In the Nancy-Haifa culture wars, as in the al-Jazeera media wars, Bashar al-Assad has taken sides:
Syrian President Bashar Assad has said the media and technological revolution sweeping the region and the world is helping his country's foes to undermine and crush the Arab identity. Assad told the congress of Syria's ruling Baath Party on Monday that a media influx had left Arabs "swamped by disinformation" about themselves. "These many inputs, especially with the evolution of communication and information technology, made the society open, and this opened the door for some confusion and suspicion in the minds of Arab youth.
"The ultimate objective of all this is the destruction of Arab identity; for the enemies of the Arab nation are opposed to our possessing any identity or upholding any creed that could protect our existence and cohesion, guide our vision and direction, or on which we can rely in our steadfastness," Assad said Monday. "We must face this situation with great awareness, responsibility and defiance."
While Bashar did not specify whether the greater threat came from al-Jazeera or from Haifa Wehbi, the fundamental challenge is the same: satellite television and the information revolution vs the controlling power of the authoritarian state. That Bashar takes the side of the latter is not a great surprise. But it's also not a very good bet.
Look, to oversimplify horribly, who do you think is going to win a contest for the hearts of Arab youth (and I'm including young Arab women here alongside young Arab men, even if they would presumably vote in this contest for different reasons)?
Bashar... 
... or Haifa?
At least Bashar didn't ask Syrian youth to face the Haifa challenge with "steely determination" or "iron resolve" or a "tight fisted grip"...
False binary, ya ustaz...can't you have your pan-Arabism and your Haifa too? Isn't Arab identity more united around Nancy and Haifa than it was around the squabbling political strongmen? Wouldn't Bashar rather have home-grown sluts than Britney? ;)
Posted by: SP | June 07, 2005 at 02:10 PM
True on all counts, SP. The pairing of two images I happened to have in my downloads folder was just irresistable, alas.
'course it does raise the much more interesting question of the extent to which Haifa and company represent some kind of globalization-with-an-Arab-mask vs something "authentically" Arab, or something hybrid, or what. Question for another day.
Posted by: aardvark | June 07, 2005 at 02:34 PM
Well, I'm waiting for the Arab Björk.
Leoparded and feathered globalized bimbo mascaraed McChanteuses in the meantime.
Posted by: Nur al-Cubicle | June 07, 2005 at 04:42 PM
NC - well, there's Natacha Atlas, formerly of Transglobal Underground, who does some pretty funky and original singing in Arabic (skip her most recent album Something Dangerous and try either Gedida or Halim, if I remember those titles right). I don't think she gets much (any) play in the Arab world, but I think she's really good.
Posted by: aardvark | June 07, 2005 at 05:07 PM
Oh you know of Natacha Atlas? Right! She could be a Bjork! I have two Transglobal Underground discs: Psychic Karaoke and Dreams of 100 Nations. She is also figured in the Buddha Bar Compilations and Claude Challe's work (Near Eastern Lounge, Magic Carpet Ride)
http://www.claudechalle.com/claudechalle.htm
Posted by: Nur al-Cubicle | June 07, 2005 at 07:55 PM
But is there an Arab ABBA?:-)
Posted by: Penta | June 07, 2005 at 09:59 PM