estate in Britain has made history by being the first com- pany to produce Manuka Honey outside of New Zealand. Manuka was imported to Tregothnan in the 1880s as an ornamental Visible hands plant. And three years ago, the managers of the Cornwall estate decided to see if they too could produce Manuka Honey. Manuka Health New Zealand says the northern hemisphere ver- sion doesn’t contain enough of the active ingredient to class itself as authentic Manuka Honey, but Tregothnan says with thousand of Pankaj Mishra on the West’s fantasies of a free-market ‘New India’ Manuka plants on the estate, growing conditions in Cornwall are no Last month India held its 15th gen- India’s tiny English-speaking office in 2004, agriculture, which 2006, Singh made it clear that only a different than the Coromandel. eral elections. Those who recall elite, the beneficiaries of the coun- still sustains 60 per cent of India’s small minority in India can and will “With better weather which we hope to have in the next six weeks some of the previous 14 could only try’s new wealth and international 1.2 billion-strong population, was enjoy “western standards of living then there is every reason to expect a good activity level and we’d be marvel at the great interest the re- prominence, amplified this foreign stagnating. The “boom” sector of and high consumption”. Singh, who very happy to have that tested,” says Tregothnan Garden director, cent round of voting aroused in the enthusiasm, helping to create an the economy – information tech- was responding to another wave of Jonathan Jones. western media. Less than a decade echo chamber where a small mi- nology and business-processing of- farmer suicides, exhorted his coun- But it’s not just other honey producers that are a buzz about this new- ago India was typically depicted in nority seems increasingly to hear its fices (which employ only about 1.5 trymen to abandon “wasteful” west- comer. Maori are also upset. the international press as a poor, own voice. India’s leading business million of the 400 million-person ern consumerism and learn from They say the use of Manuka is a theft of a taonga (literally “treasured backward and often violent nation. paper, The Economic Times, intro- workforce) – was not only failing to the frugal ways of Gandhi, which he thing”). Its experiments with democracy duced a regular feature devoted to create enough jobs for the swelling claimed were a “necessity” in India. However Mr Jones says while it is New Zealand’s honey, it is their may have been unprecedented for a chronicling what it called “The Glo- ranks of the young unemployed in This year Congress under the as- bees. large poor country – but in the West bal Indian Take-over”. Few people India; it had also deepened pre-ex- tute Sonia Gandhi again built its “They want these Manuka bushes back, the fact is they’ve been here they usually appeared solely in the remarked on the presumptuous- isting imbalances between rural election campaign around the tra- for 120 years so I think that’s fair,” Mr Jones says. “But we must have guise of photographs of peasant ness of the ruling party, the Hindu and urban areas. vails of the “aam aadmi” – the ordi- back our European honey bee. That’s fair isn’t it?” women in colorful saris lining up to nationalist BJP, when it campaigned In 2004, the backlash from Indi- nary Indian – in the age of globalisa- Tregothnan’s honey retails for £55, or roughly $140NZ. And while vote (this ageless staple popped up in the 2004 elections with the slogan ans who felt themselves excluded tion. Arguing for “inclusive growth”, that may seem like liquid gold, the makers insist they aren’t making again in recent weeks). India’s im- “India Shining”. Indeed, almost all from the benefits of globalisation its manifesto proposed a rejection money. age received a dramatic makeover of the English-language press in In- was just building up. Singh’s plan of the BJP’s “policy of blind privati- “We’ve been criticised for being too expensive, but you know the real- only in the early years of this centu- dia predicted a BJP victory. to set up Chinese-style Special Eco- sation”. In the months leading up to ity is Tregothnan won’t make money on Manuka Honey for many years ry, when the country’s protectionist The Congress party, then in the nomic Zones for foreign companies the election, the Congress-led gov- because the cost of having bee keepers and expanding the plantation,” economy, which was first liberal- opposition, seemed a bit forlorn, quickly ran into violent opposition ernment showered the poorest Indi- Mr Jones says. ised in 1991, opened up further to campaigning, as The Economist put from farmers facing eviction from ans with much largesse: a generous Part of the cost associated with making the honey is the hives. Look- foreign trade and investment. it, “as the party of India’s secular their lands. Plans to relax India’s loan waiver, and most importantly, ing like a castle and costing just about as much at $12,000 each, they’re With its “turbocharged” econo- traditions, as well as of the poor, es- labour laws – in other words, to im- the expansion of the National Rural specially designed to create an air-conditioned atmosphere for the my and its glossy new consumer pecially those in the countryside, for port the hire-and-fire practices of Employment Guarantee Scheme, a bees. culture, India suddenly became whom the fast-growing economy is American companies – provoked vast national jobs programme in- Living conditions like the poster-child for globalisa- just a distant rumour”. As it turned strong protests from trade unions. tended to lift millions out of poverty. these make the New tion among western politicians, out, the party found itself in pow- Since the last elections, the mili- Paradoxically, the left parties, which Zealand honey industry businessmen and journalists. It er, and Manmohan Singh, an Ox- tant communist insurgencies led are in power in the state of West look like a poor cousin, seemed not to matter that India re- ford-educated economist, became by landless and tribal people have Bengal, bore the brunt of populist but Tregothnan isn’t mains one of the poorest countries prime minister. The majority of In- broadened their base in central In- anger over their appropriation of out to compete. in the world, where more than half dians voted against incumbent pol- dia, prompting Singh to describe farmland on behalf of India’s lead- Last year the estate of children under the age of five are iticians, unseating, among others, them as the biggest internal securi- ing industrial groups. made only around a malnourished, and where failed strongly pro-business state govern- ty threat in the history of the state. Undaunted by previous let-downs, hundred pots of Manu- crops and debt have driven more ments in Andhra Pradesh and Kar- Singh’s government was obliged to The Economist hailed the Congress ka Honey, which is less than 100,000 farmers to suicide in nataka (whose capital, Bangalore, play by the “free trade” rules man- victory, yet again hoping for “lib- than 3kg of the stuff. the past decade. In 2006, Foreign Af- had become synonymous with the dated by the World Trade Organi- eral reforms” – this time in the fairs, the house journal of America’s high-tech “New India” championed sation. But it could not commit “country’s statist financial sector”, 3news foreign policy mandarins, crowned by the likes of Thomas Friedman). political suicide by lowering im- despite that fact that state owner- 3news.co.nz a series of ecstatic “India Inc” cover Arguing that “catastrophe for the port tariffs on foreign agriculture ship is what protected India from stories in Time, Newsweek and The ruling party need not spell the end products. Unable to persuade the the disastrous mistakes of western Economist by declaring India “a of reform”, The Economist declared United States to cut its subsidies bankers. The Wall Street Journal, Bee thieves swarm on valuable hives roaring capitalist success-story”. after the election in 2004 that “the to American farmers, the Indian which admitted that “the world Bee keepers are being warned to protect their hives against thieves This new idea of India owed much strongest reason to hope that India commerce minister spent much of economic crisis has reaffirmed the who are risking stings and serious injury from swarms to steal large to the post-Cold War ideological is indeed on the path to Chinahood his time at the WTO’s Doha Round views of many politicians and tech- quantities of honey bees. climate in the West. If the Reagan is the bipartisan consensus on the of talks in July 2006 watching the nocrats that the go-slow approach The new crime wave is being fuelled by the decimation of the bee and Thatcher revolutions renewed virtues of privatisation, deregulation football World Cup. Lamenting has helped insulate the Indian population, thought to be due to disease and recent wet summers. a belief in the “magic of the market- and opening to the outside world”. that the Indian government had economy from the vicissitudes of Bill Seddon, managing director of the Gardien security website, place”, the collapse of Communist But if this consensus existed, the “pandered shamelessly to its pro- global capitalism”, nevertheless which specialises in garden theft, warned apiarists: “We are receiving regimes provoked a millenarian Congress was forced to conceal it tectionist farmers”, the Financial called on India to continue “re- reports almost daily now of attacks on beekeepers’ properties across conviction among politicians and from the vast majority of Indians. Times wrote that “leading players” forming its archaic labor laws and the country. journalists alike that the world had In the next five years business pe- such as India have become “serv- perhaps opening it further to glo- “Recent incidents have been spread as far as Staffordshire and Whit- little choice but to converge on a riodicals like The Economist and ants rather than managers of their bal capital flows”. by on the East coast. These criminals who are stealing multiple hives single model of government (liber- Financial Times often complained domestic constituencies”. But this It is no easy job to interpret the re- clearly have knowledge of how to deal with bees and a lucrative black al democracy) and single economic that economic “reforms” had was to assume that a bit of manage- sults of the Indian elections, which market trade is emerging. system (free-market capitalism). stalled, blaming the Congress’s left- rial sweet-talking would persuade reflect many different tendencies “It’s a double whammy for bee keepers who are losing not only their It became a journalistic reflex wing coalition partners. But then more than a billion highly unequal and dynamic identities of caste and bees but a crop of honey as well, and with it their livelihood”. to credit economic growth and Manmohan Singh was unlikely to and politicised Indians. region in a vast and complex coun- The pollination of crops by bees is worth up to £200m a year to Brit- poverty-reduction in India (and lose sight of why the Congress won Perhaps this is why India receives try. But it does help to remember ish farmers and the indirect contribution to the food industry is esti- China) to their market reforms, the last election. When he assumed one-tenth the foreign investment that the neo-liberal free market, mated at £1 billion. as though the two countries had lavished on China, where lack of for all the private wealth it creates, The shortage of bees could create an eco-imbalance if numbers are done little in preceding decades democratic accountability has al- exacts social costs so high that, as further affected and this concern recently resulted in the government except lurch from one socialist de- lowed the Communist regime to give the British philosopher John Gray making a significant investment in the beekeeping industry and re- lusion to another. In fact, India’s generous subsidies and tax breaks writes, they “cannot for long be le- search. industrial output and GDP took off It is again clear to exporters and outside investors gitimated in any democracy”. It is Seddon said: “Beekeepers need to review their site security as a mat- in the 1980s, well before a foreign – and to swiftly suppress peasant again clear in the West that demo- ter of urgency. There is much to be done to minimise the risk and with exchange crisis forced the govern- in the West that protests and seize land as it likes. cratically elected governments, the value of many hive contents running into thousands of pounds it ment to invite outside investment democratically Manmohan Singh could not go as whether of the left or right, have to makes good commercial sense.” and deregulate private industry in elected governments, far as his Chinese colleagues in cre- urgently respond to the crises cre- He recommended good perimeter protection and lighting, plus 1991; it was also in the 1980s that ating a “business-friendly” climate. ated by unregulated capitalism’s CCTV “for larger sites where power is available. India’s poverty rate began its accel- whether of the left Ignoring western demands for cycles of boom and bust – indeed, “Hive lids should be secured with good quality padlocks and hasps erated decline – at more or less the or right, have to further liberalisation of domestic their very survival depends on their or secure braces to the floor, DNA property marking should be con- same rate as today. industry, trade and banking, Singh ability to restore checks and balanc- sidered and preventive signage to let the thief The liberalisation of the Indian urgently respond to kept many regulations in place. (All es. This is also what India’s last two know the owner economy, apart from boosting the crises created of India’s big banks remain state- elections have proved: a lesson the is security aware. corporate profits, also provided by unregulated owned, and were consequently insu- Congress and economic “reform- Insurance cover existential and ideological self-af- lated from the financial meltdown ers” in the West would do well to should also be ex- firmation for many western elites. capitalism’s cycles of in the west.) Continuously under remember until the next time peas- amined.” Certainly, among the Asian giants boom and bust pressure from his left-wing allies, ant Indian women in colorful saris converging on the western model Singh himself seemed reluctant to congregate before voting booths. Alan Hyder of modernity, India was more re- embrace the neo-liberal vision of Info4Security assuring than China, whose com- consumer societies full of self-seek- Pankaj Mishra’s most recent book info4security.com munist rulers adopted capitalism ing individuals. In a little-reported is Temptations of the West: How to while keeping a fastidious distance but extraordinarily revealing inter- Be Modern in India, Pakistan and Illustrations by Sarah Lazarovic for The National from liberal democracy. view with The Economic Times in Beyond. The N!tion!l 04 Friday, June 5, 2009 www.thenational.ae review Number of officially recognised religious sects in Lebanon th 17

