Palestinians love children. They love families and relatives and neighbours in general, but children especially. However they love them in a way that might intially seem a little unusual to your western eye, dear reader.
It's not unusual for them to keep pictures on their phone or Facebook page of little kids that are or aren't theirs, sometimes they are almost 'glamour' shots. I had a student show me such a pic and say how beautiful it was, as well as trying to search for an also 'beautiful' little girl singer on youtube whilst his friends were around him.
(beautiful is a favourite word here, everyting is beautiful and if it's not beautiful, it's 'not beautiful.')
I'm pretty certain that there's nothing amiss with this adoration. As Westerners we are unfortunately prone to thinking that almost any imagery of children is suspect, but here of course it's very different. A family will on average have about 7-8 children. There's a variety of cultural and relgious reasons for this, as well as the population war with Israel and the fact that life is generally tenuous here anyway. Most families have lost someone in fighting.
I think that because of this especially the children here are very spoilt and venerated, because the adults know that they don't have much to look forward to. And as an unfortunate result, maybe that's why the students at the age of 18-20 at this University are generally lazy and immature. An infantilised and spoon fed culture, waiting for someone to come and save them! Israel's final victory.
PS - yesterday a student solemly played me a recording of a very young kids voice reciting an anti-occupation diatribe. I tried hard to supress my laughter at the cutesy-poo voice whereas the student was deadly serious.
PPS Credit to a good friend of mine for some of the ideas in this post.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Struttin'
The other day the winner of 'Superstar,' the middle East's version of Pop Idol, came to the University to perform. Just what we didn’t need after so many strikes as students will take any pretext to skip classes. (It started at 2 but classes were almost empty from 11).
So having nothing else to do I wandered around campus with a few students from Academic Support. They usually irritate me with their giggling greetings but there was a nice vibe in the air today because of the visit, so I went along.
I rarely walk around campus, because it's like being a D-list celebrity recovering from some kind of embarrassing scandal. Students I know and don't will holler at me, laugh, giggle and come and talk to me. Admittedly some of it is good natured and nice and people tell me I am popular, so sometimes I just plain get off on it and as I say the vibe was good on that day.
So we just walked around somewhat aimlessly before the thing started, but one of our party seemed to be an impatient rush to do so. We sat on a step and he played Eminem from his phone whilst his friend asked me the usual questions about Western culture and all. 'Do they make poronography in Britain? Can you have girlfriends?'
Another thing foreigners are commonly asked by the students here is 'Do you know what happened to us in 1948? Do you know what Israel does?' It's bizarre to me that they would think we would be clueless of their situation. I think this goes alongside the bafflement that they have often expressed as to why I am even here, as if I had just accidently fallen into the place on the way to somewhere 'better.' When I have told people that I am here to teach and to show support for Palestine they seem a little nonplussed. Maybe they just see it as futile. Foriegners motives, perhaps even everyhing about them seem somewhat of a mystery to them, especially since they see very little of us around Jenin way.
Similarly, I am always intrigued by the matter of fact, dispassionate way they discuss dead or imprisoned relatives. This student was telling me how four years ago his brother was shot and killed by Israeli troops for no apparent reason. I suppose such events are so commonplace that the horrific becomes almost banal, every family has a similar story.
So anyway we went and had lunch and argila, which they paid for. I always feel bad about this because they have no money, but they won't hear of it. We listened to more from the students phone and I managed to get some Johnny Cash on, because students here listen to terrible western music: Backstreet Boys, Celine Dion, Westlife, or 50 Cent, Akon etc.
Then all of a sudden it was time to rush off and see the Superstar. He'd been derided as a 'motherfucker' and Israeli conspirator by people I had spoken to but the place was full of people shouting, dancing and (guys) giving the singer kisses and flowers. It was very boring for me because it was all in arabic, and I thought I had better leave because all I was doing was staring at the Christian girls who had dolled themselves up for the occasion.
So having nothing else to do I wandered around campus with a few students from Academic Support. They usually irritate me with their giggling greetings but there was a nice vibe in the air today because of the visit, so I went along.
I rarely walk around campus, because it's like being a D-list celebrity recovering from some kind of embarrassing scandal. Students I know and don't will holler at me, laugh, giggle and come and talk to me. Admittedly some of it is good natured and nice and people tell me I am popular, so sometimes I just plain get off on it and as I say the vibe was good on that day.
