Retraction

Curtains stirred

behind the dusty pane

of an upper-story window

as a hand withdrew from sight.

-- Eric Hansen, Motoring with Mohammed (1991), p. 97

On Gun Control (updated)

 

[A repost of an essay from July, in the light -- the in-lit darkness -- of the Connecticut events. Not grinding any axe here, just being blandly analytical.]

"You think Social Security is the third rail of politics, try guns," says one Republican strategist. A number of Democrats have also been skittish on the issue.

-- LA Times, 15 Dec 2012

~

In one respect, legal restrictions proved effective:

Just days before the school shooting, Adam Lanza attempted to purchase a single “long gun” rifle from a local gun store but was turned away because he did not want to wait for the required 14-day background check.

-- id.

Apparently he subsequently stole the murder weapons from his mother -- who, ironically, was herself something of a gun-nut, keeping several semi-automatic weapons around the house -- killing her with her own gun.   She thus literally hoist with her own petard.  Unfortunately  she took a bunch of kids with her.

[Update 16 December 2012]  The print media have done their homework:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/newtown-school-shooters-mother-collected-guns-was-loath-to-let-people-inside-home/2012/12/15/d89c2732-4706-11e2-8061-253bccfc7532_story.html?hpid=z3

As for NPR the past 24 hours, it has mostly been just glurge.

Likewise the Los Angeles Times:

In Connecticut, a mother coped silently with a troubled son

Nancy Lanza, who police say was the first victim in her son's shooting rampage, had battled with the school district over him before quitting her job to teach him at home.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-shooter-20121216,0,1022231.story

This woman-as-martyred-victim narrative won’t fly:  “Nancy Lanza divorced in 2009 and was awarded the house and enough money — up to $12,450 a month in alimony, according to local news outlets that reviewed the divorce files — that she didn't have to work.”   And her method of ‘coping’ with her wacko son  was to take him to firing ranges to “improve his aim”.

[Update 17 XII 2012]  In the post below, I identified the latent subtext of the hardcore (assault-rifle) gun-culture  as having nothing to do with "hunting" ('Take that, terror-squirrel!'), and everything to do with [censored] and [redacted].

And so it is  in this case.  The mother (truly the central figure in this affair, and not her pitiful flaky son) was a "prepper":

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/11/preppers-survivalist-doomsday-obama

* * *

Disclaimer:

Lest anyone imagine that I harbor mean and hurtful thoughts about guns per se,

check out the action at the site of my buddy,

the two-fisted, pistol-packing, wise-cracking pre-Consiliar private eye,

Murphy!

http://murphybros.blogspot.com/

* * *

[Update 18 XII 2012]   OK, the survivalists who arm themselves against the ZOG and the space aliens and what have you, at least we can see where they're coming from. Likewise the high-schoolers who shoot up their own high-school.  But this new elementary-school fetish is straining the synapses of comprehension:

December 18, 2012

While most Americans spent the weekend in shock and mourning following the shooting deaths of 20 first-graders and six teachers and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., at least a few of our fellow citizens were thinking that killing school kids is a cool idea.

On Sunday, Los Angeles police arrested 24-year-old Kyle Bangayan at his parents’ house in East Hollywood. Bangayan had posted a Facebook message in which he threatened to shoot children at several elementary schools. Police found nine guns in the home.

Also Sunday, far from the tough streets of L.A. in the rural town of Sedro-Wooley, Wash., police arrested 19-year-old Korry Martinson. After praising the Newtown shooter and blaming the government for incidents of mass slaughter, Martinson wrote on his Facebook page, “If this causes our gun laws to be taken away, to the point as to where I cannot own a gun, I will personally get my sawed off double barreled shotgun and my AK-47 and go shoot up every school within a 100 mile radius of my current location.”