Alain Aoun, the nephew of Michel Aoun and a candidate for Parliament, at his campaign office. Bryan Denton for the National Michel Aoun during his tenure as commander of the Lebanese Army in 1989. Joseph Barrak / AFP The Lebanese have embraced the trappings of western-style campaigning with such vigour and fluency that it is easy to forget that this is largely uncharted territory

→ Aoun, continued from 1 says Alain, speaking in measured until the present day. This despite opened a void in Lebanese politics, paign advertisements have sought Lebanon, and for Michel Aoun him- yet confident tones. “We chose our the fact that addressing the problem forcing political parties into a com- to depict an opposition victory as self – a primary symbol and champi- At noon on a weekday in May, Alain candidates on the basis of extensive of political sectarianism is a senti- petition to advance their own distinct utterly catastrophic for Lebanon, on of this resistance – who had car- Aoun’s campaign offices are bus- polling, so we feel that the results ment widespread among Lebanese visions for the future of their state. with billboards showing destroyed ried his war against Syria from the tling. Volunteers talk on cell phones will be positive.” When I suggest that of every confession and ideological Practically overnight, it seems, elec- buildings, tattered flags and omi- streets of Beirut to the halls of the as they weave briskly between rooms, the outcome of Baabda’s election persuasion. “Something drastic has tions suddenly matter, and the Leba- nous warnings of the ruin that will US Congress. Born to working class handing out press materials and could be decisive in determining the to be done,” says Alain Aoun, “and nese have embraced the trappings of be brought down upon the heads of parents nine years after the estab- schedules. Along one wall is a swath national majority – 65 seats out of a we are the people who will do it.” Western-style campaigning – relent- the Lebanese should Hizbollah and lishment of the Lebanese Republic, of campaign posters displaying the 128-seat parliament – Alain demurs: While the FPM is not the only party less polling, sophisticated messag- the FPM prevail. Aoun joined the Lebanese army in faces of the Change and Reform can- “Our numbers put us in a very good to have released an electoral platform ing and televised rallies – with such Despite the attempts of both coa- the mid-1950s and rose up through didates for the mixed-constituency position across the country, not just (just as it is not the only party calling vigour and fluency that it is easy to litions to project a nationalist and the ranks to become its youngest district of Baabda, a narrow strip in Baabda. I think the FPM and our for the separation of religion from forget that this is largely uncharted multiconfessional image, there is commander-in-chief at the age of extending from the coast just south allies in Change and Reform will win politics), it has led the way in the ef- territory. no mistaking the efforts to exploit 49. During the waning years of the of Beirut into the surrounding hills, around thirty-five to forty seats, if not fort to make this an election of issues, While the traditional bases of Leb- old sources of sectarian, tribal and civil war, Aoun was appointed prime where the 37-year-old Aoun, a neph- more. In that case, we’ll be the big- rather than a one-dimensional refer- anon’s Sunni and Shiite parties re- clan loyalties in order to court votes, minister of a military government ew of the general, is running for a gest bloc in parliament.” endum on Lebanon’s sovereignty main secure, the fight for the Chris- especially among Christians. At the by the outgoing president, Amin Ge- parliamentary seat. Both the majority and the opposi- and its independence from Syria, as tian swing vote has been particularly end of the day, the 2009 elections mayel, a move that was challenged A telecommunications engineer by tion are looking to these elections as was the case in 2005. This effort has intense, creative, and expensive. will, in a way, test the persistence of by the Syrian-backed prime min- training, the candidate – who bears a an opportunity to secure a clear man- succeeded in certain respects, as at- Roadways within the Christian areas these loyalties, as partnerships are ister, Salim al Hoss. As the conflict strong resemblance to his uncle but date after the political morass of the tested by the proliferation of other of the country have been positively struck between the unlikeliest of al- deepened, Aoun declared a “war of projects a rather more circumspect past four years, characterised by war, party platforms, elaborated with blanketed with billboards, becom- lies and unfamiliar ideologies are liberation” against the Syrian army, and bookish air – sits at a large ta- instability, and paralysis at the high- varying degrees of detail and polish. ing the stage upon which a provoca- tried on for size. and the two sides waged destructive ble in a makeshift conference room est levels of government. The FPM’s Between 1990 and 2005, when elec- tive and witty discourse of messag- artillery battles in Beirut for several with exposed rafters and loose wir- campaign has taken “change” as its tions were formalities rigged by Syria ing has played out. The FPM cam- ≥≥≥ months. ing. Covering a wall behind him is mantra, depicting March 14 and its and boycotted or ignored by most of paign has relentlessly assailed the No alliance of the post-Syrian era has In October 1990, Aoun’s fight an enormous map of Baabda with vaunted “Cedar Revolution” of 2005 the electorate, political platforms stewardship of the present govern- been more surprising than the pact against the Syrian military occu- colour-coded annotations scribbled as so much window dressing on the were largely nonexistent. But the end ment, pushing a one-note message between the reform-minded Chris- pation ended in defeat and exile. alongside the names of towns and vil- same old class of politicians who of the Syrian occupation in April 2005 of change, while March 14’s cam- tian secularists of the FPM and the Under siege in the presidential pal- lages, corresponding to some kind of previously collaborated with (and conservative Shiite Islamists of Hiz- ace on the morning of October 13, campaign strategy. He squints at his profited from) the Syrian occupation bollah. On February 6, 2006, the two he reportedly made his decision own handwriting in a leather-bound of Lebanon. Michel Aoun and his parties held a joint press conference to surrender after hearing Syrian agenda, scanning his appointment allies blame this political establish- in which they announced the signing warplanes over Beirut, a clear sign schedule for the rest of the week: ment for the state’s massive public of a Memorandum of Understand- that the assault on his forces had meetings at municipalities and the debt, the rampant corruption and in- ing. The document, developed over received the approval of the United homes of local families, after-church efficiency, and the lack of a clear plan a period of several months by senior States – whose ally, Israel, control- coffee hours, press conferences, to resolve Lebanon’s many systemic officials from both sides, outlined a led Lebanese airspace. Through the campaign rallies in the larger towns problems, while presenting them- common vision on 10 issues, includ- mediation of the French embassy, of the district, and more. “The strat- selves – the perennial outsiders of ing electoral reform, Lebanese-Pal- he was eventually allowed to leave egy is basically to see as many people Lebanese politics – as the only party estinian relations and the matter the country, thereby removing one as possible,” says Alain. “We’re con- truly committed to challenging the of Hezbollah’s weapons. The press of the last effective obstacles to the stantly moving.” status quo. “Our goal is to overhaul conference – held for symbolic rea- coming Pax Syriana. Four years ago, March 14 won this the entire system,” says Alain Aoun. sons at a church near the old war- For 15 years, Aoun continued to district with the help of an electoral “Because we’ve never been in power, time border between East and West direct the struggle against Syria law that joined it with a neighbour- we don’t have this built-in sense of Beirut – was reportedly the first time from Paris. In Lebanon, the resist- ing region under the political sway which reforms are politically correct that Michel Aoun and Hassan Nas- ance was diffuse. “There was noth- of the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt. and which are supposedly off limits. rallah had ever met in person. ing called the Free Patriotic Move- The law, in an ironic twist, had been We’re going to move forward with The announcement stunned the ment at that time,” according to drafted for the 2000 elections by Gha- our programme, no matter what.” country. Many young FPM partisans, Ziad Abs, a member of the FPM’s zi Kanaan, Syria’s chief intelligence He pauses, fixes me with a serious as well as members of leftist parties political bureau, who says he was ar- officer in Lebanon, with the primary stare, and adds: “Like a bulldozer.” and opponents of political sectarian- rested at least 30 times by the Leba- aim of ensuring the rise of yet anoth- The FPM programme gestures less ism, considered it a courageous step nese security services. “We were er puppet government subservient towards an incremental approach by two parties eager to put a long his- a bunch of student groups, social to Damascus. Still in place in 2005, it for reforming the existing power tory of antagonism behind them. clubs and professional associations helped return some of the very same structure than towards a replace- For others – including many FPM that weren’t aware of each other at players to power, albeit on the back ment of the foundations upon which supporters who were already uneasy all. When we did meet members of a strongly anti-Syrian platform, the state apparatus rests – hence the with their party’s opposition to the from other groups, it was usually in due to the public outcry against the grand title, “The Third Republic”. burgeoning March 14 movement jail.” Young, middle-class, mostly murder of Rafik Hariri. Lebanon’s Second Republic was – the memorandum with Hizbol- Christian professionals who had One of the principal features of established after the end of the civil lah was a step too far. Joining forces congregated in university organisa- the “Ghazi Kanaan Law”, as it has war, and its founding document with a party long regarded as a proxy tions in the shadow of the Lebanese disparagingly been dubbed by the – the Ta’if Accord – maintained the of Syria and Iran and dismissively la- political establishment became a Aounists, was the drawing of dis- sectarian nature of the political sys- belled a “terrorist organisation” by major source of support for the bur- tricts in such a way that would mar- tem while simultaneously calling for Aoun as recently as 2003, proved too geoning Aounist movement. In the ginalise the effect of the Christian the eventual elimination of political much for some to stomach. In the absence of a political organisation, vote, with the intention of curtailing sectarianism through the creation of words of one disillusioned support- resistance to the Syrian occupation the largely Christian resistance to a senate and the adoption of a non- er – a relative of mine – the decision became a fervent moral cause. the Syrian occupation. Since then, confessional electoral law. None of was “incomprehensible”. “When The atmosphere of intimidation the passage of a new electoral law these reforms have ever been pur- Aoun returned in 2005, we were ec- during the 1990s forced the move- with smaller, more confessionally sued, and the system of patronage static,” he said. “We gave him all of ment’s leadership to meet abroad, homogeneous districts has changed politics and the concomitant cor- our support. Now look what he’s where, in 1996, the Free Patriotic the dynamics of the competition in ruption and mismanagement that it gone and done.” Movement was officially established places like Baabda, leading the FPM facilitated in virtually every govern- It was indeed an astonishing turn under the presidency of Aoun. to believe that it can sweep the dis- ment sector – from the public school for a movement established as the Meanwhile, the Syrian-Saudi con- trict’s six seats. system to the electricity authority to An FPM billboard in Beirut reads “49 billion dollars have disappeared”, a vanguard of Christian resistance dominium in Lebanon had ushered “The numbers look very good,” the judicial branch – have persisted reference to the state’s massive public debt. Bilal Hussein / AP Photo against the Syrian domination of in a period of stability, facilitating
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reconstruction efforts and enabling Emile Lahoud’s term in 2007. There talks since 2000 have all put the issue need to fi ght corruption, or that we the FPM sits on the precipice of ob- the rise of a powerful prime minister may be some truth to this theory, par- of the resistance on the table – what need to protect our environment?” taining power, the unbounded argu- in Rafi k Hariri. Lebanon’s apparent ticularly in light of recent revelations is unique about the FPM approach asks Alain Aoun. “The March 14 forc- ments on its no-frills website retain economic revival led many to con- that Aoun had come to an agreement ! 
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is the degree to which it seems to be es have made Hizbollah’s weapons the air of an aggrieved and strident clude that Syrian tutelage was an ac- with the Syrian regime in April 2005, based on a willingness to give Hiz- their only issue while they neglect underground opposition – the legacy ceptable price to pay for stability; as stipulating that he could return to (

