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Category Archives: Society

On the Need for Balance In All Things

05 Tuesday May 2020

Posted by Ghada Chehade in Current Events, Political Economy, Society

≈ 2 Comments

balance

We live in a world and era that is very much out of balance. Imbalance causes problems and suffering. Balance is not some new age or airy fairy concept, it is the natural and proper state of all things in the universe. We need balance in all things, those within and those without, those big and those small. We need balance in the natural world and the man made world; balance in our societies and balance in our own bodies.

When things are out of balance, they cannot function properly–be it a plant, a human body, or a society. If farm plants do not get the right balance of everything they need to grow, bear fruit and be healthy, then they will not be properly optimized (i.e., they will be out of balance) for consumption and nutrition, in turn putting those that consume them out of balance. If the air has too much pollution, then there will not be enough clean oxygen for us to breathe, negatively impacting our lungs and our ability to live and breathe (literally) in health and balance. If society has too much poverty, misery and suffering, it will fall out of balance.

Some may believe that the social or man-made world does not require balance in the same way the natural world or human body does. That is not true. The social requires just as much balance, if not more so. Jean-Paul Sartre said that no man is an island. Whether we like it or not, we share this planet with billions of other human beings. Think of it like being on a ship full of people. If the majority of individuals are at the end or back of the ship, the ship’s weight will not be equally distrusted—it will be off balance—and it will tip and sink. Have you ever been on an airplane and asked to change seats, only to have a flight attendant tell you okay, but you have to sit on this or that particular side because the weight has to be equally balanced or distributed. Why do you think they say that? Because if the weight is not properly distributed the plane could go down; just like that ship. The weight on the plane does not have to be completely equally distributed. But too much on one end, and not enough on the other, and the plane could go down. And no one on board wants that; not the people in first class or the people in coach. Everyone is on that plane together, and if it goes down, they all go down; no matter which seat or section or class one is seated in.

The same is true of the social or man-made world. But the elites (what many refer to as the 1 percent) of today—and probably throughout history—fail to realize this reality. While you can gate yourself off from the riff raff and build entire walls and cities exclusively for the those at the very top, eventually what happens at the bottom will impact those at the top. To illustrate this point let’s use the notion of the body politic, but in a different manner than it has traditionally been employed. The body politic is a medieval metaphor that likens a nation to a corporation, with a corporation being understood as a group of people acting as a single entity. This concept is often used in discussions of nations or nation states and the authority or sovereignty of monarchs and leaders (as the head of the corporation or body politic).

For our discussion, I use that term to connote that a society or nation, collectively, make up one body, with members of that society making up the different parts of the body. While the rich and powerful may be the head or at the top of that body, if the other, “lower” parts of the body become diseased or dysfunctional it will eventually impact the head or those on top. This means that if there is too much disparity—especially of income and resources—and the “lower” parts become so impoverished that they cannot function in a reasonably healthily, and dignified, manner, this will eventually affect and infect the entire body. In other words, if the society is too unbalanced–with respect to wealth, resources, power, means, access to employment, health care–this disparity will eventually impact the whole body, including those at the very top.

Now, it does not have to be completely equal or even. It is inevitable that some will have more and others will have less. But when a very small minority have everything and the majority can barely survive—and if that minority creates, perpetuates, or exploits and feeds off of the suffering of the majority—then we are grossly off balance and have a serious problem. We end up with a body politic with diseased limbs, and a head that often exploits or creates those diseases in the first place. This is a foolish and destructive state of being, not least because what happens to the lower body parts will eventually impact the head. While the head may benefit for a while from the suffering of the other parts, in reality, a diseased or neglected limb will eventually infect the entire body. If not treated, the outcome is eventual death.

Capitalism in its present form is a socio-economic system that would rather chop off its diseased limbs and hobble itself than feed and nourish those limbs to prevent disease in the first place. It is a system that believes it profits from the malnourishment and suffering of those limbs. And in the short term it does profit; financially that is. But remember that unbalanced ship. Eventually even those at the very front of the ship—the monopoly capitalists, the bankers, the multinational corporations, the complicit governments and political leaders—will be impacted by a ship of poor integrity. When a ship with too many holes begins to sink, it will not matter what class or section one is seated in. We will all go down.

