Two funerals

Bad news all over the place began with the Pope's death, writes Dina Ezzat

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The week started in a melancholy mood. The papers joined the rest of the world's press in covering the final moments of Pope John Paul II and his death, and reflected on the sadness and tears of millions of Catholics around the world -- including in the Arab countries -- who bid farewell to a man they long perceived to be a symbol of mercy and freedom.

When the Vatican finally announced the death of the pontiff, the press shared in paying tribute to the head of the Catholic Church who was remembered for a pivotal role in helping the US win its long battle against communism in East Europe -- where the Polish Pope came from. The Pope was also remembered in some columns and articles for his calls in favour of cross-faith dialogue and ethnic tolerance.

But of the many articles that were dedicated to eulogise John Paul II one, that of Joseph Samahah in the 4 April edition of the Lebanese daily As-Safir, seemed the most interesting. "Two freedom fighters: John Paul II and Bin Laden", was the headline of the article that captured the similarities between a man whose death is being lamented by millions of people around the globe -- Catholics and others -- and another whose name will be forever synonymous, to the same millions, with images of a collapsing New York World Trade Center.

According to Samahah's perceptive analysis, while John Paul II and Osama Bin Laden, who never met, projected contradicting images to the world, they served the same purpose for the US during the 1980s, the last decade of the Cold War. In Eastern Europe and even in Latin America, which has a large Catholic population, Samahah wrote, John Paul II fought the US war against Communism. On a parallel track, and during the same years, the then US president Ronald Reagan used Osama Bin Laden to defeat communism in Afghanistan, then occupied by the Soviet Union.

"The 1980s was the decade where the US accorded support to radical and religious elements against the atheist enemy. The confrontation was at two levels with Pope John Paul II taking centre stage and Osama Bin Laden handling the background -- but equally important -- battle," Samahah wrote.

And as the world started to prepare for the funeral of the pontiff, the Arab press joined in. News pages were generous with their coverage of the details of tomorrow's funeral and published lists of expected participants from around the world.

The images of death and funeral inspired Rageh Al-Khouri, regular commentator of the Lebanese daily An-Nahar, with his article on 5 April "Two funerals".

According to Al-Khouri, Lebanon is now preparing to take part in two funerals: the first is that of the head of the Catholic Church and the second "which seems to be taking place in a sarcastic and open-ended fashion, is that of the Lebanese constitution that is being slowly but surely killed and buried by some of the officials of this dysfunctional regime."

For Al-Khouri, the failure of the Lebanese Prime Minister Omar Karami mandated to form a new government and the statements made by several members of the Lebanese regime indicating a possible delay in the legislative elections due to be held in a few weeks, is an attempt by the Beirut regime to procrastinate, as it is willing to use every possible pretext including, it said, "the difficulty to form a government while Lebanon is in a state of sorrow over the death of the pontiff." If this is the message, Al-Khouri wrote, "then we will not shed tears despite our great sorrow over the loss of the Pope but we will dance with joy as we expect to mourn the death of a regime whose policies are all but rotten."

Other writers lamenting the state of affairs in Arab countries more or less wrote the same as Al-Khouri. "The Arab scene today is in very bad shape. It is worse than it ever was," wrote Mohamed Al-Romeihi in the daily UAE Al-Bayan.

According to Al-Romeihi, the scope of the images of depression in the Arab world is extremely wide. He wrote that it was Lebanon, Iraq and Sudan that stood at the centre of this large and gloomy picture: Lebanese national unity is at a crossroads and not very far from the gates of international intervention. Sudan does not seem to have passed the path of international intervention, and Iraq needs no less than a fortune-teller to predict its future steps and the end destination of the rough path it has taken since the fall of Baghdad on 9 April 2003.

Al-Romeihi could not be described as exceptionally pessimistic. Throughout the week, the headlines of news stories and opinion articles alike reflected a sense of sorrow. "The weeks of danger", "Disturbing scenarios", "Threats of collapse" were just some examples on display.

The case was made clear by several Arab commentators. On 3 April in the London- based, Saudi-funded daily Al-Hayat, commentator and analyst Wahid Abdel-Meguid attributed the ailments of the Arab world to the failing abilities of its regimes that "have become too frozen" to act.

The inability of Arab regimes to act, argued Fahmi Howeidi in his weekly article in As- Safir of 5 April, is compounded by an aggressively implemented American scheme to bring chaos to the Arab region so as it to strengthen the control of Washington over this part of the world.

Meanwhile, the arguments of key Arab commentators were matched by figures from economic and development assessment reports issued in the Arab world and in the Arab press this week. Some samples: "The Arab Human Development Report warns of the negative impact of political freedom on human development"; "32 million Arabs suffer malnutrition, one-third of Arab men and half of Arab women are illiterate"; "The Middle East and North Africa need to provide some 100 million jobs by the year 2020"; "The public sector fails to accommodate increasing job-seekers in the Arab world and the private sector is not ready yet"; "Syrian youth await change from the inside and monitor foreign pressure"; and "The rate of crime increases in Algeria as fewer youths find job opportunities".