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bollah an equal stake in articulating every other problem in the country, of a movement that fi rst took shape such, the FPM – with its message of Lebanon as long as he did not join #
 

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a vision for producing long-term sta- from the public debt to the electric- as a diffuse network of ideologically- implacable opposition to Syria – had the March 14 chorus calling for the 


bility in Lebanon. ity blackouts. We have a different ap- committed university students and little tangible presence in Lebanese impeachment of the pro-Syrian La- “The Memorandum of Under- proach.” young professionals. politics and no international profi le, houd – with the presumption that 

 
standing was not thrown together Just as discussions among fiery even as the movement became in- Aoun expected to be ushered in as 




haphazardly for electoral reasons,”  partisans on the American liberal creasingly organised and attracted the obvious replacement. With the says Ziad Abs, who was one of the What lies ahead for Lebanon? If the political site Daily Kos are infi nitely growing support. fast lane to the presidency blocked 
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two FPM offi cials who helped draft past four years are any indication, more expressive of the current state This state of affairs changed entire- by Syria, the theory goes, Aoun had '#



the agreement. “We had many long the election result is unlikely to lead of Democratic Party politics in the ly in 2003 when America sought to to fi nd an alternate route to fulfi l his  


discussions, sometimes very tough to a brisk and decisive changing of United States than any staid election enlist Syria’s participation in its Iraq presidential ambitions. ones, with Hizbollah before we were the guard. Due to the tortuous nature platform, the debates in The Orange war effort. Syria’s refusal, coupled This account of political manoeu-  $

 
all satisfi ed. Every single paragraph, of consensual politics, the choice of Room provide an expansive window with the rise of the neoconservatives vring during the heady days of 2005,  "
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every word, was given to both par- a prime minister and the formation on the identity and evolution of the in Washington, opened up a space for however, tends to ignore Aoun’s ties’ leaderships, who then made of the government are likely to take FPM, through the opinions, aspi- Aoun to plead his case for Lebanese longstanding distaste for the parties ,
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revisions which had to be checked time and require extensive delibera- rations and grievances of its core sovereignty before the Bush admin- who rode the surge of anti-Syrian  $



with the other side, and so on and tion. The nationwide stupor brought supporters. Its pages abound with istration. Travelling to the US that sentiment into power. The FPM view ! )