So we just walked around somewhat aimlessly before the thing started, but one of our party seemed to be an impatient rush to do so. We sat on a step and he played Eminem from his phone whilst his friend asked me the usual questions about Western culture and all. 'Do they make poronography in Britain? Can you have girlfriends?'
Another thing foreigners are commonly asked by the students here is 'Do you know what happened to us in 1948? Do you know what Israel does?' It's bizarre to me that they would think we would be clueless of their situation. I think this goes alongside the bafflement that they have often expressed as to why I am even here, as if I had just accidently fallen into the place on the way to somewhere 'better.' When I have told people that I am here to teach and to show support for Palestine they seem a little nonplussed. Maybe they just see it as futile. Foriegners motives, perhaps even everyhing about them seem somewhat of a mystery to them, especially since they see very little of us around Jenin way.
Similarly, I am always intrigued by the matter of fact, dispassionate way they discuss dead or imprisoned relatives. This student was telling me how four years ago his brother was shot and killed by Israeli troops for no apparent reason. I suppose such events are so commonplace that the horrific becomes almost banal, every family has a similar story.
So anyway we went and had lunch and argila, which they paid for. I always feel bad about this because they have no money, but they won't hear of it. We listened to more from the students phone and I managed to get some Johnny Cash on, because students here listen to terrible western music: Backstreet Boys, Celine Dion, Westlife, or 50 Cent, Akon etc.
Then all of a sudden it was time to rush off and see the Superstar. He'd been derided as a 'motherfucker' and Israeli conspirator by people I had spoken to but the place was full of people shouting, dancing and (guys) giving the singer kisses and flowers. It was very boring for me because it was all in arabic, and I thought I had better leave because all I was doing was staring at the Christian girls who had dolled themselves up for the occasion.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Cheating
Cheating is institutionalised here. You have to get used to it or vainly struggle to find a way around it. I had six classes sit their exams this week and I only caught two examples of flagrant cheating, but I had a few goombas get implausibly high marks, so hmmmm. Hmm indeed. I felt I was being hyper-strict and vigilant too.
Well when I say 'cheat' it's perhaps a tad unfair, a big part of this is 'helping.' Generosity and helping thy neighbour is so much of a natural, done thing here that if a student asks another for 'help' during an exam s/he can't really turn them down. I've seen lovely kids struggling with the compulsion to help others during exams.
Anyhoo, the flagrant cheaters - helper and helpee - after being given many chances were punished by having their exams taken away there and then and told they were getting zero. The helper got all teary - 'Teacher, consider me your brother, I am sorry, my father is poor and cannot put me through another semester etc' It was kinda unsettling but I stuck to me guns. (The helpee's English was too poor for him to be able to appeal to me, thankfully).
The fact that students can cheat to pass, are spoon fed and treated leniently can be depressing because it feels like what you are doing is pointless. The undeserving usually pass and lots of them know this. They always ask for 'help' and 'bonus marks' - both mean marks for nothing, and there is an undercurrent here at the English Language Centre administration that everyone, regardless of ability should pass into the next level. It's quite disheartening, but I'm trying to look at the small picture and the good moments of genuine learning and fun, rather than getting bogged down with the wider injustice of it all. Just like Palestine itself!
(And of course I become part of the problem - I later reduced the cheaters zeros to a ten point reduction. They still aren't satisfied and are trying to creep around it. I must not bend further!)
Well when I say 'cheat' it's perhaps a tad unfair, a big part of this is 'helping.' Generosity and helping thy neighbour is so much of a natural, done thing here that if a student asks another for 'help' during an exam s/he can't really turn them down. I've seen lovely kids struggling with the compulsion to help others during exams.
Anyhoo, the flagrant cheaters - helper and helpee - after being given many chances were punished by having their exams taken away there and then and told they were getting zero. The helper got all teary - 'Teacher, consider me your brother, I am sorry, my father is poor and cannot put me through another semester etc' It was kinda unsettling but I stuck to me guns. (The helpee's English was too poor for him to be able to appeal to me, thankfully).
The fact that students can cheat to pass, are spoon fed and treated leniently can be depressing because it feels like what you are doing is pointless. The undeserving usually pass and lots of them know this. They always ask for 'help' and 'bonus marks' - both mean marks for nothing, and there is an undercurrent here at the English Language Centre administration that everyone, regardless of ability should pass into the next level. It's quite disheartening, but I'm trying to look at the small picture and the good moments of genuine learning and fun, rather than getting bogged down with the wider injustice of it all. Just like Palestine itself!
