Tag: racism

Equality

In the last class of the last week of term in the TAFL Center, a teacher, Fatema Shokr, for the Egyptian colloquial class opened a discussion about discrimination in the UK, and as an example mentioned equal opportunities monitoring.  She put forward the argument that this is actually discrimination.  I tried to explain that although it might not be a perfect system, the purpose of it is to work against discrimination.

At this point, the teacher (Fatema Shokre) asked the Koreans what their nationality is.  At that they replied Korean. She did the same with the Romanian woman, who replied Romanian.  When my turn came, I replied British and at this the teacher (Fatema Shoker) laughed and then looked at the Romanian and they both laughed at me.

I tried talking to the teacher after the class, but she was angry.

If the teacher had told me she was upset with me, I could of apologized.  I was not asking for anything except that I be taught the Arabic language and I certainly did not come to Egypt with the intention to upset a teacher.

Perhaps I had said something offensive, something I had heard from my language partner (a scheme that she and TAFL had encouraged/organised) or from other Egyptians, which would of been both unintentional and perhaps expected as I had not been sleeping well (due to accommodation issues that the teaching staff were also aware of).

During at least one of the classes she had mentioned that the British empire had destroyed Egypt and I never argued with that (since I was not versed in that part of history).  Could that have been the reason?

My ancestors were poor farmers in the British empire, how is it their fault?  Even if it was, how am I responsible?

I came from England to Egypt respecting Egyptians, keeping an open mind, and I started to like Alexandria. Whereas the Romanian student hated Egyptians and the Arabic language (she even wanted them to adopt Latin script as the Turks had done).  Why so much hostility towards me?

During one class the teacher asked what I had done over the weekend.  I replied that the Chinese students had invited me to a Syrian restaurant in Miami (an area in East Alexandria).  She did not look nor speak to me for the rest of the class.  The same thing happened when she asked me to advise the Korean students how to find work and I mentioned that I use to know a Korean student of Arabic in Jordan who later joined Samsung, based in Amman.  Were these events somehow connected to her actions in the last week of term?

On the weekend of that same week I had become very physically weak due to an illness (caused by insect bites in the apartment I had been staying in) that had started earlier in the week and my primary focus became how to get home, (which never happened due to undergoing minor surgery in Jordan).

Later I tried connecting on Skype with the address she had given me, but she would not accept.  So I gave up and over time I lost confidence in returning to Alexandria or it just seemed pointless enrolling at the TAFL Center again.

A centre where it is ‘acceptable‘ for a teacher to abuse a student (because she is angry), perhaps especially if he does not come through some large organization such as the British embassy (or consulate), which of course is an entity they respect immensely, (albeit outwardly at least).  They even started celebrating the Queen’s birthday.

The abusive teacher once told me that her faith is Islam and she had studied the religion.  I believed her at the time, but from her actions I am unsure now.  Perhaps she should study religion again, but some place with high standards, such as SOAS or Sorbonne or Berlin.

Then, may be, she would understand the following statement of her prophet:  “An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a black has no superiority over white, nor a white has any superiority over black, except by piety and good action.”

In fact, for a short while (thanks to this jaahel* so-called teacher), I gave up studying Arabic.

*ignorant, low-life, like an animal.

(Levels of racism map built with SimpleMaps.com using data from World Values Survey).

Saudi Research & Marketing

HH Saudi Research and Marketing publishes and distributes a number of Arabic newspapers and magazines.

I joined one of these departments with an open mind and it seemed quite suitable as it required IT with Arabic skills.

After the first week things started to get complicated.  They wanted me to sign a new contract without my team leader knowing.  Basically, they wanted me and him to work shifts over the weekend.  I did not mind except that I had to keep the contract a secret.  This was silly because he would find out anyway.

My team leader had a low opinion of the director and the company, but of course he sold the role to me during the interview.  He mentioned how the directors and the managers of the various publications only got their jobs due to some connection with the Saudi prince (perhaps a link between their tribe and the royal family).  He also mentioned that the director of our publication had a low opinion of Egyptians and was a drinker (except when his parents came down to visit, which is also the only time he would visit the mosque).  He said he sometimes felt sorry for our colleagues in Cairo as they did not get credit for the hard work they use to do.