Police in Sedro-Wooley did not find any guns in Martinson’s possession, but on Friday, the same day as the shooting in Newtown, police in Cedar Lake, Ind., collected 47 guns at the home of a 60-year-old man, Von Meyer, who they say had threatened to kill his wife and shoot up the elementary school located just 1,000 feet from his home.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-emulate-killer-20121217,0,5881004.story

Interesting factoid:  "With 5 percent of the world’s population, the United States has 50 percent of the guns." (Washington Post)

 

[Update 20 Dec 2012]  As the French see us:

Ruée sur les armureries à Newtown

Malgré les drames sanglant qui émaillent l'actualité, il est toujours aussi facile de se procurer des armes de guerre aux États-Unis.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2012/12/19/01003-20121219ARTFIG00591-ruee-sur-les-armureries-a-newtown-et-dans-tout-le-pays.php?m_i=IlHIeIbey3lGZsT9QSn2ockBIRcbp4JX6p3gDR354wvTS33cX

*

Si cela vous parle,

savourez la série noire

en argot authentique d’Amérique :

http://www.linguasacrapublishing.com/justiceexcerptdivorce.html

*

~ ~ [original post, VII 2012] ~~

[Yeeeeee-IPES !?!!   Is the World of Dr Justice going to tackle that hot-potato?  Why not just come right out and discuss the Abortion of Baby Pandas ??]

Tempers are high.  A man’ll draw his gun to prove a point, quicker than he’ll draw on his logic.

That’s where I come in.

-- Marshall Dillon, “Gunsmoke”.

The recent events in Colorado -- fretted over here -- have inevitably given rise to a certain amount of hand-wringing on the topic of gun control, given that the perp acquired his weapons and ammo legally.  But mostly, on the op-ed pages;  both Presidential candidates are tip-toeing around this.   And even the op-editors [I might have just coined that word, hm] mostly say that (shrug, sigh) nothing will ever happen.  Which is probably true, but which, if that is your opening move, is certainly true.

Nor is it our intention to pronounce one way or the other on the merits of this or that proposed (or potentially proposed) legislative measure, whether at the state level, or (necessarily, to be at all effective in a case like this, where the perp bought on the internet, and planned for months) the federal.   What little we have to say  is in no way political -- nor even a matter of logic,  such as we have previously brought to bear  upon certain other sociopolitical questions.

No -- what we intend  is to do two things:

(1)  To point out a certain elephant in the room.

(2)  To tell you something you don’t already know, since it describes the weapons situation in Yemen.

So.

(1)  First of all, it is quite obvious that the insistence of the gun lobby on access to assault rifles, high-capacity magazines, and armor-piercing bullets, has nothing to do with hunting ducks or deer.   The demand compasses two principal purposes:

    (a)  To overthrow the government, in the event that it should become tyrannical (a point already reaching, according to some, whose hard core includes ZOG-mavens and Christian Identity types);

   (b)  To kill blacks in the event of a race war.

I mean…  this-all is as plain as the nose on your face.

Nor do I mention these taboos with a view to discrediting them or raising a scandal:  I mean, what would you do, in the event of true tyranny, or race war?  I mention these merely in the most pacific and almost indifferent spirit, simply to clear the air.  The debate as it is usually waged  proceeds upon terms so detached from reality  as to be an embarrassment.

 (2)  Now, the thing to know about Yemen is, they have no gun control.  Heck, they have no bomb control.  There have long been free-wheeling open-air weapons markets in the ill-policed rugged North.   There was a widely-read column by a Yemeni political humorist awhile back, imagining such a place, with all manner of smuggled goods on offer, offering bombs “big enough to blow up a five-storey building” and (if that was out of your price-range) more modest, middle-class, family bombs for blowing up three-storey buildings.  Suddenly the alarm is raised -- the army is staging a raid!  Frenzied activity as the merchants hastily … whisk the bras and panties out of side;  the guns are left indifferently in view.