If the present Corona virus situation, and the economic fallout from it, has shown us anything, it is that many people in western society are overburdened with debt. Very few households have enough savings to get them through a couple months without work, let alone a year or more. While we are reluctant to talk about it, especially in the mainstream media, the old notion of work and employment (with regular paycheques, medical benefits and pensions) is becoming a thing of the past, and has been for years. In the era of economic globalization the reality of the workforce is one of diminished traditional employment. This manifests as either outright unemployment or underemployment. Examples of underemployment are freelance work, contract work, “gigging” or being forced to participate in the sharing economy. These terms are euphemisms for the reality of growing economic crisis and reduced economic security. The reality is that access to stable and well-paying work and income has been decreasing since the 1980s while the cost of living has only gone up. To fill in the gaps in their income, many households have had to rely on increasing debt and credit card usage just to get by. And when, suddenly, what little work and income these underemployed people do have is halted due to a virus, there is no way to service debts; not to mention, pay for rent, mortgages and food.

Basically people: The ship is sinking. The economic disparity and the uneven distribution of wealth and resources has come home to roost. Now, those on top (the bankers, etc.) will likely benefit from this dire situation in the short term. They may reduce interest rates or allow for the deferral of debt payments, mortgages, etc.–ultimately creating greater profits for themselves as individuals, businesses and governments borrow more money and go further into debt. However, with no one working and no one able to service those debts, eventually, it will all crash and burn.

A debt economy is unsustainable. It was unsustainable and unrealistic from the very beginning, but no one was willing to admit it. Not the individual that wants to live beyond their means by relying on credit. Or the individual that is forced to live on credit because they have far too little means to begin with. Or the bankers that get mega rich by keeping everyone in debt, with individuals paying back fake money (i.e., money that banks create as a credit card balance by entering numbers into a computer screen) with real money (i.e., the real interest one has to pay to use that fake money). Or the capitalist/banker/corporate-allied politicians who can stave off politico-economic uprising as long as the population is able to eat and survive by using credit and borrowing money.

The culture of debt has allowed us to ignore how unbalanced and desperate the economic situation actually is. It is a house of cards that we all patriciate in and all help to prop up, and with one ‘global pandemic’ it may all come crumbling down. Whether we will be better or worse off for it—whether the leaders and the mega-rich will use the virus situation to make politico-economic life more austere and more draconian, or whether humanity will find a way to prevent that and come together in an unprecedented form of collective living and cooperation—remains to be seen. A realist would say it will surely change for the worst; the system always finds a way to profit from disaster and come out on top. While others might say that the paradigm as we know it is shifting, and a new socio-economic paradigm is inevitable.

What that paradigm could look like, and if it is even possible, is a topic for another day…

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Sense-A Poem

31 Monday Dec 2018

Posted by Ghada Chehade in Poetry, Society

≈ Leave a comment

Running in and out and away from the time in which I live
Contained in body but lost in sense

No sense, false sense, whatever happened to common-sense?

We don’t need the people to think and ask questions
No, now you’re talking non-sense

Can you speak to me in a language that makes sense?

The markets are open, so let the bidding commence
Running back and forth through time and social con-sci-ence

The heavy weight of the price tag…
That constant, conflated, inflated, perpetual, pre-tense

Pre-time, pre-war, pre-love, pre-life
Yes, scavenger bees must pollinate strife

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Remembering

29 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by Ghada Chehade in Culture, Poetry, Society

≈ Leave a comment

And I heard them whisper, I’ve lost myself…I am like a dreammmm…I can’t remember

One that lingers throughout the day…and weighs heavy on the mind, but whose details are blurred and hazy….

And if I could remember the dream, then I would remember: myself….But perhaps you are not fully awake, I said

Perhaps you are in the world between worlds, where what seems real is actually fake, wherein we live while we are sleeping…and dream while we are awake….

What if life till now…has been but a waking dream–a game of hide and seek. In which we hid ourselves…from ourselves…so well…that we forgot…who we truly are?

And then history simply unfolded, like a collective amnesia….Confused and disoriented, we went looking for ourselves:

In science and technology; sky scrapers and stock markets; mass production and cable TV; cheeseburgers….shopping malls….and whisky….

It was progress with a capital “P”

But lost in the dreammmm…little did we realize…that we were progress-ing…towards no-thing

We had sacrificed the human race…for a…meaningless…endless…rat race….

But you see this rat race has no finish line, no medal, no grand prize….The rat race will never help us remember…it only further…closes…our eyes

For what if this man made civilization, is against…the natural…vibration? What if the path isssss the destination

And we have chosen to waste it…on mindless…accumulation?

What if the question is not just why am I alive, but how do I choose to live? What if the purpose is not to take, but has always been…to give?

To give yourself…and to share your gifts…with allll of life…and allll that exists

 

Can you remember….