(+" so forth. The whole process took on by election fever – with all its unabashed veneration of General year, Aoun hailed the Iraq war and of the political fi gures who led March months.” promises of change and renewal – is Aoun (referred to affectionately as urged the Americans not to stop in 14 – above all, the Hariri family and Alain Aoun says that the experience bound to be followed by a rude awak- “GMA”), undying scorn for the lead- Baghdad, saying “There are despots Walid Jumblatt – regarded them as of drafting the agreement brought ening when politics resume their ers of March 14, and even fierce throughout the region that may fall little better than the Syrian occupi- the two parties closer together, and usual course on June 8. criticism of the FPM’s own electoral like dominoes... The American ac- ers themselves. To Aoun and his par- that the resulting bond has already This should not distract from the allies whenever they appear to devi- tion may bring the Middle East into ty, Rafi q Hariri was an unambiguous translated into tangible returns. underappreciated reality that Leba- ate from the Aounists’ principles. the 21st century.” Aoun himself testi- symbol of the corruption and crony- “What we’re trying to do is build non is in a process of significant Following the recent disagreement fi ed before Congress in favour of the ism of the Syrian era, and the primary trust,” says Alain. “If we disagree change. Having emerged from the between Aoun and the Amal leader Syria Accountability and Lebanese benefi ciary of the Ta’if Accord, which about something, they are not going deep freeze of post-civil war recon- Nabih Berri over whose candidates Sovereignty Restoration Act, calling had redistributed power within both to accuse us of being Zionist collabo- struction and the tutelage of the Syr- should contest the southern district for an end to the Syrian presence in the legislative and executive branch- rators. Take Nahr al-Bared,” he says, ian era, a national debate about vari- of Jezzine, furious Orange Room Lebanon – now termed an “occupa- es of government at the expense of referring to the Palestinian refugee ous existential issues is beginning denizens complained for days about tion” by the US government. Lebanese Christians. Relegating his camp in northern Lebanon where to take place. Questions about the the ingratitude of their allies, citing Aoun’s hopes were realised a year party to serve as just another stand- the Lebanese Army fought a bloody viability of the consociational sys- the sacrifi ces they believed the FPM and a half later, when massive dem- ard-bearer for the Cedar Revolution three-month war with an armed Is- tem, reform of the electoral law, and had made for the broader opposi- onstrations following the assassina- led by Hariri’s son Saad proved to be lamist group called Fatah al Islam. a credible defence strategy, among tion cause. tion of Rafik Hariri in Beirut led to highly disagreeable to Aoun, who “Hizbollah was completely against others, are beginning to be asked The Aounist forums bring home the resignation of the puppet govern- considered himself – by virtue of his the army going into the camps, and with increasing urgency, partly be- the point – evident in the party’s elec- ment and the departure of the Syrian status as the most popular Christian even called it a ‘red line’. For the cause – for the fi rst time in decades toral rhetoric but more conspicuous Army. Aoun returned to Lebanon in leader in Lebanon – entitled to lead FPM, there was absolutely no ques- – the Lebanese are in a position to in the candid discussions between triumph on May 7, 2005, ten days such a movement. tion that the army had to intervene, answer them. its partisans – that the FPM seems after the last Syrian soldier stepped Supporters of the alliance, on the and we told that to Hizbollah. They The end of the Syrian occupation to occupy a hybrid position, some- over the border. Within weeks, Leba- other hand, suggest that it is a long- backed off, and the army went in.” unleashed a surprisingly vibrant where between a traditional Leba- non’s first free parliamentary elec- term strategy based on a perceptive Critics of the FPM argue that its and energetic debate among ordi- nese confessional party orientated tions in decades saw the victory of reading of regional and domestic po- agreement with Hizbollah is based nary Lebanese, much of it carried around a single charismatic leader, the March 14 coalition in a power- litical trends. Ghassan Moukheiber, on a naive reading of the Shiite par- out on blogs, online news and social and a modern political movement sharing agreement with the coun- an MP in Aoun’s Change and Reform ty’s intentions and its raison d’être. networking sites, and internet chat committed to certain ideological try’s two Shiite parties, Hizbollah Bloc, argues that “for the last few “If you came to Hizbollah and of- forums. Most of the political par- principles. Listening to the Aounists and Amal. The Change and Reform years, the General has gone through fered more political power for the ties now maintain online message- talk amongst themselves it remains Bloc – which comprised Aoun’s FPM a realist phase. He looks at the po- Shiites in exchange for giving up boards, none larger than The Orange hard to determine whether their and several (mostly Christian) al- litical situation here from a different their arms, they would shoot it down Room, a garrulous and impassioned fervent wish is for a new Christian lies – won 21 seats, greatly surpass- perspective than he used to.” Accord- in a second,” says Michael Young, community of Aoun obsessives. strongman in the form of Michel ing expectations. However, when ing to Moukheiber, Aoun has come the opinion editor of the Daily Star. Established in 2004, the site has a Aoun or for the secularist agenda talks broke down between Aoun and to the realisation that the best way “Hizbollah is a party that needs in- membership of 18,000 users, and has that he espouses. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora over to solve Lebanon’s problems “is to stability to survive. So, a project of registered nearly 800,000 comments In its present role in the opposi- the number of ministerial portfolios bring everyone to the table, without exchanging arms for political stabil- over 25,000 threads. On any given tion, it has been easy for the FPM to accorded to the FPM in the national isolating anyone”. ity is not in their interests.” This line day, thousands of people log on to de- criticise the majority without bear- unity government, Aoun decided to This strategy, which represents of argument is hardly unfamiliar to bate a wide range of issues, from the ing responsibility for the decisions withdraw entirely and remain in par- a dramatic shift in the FPM’s po- the Aounists, whose position on Hiz- latest speech by Hassan Nasrallah (or of government. But if the party pre- liamentary opposition. Less than a litical orientation, might be called bollah was, for years, very similar to “SHN”, as he is known on the site) to vails on June 7 and takes a decisive year later, the Memorandum of Un- compassionate containment. Rec- Young’s. Even today, one senses that the wiretapping scandal surround- role in shaping the legislative agen- derstanding with Hizbollah was an- ognising that any attempt to disarm the old instincts are never that far ing Aoun’s son-in-law Gebran Bassil, da for the next four years, all eyes will nounced. Hizbollah by force would lead to civil beneath the surface – particularly the current telecommunications be on the FPM to see if it wields the Explanations for why the FPM de- war, the FPM has sought to situate among the FPM’s electoral base – but minister. In the run-up to the present authority it has long sought to enact cided to formulate its memorandum the process of disarmament within that the party is willing to tread water election, which has understandably far-reaching reforms – or if the party with Hizbollah are manifold. A com- a larger political framework while on the question of Hizbollah’s weap- dominated all discussion on the site, and its allies, safe within the halls of mon reading is that the relationship also coming to agreement on the ons as long as it has the latitude, and amateur political strategists and the Second Republic, fi nd its pillars between the two parties is based nature and scope of the resistance’s the votes within parliament, to pur- prognosticators have meticulously too secure to topple. entirely on expediency: essentially, military objectives. While this is sue its reform programme. dissected every aspect of the upcom- that Michel Aoun wanted to use an not the fi rst attempt by the political “Even if I agree that the weapons ing vote, arguing the strengths and Elias Muhanna writes the Lebanese alliance with the pro-Syrian camp in establishment to infl uence Hizbol- are a problem, how does that have weaknesses of individual candidates affairs blog Qifa Nabki. He is a PhD order to impose himself as president lah’s activities through negotiation anything to do with the fact that we and presenting elaborate analyses candidate in Arabic and Islamic Stud- of Lebanon after the expiration of – several rounds of national dialogue need a new electoral law, or that we of macro-political trends. Even as ies at Harvard University. The N!tion!l 06 Friday, June 5, 2009 www.thenational.ae review th books Were there that many vases?

