Singing for political leaders is not a new phenomenon in the Arab World. In a matter of fact, 20% (my guess) of all produced songs typically glorify the wisdom of various Arabic heads of states. These songs are typically state-sponsored and broad-casted by the state controlled media. However it seems that we are entering a new era with Ahlan Ezayak (how are you doing in Arabic). The song is Egyptian but American-produced. A whole cast, of technicians and artists, was brought from France and other European countries to take part in the video-clip.
Shmas, a beautiful Arabic woman is debating weather she should accept President Bush's proposal for marriage, which is a symbolic figure about embracing the new American initiative to democratize the region. So as any typical Arab girl, she tries to check his values, reputation, credentials and deeds. The first problem is that she can not tell who (he really is) as his face features continue to change. His(American)ideals of liberty, democracy and human rights are checked out and discovered not to be so different from others(Arabic dictators)' marriage proposals. Bush, according to the song descended from one of two well-known serial killers (Raya and Skinna),two sisters who terrorized Egypt and the Arab World by killing thousands of innocent people while living in a building just behind the main police station.(while other dictators discended from the other one).
The song has a social message as well. In a boxing arena, Shams as an Arab woman faces Rice in a boxing match, and tells her that she better leaves. This specific scene ridicules the Western concept of feminism and women empowerment as it shows an Arabic woman with a boob job, hinting to what Arab women had got so far from this movement. The song is causing a media uproar, not only in the Arab world, but around the world and clearly presents another bad news for this American Administration and its effort to change its tarnished image in the region. The vedio clip ends with Shams dumbing Bush and marrying Naji Al-Ali, the immortal Palestinian Cartoonist; a solid advocate of the Palestinan refugees' right to return to Palestine. This end indirectly hint to Bush, who was the first U.S. President to tell Palestinians refugees to forget about ever returning to their ancestral homes.
Few years ago, people' eyes would shine when they hear words as "democracy and liberty", but nowadays those exact words ended up being the butt of the joke in the streets of the Arab World. "Do not piss of America, otherwise it will punish you with democracy," a famous bump-sticker says. This vedio-clip might be just a song, but for me it is more that that. It is another proof, that the Arab World is in a much worse place with the "March for Freedom" agenda. What bothers me the most is that great values such as democracy and liberty which many moderates in the Arab World have fought for being associated with foreign interference, capitalism and imperialism. The lesson of the day is: True democracy is served by INFORMED consent and INFORMED dissent.