 

 

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The Game

29 Saturday Sep 2018

Posted by Ghada Chehade in Current Events, Poetry, Society

≈ 2 Comments

I know you feel it. I know you all feel it:
This world is broken; we are broken

 
We walk around and pretend, but our smiles are just tokens
Paper masks that hide a fear, too deep, to be spoken

 
A fear that life may pass us by while we play by this system’s rules
A fear that we failed to even try for fear of looking like damn fools

 
It’s a game, it’s a game; it’s all just a game
And this game is really fear, to use another name

 
Instead of being human and being open, we disconnect and play it cool
Instead of love and raw emotion, we stay divided and we act cruel

 
It’s a game, it’s a game; it’s all just a game.
And this game is just the system, to use another name

 
This system has us running around
Like. Empty. Human. Shells.

Too asleep to resist it
And buying everything it sells

 
But can’t you see the bigger picture
Don’t you see the wider trap?

It’s just a ruse to make us feel empty
So we’ll fill the void with material scraps

 
But material objects can’t fill the void
It’s just our money and soul they sap

 
For it’s a game, it’s a game; it’s all just a game
And this game is just the rat race, to use another name

 
It’s a race to the bottom
A race to the end

 
We’re isolated and we feel lonely
Despite a million Facebook friends

 
For it’s a game, it’s a game; it’s all just a game

 
“Modern man”, and modern worlds
Obsessed with modern gadgets
These “modern girls”

 
Why not simplify
This “modern world”

 
For it’s a game, it’s a game; it’s all just a game
And this game is social indoctrination, to use another name
And the result is human commodification, total enslavement; such a shame

 
We’re a humanity in crisis
A society in decline

 
But the crux of the crisis, is that the decline is by design

 
For it’s a game, it’s a game
And that’s the essence of the game

 

 

© 2018

 

 

 

 

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The Minority

14 Tuesday Aug 2018

Posted by Ghada Chehade in Current Events, Poetry, Society

≈ Leave a comment

This white man is not my enemy
No, this white man hasn’t done shit to me

Let’s talk about the E-C-O-N-O-M-Y
That’s the real issue here

Don’t. You. See.

It’s not just about race,
but economic d-i-s-p-a-r-i-t-y

Most white men today are suffering just like me

You see, the problem aint with the majority
But a tiny little minority:

The Uber Wealthy Authority
That enslave us through financial s-u-p-e-r-i-o-r-i-t-y

Black and brown do have it worse

But economic suffering is a global curse
Orchestrated by and for the globalists’ purse

And when we turn on each other
We. Make. The. Situation. Worse

For divide and conquer is an age old trick

It makes the majority weaker
And the rich more slick

Able to stop us from seeing our common plight
And prevent us from waging a common fight…

Against the ones with all the Authority:
That. Uber. Wealthy. Minority.

 

 

© 2018

Author’s Note: The white man I refer to in this poem is the everyday man on the street. The working class (or unemployed) man that is struggling to pay his bills and survive. While he may not be racially profiled while driving or shopping, he is not privileged in my mind—since privilege is largely tied to wealth.

ps: I’m a brown woman and a former/”old school” leftie (i.e. traditional anti-Empire Left not the new identity politics fake left). If you like this poem you may also like this article.

 

 

 

 

 

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Identity Politics: Diversion from the Growing Economic Crisis?

25 Friday May 2018

Posted by Ghada Chehade in Political Economy, Politics, Society

≈ 6 Comments

NOTE: This article was originally published by the Political Anthropologist

“The poverty of our century is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied…but written off as trash.”
~John Berger

“It’s the Economy, Stupid”

We live in a world that often appears to be upside down; a world that has its priorities all mixed up. While we slip deeper into what can easily be described as the greatest economic depression of our time, no one on the “new left” (a.k.a. the liberal left) seems willing to talk about the bleak realities of ever-increasing economic despair. Instead, what we see and hear in the media, including the “left media,” in government, and across university campuses is an emphasis on special interest issues and personal identity. Rather than address the larger issues that plague the majority of people (including minorities)—i.e., the pitfalls of economic globalization, unemployment and underemployment, mounting debt, the increased cost of living, economic austerity, imperial wars, etc.—we are distracted by the spectacle of identity politics and stifled by a liberal political correctness that imposes “tolerance” in a manner that actually limits freedom of thought and expression while serving the global establishment.
While identity politics claims to be concerned with helping minorities, it refuses to address economic issues, such as poverty and growing unemployment, which often disproportionately impact certain minority groups.

One of the reasons that identity politics does not deal with class and economic issues is that it is rooted in postmodern theory, for which the explicit rejection of the centrality of class is somewhat of an obsession. Indeed, many proponents of identity politics are openly hostile towards classical or traditional left politics—which dealt largely with class, Empire, and economic issues— and its “failure” to address culture and identity. However, the traditional left has never denied the importance of racial, gender and ethnic division within classes. What it has emphasized, though, is the wider system which generates these differences and the need to join class forces to eliminate these inequalities at every point.