Nor does weaponry concern just a militant fringe. Yemen is a fine, fierce, traditional tribal society.   The people are typically gentle of temperament, but as soon as a male comes of age -- and they come of age early, in Yemen  -- he dons the traditional curved dagger, the jambiyya, worn in an elaborate decorated belt -- right at the front, ready to be drawn in an instant.

Yet what happened during  the uprising that eventually swept away the long-time dictator Ali Abdallah Saleh and his nepotistic crew, was  in that regard  surprising.   We described the developments here:

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2011/03/arms-and-man.html

~

I shall continue to refrain from any commenting on the issue of gun control, pro or con, since you all know as much or more about it than I do; and anyway, minds are mostly pre-set.   But I may ask leave to observe, en tant que logicien, the occasional elephant spewing its peanuts all over the room.

Such a case is the phony foofaraw over “Fast and Furious”.   Set aside detailed matters of fact, such as whether this "gun-walking" tactic began under Obama (as the House Republicans claim) or under Bush (as history claims: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fast_and_Furious); after all, you can check the facts yourselves as well as I.    Consider rather the key contradiction, which is seldom if ever alluded to:  Namely, that this ‘investigation’ is the opposite or inverse  of what it pretends to be.   It is an opportunistic, completely cynical move  to beat the ATF with whatever cudgel happens to lie to hand.   That the Congress has stalled for six years, leaving that Bureau headless, shows their true colors.

Geography and Journalism

Late risers on this Labor Day, spreading the morning newspapers over their laps  and nibbling gingerly at the hot steam rising from the strong cup of coffee they had brewed to refresh the tissues (from dark-roasted whole beans,  preferably from the Red Sea town of Mocha, and ground just so)  were confronted with such information as this:

The Defense Ministry said in a statement that Khaled Batis, wanted in connection with the attack on the Limburg off the coast of Yemen that killed one person, was among five militants riding a vehicle struck by a drone Friday in the southern city of Hadramawt.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20120903_In_the_World.html

[Credit: AP]

An identical snippet occurs  on the CBS news site and dozens of others, likewise credited to AP, and in the Huffington Post, but uncredited.

Since Hadramaut is in southern Yemen, and since the Brits used to rule southern Yemen from Aden (nominally; they really only concerned themselves with the port of Aden),  I thought there might be further particulars in the British press, but a search on Google-News/U.K.  produced nothing.

Since the Limburg was in fact a French ship, I figured this would be bigger news in France than here (the American ship hit in Aden was the U.S.S. Cole).  A Wiki-News/France search produced virtually nothing but this -- not a translation or paraphrase of the AP piece, and containing a new detail that the perp was himself at the wheel, but omitting all geographical specificity:

Vendredi, huit membres présumés d'Al-Qaïda avaient été tués dans un raid mené, selon un responsable local, par un drone américain dans cette province. Parmi eux figurait Khaled Batis, un chef local d'Al-Qaïda, qui conduisait la voiture visée par le raid, selon sa famille.

http://www.romandie.com/news/n/_Treize_morts_dans_un_raid_contre_Al_Qaida_au_Yemen_18020920121758.asp

Perhaps those diligent Germans will have dug something up?  Nope-- Just translations of the AP piece, though giving triple credit as though the piece were a synthesis from experts around the world:

Nach Angaben des Verteidigungsministeriums in Sanaa war Khaled Batis einer von fünf Extremisten, deren Fahrzeug von einer Drohne am Freitag in der südlichen Stadt Hadramut getroffen wurde.

www.salzburg.com/nachrichten/welt/politik/sn/artikel/toedlicher-irrtum-14-zivilisten-im-jemen-getoetet-26960/

[Credit: Von Apa/dpa/ag]

The only problem is -- Hadramaut (var. Hadramawt, Hadhramawt, etc.)   is not a town, but a broad region.  This is like saying:  “the village of California” or “the town of France”.

