21 - 27 February 2002
Issue No.574
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 February 2002 Issue No.574 |
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Keeping tune
Amr Diab, Ragheb Allama ... Colin Powell? Nyier Abdou listens in as the US secretary of state takes the American media war onto music television
It was billed as a forum for "young people from around the world" to lob some hard- hitting questions at US Secretary of State Colin Powell -- America's dove to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's hawk. But the well- heeled, photogenic "Egyptian youths" participating in the global forum pulled together by the international music television channel MTV weren't much younger than many of the journalists who hovered nearby last Thursday at Showtime's studios at Media Production City, in 6 October City, where the programme was being taped. Nor were they any less eager. Armed with honed questions about UN sanctions on Iraq, the demonisation of Islam in the West and the Arab-Israeli conflict, these students and recent graduates were in a far better position than many an Arab journalist to press the veteran military general and diplomat up against the wall.
photo: Cairolive
The Cairo team: young adults jumped at the chance to fire questions at US Secretary of State Colin Powell last week
photo: Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect
Powell, showing a looser, jaunty side, was in his element among the crowd of smart, sassy young people gathered in the Washington studio. In between segments, he joked with the crew and audience members. In the jazzy intro to the programme, Powell was introduced as "popular across the political spectrum" and identified as a general, a fighter, an African American role model and, now, US President George W Bush's "right-hand man." Perched on a stool at the centre of an uncomfortable-looking amphitheatre setup, this was the political, newsy version of MTV's popular practice of offering music stars a cosy, informal setting to perform, usually acoustic (or "unplugged"). This was Colin Powell Unplugged.
Joining Powell by live video-conference were young adults assembled at six other MTV studios around the globe: Cairo, London, Moscow, New Delhi, Rome and Sao Paulo. The edited show, aired as Be Heard: An MTV Global Discussion with Colin Powell, appeared on 15 February in the Middle East on MTV Europe, part of the Showtime network, and will be repeated several times.
Lara Matar, the Beirut native who hosts MTV's only Arabic music programme, MTV Mashaweer ("Errands"), was on hand to host Egypt's segment, which served as the de facto representative of the Arab world. Glowing with the upbeat charm of a music television "veejay," Matar's kittenish mien was perhaps a shade too perky for the heavy topics being served up by the Cairo contingent.
Describing the US as a "country of countries," Powell deflected a question from a young Norwegian woman in London about the US being the "great Satan" by smoothly pitching America as the "great protector." Ticking off examples of this paternal instinct, Powell reminded listeners how the US "defeated Communism," along with Korea and Vietnam. All these interventions, Powell pointed out, were to protect people, evidenced by the fact that the US "didn't stay to conquer," but instead offered up democracy. The only land the US ever asked for, he said, "was enough land to bury our dead."
From here it was an easy segue into the US- led "war against terrorism." Defining terrorism as the taking of innocent lives "for a false political purpose," Powell demanded that the world "define evil as evil is." Here, Powell was on well-trod ground, paced many a time by US President George W Bush since 11 September in his efforts to build a far- reaching coalition against terrorism.
The questions from Cairo were not unexpected. On the topic of Bin Laden and his Al-Qa'eda (pronounced, inexplicably, by American leaders as "Ahl-Kiyduh") terrorist network, Powell was firm, noting that the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon fit the pattern of Bin Laden mapped by the State Department. Later, Karim El- Gemayal, an 18-year-old student at the Modern Science and Arts programme at 6 October University (MSA) lamented that he did not get the chance to ask why the US has not accused any Americans in the 11 September attacks. "It happened in Oklahoma," he said heatedly, referring to the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City by US Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh. Asked if he thought Americans carried out the terrorist attacks on 11 September, El-Gemayal conceded it was not likely, but fumed about the targeting of Muslims in the US, saying he had friends in American universities who felt under attack. "They're suffering," he said angrily. "People are avoiding them."
Far from backing down on Bush's controversial comment last month, when he lumped North Korea, Iran and Iraq together as an "axis of evil" in his State of the Union address, Powell embraced the moniker with almost a jesting reference to the "axis of evil club." Eager to acknowledge the plight of the peoples of these nations, Powell applied the supreme common denominator, saying that people of North Korea, Iran and Iraq are "just like Americans." This message of global humanity, he noted, is just what the US is trying to spread.