Focusing on identity rather than class and economics negates the reality that many individuals are struggling financially at present; both within and across racial, gender and ethnic divisions. This is due in no small measure to the US-led agenda of economic globalization. As I explain elsewhere:
Globalization…exploits and relies upon global inequality and disparity. Globalization exploits the developing world’s ‘comparative advantage’ of cheap labor and lax regulations, and allows western companies to maintain the illusion of being domestic while benefitting from operating in countries where they pay far less for everything— especially labor—and stand to gain immensely as a result.

This undermines western workers who have suffered mass underemployment due to economic globalization and the offshoring of jobs and investment. And while it may be argued that globalization benefits people of the developing world through employment…the harsh economic restructuring conditions that accompany globalization and foreign investment actually hurt large segments within developing countries.

One result of globalization in the west has been the collapse of the middle class. The loss of the traditional manufacturing economy (and the associated managerial and technical sectors) ushered in by globalization, has forced much of the middle class to seek supplementary income. For instance, while services like Airbnb and Uber are regarded as hip and trendy modern conveniences, they are also indicators of a failing or degraded economy—what the mainstream media describes as a “transitioning economy.” But terms like the “sharing economy” and the “gig economy” are ultimately liberal euphemisms for those things that people must do to make ends meat. Because in reality, people don’t rent out their guest room or drive strangers around the city or sell used things online to make friends; they do it to make money. Making these supplementary outlets hip and trendy takes the stigma away from what is essentially and traditionally speaking being broke or poor. It also masks the growing reality of middle class economic decline and growing debt servitude, for minorities and non-minorities alike.

Class, poverty, and economic collapse are the elephants in the room that identity liberalism, contemporary politicians, and the mainstream media refuse to address. Interestingly, and ironically, Donald Trump was able to persuade many of the older generations—including some Black and Latino populations—into voting for him by galvanizing support around these populist issues. Of course, he has failed to deliver on any of his populist, economic promises. But his victory may be an indication of people’s growing economic desperation in the US.

Identity Politics as Diversion from Our Common Plight and Protection for Wealth & Power

A politics that addresses identity and minority issues without examining the larger socioeconomic system and class relations cannot adequately address the disproportional disenfranchisement and economic despair experienced by minority groups. At the same time, a focus on identity and individual issues prevents us from seeing what we have in common, pitting different groups against one another and distracting them/us from—and from uniting over—their/our common economic plight.

Class, or economic situation, is the great unifier. At the present juncture, we may have more in common with people of a similar economic situation than individuals of a similar ethnic, racial, gender, or sexual orientation identity. Poor people everywhere share something in common—their poverty or economic despair—and wealthy people everywhere also share something in common—their immense wealth—regardless of cultural or identity differences. For instance, while African Americans may share a common racial identity, the majority of black people in the US have very little in common with the uber-rich Oprah Winfrey or the Obamas. The immense wealth, power and influence of Oprah or the Obamas puts them in a reality altogether different, and far more privileged, than the majority of everyday African American people in the US. The same can be said of any racial or ethnic group. While people may share a common race and heritage (or a common gender, sexual orientation, etc.), wealth and the lack of wealth creates a massive cleavage that identity cannot bridge.

And the opposite is also true. While we may differ in pigmentation, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc., what more and more people presently have in common is that we are being increasingly impoverished and exploited by the global regime of greed and hegemony. At the same time, we are increasingly more politically disempowered, controlled, monitored, spied upon, and surveilled than we have ever been, especially in the west. Ironically, it seems rather convenient that the more austere the economy becomes and the more authoritarian the State becomes, the more identity issues and cultural issues are pushed to the foreground, especially in academia and the establishment media. If we stopped “celebrating” our differences and/or fighting over our differences long enough to see our common plight, we just might wake up to the reality that class, economic austerity, and western totalitarianism are among the most pressing issues of our time. Related to these, are issues such as war, interventionist foreign policy, and international sanctions, which are all deployed in the service of the global wealth and power establishment (i.e., Empire).

