I Love Facebook
July 25th 2008 17:25
Category: No Category
Not long before I was about to leave for Europe, about two months ago, I received a friend request on Facebook by some guy with an Arabic-sounding name. Clicking on the link, I mulled over the likelihood of this being someone who could hold my interest past three Facebook messages. I admit, I thought that it might be some superficial and/or sleazy guy who added me because of my looks because I'd never heard of him before, and, unfortunately, because I have known people from the Middle East/South Asia to do that on MySpace. Anyway, I decided my chances of being pleasantly startled were pretty low, but hey, what did I know?
Facebook pretty much shows you the person's profile pic, and the network they have elected to belong to when bringing a friend request to your attention. You can then click on their profile from there. The picture paralysed me- a middle-aged-ish man with glasses was giving some unknown person/object a gaze full of speculation, mental alertness and hope. Sure, I sensed a tendency towards authoritarianism as well, but I knew whatever the story would be there, it would be interesting. I glanced over at the network, and did a double take. "Say what?"
It's not that I hadn't expected to find a postmodernist in Egypt... I had even looked up 'postmodernism' and 'Africa' looking for new insights into the continent from its more progressive people not very long ago. I found little to hold my interest, and, disappointed by the copied and pasted email discussions of a group of academics who questioned the point of thinking about 'postmodernism' in relation to Africa at all, I tried to resign myself to a lifetime of perspectives from the West to engage with... just in case. Every postmodern theorist I had ever heard of was based in the West, with most of them hailing from a French of American background... why should my non-expectations about the perpetuation of this trend be non-derailed?
Intrigued, I clicked on Mohammed's profile, and - lo and behold, he had listed 'deconstruction' as one of his interests. I was so surprised I think I may have giggled. Usually the only person who voluntarily brings up deconstruction is me, myself and I. I was getting ready to see the world, and here was a whole new world opening itself up to me over the net (because each person is a universe).
Two months later, Mohammed and I exchange emails, chat to each other on MSN and send each other videos on Facebook. He is doing his phd on feminist literature from Egypt in Al Menya University (that's 4 hours from Cairo), did his master's research on Christian theory, and has published articles on all sorts of topics in his native Arabic. He has also written four books at the relatively young age of 34. He tells me that there are lovely people in Egypt who are interested in his views, and that there are people who are favourably predisposed towards Nietzsche and Derrida (and the boy can spell the name of the German philosopher perfectly every time he mentions him, all other spelling/grammar mistakes aside). He does mention that the ideas he explores in his work often leave him feeling isolated and anxious as a result, and I could blame Egypt's repressive government but the sad thing is that a lot of innovative thinkers I know experience the same thing, myself included. Mohammed has not been outside Egypt, which makes me squirm - I don't know many people who are not immigrants and not part of a multicultural society. But evidently this has not stopped him from appropriating ideas from the West and other places into his own narrative, or prevented him from becoming a radical thinker, feeler and generally a fabulous person.
There are a lot of things I don't know about him, like how far he would push the standards of what is seen as socially acceptable or morally upstanding, considering the government he has to mind, what he would change about the way people treat women if he had the power, and to what extent he engages with agnosticism and pantheism, but I know other things: He 'loves' Derrida, he considers his parents as oblivious to much of what goes on in his head (just like moi), he doesn't think anyone can be too sensitive or think too much, and he hasn't once complained about anything. I think he may be my new best friend. And I can't wait for him to finish his phd in the next year so he can take me up on my marriage proposal, because while for now I'm just interested in screwing around with the institution of marriage for my own (and others') benefit, if he loses that authoritarian streak by way of spending some time in Aus (or wherever), he might be a good catch after all.
Facebook pretty much shows you the person's profile pic, and the network they have elected to belong to when bringing a friend request to your attention. You can then click on their profile from there. The picture paralysed me- a middle-aged-ish man with glasses was giving some unknown person/object a gaze full of speculation, mental alertness and hope. Sure, I sensed a tendency towards authoritarianism as well, but I knew whatever the story would be there, it would be interesting. I glanced over at the network, and did a double take. "Say what?"
It's not that I hadn't expected to find a postmodernist in Egypt... I had even looked up 'postmodernism' and 'Africa' looking for new insights into the continent from its more progressive people not very long ago. I found little to hold my interest, and, disappointed by the copied and pasted email discussions of a group of academics who questioned the point of thinking about 'postmodernism' in relation to Africa at all, I tried to resign myself to a lifetime of perspectives from the West to engage with... just in case. Every postmodern theorist I had ever heard of was based in the West, with most of them hailing from a French of American background... why should my non-expectations about the perpetuation of this trend be non-derailed?
Intrigued, I clicked on Mohammed's profile, and - lo and behold, he had listed 'deconstruction' as one of his interests. I was so surprised I think I may have giggled. Usually the only person who voluntarily brings up deconstruction is me, myself and I. I was getting ready to see the world, and here was a whole new world opening itself up to me over the net (because each person is a universe).
Two months later, Mohammed and I exchange emails, chat to each other on MSN and send each other videos on Facebook. He is doing his phd on feminist literature from Egypt in Al Menya University (that's 4 hours from Cairo), did his master's research on Christian theory, and has published articles on all sorts of topics in his native Arabic. He has also written four books at the relatively young age of 34. He tells me that there are lovely people in Egypt who are interested in his views, and that there are people who are favourably predisposed towards Nietzsche and Derrida (and the boy can spell the name of the German philosopher perfectly every time he mentions him, all other spelling/grammar mistakes aside). He does mention that the ideas he explores in his work often leave him feeling isolated and anxious as a result, and I could blame Egypt's repressive government but the sad thing is that a lot of innovative thinkers I know experience the same thing, myself included. Mohammed has not been outside Egypt, which makes me squirm - I don't know many people who are not immigrants and not part of a multicultural society. But evidently this has not stopped him from appropriating ideas from the West and other places into his own narrative, or prevented him from becoming a radical thinker, feeler and generally a fabulous person.
There are a lot of things I don't know about him, like how far he would push the standards of what is seen as socially acceptable or morally upstanding, considering the government he has to mind, what he would change about the way people treat women if he had the power, and to what extent he engages with agnosticism and pantheism, but I know other things: He 'loves' Derrida, he considers his parents as oblivious to much of what goes on in his head (just like moi), he doesn't think anyone can be too sensitive or think too much, and he hasn't once complained about anything. I think he may be my new best friend. And I can't wait for him to finish his phd in the next year so he can take me up on my marriage proposal, because while for now I'm just interested in screwing around with the institution of marriage for my own (and others') benefit, if he loses that authoritarian streak by way of spending some time in Aus (or wherever), he might be a good catch after all.
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Comment by postmoderncritic
Postmodern Critic
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
A related thought - the economy: There are places in rural China where schools do not have any books, and the teacher relies on tools like chalk to pass on knowledge to the class. Chalk can be very effective when used creatively, but the more resources you have, the more you will be boosting the intellectual power of the young students. This extra text is something a student can place right in front of them, and offers multiple modes of stimulation through both texts and pictures.
Lesser money to spend on infrastructure such as non-delapidating buildings and clean (dust, rubble and garbage-free) streets means that the conceptual environment of the residents confined to these spaces is also less polished, refined and harmonious.