(And of course I become part of the problem - I later reduced the cheaters zeros to a ten point reduction. They still aren't satisfied and are trying to creep around it. I must not bend further!)
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Recklessness and Women
Cracks are starting to show…I'm finding it harder and harder to turn down invitations from my female students, and my mouth is going to get me in trouble. My pretty Arabic teaching friend asked me why I didn’t go to church over Easter and I thought ‘Fuck it, lets see what happens if I tell her I have no religious belief.’ Not a good idea.
She was aghast, and proclaimed at length that how could I not believe when everything comes from God. It was disappointing and worrying, but I think I was stupid to expect any other reaction. Pretty sure she thinks I am a ridiculous and decadent heathen now. Oh well!
Similar foolishness led to a tense atmosphere in the conversation class when I bought up the subject of honour killings. Subjects have ranged from nature to love to equality, and it can just get so frustrating here to sit and listen to girls proclaiming that they are totally free and life for them in Palestine is wonderful, when they and I both know that this is bullshit. Everything always comes back to God and the Koran and there is no argument against this, so end of story.
One particularly pious and arrogant girl claimed that women’s organizations in Palestine were ‘absurd’ because there is nothing for them to do here, and this almost enraged me so I asked her about honour killings and perhaps they might be able to help there.
Everything got a little tense and she said she didn’t want to talk about it, and the consensus was that these matters should be kept within the family. Most of them didn’t really think the girl should be killed if she ‘shames’ her family, apart from the pious girl who said that stoning was permitted. (It isn’t mentioned in the Koran - just one hundred lashes - but is in the Hadith, Mohammed’s supplementary writings).
I find it hard to believe that she honestly feels this is acceptable, and would like to find a way to bring it up again. I also need to find a way to circumvent God in conversation classes. Or maybe I should just shut the hell up and nod sagely to everything.
She was aghast, and proclaimed at length that how could I not believe when everything comes from God. It was disappointing and worrying, but I think I was stupid to expect any other reaction. Pretty sure she thinks I am a ridiculous and decadent heathen now. Oh well!
Similar foolishness led to a tense atmosphere in the conversation class when I bought up the subject of honour killings. Subjects have ranged from nature to love to equality, and it can just get so frustrating here to sit and listen to girls proclaiming that they are totally free and life for them in Palestine is wonderful, when they and I both know that this is bullshit. Everything always comes back to God and the Koran and there is no argument against this, so end of story.
One particularly pious and arrogant girl claimed that women’s organizations in Palestine were ‘absurd’ because there is nothing for them to do here, and this almost enraged me so I asked her about honour killings and perhaps they might be able to help there.
Everything got a little tense and she said she didn’t want to talk about it, and the consensus was that these matters should be kept within the family. Most of them didn’t really think the girl should be killed if she ‘shames’ her family, apart from the pious girl who said that stoning was permitted. (It isn’t mentioned in the Koran - just one hundred lashes - but is in the Hadith, Mohammed’s supplementary writings).
I find it hard to believe that she honestly feels this is acceptable, and would like to find a way to bring it up again. I also need to find a way to circumvent God in conversation classes. Or maybe I should just shut the hell up and nod sagely to everything.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Learning Arabic is frustrating
A very pretty Christian Palestinian who works in my building has kindly taken it upon herself to teach me Arabic. We get on well and there has been a little flirting. I bought her some mud back from the Dead Sea, as well as a tiny ornamental Easter chick. (I think she was more impressed with that than the mud, which was disappointing!)
I've been seeing her most days for about two months, and in one way it's great as I study harder because I want to impress her, but in another way it's rather frustrating because I can't ask her out or anything. Why, you might ask? Here is the list:
Not really any concept of dating here, and if there is it would have to be very covert. I would have to marry her fairly quickly and I'm not ready to do that and settle here.
If I express any hint that I like her she could tell others / her family who might want to hurt me for being a decadent and lascivious interloper - also my students would never let me hear the end of it.
I think she's going off me anyway (why? I am an interesting and exotic foreigner!) and I get the idea that she has an admirer or two.
And the number one reason - she comes from a village where there was an honour killing about a year ago - some arsehole had filmed a girl giving him oral sex on his mobile phone, he showed it to everybody and pressure piled on her Dad to do away with her. (Both he and the arsehole are still walking around of course, there are about 20-30 such killings a year here in Palestine and little is done about it).