One of the biggest problems with identity politics is that it can mask how politically and economically disenfranchised we all are—and especially for minorities—by giving token victories and token representation in a rigged and corrupt system. This is especially true in the mainstream media and popular culture as well as in politics—which in places like the US is beginning to look more and more like pop culture—where token representation for women and people of colour plays into the the distract, divide, and conquer agenda of the establishment. For instance, having more women and more people of colour in government jobs or in the media does little to address the larger issue of the inequalities of wealth and power. And I say this as a female person of colour.
What’s more, the endless “identity choices” we presently have—such as the ever-increasing number of gender choices—can hide, and distract us from, the lack of political and economic choice in contemporary society. For instance, in the United States, there is very little authentic political choice or variety given that the two overwhelmingly dominant political parties increasingly adhere to the same neo-liberal/neo-con political, economic, and foreign policy agenda. In reality, identity liberalism may even protect and excuse the perpetrators and/or perpetuators of this agenda by making heroes and saints out of minority politicians simply because they happen to be a member of a minority group. A prime example is the former Obama administration in the US. In his first term as president, Barack Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, continued the war mongering, imperial agenda of the Bush administration but received far less criticism and public outcry—especially from liberals and progressives—for it.

And during the 2016 presidential elections many in the identity liberalism camp insisted that Clinton should win simply because she is a woman. This type of identity reasoning is wholly irrational, apolitical and very dangerous. It divorces the political actions and crimes from the person in question and looks only at their identity. The “logic” is that having a female president will aid the cause and rights of women in the US. But what about the rights of the scores of women Hillary has helped to kill via murderous US foreign policy; a policy that claims to “humanitarianly intervene” on behalf of people in some countries while completing ignoring or helping to create the humanitarian crisis in others countries (such as the US-backed Saudi offensive against the people of Yemen or in the case of Palestine)? And that’s not to even mention how little Hillary did for the plight of American women during her tenure in politics. There were no policies or initiatives to create a paid maternal leave program, or to provide affordable childcare to working mothers, or help lift single mothers out of poverty. And Obama did even less for everyday African Americans. Where were his initiatives to create jobs for African Americans or reduce the poverty rates in black communities or address the overwhelming presence of drugs in these communities? Ironically, the same politicians that play the identity card do, and care, very little for the members of their particular identity or minority group once in power.

In closing, not only is identity politics or identity liberalism an inconvenient agenda for addressing minority issues, it may be an obstacle to it. Minorities are among the most economically disenfranchised in society, and one cannot begin to address “minority issues” without also critically examining the broader politico-economic factors at play at the present juncture. Indeed, the apolitical manner in which identity politics functions, and its refusal to address class and economic crisis, serves as a convenient diversion and distraction from the larger issues that presently plague minorities and non-minorities alike. These issues are linked to the inequalities of wealth and power and cannot be properly addressed without a broader analysis of class and the growing economic and social devastation wrought by globalization and Empire. Without this level of analysis, identity politics can offer little more than token victories while feeding into the divide and conquer agenda of the global establishment.

Notes
__________________
1  Berthoud, R. (2002). “Poverty and prosperity among Britain’s ethnic minorities.”
Benefits, Volume 10, Number 1, 1 February 2002, pp. 3-8(6)

2 Best, S. & D. Kellner. “Postmodern Politics and the Battle For the Future” http://www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/kell28.htm [11/07/04]

3 Petras, J. (1997/1998). “A Marxist Critique of Post-Marxists” Links no 9.

4 Smith, D. (2011). “Rich Nations, Poor People: The Cause For Rising Poverty In The Western World.” https://www.economywatch.com/economy-business-and-finance-news/rich-nations-poor-people.23-11.html?page=full

5 Chehade, G. (March 2017). “Economic Globalization: Global Integration or Exploitation of Global Disparity?” The Global Analyst, Volume 6, Issue 3, pp. 22-25

6 I use the terms identity politics and identity liberalism interchangeably

7 This is a practice referred to as humanitarian imperialism. See Bricmont, J. (2006). Humanitarian imperialism: Using human rights to sell war. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press.

 

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The Man (with a plan)~A Poem

27 Saturday Jan 2018

Posted by Ghada Chehade in Poetry, Society

≈ Leave a comment

And how will we stop them from stopping us?
Asked the man of his henchman

The solution is easy you see,
We just have to distract them;
Keep their eyes and minds off of you and me…

For starters, we have this wonderful thing called the TV
Get them hooked on celebrity, and they won’t have time for us
They wont have time to ask questions or make any kind of fuss

But what about those that don’t watch TV?

Hmm, we could always take them on a shopping odyssey
A lifelong journey through an endless shopping spree
Sell them toys and distractions, and they’ll be as happy as can be

No need to live a meaningful life,
To care about war or corruption or economic strife
It’s rather simple, don’t you see

But surely they’ll grow tired of watching TV
And what could be the purpose of an endless shopping spree?