Wikipedia accurately identifies Hadramaut as an extensive area (historically of indefinite boundaries) rather than a town;  but its uncharacteristically brain-dead map  does not show the current legal boundaries thereof, nor its size relative to the other Yemeni governorates, but simply an overly specific red dot, like a nose on a clown, which could easily mislead the skimmer into imagining the Hadramaut is a town.

So -- does anybody get it right?  They do; but you have to hunt a bit:

قالت مصادر في حضرموت أن القيادي في تنظيم القاعدة  خالد مسلم باتيس لقي مصرعه إثر القصف بطائرة دون طيار أمريكية أمس، وهو القصف الذي أستهدف  ثمانية من أعضاء تنظيم القاعدة  بين منظقة الوهد والصافق غرب الخشعة بوادي حضرموت.

ونقل موقع (حضرموت برس) عن مصادره أن الشاب (خالد) كان يقود السيارة  أثناء عملية القصف  وبعد سماع عدد من اقاربه بخبر وفاته تحركوا إلى مستشفى سيئون  لمعاينة الجثث في ثلاجة الموتى  ولم يجدوه ، لكنهم تحركوا الى موقع الحادث  فعثروا  على جثته متفحمه وقاموا بنقلها الى مدينة القطن حيث جرى دفنه هناك.

وذكر المصدر أن الشاب خالد باتيس سبق وتلقت الأسرة خبر وفاته ثلاث مرات.

وكثفت الطائرات الامريكية من استهدافها لعناصر القاعدة في حضرموت وشبوة وأبين ومأرب والبيضاء وقتلت منهم الكثير لكن ذلك لم يحد من الهجمات التي ينفذها التنظيم في أكثير من مكان وأهمها مدينة عدن حاضرة الجنوب.

http://aden-online.com/news/10846.htm
[Credit:  Hadhramaut Press]

Here no town is named, but rather an area:  “between the localities al-Wahd and al-Safiq west of al-Khashi`ah in Wadi-Hadramaut.”  We also learn that the name of the deceased was Khâlid Muslim Bâtîs, with both vowels long in the surname.   This would be an unusual pattern in standard Arabic;  no doubt the Bâ- is the well-known southern-Yemeni form of Abu-, while the rest, which is printed without the tashkîl diacritics, is for Tays, literally ‘goat’.  Thus, our late adventurer was Abu-Tays;  and here is what he looked like:

Hi ma !!  (... bye ma ... )

*     *     *

~ Commercial break ~

For our book-length semantic investigation,

in Arabic and the European languages,

click here

We now return you to your regularly scheduled essay.

*     *     *

~

Paleographers pursue the art of stemmatology -- tracing the ancestry of successive manuscripts of a given work, down the centuries.   Highly useful in discerning separate traditions of who-copied-from-whom  is any error that cropped up at some point, at the nib of a slumbrous scribe, and was thereafter passed down like a bad gene.    The take-home here is that the surface wild-variety of information on the Internet  conceals a relatively few feeder-sources.

[Postscript:  Much more Arabic funstuff available here. ]

Linguistic footnote:

حضرموت‎

As for the word Hadramaut, I have no idea where it comes from;  various etymologies are proposed here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadhramaut

As for the pronunciation in English:  had-ra-MOUT.

As for the transcription:  

(1) The -au- vs. -aw- are insignificantly different ways of transcribing the same diphthong.

(2) The -d- vs. -dh- is more substantive.   

The consonant in question here is the celebrated  dâd -- sort of in the ‘emphatic’ roster, but not quite, and originally  apparently  a lateral.   Apart from the unambiguous special character, subscript-dotted d,  ḍ, there is no good way to transcribe the bugger in the regular alphabet:  either d, in which case it falls together with the entirely different letter dâl; or dh, in which case it falls together with dhâl.

For a considerably more important  phono-morphological observation, consult the learnèd Comment of Dr Massey, below.

Mabrûk, yâ Tawakkul ! Mabrûk, yâ sha`b al-Yemen !

