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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 July 2000 Issue No. 489 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 July 2000 Issue No. 489
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region Focus International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Goodbye, little Columbus
By Fayza Hassan
Between 1962, when we married, and 1967, when we finally left for Australia, my husband and I gradually forfeited all our foreign friends as well as our lifestyle. As he battled with Egyptian bureaucracy to get our documents together for emigration, my husband took refuge in dreams of faraway lands. We would first tour Europe, he would say, poring over maps; we could stay in Paris, and maybe London for a while. One of his best friends and associates had settled recently in Milan. We could surprise him with a call and also go to Rome for a couple of days.
I watch, mesmerised, and listen to the anchor's breathless comments as the motorcade, worthy of a visiting head of state, takes young Elian Gonzales to Miami airport. After seven months of trials and tribulations, the little Cuban boy who has kept the world riveted to its television sets is going home, a normal boy returning after an extended holiday. Not quite, however. Unlike the children dying of hunger the world over and those falling victim to land mines and war crimes, unlike the wretched refugees thrown back to sea by law-abiding coast guards, Elian has managed the unbelievable feat of catching the attention of the White House with his predicament, becoming in the process an improbable pawn in the old game played by the American administration against Castro's Cuba.
An extravagant display of black limousines appears on the screen, captured from the air and dotting the Florida landscape like a procession of giant ants. I wonder if Janet Reno will be waiting at the airport to bid the prodigal son goodbye? Will Al Gore take time from his ineffectual campaign to deliver a dull oration, staunchly upholding a decision on which he obviously has no personal opinion? In a show of good intentions, will the national anthems of the two countries be played as the hero and his father smartly salute the flag?
And is Elian taking his menagerie along to Cuba? Whenever he made one of his quite numerous appearances on television, he was carrying a puppy, a rabbit, a lamb, a kitten and other assorted pets, a clear indication to the interested viewer that Elian's Miami family knew how to bring up a child properly. How about the tricycles, soccer balls, computer games and various knickknacks materialising on the screen and intended to show him -- and us -- what a good time he could have, if only he was allowed to stay in America? We need not worry, the commentator reassures us at once, Elian is taking all his expensive toys with him. No mention of the pets, however, as similar livestock is probably deemed readily available in Cuba. Besides, viewers must have noticed that the little boy did not appear to be really bonding with them, even for showmanship's sake.
Has Elian's departure been orchestrated to coincide with the celebrations of St Exupery's centenary? Is he Joseph plucked from the waters as well as the Little Prince starring in a revisited version, made in Hollywood, of the famous tale? Is America offering this spectacle of renunciation in order to patch up relations with Castro, or to show that it really knows how to treat illegal immigrants right, if only given a chance? All these questions remain unanswered, but more worthy information is coming up.
I am forever in awe of the uncanny aptitude of the American media to make the most of a mundane fait divers, turning it into a three-ring circus performance if they choose to do so. I am on edge, expecting a chase à la O J Simpson's white Bronco to develop any minute. But no, Elian and his retinue eventually reach the airport, almost like normal travellers, and the obviously disappointed cameramen train their equipment on the tarmac and the aircraft that will fly the little boy and his father shortly to Havana. Maybe the plane will be blown up; or are we to expect a Green Beret operation, with a burly combatant snatching Elian from the arms of his father at gun-point and handing him over to the Cuban-American community's official representative? The suspense is killing me.
Very much like Christopher Robin's friends and relations, Elian's American relatives are playing an important albeit obscure role in this opera bouffe, and can be seen at present, their arms loaded with small children and large bouquets of flowers, mulling nervously around the departure hall. One woman is sobbing hysterically, another is beating her breast seemingly in despair. Are these normal people who will later go home, buy groceries and put their exhausted and uncomprehending kids to bed? Are they mad, or just bad actors in a third-rate film? The anchor explains that the Cuban American families have lost their battle in the Supreme Court and have been forced to give up the boy. Is this the end of the saga, or do they have the necessary clout to mount a cloak and dagger operation similar to that carried out by the immigration officers who grabbed him in the middle of the night from the closet where he was hiding with his fisherman saviour? I remember that this ridiculous stunt was allegedly organised by Reno and her cronies, but no one gave a satisfactory explanation as to why the boy and his protector were sleeping in a wardrobe at the time of the raid. Were the friends and relations short on sleeping accommodation? Did the closet symbolise a fortified dungeon, or the belly of a whale? Wouldn't a court order have sufficed? All these questions, too, remain unanswered, but the viewers are treated to the well-deserved hero's welcome Elian and his triumphant party receive as they touch down on Cuban soil. And why not? After all, this little caper did more for American-Cuban relations than years of diplomacy could ever accomplish.
"You know," says my daughter, "none of this is real. It is a scenario dreamed up by someone in Washington to bring about a change of US policy towards Cuba." The age of information has come full circle. We may witness, almost first-hand, the smallest incident unfolding in the remotest part of the globe; but when the news flash is over, we are left wondering who wrote the script.