The remarkable fact about the looting of the Iraq Museum, Hugh Eakin writes, is not how little it was anticipated – but how much it was forewarned In February, 2003, about a month and numerous books – for why volvement in military intervention before the invasion of Iraq, a former it happened. First, the Pentagon a legitimate one? American diplomat quietly flew to had made a blanket decision not These questions have no easy Baghdad to meet with Tariq Aziz, to enforce martial law or do ba- answers, and they are not directly Saddam Hussein’s deputy prime sic police work in Baghdad in the addressed in Rothfield’s book. But minister. A Middle East hand who days immediately following the his revelatory backstory of the Iraq served in the Kennedy and Johnson fall of Saddam Hussein. But more Museum crisis suggests that what administrations, William R Polk was important, no one in the Bush ad- he calls the “peacetime” orienta- on an improbable mission: he was ministration seemed to be aware tion of the American and British hoping to persuade the Baathist of the museum’s importance: cultural establishment may be regime to remove the unparalleled senior US commanders didn’t hopelessly ill-suited to countering collections of Baghdad’s Iraq Mu- even know its location. Such was the most pernicious threats to sites seum to Jordan for safekeeping. the level of ignorance about Iraq’s and monuments today. This was no mere whim. The heads ancient heritage that Donald It is a tale that begins not in of the Smithsonian, the Metro- Rumsfeld, when asked about the Baghdad, but in the nether-reach- politan Museum of Art, the British looting, could say: “the images es of Washington’s foreign policy Museum, the Oriental Institute you are seeing on television... it’s bureaucracy. As early as November of Chicago and the American Mu- the same picture of some person 2002, MacGuire Gibson, an archae- seum of Natural History in New walking out of some building with ologist at the University of Chicago York were to co-sponsor the project; a vase, and you see it 20 times, and with intimate knowledge of Iraq, the Jordanians told Polk they were you think, ‘My goodness, were wrote to Ryan Crocker – who would prepared to give the green light, there that many vases? Is it pos- later become ambassador to Iraq, pending Baghdad’s consent. The sible that there were that many but was then an organiser of the well-connected Polk had even se- vases in the whole country?’” State Department’s “Future of Iraq” cured private funding to cover the Yet as Polk’s ill-fated diplomacy planning group – with an urgent cost of packing and shipping the makes clear, in the run-up to the message about the vulnerability collection to Amman. With a US in- invasion, many people – not only of the country’s ancient heritage. vasion now almost certain, however, archaeologists and museum direc- Gibson placed special emphasis The three-day-long plunder of Baghdad’s Iraq Museum resulted in the theft of some 15,000 objects. Patrick Baz / AFP the Iraqis had other things to worry tors but also former US officials – on the Iraq Museum. “Even if the about. The plan went nowhere. had been deeply concerned about museum survives bombing, in the In what can only be a cruel irony the threat to the Iraq Museum. chaos of war it will probably suffer arrested and detained.’ ‘Coalition in heritage protection. (The Italian for Polk, more than a few of the Indeed, as Lawrence Rothfield major looting,” Crocker was told. forces must secure these facili- Carabinieri played a courageous Iraq Museum’s masterworks did shows in his new book, The Rape Around the same moment, Roth- ties,’ the memo warned, ‘in order and largely unheralded part in ar- end up in Jordan within months of of Mesopotamia, what is remark- field recounts, a group of American to prevent looting and the result- resting looters during their deploy- his visit to Baghdad. Early last year, able about the looting was not how museum officials and art world ing irreparable loss of cultural ment in Iraq’s Dhi Qar province.) I was taken to a cavernous ware- little it was anticipated, but rather leaders led by Arthur Houghton, treasures.’” In contrast, in the US and Britain, house in East Amman that was how extraordinary and numerous a seasoned former diplomat and So what happened? It is one of archaeologists, scholars and mu- stuffed from floor to ceiling with were the attempts in late 2002 and museum curator, wrote a series the merits of Rothfield’s meticu- seum officials have long been di- over a thousand Mesopotamian early 2003 to warn American and of letters to senior Bush adminis- lous account that it shies away vorced from the foreign policy and antiquities. It was an impressive British war planners. In recount- tration officials, urging them “to from a simple explanation. In- military arms of government. As a chunk of Iraq’s ancient past, rang- ing the little-known efforts of Polk move quickly to establish security” stead, The Rape of Mesopotamia result they not only lacked real in- ing from Old Babylonian tablets and others to prevent the pillage, for Iraqi “monuments, sites, and shows, again and again, how com- fluence in Iraq; they were largely and Akkadian cylinder seals to As- Rothfield, who is the director of museums” in any future US mili- munications failed, how signals ill-equipped to deal with armed syrian votive statues, Aramaic in- a cultural policy institute at the tary action in Iraq; the letters also were missed, how mutual suspi- conflict in any case. cantation bowls and Roman and University of Chicago, puts into called for the formation of a special cion between archaeologists and Since the looting of the Iraq Mu- Persian coins. Many of the pieces play some critical – and until now task force to plan how this might museum officials prevented the seum, the US government has be- were still labelled with their Iraq largely ignored – questions about be done. On November 29, 2002, formation of a more unified front gun taking steps of its own to avoid Museum inventory numbers; an the role of cultural expertise in 21st the group followed up with an Op- for dealing with the byzantine another disaster: some troops are even larger number appeared to century warfare. Ed in the Washington Post warning Washington bureaucracy. now given basic training in ancient have been freshly looted from Iraqi What ethical responsibility do of the grave threat posed to Iraq’s Within the Bush administration, heritage before deployment, and soil. And since the warehouse cultural institutions, scholars and ancient heritage and designed, Rothfield suggests, it was far from last fall the US Senate quietly rati- only contained those objects that archaeologists bear when govern- Rothfield suggests, “to ratchet up clear that, had the US Central Com- fied the 1954 Hague Convention for had been seized at the Jordanian ments adopt policies or take ac- the pressure” on the US officials The Rape of Mesopotamia: mand drawn up clear plans to do the Protection of Cultural Property border, the actual quantity of an- tions that may pose grave risks to who had received the letters. Behind the Looting of the Iraq so, the museum would have been in the Event of Armed Conflict. tiquities that had been smuggled world heritage – risks that they In fact, it was already well-known Museum protected. Following the looting, Of course, in an age of unmanned into Jordan – and across Iraq’s alone may be able to identity? What that Iraqi museums, along with Lawrence Rothfield ORHA officials were told that the drones, bunker-busting bombs other porous borders – stretched if the action in question is a contro- other government institutions, University of Chicago Press list of Baghdad institutions sent and unpredictable insurgencies, the imagination. versial war of choice? And in view had been plundered during the to Coalition commanders in late sceptics argue that these steps As we now know, on April 10, of such recent calamities as the Shia and Kurdish uprisings in Dh105 March “had not even been read”. will have little effect on the con- 2003 – exactly one day after Coali- destruction of the Mostar Bridge 1991 – attacks that should have And it was not until April 16, nearly duct of war. For many archaeolo- tion forces had symbolically es- in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the immediately come under scrutiny Nor did the matter end there. The a week after the galleries and store- gists and curators today, the idea tablished control of Baghdad by Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, in any serious effort to plan for a Defense Intelligence Agency, the rooms were breached and follow- that cultural policy needs to be re- tearing down the statue of Saddam is a categorical position against in- post-Saddam Iraq. But in case they organisation within the Pentagon ing days of punishing international militarised is highly suspect. The Hussein before a global television did not, in January 2003, the Ar- that had played such an impor- press coverage, that US troops got introduction of Human Terrain audience – the Iraq Museum was chaeological Institute of America tant role in making the case for around to securing the museum Teams in Iraq and Afghanistan plundered. On that morning began – a leading professional body for invading Iraq, enlisted Gibson to compound. Worst of all, weeks and – part of a Pentagon programme an unchecked orgy of looting that, archaeologists – sent a letter to the identify important cultural sites months later, looters continued to embed trained anthropologists despite the presence of American Pentagon, observing that: and museums. The Office of Re- to ransack sites all over southern in combat brigades – has alarmed troops nearby, lasted three days What ethical “Following the 1991 Gulf War, construction and Humanitarian Iraq, largely without any interfer- academics. More dramatically, in and resulted in the theft of some responsibility do archaeological sites and museums Assistance (ORHA), the State De- ence from American and British July 2008, the World Archaeologi- 15,000 objects, among them some in Iraq were looted on a large scale, partment agency responsible for forces; the US itself set up a major cal Congress passed a resolution of the most extraordinary remains cultural institutions, with stolen antiquities appear- planning the post-conflict stabili- military base at Babylon, causing urging its members to deny the of the early history of world civilisa- scholars and ing on the art markets in Western sation of Iraq, became involved as wholly avoidable damage to Iraq’s Pentagon any assistance in identi- tion. It was arguably the worst at- archaeologists bear Europe and the United States. We well. As the invasion got under way most famous historic site. fying ancient sites in Iran, on the tack on a museum since the spolia- therefore call upon the appropriate in late March – still a full two weeks Confronted with such details, one grounds that it might “provide tion of European treasure houses when governments governments to take reasonable before the Iraq Museum would be is tempted to regard the Iraq Muse- cultural credibility and respect- by the Germans and Soviets in the adopt policies or take actions to prevent such looting in attacked by looters – ORHA sent um disaster as but another example ability to... military action”. Second World War. And despite the aftermath of war.” Coalition headquarters a detailed of the abysmal mismanagement of Yet even rudimentary informa- a successful US-run amnesty pro- actions that may pose In late January, these various ap- list of sixteen “key Baghdad institu- the whole Iraq conflict (although tion-sharing can avert the unnec- gramme that recovered a number grave risks to world peals were supplemented by direct tions” that “merit securing as soon the book unfortunately leaves un- essary destruction of sites and of the most important artefacts in heritage? briefings with US Defense and State as possible”. explored the thinking of senior monuments; until cultural insti- the summer of 2003, about half of Department officials: on January “Had Gibson seen the list,” Roth- US officials like the repeatedly- tutions and universities confront the looted pieces – over 7,000 ob- 24, the deputy assistant secretary field writes, “he would have been warned Crocker). But in showing the chasm that now exists between jects – have never been located. of defence for stability operations very pleased”: how even prominent cultural ac- them and the military – and ad- Six years later, the Iraq Museum invited Arthur Houghton’s group, “The National Bank, where Gib- tors were consigned to irrelevance, dress the complicated ethical di- debacle stands as a key turning together with Gibson, the archaeol- son believed some of the muse- Rothfield suggests a more specific lemmas warfare poses for cultural point in the opening phase of the ogist, to the Pentagon to talk about um’s treasures to be secreted, is problem at work. In earlier epochs, preservation – it is unlikely that Iraq war – a kind of loss of inno- Iraq’s cultural heritage. Accord- first on the list, the museum sec- expertise in art and archaeology, the policy disaster Rothfield docu- cence, when even some of the inva- ing to Rothfield, the participants ond. The Ministry of Oil, which ul- whether in British Mandate Iraq ments so well can be prevented sion’s staunchest supporters first “came away from the meeting with timately was guarded, is sixteenth. or among US forces fighting in from happening again. began to realise how disastrously the impression that the Pentagon With a sense of urgency, the memo Europe in the Second World War, unprepared Coalition forces were had agreed to take steps to protect noted that the National Museum was considered a vital dimen- Hugh Eakin has written about for the occupation of Iraq. With the museum and sites from looting ‘contains literally thousands of sion of both military strategy and museums and the antiquities trade this shock has come a standard by Iraqis”. That afternoon, most priceless historical objects’ and postwar governance. Even today, for The New York Review of Books, two-part explanation – reiterated of the same group met with Ryan predicted that ‘[it] will be a prime countries like Italy and Iran have The New Yorker and The New York in voluminous press accounts Crocker at the State Department. target for looters,’ who ‘should be special paramilitary forces trained Times. The N!tion!l 08 Friday, June 5, 2009 www.thenational.ae review

th Amount, in dollars, allocated to cancer research 6bn in the 2010 United States Federal Budget Scientific American