Not if you convince them that it’s their only reason to be
And that buying shiny things will let them keep good company

But what if they awaken from this blatant fallacy?
Or feel a sense of isolation in this inauthentic reality?

We’ll simply tell them the problem comes from within, not from without
And use their sense of despair to strengthen our own financial clout

We’ll get them lost in diagnoses and create an entire industry…
That funnels money from their pockets straight to our pharmacies
The pills will also keep them docile; it’s a win win, can’t you see!

Well, it’s a lofty idea, but surely such a thing could never be
For would they actually let us rob them of their own humanity?

Well, let’s see…….

© 2018

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Will the Mainstream Media EVER Talk About Economic Issues?

30 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by Ghada Chehade in Current Events, Society

≈ 1 Comment

raial harmonyI was recently in New York City and observed many things that seemed to contradict the state of US social relations as depicted by the mainstream media. Watching US news media from Canada, one gets the impression that there is overwhelming racial tension in that country. As someone that is aware and critical of the divide and conquer schemes of the establishment, and as someone that does not buy into identity politics, I know that race is often used as a distraction, so I was not the least bit surprised to find Blacks and Whites and Latinos peacefully and jovially co-existing. I spent ten days in Bed Stuy Brooklyn, a gentrifying neighborhood made up of predominately Black and Latino communities with a growing influx of white residents. While gentrification creates a host of problems, not least of which is oppressive rent, with respect to “race relations” I did not witness any outward hostility or violence between the different races. And this was the same everywhere I went in Brooklyn or Manhattan as well as on planes, subways and in airports. Everywhere I looked, people of different races and ethnicities were getting along, and gasp, even helping one another out. While I am aware that there is racial tension in the US, it was not overwhelmingly apparent, at least not on the surface (and I say this as a brown person).

AP Counting the HomelessWhat was undeniably palpable, however, is something the MSM never talks about: the massive economic disparity in cities like NYC. If there is a glaring and unavoidable tension, it is between the classes not the races. Yes, “class,” that five letter word that no one in the west is willing to address. Everywhere I went in NYC, class was painfully apparent. The gap between the haves and have-nots was wide and oppressive. On the subway I saw the anguish of working class and poor people, those who are struggling just to get by. The struggle was written all over their tired and forlorn faces. And in Soho, Wall Street and—of course—Park Avenue I saw immense wealth; much of it built on the backs of those folks I saw on the subway. People who say that class does not exist in America are either blind or lying or both. So why does the media not talk about class, economic despair and economic disparity? Why is there an endless focus on  race, when the larger issue—the issue that affects the majority of people regardless of race and ethnicity—is class and increasing unemployment and underemployment.

Could race and identity politics be a distraction for the larger issues of class and economic inequality? And what about the current media focus on sexual assault and harassment in Hollywood. While these issues are very important, I can’t help but wonder: “Why now?” In the US, the media-especially the entertainment media—are part of the Hollywood ecosystem and are privy to all of its dirty little secrets. This means that the media has long known that sexual harassment is prevalent in Hollywood. So why only report on it now? Why have the media been silent on a very real and serious issue for decades only to overwhelm and bombard us with it now. Whenever the media goes full force on a story I can’t help but think that it is using that story as subterfuge and distraction from something else. What is it we are not suppose to be thinking about right now– the failed western agenda in Syria, the increasingly failed economy, increased unemployment, crippling debt, etc, etc?

It is interesting to note that while Trump got elected by exploiting every day people’s concerns and frustrations over the economy and jobs, etc. (I say exploited because he has failed to actually address any of these issues since taking office), the media refuses to address any of these issues one year into his tenure and instead focuses on race and, more recently, sexual assault in the media and entertainment world.

While sexual harassment and sexual assault are very serious issues, it is likely that the MSM have long known about sexual abuse in Hollywood—since they swim in the same professional and social sea—and chose to remain quiet. So when the media come out like a loud speaker on the issue, one has to ask: why now and what is it distracting us from?

Just some food for thought..

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Follow Up On My Critique of Liberal Western Feminism

31 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by Ghada Chehade in Current Events, Society

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This is a long over due follow up to my March 8 article, “We Need to Talk About Women: The Problem With Western Liberal Feminists”. In today’s post I will address some of the comments, questions and feedback that that article garnered. The main reason I decided to write this follow up piece is because, following the March 8 article on western liberal feminism, I received messages from young women who had shared that article on social media and received a lot of flack (mainly from other young women) over it. Today’s article is dedicated to the young women that bravely shared my article.