Traditionally, the Nobel Prize in the various sciences  honors milestones -- faits accomplis, not mere moves of great promise.  That is why Einstein got his Nobel, not for Relativity (still too conjectural at the time of the award), but for various other, instantly evaluable contributions.   Which means that the restriction to living laureates runs contrary to the main idea -- you cannot glean the high-points of the history of physics, by examining the Nobel awards, owing to that restriction.

Which is not to say that the restriction is necessarily a bad idea, for considerations of quite another order are valid in their own right.  As, that winning one is pretty much the career highpoint of a scientist’s life -- so why waste one on those no longer living?

The Nobel Peace Prize has gone quite a different route:  like the MacArthur, it has a soft spot for those who may be at the beginnings of what we hope may prove a stellar career;  yet more, increasingly this particular prize  means, not merely to crown, but to cause.  (Such, of course, was the one awarded to Barack Obama.  Love him a whole bunch, but the award was surely premature.)   Or to return to the physics:  not simply to measure in the classical sense (fait accompli), but in the quantum sense, where the measurement itself affects the course of events.  (Hence the Nobel for Obama.)  Yemen's fate still hangs in the balance; the Committee wishes to nudge the beam.

And so it is here.  Tawakkul Karman is not the fons et origo, nor the nec plus ultra, nor the sine qua non of the Yemeni resistance.   But she is an honorable and worthy representative of the stalwart Yemeni people, whose sparkling and inventive mouvement de contestation  we have saluted  here and here.

[Note: Her name is pronounced ta-WAHK-kul kar-MAN.
In Arabic, tawakkul means 'trust in God'. Much as among the early American Puritans, it is quite common for Muslim given-names  to have a transparent dictionary meaning.]

[Update 21 Feb 2012]
Listen to the lady herself, on the transition of power:
http://www.medi1.com/player/player.php?i=5118932

The * People * -- *United * -- will Never Be …

We earlier commented on the hip&humorous nature of many of the Arab-world protests, reminiscent of mai soixante-huit.    And despite the increasingly cloudy atmosphere in Yemeni society and politics,  here is a new and beautiful tribute to the Yemeni people.

*

At the same time, we must concede… the popular uprisings have no monopoly on striking performance-art.   Here you can read about a Syrian flag over a mile long, born aloft through the streets by a vibrant people … only… pro-Assad people.

Homo sapiens is indeed difficult to figure.

Scenes from the Sit-In (! معتصمين)

[a re-post with updates]

 In French, when you want to refer to a sit-in, you have to resort to “un sit-in”.  (It sounds even wimpier in French -- “uhn seet-eeeen”.)  In German it’s ein Sit-in.

In English, sit-in is all right -- part of the genius of the language that produced teach-in, bake-off, freakout, and much else.   But it does sound pretty passive.

Arabic, by contrast, has a particular verb for “to sit in”, i`taSam; a noun, ‘sit-in’, i`tiSaam;  and a participle mu`taSim, plural mu`taSimiin:  which is the title of the third and final song we shall link to, from that memorable evening in Taghyir Square:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcC0k9w1CUY

Arabic is a strong and forceful language;  Yemeni, a dialect capable of especially warrior-like expression;  and the root `-S-m is one of signal strength:  both phonetically, with its quintessentially Arabic `ayn, its emphatic (pharyngealized) Sâd, and finally the mîm -- in itself a soft letter, but in closing out the defiant word mu`taSim, it is like a powerful jaw, champing down and not letting go; and semantically, surrounded  as it is  with a corona of splendid paronyms:  `iSâmî ‘noble’, `âSim ‘guardian’, and ma`Sûm  ‘sacrosanct’. 

Where the first piece  was in jog-trot treble-time,  in keeping with its elfin satire -- now we have the rhythm of the anvil beneath the smith. 
So let us join the democracy demonstrators  in this pile-driver of a chant.

[More here.]