"There is no war plan on the president's desk this morning," Powell said, with his characteristic arched brow. "We're not looking for wars, we're looking for peace, for security." At this moment the camera cut to the Egyptian corner, where the students' faces were set in a dry, serious pose that verged on the bored. MSA's El-Gemayal was evidently unconvinced, saying after the taping that no matter how dovish Powell's portrayal, he was still following the American policy that has prevailed for years. "It's a war against Arabs," he said simply.
Powell also dug in his heels on the issue of sanctions on Iraq -- a sore point of contention between the Arab world and America and a question quick to be raised by the Cairo group. Praising the cooperation of Middle Eastern leaders and singling out President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah, Powell painted a picture of a popular front against terrorism in the region with only one spoil-sport thwarting that goal: Iraq. The US, Powell said, was working in a "multilateral way" to counter the "despotic nature of this regime." Speaking about how the US was addressing the root causes of terrorism, such as poverty, Powell admitted that though he was proud of what the US had achieved in this regard, it "has to make a better job of representing itself to the Islamic world."
The same might be said of the Islamic world in the eyes of West. Asked why she thought Egypt was chosen as the face of the Middle East, and not, say, Lebanon, or the United Arab Emirates, 18-year-old participant Jihane Fanous, a student at the American University of Cairo (AUC), suggested that Egypt was a part of the Arab world that does not have "that many" extremist elements. "[Egypt] is not as involved," Fanous said, referring to the heated conflicts in the region. "There's a more objective point of view." Because of this, she said, Egyptians are able to "be respectful" of world views.
Issues raised during the hour-and-a-half taping session roamed over world hunger; the status of the prisoners from the war in Afghanistan detained in the US marine base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; the US war on drugs in Colombia; the Intifada; HIV-AIDS; and the tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. From Cairo came the issue on the tips of all the students' tongues: Palestine. The answer from Powell was infused with feeling, but still advocated minimal intervention beyond bringing the two sides back to the negotiating table through a cease-fire. "The current policies are not getting us anywhere," Powell said.
From the UK, a young Israeli woman spoke up, countering Powell's talk of a "fair and equitable" settlement. "I'm Israeli," she said, "and when I go out with my friends, I am very scared." How, she wondered, was the US going to help ensure that kids in Israel would have a "normal life?" At this point, Powell's comments no longer seemed relevant to this political universe. He spoke warmly of his hopes that the day would come when "Jewish kids and Palestinian kids" would live in a society where they could go out with their friends, "with a smile on their face." Coming back down to earth, Powell said, more than once -- almost desperately -- "I work on this every day."
While the issues of Palestine and Iraq seemed to be dealt with in a stiff, almost forced exercise, some of the toughest questions came from the subcontinent, where the disputed territory of Kashmir is the prominent issue. From New Delhi, an young man dared to say what so few have: "I'm from Kashmir," he said, "I've lost many dear friends." Saying that the deaths due to the Kashmir conflict far exceed the casualties of the World Trade Center, he chastised the US for asking India to "show restraint." Isn't it a double standard? he asked. "Is an American life more precious that an Indian one?" Another young Indian woman accused the US of lavishing legitimacy on a "dictator like [Pakistani leader Pervez] Musharraf." Pinned down, Powell almost bristled when he said, firmly, that Musharraf was taking Pakistan on a new course. "We are not unmindful of how he came to power," he said plainly.
After the programme, 21-year-old political science major Karim Sultan agreed that the Kashmir issue had trumped Middle Eastern politics in the forum. Sultan was eager to impart the question he wasn't given the chance to ask: How was the US going to change its policy in the Middle East, before it builds itself another 11 September? Sultan spoke in a rush, but with the easy familiarity of someone well versed in the nuances of the subject. He said that Powell's comments on Palestine and Iraq were nothing new, "basically the same story," and angrily accused the US of trying to make Arafat "act like an Israeli policeman." This, he said, "was asking the impossible."
Asked if he thought the group of young Egyptians gathered that night was a representative sample, Sultan seemed exasperated. "Out of 70 million people, I believe there are people with stronger views." Applicants wanting to take part in the programme all submitted their questions ahead of time and sat for an interview. Sultan said he felt there was a lot of pressure to appear "serious" when the camera panned Cairo, but that ultimately, the group just ended up looking like a "bunch of vegetables."
Sultan was specific about one issue on which Powell was loath to touch: why people would do something as desperate and dire as 11 September. He offered that the forum was "a good idea" -- that it would help bring the Middle East into the spotlight. "Every bit helps," he said thoughtfully. "People are starting to question things." He added, however, that it was all very brief. Holding his fingers together and squinting for emphasis, he added wearily: "It's a drop in the sea."
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