The Nobel Prize-winning biologist Harold Varmus is a master researcher and a canny politician. Daniel Kevles considers the Obama adviser’s vision for restoring the dignity of public science The presidency of George W Bush was, on the whole, an unhealthy time for public science in America. Funding was part of the problem: the Bush administration’s devo- tion to tax cuts and penchant for expensive wars took away from federally-funded research and de- velopment, especially in areas not crudely linkable to national secu- rity. But what distressed scientists most was the regular dismissal of authoritative scientific evidence. Of course, every administration refracts scientific advice through a political lens, but the Bush ad- ministration raised the practice to unprecedented levels. At times it was nakedly partisan, subjecting potential appointees to political litmus tests. Far more disturbing, it persistently censored, distorted and manipulated policy-relevant scientific information and coun- sel, usually because it conflicted with its go-it-alone foreign policy or its fealty to the religious right and corporate supporters. Examples are legion, and they ex- ist at every level of decision-making and influence. For international observers, the most offensive in- stances were those in which dis- regard for objectivity poisoned foreign policy. Bush scrapped the international Anti-Ballistic Mis- sile Treaty for the sole purpose of building an expensive national missile defence system, despite the long-standing prediction of scientists and engineers that it could not work. He repudiated American participation in the in- ternational effort to combat global Harold Varmus receives the National Medal of Science in 2002; as the former head of the National Institute of Health, Varmus watched with dismay as George W Bush mangled science policy. Doug Mills / AP Photo warming, announcing in March 2001 that the United States would no longer abide by the 1997 Kyoto of his Council of Advisors on Sci- the time, cancer was treated exclu- An avid biker, he was well-known tions against know-nothingism to say. This does not, of course, Protocol on the emission of green- ence and Technology. sively with chemical poisons ap- for regularly pedalling the 12 miles that only require articulation now settle the question of what ought house gases. The first President plied to the whole body (whole-body from his Washington home to the because Bush violated them so of- to be done next: that’s politics. Bush had signed the agreement in ≥≥≥ application is why chemotherapy NIH campus in Maryland; in 1994, ten and so casually. Varmus, expressing his own com- Rio de Janeiro in 1992, but his son The Art and Politics of Science is an usually makes people feel awful). he was named Montgomery County In addition to these basic precepts, mitments on that front, wants to feared it would harm the carbon- engaging read, fascinating as a But precise knowledge of what has Commuter of the Year. Varmus puts forth several nuanced put global health high on Obama’s spewing American economy. And memoir of Varmus’s personal and gone haywire in a cancerous cell Of course, managing a sprawling and compelling examples of how agenda. He finds it deplorable that though Bush eventually acknowl- scientific journeys, revealing in its laid the groundwork for “rational” $11 billion agency involves more the thinking of scientists can influ- the United States gives less for- edged that global warming was account of his stewardship of the targeting of the disease. Even now, than being a nice guy on a bike, or ence basic policy decisions. For ex- eign aid (in terms of percentage of occurring, his administration cast NIH. The book is like the man – hon- 20 years after Varmus and Bishop even being a brilliant scientist. It ample, Varmus’s NIH came under GDP) than any other of the 22 most systematic doubt on the broad sci- est and clear-eyed, thoughtful and won the Nobel Prize for their dis- means being a politician: deciding criticism from Congress for spend- developed countries in the world entific consensus that it is caused outspoken, always good company, covery, blunderbuss chemothera- how a finite amount of resources ing more on Aids than on heart – and that only 12 per cent of that by human actions. The breaking of with more than a frequent touch of pies remain the rule; the line be- should be allocated – then argu- disease, despite the fact that heart aid goes toward public health ini- Kyoto infuriated the world’s lead- humour and self-deprecation. tween empirical breakthrough and ing with people who have different disease killed 20 times more Ameri- tiatives. He notes with admiration ers: Bush was in effect asserting Varmus attributes much of his widespread practical application is views on the matter. In this sense cans each year. Varmus defended the efforts of philanthropies, most that the United States, which then success in life and science to having rarely straight or short. But Varmus science is always political, always the inequality of expenditures as notably the Bill and Melinda Gates emitted one-quarter of the world’s “been dealt some very good cards”. expects, quite reasonably, that the caught up in a broader discourse perhaps only an authoritative sci- Foundation, to fill the gap, but re- greenhouse gases, had the right to The first good cards came from be- future lies with therapies that in- about what ought to be done. One entist could. First, he noted that mains convinced that the Ameri- pervert the atmosphere covering ing born into a comfortable, edu- hibit specific oncogenes. One such of the tragedies of the Bush years is Aids, unlike heart disease, was an can government should do a great every other nation. cated family on New York’s Long therapy, Gleevec, is already avail- that “the politics of science” came infectious, easily spreadable threat deal more, incorporating global In February of 2004, the Union Island. After college he enrolled able: it is taken as a pill, is highly to mean exclusively “the distortion to public health in many parts of health science into its broader for- of Concerned Scientists issued a in a PhD programme in English efficacious in five different cancers, of scientific findings for political the world. Second, and perhaps less eign policy aims. statement declaring that the Bush literature at Harvard, but he soon and causes only mild side effects. ends”. intuitively, he argued that the inci- With an eye to Bush’s Emergen- administration had, to a greater switched to medicine, lured by the Varmus’s Nobel brought him Varmus is intimately familiar dence and cost, both human and cy Plan for Aids Relief (one of his extent than any previous Ameri- excitement of studying the body. In into the world of science policy via with just how impoverished the financial, of particular diseases are administration’s few scientific can presidency, “disregarded the 1968, at the end of his medical resi- advisory committees and the like; public discourse on science pres- only “crude tools for deciding how success stories), Varmus has al- principle that the contributions of dency, he opted to spend two years he enjoyed it, and jumped at the ently is. So he is sure to make clear to spend research dollars appropri- ready called for the allocation of science to public policy decisions doing research at the NIH, then an chance to head up the NIH when the baseline conditions he takes ately”. It makes more sense, he ex- $15 billion to the NIH by 2012 for must always be weighed from an appealing haven from service in asked. During the Clinton years, to be essential for optimal science plained, to place budgetary bets on research into diseases that afflict objective and impartial perspec- the Vietnam War, which Varmus the institute enjoyed strong sup- policy-making: merit rather than research programs that might reveal the Third World. He has also spe- tive”. When the President’s sci- “fervently opposed”; he and his port from Congress, which regu- partisanship in appointments, basic biological mechanisms and cifically instructed American sci- ence adviser, John Marburger, a fellow refugees from the conflict larly increased its budget above open-mindedness rather than the ways that these mechanisms entists to build more cooperative Democrat and respected physicist, called themselves the “Yellow Be- the president’s annual recom- rigid, religiously-motivated restric- fail. Mindful of how he and Bishop networks with their counterparts responded to this line of criticism rets”. It was at the NIH that Varmus mendation. Varmus was a popular, tions when defining options, and a came to discover oncogenes, he around the globe. Perhaps most by saying he knew of no “adminis- first developed his desire to under- admired director. Unpretentious commitment to relying only on ob- notes here that far-flung, relatively ambitiously, he advocates the tration policies that are in conflict stand the causes of cancer – in part with staff and straightforward with jective conclusions (not distortions slow-moving investigations of the creation of a Global Science Corps with science”, he was written off because his mother had been diag- politicos, he wore khakis, kept his of same) when making science-re- biology of yeast, worms, flies and that would place scientists from as a mere apologist. Eventually, nosed with the disease. collar open and made a point of eat- lated decisions. These are simple mice can yield as much practical advanced countries in laborato- the statement criticising the ad- He drew another fortunate card ing often in the agency’s cafeteria. principles, unexceptional prescrip- knowledge of human biology and ries in developing countries. ministration was signed by some from the deck when, in 1970, he disease as studies of human cells. In On May 5, Obama – perhaps re- 8,000 scientists, including 20 No- joined the staff of the University of the end, the budget was a political sponding to a high-ranking White bel laureates. California San Francisco Medical decision, but a deep understanding House aide, perhaps to Varmus, One of those 20 was Harold Var- School as a collaborator of Michael of the art of science helped make it perhaps to both – proposed that the mus, who had served as director Bishop. The immediate goal of their a good one. United States undertake a broad, of the National Institute of Health first project was to determine how One of the tragedies $63 billion, six-year programme of (NIH) for most of the Clinton ad- a microorganism called the Rous ≥≥≥ global health. “It is fair to say,” he ministration, and thereafter as Sarcoma Virus provokes cancer in of the Bush years is On March 9, at a White House press told a reporter late in March, “that director of the Memorial Sloan- chickens. This involved the daunt- that “the politics of conference with Varmus and oth- most Americans believe that we are Kettering Cancer Center in New ingly difficult task of detecting science” came to ers on stage, Obama announced lucky people. Even though we’re in York City, one of the world’s lead- whether, after a chicken was infect- a Presidential Memorandum in- the middle of a terrible downturn ing institutions in its field. Given ed, the virus’s small complement of mean exclusively “the tended to restore “scientific integ- at the moment, we lead much bet- his past position, Varmus watched genes was present anywhere among distortion of scientific rity to government decision-mak- ter lives than somebody who is the Bush administration mangle the thousand of chicken genes. Var- ing”, and to ensure that his govern- struggling in an African village, science policy and hamstring re- mus and Bishop were aided by the findings for political ment appoints science advisers and we have an ethical responsi- search with perhaps even more work of colleagues at several insti- ends” “based on their credentials and bility to do something about that. dismay than most. He wrote his tutions in the West Coast Tumor Vi- experience, not their politics or It doesn’t take a lot of our time and new memoir, The Art and Politics rus Cooperative, which they helped ideology”. The President explained money to make a big difference.” of Science, partly in the hope that form. By the mid-1970s, their find- that “promoting science isn’t just Neither a mastery of politics nor a the story of his experiences in sci- ings led them to the speculation, about providing resources – it is Nobel Prize in biology is necessary ence, policy and the intersection confirmed within a few years, that about protecting free and open to possess the moral conviction of the two would be of use to who- viruses are not actually required for inquiry... free from manipulation that helping people is right, but we ever would guide the nation after the genesis of cancer – that in many or coercion, and listening to what should take heart from the fact that the 2008 presidential election. organisms, including human be- [scientists] tell us, even when it’s Harold Varmus has all three. Now it certainly will: on Decem- ings, the disease is caused by the inconvenient – especially when it’s ber 20, 2008, Barack Obama an- perversion of normal genes into The Art and Politics of Science inconvenient.” Daniel Kevles, a historian at Yale nounced the appointment of Var- oncogenes, genes that enable cells Harold Varmus So far, so good: Obama wants to University, is currently completing mus, who had advised him during to generate tumours. WW Norton & Co listen to scientists instead of shut- a history of innovation and intellec- the election campaign, as co-chair This finding was revolutionary. At Dh100 ting them up or telling them what tual property protection. The N!tion!l Friday, June 5, 2009 www.thenational.ae 09 review th art