~ ~ ~

Updates:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/middleeast/19yemen.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/slideshow/ALeqM5gRxXKFVp12m1cT98EURtrQBmfuAg?docId=4fc5e9167838447a84be2141f83b8cdb&index=0

At Sahat Taghyir, they keep coming back for more:

http://www.aljazeera.net/News/KServices/SupportPages/ShowMedia/showMedia.aspx?fileURL=/mritems/streams/2011/3/18/1_1048841_1_12.flv

Notice the Korans on the chests of the dead.

[Update 1 April 2011]
"a narrative of Shakespearean proportions":
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/yemens-future-hinges-on-its-two-most-powerful-men/2011/03/29/AFLxOnCC_story.html

[update 5 April 2011]
An even-handed survey:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/04/11/110411fa_fact_filkins

More protest-wit:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/04/syria-red-card-youre-out.html

[update 30 April 2011]  After the GCC initiative, hardline rejectionists were quoted as demanding "a departure, not an initiative" -- hardly winged words.  But in Arabic, it rhymes (mughâdarah…mubâdarah).

[update 1 May 2011]

When the GCC put forward its moderate and face-saving initiative, and Saleh publically embraced it, many of us breathed a sigh of relief.  Enough of the street stuff -- now on to the real task of rebuilding the nation.  A guarantee of immunity from prosecution for the ex-(to-be)-Prexy is a small price to pay, and maybe even a benefit:  the nation does not need a show trial or other spectacular distractions.   The crisis of water resources should be front and center now.  So when much of the opposition hooted the initiative down, it seemed impractically maximalist;  le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.   But by golly, b’gum, b’dad, turns out they were right to distrust him:  the old eel has some wriggles in him yet:

Saleh refused to sign the accord yesterday in his capacity as president, saying he would only ratify it as chairman of the ruling General People’s Congress.

A baffling semantic nicety without the explanation:

“If he signs as chairman of the party and the party says it rejects his decision, he will remain president.”

That sort of ploy has long been in evidence among tyrants, from Napoleon on down.

(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-01/yemen-accord-signing-has-been-postponed-gulf-official-says-2-.html)

Arms and the Man

A notable feature of the Yemeni resistance has been the relatively peaceful and disciplined behavior of the protestors, in a land  alas not known for either discipline or peace.    Particularly noteworthy is that the protestors have been, for the most part, unarmed -- this in one of the most democratically armed countries on earth.   They have faced armed government thugs  weaponless -- by choice and not necessity.

That statement might seem to be belied  by images you may have seen  of tribesmen milling around Taghyir Square with an alarmingly large dagger at the front of their belt.  This is the jambiya(**), the traditional wide-bladed curved weapon.  Its use is principally ceremonial, not for real fighting.   Sometimes they are almost comically large and impractical.  More care is lavished on the belt and on the handle (rhinoceros horn is especially prized [***]) than on the blade.  The latter, on some cheap ones I’ve seen, might serve to cut butter -- but not if it had been in the fridge.   The tribesmen left their real weapons at home.

So far as it goes, this augurs well for the (inshallah) post-Saleh era.  The principle challenge to the nation -- dwindling water resources (and the qat plant that sucks them up) -- cannot be solved by force of arms.

(**) Normally so spelled in English , though underlyingly it is janbiya (then pronounced with anticipatory assimilation), as witnessed by the plural, janaabi.
[***] The most highly prized are made from the horn of a unicorn:  but these have not been seen since the time of Solomon.

~ ~ ~

Another hopeful sign:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/world/middleeast/24tribes.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print

Each Yemeni tribe is concerned  with defending its own territory, and its own members.   But this is not on the level of “my tribesman right or wrong”.  There is a long and carefully crafted tradition of mediation and reparation.   Indeed, by comparison with our own legal system, it has certain points of advantage. A system, less of laws  than of justice, you might say;  though like all things here below, imperfectly implemented.