The director was impolite and sometimes rude, especially when I had not learnt everything from my team leader (fast enough in his opinion).  This was impossible as my team leader was often off work, mostly due to an ‘eye infection’.*

Things started to get annoying when one of the new members of the news team appeared to have some sort of sectarian agenda.  She said that she is Assyrian and I replied Syrian wow – I visited Syria, but she re-iterated that she is of ‘the original people’.  She spared no effort in informing me that the Turks had committed genocide against her people, forcing them to speak Turkish and converting them to Islam.  She also often spoke ill of Arabs and Palestinians.

In addition to that she disliked the gypsies in Britain and spoke ill of their culture.

Eventually, I understood that the crux of her issue was that during the Ottoman period, some of the Assyrians supposedly colluded with foreign powers (against the Ottoman Empire).  The Ottoman response was forced relocation to other parts of the empire (far from the borders).  Sometimes this resulted in a very large number of deaths.

Furthermore, in the 1930s, the Iraq army crushed a supposed uprising of separatists in the north of the country, but her hatred of Arabs went beyond the 20th century.

After the Arab conquests (of the 7th century), some people started to Arabize (adopting the language of the new rulers and in some cases conversion).  During the medieval period, this process accelerated.  Sometimes there was pressure or incentives.  Other times, it was freedom of choice.

A similar process occurred during the Roman period.  For example, for the people in the conquered lands, joining the army became a means of social mobility in the new empire.  The dominant languages were Roman and Greek.  And previously, under Alexander, a process of Hellenization took place.

Perhaps for these reasons, in the present day, most peoples of the Middle East speak a dialect of Arabic and are Muslim.  Other religions also exist, particularly various denominations of Christianity as well as other languages (although modern standard Arabic is the official language of most Middle Eastern states).

In addition, there were many Jews spread out across the Middle East.  In the twentieth century, many of them moved to Israel and abroad (Syrian Jews mostly emigrated to the USA), but some have remained, for example in Morocco and Iran.  Recently, in Alexandria, Egypt, a synagogue reopened.

The Assyrian working in HH Saudi also saw Arabisation as a period of persecution, which further explained her hatred of Arabs.  For this reason, she believed the Palestinians deserved what they got.

As listening to her was not bad enough, a newer member of the team was recruited and, after joining the debate, introduced himself as a non-Coptic Egyptian (similar to Omar Sharif?).  He claimed that after the conquests, the Arabs stole the lands of the Egyptians.  In his view, the Palestinians were not the only Middle Eastern people who had suffered in history.  So why should they complain so much?

Their Tunisian colleague contended this by saying that the Arabs established military compounds, such as Fustat (outside of the existing settlements), which literally started as army barracks and slowly, over time, developed into cities and sometimes capitals.

Over the course of 1,500 years the Middle East saw a lot of things and some were blaming a whole race of people or civilization for what one leader or ruler ordered or did not order or some thing that was definitely out of order.  Is it really possible to have surveillance of every citizen, police officer and army soldier (especially in a time of war)?

Due to the director’s lack of manners, I left this job and then realized how retarded and toxic the debates in the office had been.  Truly, that in itself was enough reason to leave the company.  A decision I should have made much sooner.

Since leaving, I heard that a director of another publication in the same company had also left.  However, unlike me, he had been sacked!  Sacked for trying to molest his new secretary.  Apparently, previously, he had done the same thing to somebody in HR and when she resisted, he had her sacked.  I also heard that he had subsequently gone on pilgrimage.  Why?  May be because of remorse?  I hope so.  Or perhaps because he is one of those retards who thinks that by doing some religious ritual he can be cleansed of any sin even if he goes back to the same sin again.

May be this is what happens when promotion is based more on who you know and has little or nothing to do with a meritocracy.

Alas, they will never catch up.

*later he confided in me that it was caused by gonorrhea and not conjunctivitis.