Popular Culture in the Middle East Class - Essay Example

Task: Popular Culture in the Middle East Introduction Eastern Cultures advocate values that have attracted global critics. An interesting concern associated with the Middle East culture is their straightforward contradiction with the western cultures. According to Armbrust (6), the world has misinterpreted Eastern cultures associating them with discriminatory and exploitive practices. Consequently, these cultures remain controversial since understanding them is strenuous. Therefore, this essay explores the Middle East Culture by examining the film “Terrorism and Kebab”, the Article ‘Ayatollah under the Bed-sheets’ and the rationale behind the ‘Arab Spring’. The Overview The film “Terrorism and Kebab” presents an informative piece that we can utilize to understand governance strategies and Eastern Cultures. The film employs tactical approach in examining critical subjects in governance and in explaining cultural teachings. This has earned the film a great attention hence ranked among the popular film in Egypt. The Article “Ayatollah Under the Bed-sheets,” examines the values propagated by popular Iranian leaders that have considerably influenced Middle East cultures. The Article examines the subject of sexuality in the Eastern culture. Lastly, the ‘Arabic spring’ presents the protests in the Arabic countries that started in the year 2010. The coining of protests to the term ‘Arabic’ does not entirely mean that the groups hold the Arabs as the only participants (Gelvin 45). The revolts initiated at Tunisia and extended to Algeria, Egypt and later to other regions. The facilitators of these objections have objectives of bringing down governments that fail to accord their values since they consider them unbearable (Gelvin 123). Particularly, the protestors have goals of preventing erosions of their culture that they claim is facing a solemn challenge due to proliferation of the western cultures. According to the promoters of these protests, the western culture presents unethical values, which corrupt societal morals hence, should be discouraged (Gelvin 56). The Role of the Government Government occupies a crucial position in our daily life endeavors. Indeed, the government defines the condition of our society since it resides with the control and supervisory power. Particularly, any government has a role of managing the country’s people and resources. Consequently, the government designs the scheme that will protect people’s interest and forester peaceful interactions among the citizens (Meier 43). Managing people is a complex multifaceted procedure that demand critical and rational mind since individuals will always present assorted interests and traits. Apparently, some individuals depict ill interest and traits that pose risks to the society. This therefore, builds a role for the government entrusting it with the responsibility of ensuring a monitored environment by spelling regulations (Meier 11). Importantly, the authority has a role of providing guidance to the citizens. Since governments are entrusted with leadership as its prime duty, the body should be capable of availing proper guidance and clarifications where need arises. Notably, this guidance ought to be justified since citizens expect genuine solutions and representations out of their government. However, compromised governance may misuse these opportunities to impose irrational values in the society. This poses challenges to the role of government in safeguarding the people and their interest since such practices contravenes with principles of good governance (Meier 29). Surprisingly, such governments adopt tactical schemes hence making it difficult for the society to realize their ill practices. Besides managing people, the administration has a role of organizing the country’s property or resources. Apparently, life demands material support hence there arises the concern of managing these resources since they determine our wellbeing. The administrators hence has a role of ensuring effective exploitation of these resources. Importantly, it has a responsibility of promoting fair distribution of the returns realized from these resources. People hence entrusts the government with the role of budgeting the country’s assets to ensure sustainable exploitation. However, the government must invite accountability when executing these duties. Bureaucratic Governance Bureaucracy denotes a scheme of governance were there is a distinct hierarchy of power. These administration advocates for division of the duties, regulations and procedures. Under the bureaucratic governance, regulations are implemented in accordance to a defined procedure (Meier 12). Chinese introduced the idea of bureaucracy, but the system presently has a global stretch. The Americans criticize the system heavily; however, bureaucracy principles are still evident in most workplaces, countries and in institutions. Bureaucratic systems present terrible failures under some situations since the regulations and directions advocated by the systems are not beneficial in unforeseen cases. Consequently, the bureaucratic authority is dictatorial and devotion to these regulations sometimes undermines the objectives of the actions adopted. Indeed, people make regulations hence these procedures should not oppress them; instead, they should better their lives. Additionally, the system is prone to development of unpractical pile of regulations (Meier 16). Consequently, governmental red tapes may result to wastage of the country’s time and finances, an action that is not justifiable. Indeed, bureaucracy has potential of complicating duty procedures. However, the system invites the benefits linked with the “red tape.” For instance, the scheme may lead to protection of the public since the system promotes critical examination of the procedures before endorsement (Meier 20). Incorporation of the red tape ideas in the procedure ensures that there is data for referring to in the future, in case the matter encounters challenges. Importantly, the red tape idea promotes secrecy hence protecting the participating parties. Lessons from the Middle East Culture After watching the film and reading the Article about the Eastern culture, I have identified important information about the group. Initially, the Eastern culture has dominant individuals who have popularized their values that continue to oppress the society that follows them ignorantly. It is terrifying that these influential leaders adopt tactics that enable them impose their interest in the society comfortably (Armbrust 34). For instance, these leaders conceal behind the concept of protecting their culture against the western manipulations. Somewhat, the observation is rational since some foreign cultures are associated with un-acceptable traits. However, the observation is not genuine since some of the principles under which these leaders operate cannot be justified. The victims of these advocacies and systems are the innocent citizens who fall under their traps. Notably, people lack choice on which system to fall hence making it hard for one to determine his/her fate. Consequently, individuals are prone to the mistreatment since teachings advocated by their systems influences their attitudes. This present the case with Eastern cultures, influential leaders build compromised attitudes among the masses to fulfill there inbound desires (Armbrust 143). Consequently, ill governments continue to exploit citizens comfortably without facing resistances. For instance, the government in the Film is corrupt and exploitive; however, the system conceals its undertakings by fooling the citizens with simple rewards. Importantly, individuals in Eastern cultures present the worst victims of injustice. Evidently, the world views the promoters of these practices to be evil and uncivilized; however, society fails to understand that the case presented by these individuals is out of their choice. This worsens the situation since the practice adds pressure to already exploited masses. Persons who follow Eastern cultures are sometimes mistaken for terrorists (Armbrust 104). For instance, in the film the Terrorism and Kebab, the habit of one actor earns him a terrorist title whereas he is innocent making him face unjust prosecution. This exemplifies the state in the society where some groups have fallen victims to these miscalculations. Addressing the matter presented by these conditions becomes hard to tackle because understanding the truth linked to the claims is strenuous (Armbrust 112). These develop confusions in the society leaving people with unclear state on which system to adopt. Apparently, any system can never satisfy the interest of every individual in the country; however, the authorities should not use this strategy to justify their exploitive practices. This is possible as we read in the Article that, individuals who opposes the values advocated by the leaders faces rejections. Conclusion Evidently, the world has obtained the wrong messages from the habits presented in Eastern Cultures. In fact, what the society holds about this culture is far away from reality. The world has developed bad attitudes towards the people from this region by merely considering their practices. Surprisingly, promoters of practices criticized by the society are victims of compromised governance. Therefore, we need initiate efforts of understanding the cultures of others instead of developing biased attitudes, which are based on simple evaluations. Works cited Armbrust, Walter. Mass Mediations: New Approaches to Popular Culture in the Middle East and Beyond. Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press, 2000. Print. Gelvin, James L. The Arab Uprisings: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print. Meier, Kenneth J, and Laurence J. OToole. Bureaucracy in a Democratic State: A Governance Perspective. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2006. Print Read More