So I don’t think that, once Saleh is gone, there would necessarily be civil war.   My general impression -- admittedly, it is only that -- is that Yemenis are an exceptionally sweet-tempered people. (Such is, indeed, their own self-impression:  al-yamaniyiin saaliyiin, as they say.) Rough around the edges, and many current deficiencies, but with a core of good nature that will serve them well once they take their destiny into their own hands.

God be with them.

~    ~     ~

[Update 4 IV 2011]
As always, the protesters were totally unarmed...

تعز
The scene today in Ta`izz (gas)
More from today in Ta`izz

[5 IV 11]
“The regime has surprised us with this extent of killing,” parliament member Mohammed Muqbil al-Hamiri told the al-Jazeera television network. “I don’t think the people will do anything other than come out with bare chests to drain the government of all its ammunition.”
Uncannily reminiscent of the Christians in the Colosseum.

[29 IV 11]
Infographie au sujet des sit-ins pacifiques

Another bravura performance

In the first volume (Hadhramaut) of the multi-volume masterwork of M. le comte de Landberg, a Swede writing in French about Yemeni Arabic,  Etudes sur les dialectes de l’Arabie Méridionale (adequately to praise which, words fail  in every language), we find a panoramic portrait of music and poetry in nineteenth-century  Yemen.   And one transcribed piece  begins thus:

            dan dan daani dan, dann-dandan…

This ancient refrain (the “doo-wop” of Felix Arabia  -- sometimes referred to by the noun dandaana) is with us yet: 

LIVE from Taghyir Square, San`aa!  --

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwyZMqlBiDk

Classical Arabic poetry is characterized by rhythmic complexity;  and we certainly see this here, in a delivery that is not so much syncopated as…  phlogisticated.  Yallah!

Here the incomparable Muhammad al-Adra`i  does not take the easy path of satire, nor of bare defiance:  he sings, with love and longing, of the wretchedness into which his own country has fallen -- a plunge as tragic as the bursting of the Ma’rib dam, lo those many centuries ago…  The song contrasts the condition of “people” -- al-naas -- that is, other people, normal people -- with the sad state of “us”:  the folk of Yemen.

There is a word for this in Arabic, Tarab --  scarcely translatable (unless it be by the Portuguese fado):  in music, elation and anguish, intertwined like the rose and the briar …   Those more knowledgeable than I, must weigh in as to the musical mode, which seems to go back as far as Orpheus.

Superficially, visually, the present piece may resemble that posted earlier, al-naas yuriid isqaaT al-niZaam.   But it is really quite different -- and hints at something of the range of this consummate artist, previously known only as a comedian.   In the earlier piece, he played the buffoon, with lots of wordplay, and deliberately let himself be squashed by the resolute audience, by running on a bit over the prescribed length of the verse (much like the dithering President he was imitating):  but the People will not be deterred, they chime in intoning “The People demand the fall of the regime”, right on time, every time. -- In the present piece, by contrast, there is no psychic split between singer and audience:   all lament, in exaltation, their fallen state.   (Actually, come to think of it, a perfect piece for Lent…)

God be with the Yemeni people.

[More here.]

Yemeni excellence

الشعب يريد اسقاط النظام

[Note:  for the latest updates to the upheaval in Yemen, click here.]

I don’t usually allude to Arabic on these pages, for a number of reasons;  but currently we are witness to acts of stunning bravery and discipline in many parts of the Arab world.  In particular in Yemen, where a broadening coalition of workers, intelligentsia, and tribal peoples, add their traditional good-natured humor to the mix.    And here we see the long history of Yemeni political poetry  coming brilliantly to fruition  in a sort of Gesamtkunstwerk  of poetry, music, dance, and fist-pumping  all in one, performed recently in Taghyir Square -- literally 'Change Square', the recently bestowed nom de guerre of the esplanade abutting the University in San`aa, after Tahrir Square ('Liberation Square', as in Cairo) was pre-emptively occupied by government supporters.  (The words rhyme in Arabic; and in that sense, were a taste of things to come.  Think:  May '68, Paris.)