As a side note, the fact that some women were bullied for sharing that article, which was unabashedly critical of so called modern day feminism (what I describe as pro-establishment, liberal corporate  feminism) demonstrates just how intolerant and hypersensitive some of today’s politically correct Millennials are. But I digress. Back to the point at hand: Today’s piece addresses some of the concerns and criticisms that my March 8 critique of liberal, consumer feminism generated.

  1. The Article Bashes International Women’s Day

While the March 8 article was published on International Women’s Day, it was indeed not about International Women’s Day. The intention of the article was to make a statement about a certain segment of the female population in the west (liberal, consumer feminists), within the context of a broader critical analysis of identity politics. I chose to make that statement on international women’s day because it is a day where there is dialogue on women. Moreover, despite its title, the larger focus of the March 8 article is the critical analysis of identity politics. That is something I have been writing about for many years.

  1. The Article is Anti-Women

I was not going to reply to this one given its absurdity. But here it goes, anyway. First of all, I am a woman and I love being a woman; I revel in it. I am feminine or “girly” in my appearance, not that this is all there is to being a woman, and I am physically, mentally, and spiritually (in reference to the female essence, so to speak), in tune with and entangled with my femininity/femaleness. If I could be born a million times over, I would not choose to be a man instead of a woman. Well that’s not true, if I actually could be born a million times I would probably want to be a million different things—from an ameba to a giant tortoise and everything in between (including a man)—in order to have a million different experiences of existence. But in this one life that I have, I have never wished to be anything other than a woman; I love being a woman and cherish the experience thus far.

But these are all personal things. With respect to the non-personal stuff and to what people imply when they say that an individual is anti-women for writing a criticism of liberal, consumer feminists, I want to stress that being critical of a very particular segment of the female population does not make someone anti-women; it simply makes them critical. News Flash: As a social critic and writer, critical reflection and commentary is what I do. Writers are supposed to make critical observations about the world around them. And readers are allowed and encouraged to critically respond to those observations. Readers are free to disagree with my and any writer’s opinion; it is okay and it is healthy and necessary for society. Public debate and dialogue is a good and welcome thing. But today’s politically correct youth and “social justice warriors” have become so thin skinned and so anti-intellectual that they interpret any form of critical thought, opinion, analysis or commentary as “hate speech.” This is worrisome.

Nowhere in the March 8 article did I generalize about all women. On the contrary, I explicitly state that I am referring to a particular segment of the female population in the west—liberal, mainstream, consumer feminists (LMCFs). I was not singling out all feminists or all of feminism; indeed I explicitly differentiate between LMCF and other forms of feminism. And while I am not personally a feminist  (have not read feminist theory or literature, etc.), I venture to guess that some, if not many, traditional (i.e., first and second wave) feminists, socialist feminists, and third world feminists would also be critical of the type of ‘feminism’ I mention in the article.

What I critique in the March 8 article would not be considered traditional feminism (I do know enough about it to know the difference). I am talking about the co-opted, corporate, media hyped, establishment version of ‘feminism’ that we see in mainstream media culture today. A criticism of this version of ‘feminism’ is part of a much larger critique of identity politics, which, for me, is little more than a capitulation by and co-optation of the much of the traditional left en mass. Of course there are still people that are true to traditional feminism and traditional left politics, in general. In the article, I am referring to those women (and “new lefties”) that represent the co-opted, apolitical segment of the “new left”, or fake left, as it has come to be known by many.

Indeed I received positive feedback from politically minded women that identity as traditional (i.e., non liberal, non mainstream, non consumer) feminists. Here is a quote from one woman—reproduced here with her permission—that has been a feminist for almost fifty years. She linked to my March 8 article on her site, stating:

“Editor’s Note: …thank you to Ghada Chehade for so eloquently capturing my own thoughts on the subject…. I became a feminist in 1970, when Ms.Magazine printed its first, authentic edition. I followed up with the ubiquitous Feminine Mystique, The Second Sex, and The Female Eunuch, for starters. I wrote, spoke, and ran a consciousness-raising group and a local chapter of the National Organization for Women. I am appalled at the insouciance and the complete misappropriation of the terms “feminism” and “liberal” today by women who have both the means and plentiful opportunities to know better, and who have become the willing pawns of the ruling class’ classic divide-and-conquer games.

Pink hats? “Inclusive” and “Indivisible”?? Seriously?? So, all women’s genitals are pink on the outside?? And, how do your hats apply to the male “women” you claim to champion? Is a hat a serious or formidable weapon against oppression? Do you have any idea what real feminists – male and female – have gone through to achieve the level of parity you are currently crushing beneath your trivial hats, your layers of makeup, and your preoccupation with sexuality? Again, many thanks to Ms. Chehade for her work…”

I posted this quote not because I agree with everything in it (I happen to enjoy makeup now and then) but because it demonstrates that there are traditional, vanguard feminists that are deeply critical of what passes for feminism today. This is but one example. There are many other female voices out there that are deeply critical of both identity politics–and its apolitical obsession with personal and trivial matters–and liberal, consumer, corporate media-based feminism.