But on the plus side my Arabic is coming along!
I've been seeing her most days for about two months, and in one way it's great as I study harder because I want to impress her, but in another way it's rather frustrating because I can't ask her out or anything. Why, you might ask? Here is the list:
Not really any concept of dating here, and if there is it would have to be very covert. I would have to marry her fairly quickly and I'm not ready to do that and settle here.
If I express any hint that I like her she could tell others / her family who might want to hurt me for being a decadent and lascivious interloper - also my students would never let me hear the end of it.
I think she's going off me anyway (why? I am an interesting and exotic foreigner!) and I get the idea that she has an admirer or two.
And the number one reason - she comes from a village where there was an honour killing about a year ago - some arsehole had filmed a girl giving him oral sex on his mobile phone, he showed it to everybody and pressure piled on her Dad to do away with her. (Both he and the arsehole are still walking around of course, there are about 20-30 such killings a year here in Palestine and little is done about it).
But on the plus side my Arabic is coming along!
Ta'moon, slaughter and settlements
Yesterday I had a very welcome and relaxing day in the village of Ta'moon near the Jordan Valley, the most noteworthy event there being the slaughter and skinning of two lambs in celebration at the birth of a boy. (Just one is killed for a girl). Most of the meat is then given to the poor of the village, but we were lucky enough to get some too. T'was delicious!
I felt a little wobbly when they were being brought up to the knife, but otherwise nothing beyond morbid curiosity. Two guys held it down while a third sliced through the neck, bled it out whilst it died somewhat slowly, then carved the head off, hung it up by it hind legs and hacked it all down to the bone. (They threw the skin and wool away which seemed a little wasteful, particularly because each one nearly 2000shekels each - around 300 pounds / $450)
After this we went to see our host’s tomato crop, and were a little disappointed to learn that the seeds come from Israel. Seems like the two places are unavoidably linked in a way that would be very difficult to change. I've recently been asking why the University and surrounding towns here sell so many Israeli goods, and the also-disappointing answer I always get is that it's because they are seen as the best - Jordanian goods aren't favoured either.
Also Palestine doesn't really produce a substantial amount of anything beyond olive oil, fruit and veg, the only Palestinian grown goods in the University shop are something like Onions and cucumbers. (Palestinian chocolate is apparently awful).
Back in Ta'moon We met our host's brother who works on one of the many illegal Jewish settlements and has a Palestinian boss, never having any contact with the settlers themselves. More hard to avoid evils! You gotta work. Our host was prevented from doing likewise as he was blacklisted for refusing to become a spy.
But! Some posters have just magically sprung up around the Uni - http://www.karama.ps/ - advocating a ban on Israeli goods. This kind of thing happens every year or two apparently, with little lasting effect. The status quo is always re-established here, nothing changes too much. But Inshallah we shall see what happens this time.
I felt a little wobbly when they were being brought up to the knife, but otherwise nothing beyond morbid curiosity. Two guys held it down while a third sliced through the neck, bled it out whilst it died somewhat slowly, then carved the head off, hung it up by it hind legs and hacked it all down to the bone. (They threw the skin and wool away which seemed a little wasteful, particularly because each one nearly 2000shekels each - around 300 pounds / $450)
After this we went to see our host’s tomato crop, and were a little disappointed to learn that the seeds come from Israel. Seems like the two places are unavoidably linked in a way that would be very difficult to change. I've recently been asking why the University and surrounding towns here sell so many Israeli goods, and the also-disappointing answer I always get is that it's because they are seen as the best - Jordanian goods aren't favoured either.
Also Palestine doesn't really produce a substantial amount of anything beyond olive oil, fruit and veg, the only Palestinian grown goods in the University shop are something like Onions and cucumbers. (Palestinian chocolate is apparently awful).
Back in Ta'moon We met our host's brother who works on one of the many illegal Jewish settlements and has a Palestinian boss, never having any contact with the settlers themselves. More hard to avoid evils! You gotta work. Our host was prevented from doing likewise as he was blacklisted for refusing to become a spy.
But! Some posters have just magically sprung up around the Uni - http://www.karama.ps/ - advocating a ban on Israeli goods. This kind of thing happens every year or two apparently, with little lasting effect. The status quo is always re-established here, nothing changes too much. But Inshallah we shall see what happens this time.
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