The present state of Plot 128-4, a humble 4,000 square metre patch of unoccupied land in downtown Beirut that will someday be the site of the Omani-funded House of Arts and CulturePhotograph by Bryan Denton for the National Monument valley

Is Beirut’s new cultural centre just a receptacle for impossible dreams? Kaelen Wilson-Goldie reports On the southern edge of downtown art museum nor a contemporary art wealth – in the form of humanitar- the next culture minister will be? which consists of four volunteers, existential but also transcendental. Beirut lies a tiny scrap of empty land institute. Public funding for culture ian aid, post-war reconstruction, or The second and third reasons to the director-general of antiquities How can the Lebanese cultivate a known as Plot 128-4. On one side, it is meagre, and there is virtually no massive real-estate investment. doubt the feasibility of the project Frederic Husseini, and the culture genuine interest in art? As the youth bumps up against the elevated high- government-sponsored infrastruc- But obtaining the funds proved less are structural and financial. The minister himself. are breaking away from family and speed ring road that runs parallel to ture for the arts. The city is home difficult than selecting a location. gift of $20 million from Oman is Talking to all of the different par- community, as they are becoming the coast and whisks traffic between to a critical mass of artists, writers, According to Mitri, “quite a few peo- barely enough to cover the cost of ties involved, it is difficult to ascer- disaffected by politics, where do East Beirut and West. On the other, curators, choreographers, theatre ple didn’t like the location in down- construction, to say nothing of the tain who is really in charge. Tam- they go? Where is the public sphere it slopes down to a small street, be- directors and filmmakers – but town Beirut. There was a strong money required to outfit and equip mam Salam, who succeeded Mitri emerging? We must create a venue yond which is a public square ar- when they present their work to the argument against it, and I was not a cultural space capable of hosting as culture minister, insists that the that breaks away from politics. We ranged around an enormous old public, they usually do so by borrow- oblivious to it. But I came to be an high-quality exhibitions and con- House of Arts and Culture is the must to use this house to reach out. Ficus tree. ing, renting or appropriating spaces advocate of downtown because the certs. The model mentioned re- ministry’s affair. “The representa- We have to reach the young.” A hundred years ago this area was such as commercial galleries, old House of Arts and Culture must be peatedly in conversions about the tive body for this project is the Minis- But the House of Arts and Culture, a suburb. Fifty years ago it was a movie theatres or derelict and aban- accessible to all: north, south, east House of Arts and Culture in the try of Culture, and it will be the Min- like so many unfulfilled projects, slum. During the civil war it was doned buildings. Under the auspic- and west. Symbolically, downtown is Centre Pompidou in Paris. But the istry of Culture all the way through. also seems like a receptacle for im- abandoned, and afterward it was es of Solidere, the downtown dis- the meeting place par excellence.” differences between them are vast, Certainly we imagine creating an ad- possible dreams. To read through destroyed: in 1994, the real-estate trict has been more or less cleared These plans unfolded against a not least because the project in Bei- ministrative council or a governing the brief that was prepared for the company Solidere, which was es- of culture in favour of commerce. By backdrop of political chaos: the 33- rut is a kunsthalle-style venue with board,” he adds, explaining that a architectural competition is to en- tablished to carry out the urban necessity and design, the art scene day war with Israel in the summer no collection and just 1,100 square few months ago, “we enacted laws to counter a litany of ambitions: to renewal of Beirut’s city centre, flat- since the start of the reconstruc- of 2006, the opposition protest en- metres of exhibition space; the govern the relations between differ- educate, to advance, to assert, to tened everything in this area except tion era has thrived outside of the campment that took over downtown Centre Pompidou, by contrast, is a ent institutions in the country and project, to lead, to influence. The for one building, a pink house with city centre, and it has established Beirut for more than a year, and the museum with a collection of 53,000 the government, such as concert House of Arts and Culture, like white trim that dates back to the its own infrastructure without sup- outbreak of street fighting in May works and 14,000 square metres in halls, museums and libraries.” Such many of the new cultural initiatives, French Mandate and looks like a port or interference from the state. 2008. At one point, recalls Mitri, “I which to display them. laws should allow greater autonomy art spaces and museums taking birthday cake. Plot 128-4 doesn’t The new visual and performing arts thought, should we go ahead with According to Angus Gavin, the for such institutions – including, shape in the Middle East, is heavily seem like much at the moment, oth- centre is unusual, then, not only be- this?” head of Solidere’s urban planning possibly, the National Museum – burdened with responsibilities that er than a 4,000-square-metre parcel cause it will be located downtown But a few months after the bro- division, who sketched out an early while keeping them in line with the relate more to the experience of citi- of tall grass and weeds. The neigh- on Solidere’s turf, but also because kering of the Doha Accord, which feasibility study for Plot 128-4, “$20 culture ministry’s regulations. zenship and modernity than to the bourhood is empty, and no one is it is being conceived and executed brought Lebanon’s latest crisis to a million is just enough to do a build- beholding of art. using the adjacent public square by a government agency, namely, close, Mitri travelled to Turin, where ing. But a cultural building? It’s not ≥≥≥ except for a single security guard Lebanon’s ministry of culture. he launched an international com- enough, and it will take another $1 Among Beirut’s community of art- ≥≥≥ from a private firm, one of many in petition for the House of Arts and million a year just to run it.” ists and cultural figures, however, “We have nothing,” says Rita Ragav- Solidere’s small army of enforcers, ≥≥≥ Culture during a general assembly Even if the House of Arts and Cul- there is little enthusiasm for the las, a lawyer with experience in her- who habitually stashes his newspa- Among the many development meeting for the Union of Interna- ture gets built, there is little to sug- project: few believe it will ever hap- itage preservation who is a volun- per, his lunch, a few coffee cups and projects that are on the drawing tional Architects (UIA). More than gest that anyone involved has any pen, and even fewer understand why teer with the organising committee a spare uniform in the gnarled folds board in Beirut, this one – variously 750 initial entries from 63 countries idea what will happen there, or the Omani donation is funding form set up by Mitri. “We’re starting from of the Ficus tree’s trunk. known as the House of Arts and Cul- came pouring in. how. At present, the centre has no (the building itself) rather than func- nothing and building up and it’s go- If all goes as planned, this humble ture, Dar Bayrut or the Lebanese- In March 2009, a jury convened in director, no board of trustees, no tion (the activities on the inside). ing very fast. I’m sure when we have spot will host a world-class cultural Omani Centre – is of relatively re- Beirut to consider 388 final entries, executive committee and no infra- Many of Beirut’s artists believe, the building and we start operating centre for the visual and perform- cent vintage. The idea was hatched and awarded the commission to structure whatsoever. The culture furthermore, that the strength of people will be happy, because no ing arts by 2013. But to envision the four years ago, during a conversa- an Italian team led by the architect ministry has no track record of carry- the city’s art scene has derived pre- one can imagine that we will have future of Plot 128-4, as at any other tion between Lebanon’s prime Alberto Catalano. According to UIA ing such a project to fruition. There cisely from the lack of state support. something like this, such a variety site in downtown Beirut slated for minister, Fouad Siniora, and Tarek regulations, the Lebanese govern- are no proposals for fund-raising, “Beirut is one of the rare instances of things, of styles. This is where we eventual development – including Mitri, who served as the minister of ment is obliged to contract Catalano staffing, programming or operating where you find forms of art that are going to see marvellous things. Martyrs’ Square, the Souqs of Bei- culture from 2005 to 2008. for his design – a seemingly minor expenses. Beyond the generic and are generated out of a need to ex- Other projects, those are museums. rut, the new waterfront marina and “The two of us thought that Beirut detail, but one that may be critical the vague, there is no artistic vision periment,” the artist Akram Zaatari Here you’ll have the action. This is the so-called Garden of Forgiveness, needed a concert hall, a museum of if the project is to survive Lebanon’s for the centre. In four years’ time, once said. “The current art scene the difference. Can you imagine? all of which have been in the works modern art, a historical archaeolog- frequent political storms. Plot 128-4 might become a beauti- was born in times when the experi- This a dream for us.” for years – requires imagination and ical museum, the revival of the na- ful building. But architecture alone ence of museums was being ques- But the artist Walid Sadek points a willing suspension of disbelief. tional library project and a house of ≥≥≥ does not guarantee active cultural tioned. The challenge was precisely out that Lebanon has an entire store- Imagine a building made of gra- arts and culture,” recalls Mitri. “So If the House of Arts and Culture ac- engagement. Consider the case of to look for alternatives to those house of projects that are planned dated white stone, oxidised copper I wrote a few papers. Fouad Siniora tually succeeds, it will be an unprec- Lebanon’s National Museum, which missing channels.... We have been and but remain unfulfilled, and and glass. Imagine a ramp zigzag- said, ‘We’ll never get the money for edented achievement. But there are was gorgeously restored after the civ- producing work without museums, that these projects are all somehow ging down the slope of the land like this here.’ It’s true. You can’t go to several reasons to be sceptical. The il war and boasts a comprehensive so why should we need them now?” symptomatic of a broken state that a scar. Imagine a design that gives cabinet ministers and ask them for first is political. Long-term plan- collection of antiquities. On any giv- The indifference of Beirut’s artists chronically, pathologically, imag- material expression to a notion the $25 million. These projects are im- ning is, in general, a luxury that few en day, the museum is empty, and as raises a thorny question: If it is not ines itself whole. “The reason we architects call “tragic optimism”. portant but maybe not urgent.” cultural figures in Lebanon can af- silent as a long-forsaken stage set. for the people who give Beirut its cul- can’t move on is because we are inca- Imagine a smooth flow between in- In early 2006, Siniora travelled to ford, as they are always facing the At the moment, there may be no tural vitality, then who is the project pable of mourning as a society, and I terior and exterior space. Imagine the Gulf to seek financing for these possibility of the next government structure for the House of Arts really for? What is its purpose and think the question we have to ask of modular exhibition rooms, two per- five cultural initiatives. The Sultan- stalemate or collapse, the next po- and Culture, but there are several does Beirut actually need it? all these projects is will they be con- formance halls, a cinema, a library, ate of Oman pledged $20 million for litical assassination or explosion, hands in the proverbial pot. One is Samir Khalaf, a sociologist at the ducive to mourning?” he says. “What a documentation centre and more. the House of Arts and Culture. Tap- and the next local or regional war. GAIA Heritage, the consulting firm American University of Beirut who is happening here is not a city but the Imagine these spaces animated. ping external donors for internal Lebanon is holding parliamentary that was contracted to conduct the has written several books about building of monuments. It seems we Imagine them popular. projects is nothing new in Lebanon elections on June 7, after which the competition. Another is Solidere. the city, argues that it does need can’t live in Lebanon unless we are For all the cultural vitality of the (though foreign money has histori- current government – culture min- Another is an organising commit- such an institution. “Art can bring in the shadow of monuments.” Lebanese capital, Beirut has never cally fuelled wars rather than muse- ister included – will automatically tee that Mitri created to shepherd together people who harbour all had an art space of this size and ums). Neither is it unusual for the resign. Who knows what the next the project from his term as culture kinds of fears and paranoias about Kaelen Wilson-Goldie writes for The scale. The city has neither a modern Gulf states to be generous with their government will look like, or who minister to that of his successor, one another,” he says. “It is not only Review from Beirut. The N!tion!l Friday, June 5, 2009 www.thenational.ae 11 review th