But I will not speak for these women. I am not an authority on feminism or women’s critiques of either feminism or identity politics. I will let these women speak for themselves. If one searches online and elsewhere there are numerous examples of such critiques. I suggest that individuals, male or female, that feel the need to bully or “shame” young women for reading and sharing articles such as mine, explore the numerous criticisms of modern day ‘feminism’ and identity politics–and how they have replaced political thought and action with an obsession over personal issues, personal feelings and personal image–by women from all walks of life.  Just some things to ponder…

 

 

Notes

Source for above quote: http://titaniclifeboatacademy.org/index.php/featured-articles/society/206-we-need-to-talk-about-women-the-problem-with-western-liberal-feminists#Editor

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Calling All Muslims: It’s Time For An Anti-imperialist Secular Awareness

20 Tuesday Jun 2017

Posted by Ghada Chehade in Geopolitics, Politics, Society

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SYRIA-CONFLICT

Given that June 20 is World Refugee Day I want to take the opportunity to share some observations and opinions that may ruffle some feathers, but urgently need to be stated, especially by Muslim immigrants in the west. [1]

Part I. An Encounter With a Syrian Refugee

The other day I met a Syrian refugee family that had recently come to Canada. They moved next door to some friends of mine and I said hello to them in Arabic when I saw them sitting on the porch. The wife, a bubbly hijabi woman named Amira who is around my age, was overjoyed to meet someone that spoke Arabic and quickly struck up a conversation with me.

In a matter of minutes I learned that the family had left their small Syrian village three years ago for neighbouring Lebanon and lived there till they were approved to come to Canada as refugees, just three months ago. I also quickly learned that Amira and her husband, like many Syrian refugees, are ardent haters of Bashar Al Assad and critics of secular culture. Amira told me (in Arabic) that, while it was hard for her to leave her family back home, it my be fate that they ended up in Canada so that they can “spread the Muslim faith.” Uh oh…

To a secular Muslim—or, more appropriately, someone that can be described as culturally Muslim, since I was raised by Muslim parents in a Muslim immigrant household but do not practice religion—this set off some alarm bells. This woman left a secular Muslim country—yes, for all the supposed concern over radical Islam, the west is currently trying to destroy a secular Muslim country, with a very open and tolerant mixed society—for asylum in a western secular country and hopes to spread her religious beliefs here? Is that what we’re dealing with, Muslim missionaries? Amira seemed excited about the prospects of spreading the faith and told me that she felt Canadians were far more accepting of Muslims, and receptive to Islam, than Christian Arabs in Lebanon. She also offered to give me “religious advice” in exchange for English lessons in the future.

While Canada is a multi-cultural country that prides itself on religious tolerance and diversity, as a secular or non-religious person, I should also be tolerated and respected, and not subjected to religious peer pressure or attempts to make me “more religious.” During my conversation with the newly arrived Amira, I was asked why I do not wear the hijab (Muslim headscarf), if I practice Ramadan fasting and if my husband was a Muslim. While she was very friendly about it, the conversation quickly digressed into a religious guilt trip and interrogation. This is something I have experienced many times from “deeply religious” and rather prying Muslims that are “concerned for my soul” for one reason or another. As she talked, I could see her looking me up and down with a judging smirk, as if to evaluate my holiness, or lack there of.

I do not tolerate religious sermons from my own family members, even when I am visiting family over seas. And I should not have to experience it from a complete stranger that has been here for mere months, and is my age if not younger. Now before any apolitical liberals or fake lefties—who fail to see the connections between certain segments of the Syrian refugee population and western sponsored political Islam and Wahhabism—accuse me of being Islamophobic let me remind you that a) I am Muslim and b) I would not tolerate religious lecturing or “shaming” from someone of any other faith as well.

While some might assume that Amira felt comfortable lecturing me in this way because I am Arab and Muslim, and, that she likely would not submit non-Arabs and non- Muslims to the same pressure and religious guilt trip, let me remind you that she specifically told me that she believes that she was destined to end up in Canada so that she “can spread the faith.” While all Syrian refugees probably do not think this, the fact that even some do, is worrisome in a secular country such as Canada. Practicing one’s faith is one thing, pushing it on others is another thing altogether. While non-Arab or non-Muslim Canadians may be too afraid or polite to say this, I believe that I have a responsibility to say it as a secular Muslim.

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