You would have to go back to the Berlin of the Weimar republic to find any comparably excellent mix of artistry and insurrection.   And even that is not really comparable, since Brecht and his buddies performed in the relative safety of fashionable cabarets -- not in the public square, surrounded by the police.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htJzWsH8qDA&feature=related

The principle performer is Muhammad al-Adra`i,

محمد الأضرعي

a comedian and activist from Dhamar.  Here, he chants a witty ironical poem, written for the occasion.   This, over an ostinato or basso continuo (“The People --  demand -- the fall of the regime!”), courtesy of the masses in attendance at this historic demonstration.   Towards the end, new themes join the mix:  the national anthem  (“Bilad al-Yemen”), and an anthem born of the Tunisian struggle, which has spread across the borders (“Idha l-sha`b yawman arâd al-Hayaa”).  This intricate blend is notable in itself, since  traditionally  Arab music has not been polyphonic.

Antiphony, by contrast, is quite characteristic of Arab political demonstrations, leading to much more interesting chants than the monotonous old monophony of our own antiwar demos during Vietnam ("Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" -- da capo al fine, ad nauseam).   Here the relation between the chant-leader and the mass audience is more complex, since he does not overtly share their point of view, but pretends to be President Saleh pleading with "his" people:    "Oh you who have been patient for a year -- it wouldn't hurt you to just sit tight another day.   Please, don't be precipitate -- even if the heat turns scorching.  Why the hurry?  Please, people, whaddaya say you just chill out -- say, for another thirty days."  (A veiled allusion to Saleh's thirty-two years in office.)  --  Solidly, stolidly, the demonstrators reply with the refrain  in one voice:  al-sha`b  -- yuriid -- isqaaT al-niDHaam !

[Update 25 III 11: ] This slogan, incidentally, has gone international.  It was the arrest of children in Syria for spray-painting it, that triggered the deadly riots and repression in Dar`aa (درعا‎)
Similarly, the simple central slogan in Cairo's Tahrir Square,  irHal  'Leave!  Depart!  Hit the road!'  resounds in Yemen as well, and is painted on arms and faces.   Often, though, with a Yemeni twist, in wry allusion to the profusion of local subdialects in that fractured land:  irHal ya`ni barra` ya`ni ... -- as it were, "Scram! (and if you don't know that word) Skedaddle! (and if that one baffles you) Vamoose!"

We salute the valor, vim, and determination of the people of Yemen. 

May that tortured land  become Arabia Felix once again.

[More here.]

And.... Bonus link:
Moroccan excellence

[For more Yemen-related posts, click on the Label "Yemen" below]

Footnote:
We alluded above to the esprit ludique of mai soixante-huit.   Something of the sort bloomed on Cairo's Tahrir Square as well, as recounted in a very interesting article in today's NYTimes:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/world/middleeast/06cairo.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

[update 1 May 2011]
South of the Sahara, the popular protest chant comparable to the Arabic al-sha`b yuriid isqaaT al-niZaam -- or simply, "irHal!" is the French "Quitte le pouvoir !", originally from Ivory Coast. Recently this slogan has achieved prominence in Burkina Faso.

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Si cela vous parle,

savourez la série noire

en argot authentique d’Amérique :

http://www.linguasacrapublishing.com/justiceexcerptdivorce.html

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[update 1 Aug 2011]
Click here for a visual summary of events, simplified for the busy businessman.

[Update 31 Aug 2011]
Eat, dance, and be merry...

[Update 24 January 2015]  Well, it was nice while it lasted.  As for now, a Web of Enmity:

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/world/friends-and-enemies-in-yemen/1573/

[Update 31 Dec 2015]  A bright spot in a currently somber landscape:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/these-singing-sisters-are-wildly-popular-in-yemen-and-theyre-israeli-jews/2015/12/30/88f66dfa-a419-11e5-8318-bd8caed8c588_story.html