2009ADlast word

Milking a camel, Abu Dhabi, 2009 | Milk Photograph by Andrew Henderson Saudi Arabia’s got talent

Nathan Deuel watches the would-be famous queue up for the Kingdom’s first open casting call “You ready to rock?” asks Todd Albert Nims, his elec- Moments later, the first audition of the morning We all pour into the hotel corridor. In the lobby, wom- them what the show is about.” tric, American grin parting a week’s worth of fashion- gets underway. Todd and Ali have never met Khalid, a en who have gathered for the audition – either vying for As the candidates stream through over the next few able beard. We’re arrayed in a rented-out conference barrel-chested 31-year-old Saudi in a smart polo shirt, a part or just out of curiosity – are scattering, panicked. I hours – a 19-year-old Somali chattering with fright, two room. Looking nervous but resigned, the sad-eyed So- crisp jeans and expensive leather trainers. He’s simply see the slow, angry approach of the hotel’s general man- 35-year-old Saudis who painfully overact, then a cocky mali cameraman nods, the wiry Filipino tech fires up responded to the call, which was spread via Facebook, ager, a portly man in a yellow dress shirt as wide as it is Lebanese guy in his 20s whose jokes make no sense – it the klieg lights, and I sit back and hold my breath. e-mail and flyers. tall. Then I overhear Todd whisper to Ali: “I think it was becomes clear to me that, to some extent, Todd and Ali For the first time in its modern history, Saudi Arabia is “Can you do impressions?” Todd asks. just a girl kissing people on the cheek.” are trolling for basic competency. In the end, maybe the site of an open casting call. Standard in Los Angeles, Khalid begins to personify “Merito man”, a Saudi Perhaps carried away by the filmset atmosphere (or the they’ll be pleasantly surprised by the energy and dedi- Berlin, London, Mumbai and other cultural capitals, stereotype referring to a vain young mall-walker cruis- thrill of seeing boys), one of the female audition attend- cation of people they get. But for most of the day in this the auditions were being held at a Holiday Inn Hotel ing for female attention whose headdress is so stiff with ants had apparently begun greeting people in the Euro- hotel – already busted by the management, the women converted from a compound that once held the staff of Merito-brand starch he can barely turn his head. pean fashion, and nervous hotel management had put scattered – their characters’ dreams of stardom seems British Airways, which suspended operations in Saudi “That’s just great,” Todd says, guffawing. “I think a stop to it. Despite his hunky brio, Todd looks shaken. as far-fetched as the show’s chances itself. during the troubles from 2003 to 2006, when dozens of we’re gonna give you the part. You’re in.” We all file back into the room, where the humbled work I catch Todd at lunch. He tells me about being born expatriates were killed in bombings and gunshot execu- As Khalid exits stage right, Ali fumes. This is the first of artistic recruitment resumes. in Dhahran, the American child of Aramco employees. tions. audition! The American is moving too fast. “I was get- The next candidate is Daoud, a 36-year-old advertising College was at the University of Colorado at Boulder. But it’s 2009, and things have changed: British Airways ting excited”, Todd admits. executive. He’s half-Saudi, half-American and carries Then it was on to Los Angeles. He tells me if the pilot resumed flights to Saudi Arabia at the end of May; the Tensions soothed, Ali and Todd sit back for round himself like a teenaged grizzly bear, his great brown gets bought, he’ll make a permanent move to Riyadh. tourism ministry is making noises about increasing vis- two. But something is wrong. I witness the panicked thobe barely concealing his girth and mirth. He makes “You make a change here, you change a prince’s mind,” itors; the religious police recently apologised for cuff- entrance of Youssef, a slick-haired Saudi from Gulf eye contact with every one of us as he strides the room, he says of Saudi Arabia, shuddering at the memory ing a man who allegedly kissed his wife; and every day, Casting, the just-founded talent company running its acting out the bizarre antics of a teacher he once had. of LA’s shallow glitzville. “Then you can change the women at a mall in downtown Riyadh saunter the halls, first casting call. He begins whispering to Ali, whose “I’m not positive I’m a genius,” he says by way of con- world.” their hair uncovered. face turns white. clusion. “But everyone tells me that I’m a genius. I just At one point, seeking caffeine, I find myself in the Not only is Riyadh the site of an open audition, the “We’ll have to do it again, in a compound,” I hear Todd need to be comfortable to show it.” waiting room among the hopefuls waiting to be called call is being held to staff an intriguing project: “Almost say. After Daoud comes 17-year-old Ali, a diminutive upon. Boys and men in thobes chain-smoke and talk, a Rock Band,” a comedy about four 18-year-old Riya- shovel-faced Saudi with baggy jeans and the bearing of their sandals on the floor, bare feet tucked up under dhi boys’ quixotic dreams of becoming guitar gods in a skate punk. Sitting there slouched and confident, he’s folded legs. I make my way to the espresso machine and Saudi’s strict social climate. got so much attitude he can barely get his words out of fumble with it. An intense-looking Saudi from the cast- All the layers of meaning in this premise – and the a marble-filled scowl. “What can you do for us?” Todd ing call strides over to help, his fingernails rimmed dark casting call – are enjoyable enough, but they also carry The potential actors keep coming asks. “I don’t know,” the young Ali says. with dirt, and his lips dyed brown with tobacco smoke. a hint of danger. After all, this is still a country without Next is Firaz, 25, an articulate Indian national with Back in the audition room, this same boy, Saleh, is up. movie theatres, a place where gatherings of any kind, in not really knowing why they’re bold eyebrows and the square shoulders of an athlete. He’s 18 years old, and in the well-lighted room, he looks aside from prayer, can raise eyebrows. here, other than to get famous “I’m very good at mathematics,” he deadpans. like a kind of Arab James Dean. In Arabic, Ali asks him to Allaying my fears of a morality-police beatdown is Ali, “Nobody told you what the film was about?” Todd show us a scene. He strides around the room in agony, Todd’s co-writer, a hipster Saudi in his 20s with a faux- asks, seething. He glares at Youssef, who grins sheep- miming a scene of his own arrest with furious absorp- hawk, jaunty scarf and nonprescription nerd glasses. “I ishly. The potential actors keep coming in not really tion. It’s a riveting performance. When he’s finished, know the red lines,” Ali tells me nonchalantly. knowing why they’re here, other than to get famous. he flashes the would-be directors a blinding smile. After The guy has the real dope, or at least claims to. He’s an The casting agents, such as they are, struggle with the he’s gone, we all sit there in stunned silence, and for a employee at the IT department of mega-channel MBC. concept of standardised preparation, and instead seem brief moment Saudi Arabia seems as if it might indeed He says that when typical Saudi TV shows or movies are to play favourites, protect access to processes and gen- be what Todd hopes it is – an undiscovered country. in planning stages, the producers and directors simply erally keep things confusing. There are photo-copied pick their friends. handouts meant to brief each candidate, but those are Nathan Deuel, a frequent contributor to The Review, is “They don’t do casting,” he says, laughing. “It’s all on sitting in the other room, undistributed. Youssef makes at work on a book about walking from New York to New your looks, and who you know.” excuses. “Oh, they don’t speak English, so we just told Orleans.