Page 2 of
2 SPEAKING
FREELY Gulf renamed in
aversion to 'Persian' By K
Darbandi
Broadcasting Service of
June 15, 2007, with guests Zbigniew Brzezinski,
Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft [12]:
Henry Kissinger: We're at a
moment when the international system is in a
period of change like we haven't seen for several
hundred years. In some parts of the world, the
nation state, on which the existing international
system was based, is either giving
up
its traditional aspects, like in Europe, or as in
the Middle East, where it was never really fully
established, it is no longer the defining element.
So in those two parts of the world, there is
tremendous adjustment in traditional concepts.
Scowcroft: Just to add what
Henry said in historical terms. Perhaps the most
troubling area in the world goes from the Balkans
through the Middle East and in Central Asia.
Brzezinski: I call that the
global Balkans, because in some ways, it's similar
to the European Balkans, which were internally
conflicted.
Scowcroft:
Because national borders are eroding,
because of the growth of non-state actors. It's a
different kind of a world ... It's a - it's a
world where most of the big problems spill over
national boundaries, and there are new kinds of
actors and we're feeling our way as to how to deal
with them. I think it is less policy oriented than
Zbig indicated. I think it's more systemic. And
now these - these peoples are trying to discover
who they are. Their boundaries are artificial.
Their historical relationships are very different
from what they are - they're trying to discover
who they are and to whom they belong.
Epilogue This September, Jalal
ad-Din Muhammad Rumi's 800 birthday anniversary
was celebrated in several cultures and by peoples
of various backgrounds and beliefs, separated by
national boundaries across the "Global Balkans",
from Dushanbe to Damascus, and from Tehran to
Tashkent.
Rumi, of Tajik origins, was born
in Balkh in today's Afghanistan and died a Persian
immigrant in Konia, in today's Turkey. He adored a
man called Shams, from Tabriz, in the Iranian
province of Azerbaijan; he founded and followed a
distinct interpretation of Islamic theology, the
religion originated in the Arabian Peninsula. His
appraisal of the Arab contribution was
unprejudiced by teachings of Indian and Greek
thinkers. His philosophical articulations were
heavily influenced by Attar from Neishapour, from
Khorosan province; he studied in Baghdad and
taught in Damascus, and settled and died in
Eastern Ruman territories, in western Turkey.
He was neither Sunni, neither Shi'ite. He
was not Iranian, Tajik, Turkish or Arab. He was
all and none in one. Homeless and torn to shreds
by the barbaric Mongol invasion, long before
nation states were ever conceived, he lived the
dialectical negation of the future nation state:
he sketched a new union, from Balkh to Basra, and
from Hamadan to Herat by walking through the ocean
of devastation and ruins, teaching the
meaninglessness of names, and the eternal grace of
unity and oneness.
Kissinger believes that
the nation state "was never established ... and is
no longer the defining element in the Middle
East". Scowcroft thinks: "Their boundaries are
artificial. Their historical relationships are
very different from what they are - they're trying
to discover who they are and to whom they belong";
and "Zbig" thinks of Rumi country as "global
Balkans, because in some ways, it's similar to the
European Balkans, which were internally conflicted
..."
Let me ask you this: Who started the
naming game? Do you want to play? Be a whirling
dervish and turn it upside-down!
Notes 1. "UAE ports host
more US navy ships than any port outside the
United States. The UAE provides outstanding
support for the US Navy at the ports of Jebel Ali
- which is managed by DP World - and Fujairah and
for the US Air Force at al Dhafra Air Base
(tankers and surveillance and reconnaissance
aircraft). The UAE also hosts the UAE Air Warfare
Center, the leading fighter training center in the
Middle East." (US Government: Office of the Press
Secretary, February 22, 2006) 2. American
University of Sharjah, founded by a ruling emir
and Texas A&M, is one example. 3.
Discrimination in the workplace is common,
prospective employers will specify religion,
nationality (and even regional origin in some
cases) and also specify the gender of required
candidates within job advertisements. It is very
common to have different pay scales depending on
nationality and gender. There are positive
discrimination policies in place also that require
certain roles to be filled by UAE nationals.
4. Nearly 80% of the UAE's population are
foreigners, and foreigners account for 90% of the
workforce in the private sector, including
domestic workers. As of May 2006, according to the
Ministry of Labor, there were 2,738,000 migrant
workers in the country. The UAE's economic growth
has attracted large domestic and foreign
investments and the current construction boom is
one of the largest in the world. Exploitation of
migrant construction workers by employers,
especially low-skilled workers in small firms, is
particularly severe. Immigration sponsorship laws
that grant employers extraordinary power over the
lives of migrant workers are in part responsible
for the continuing problem. Abuses against migrant
workers include non-payment of wages, extended
working hours without overtime compensation,
unsafe working environments resulting in deaths
and injuries, squalid living conditions in labor
camps, and withholding of passports and travel
documents. 5. Fujairah, which faces the Indian
Ocean and is connected to the Gulf coast by a
modern road, would be critical to American
operations were the Strait of Hormuz closed off.
In addition, US warplanes fly out of UAE air bases
on support missions for Operation Southern Watch
over Iraq, and it has prepositioned materiel on
UAE soil. 6. The Trucial Oman Scouts, long the
symbol of public order on the coast and commanded
by British officers, were turned over to the UAE
as its defense forces in 1971. The UAE armed
forces, consisting of 48,800 troops, are
headquartered in Abu Dhabi and are primarily
responsible for the defense of the seven
emirates. 7. For an excellent article on
Hegel's opinion on Rumi's thought, refer to: Cyrus
Bina, M Vaziri: "On the Dialectic of Rumi's
Discourse." 8. Three Essays, 1793-1795, Notre
Dame, Indiana, 1984. 9. Formed in 1981, it
includes all Gulf states having shores except Iran
and Iraq. 10. "Kaniz", an Arabic term for
female slaves, sited in the Koran. The male term
for the Islamic slave is "Gholam". 11. Vahid
Sepehri: Iran: Spill, dolphin deaths spark
alarm at Persian Gulf pollution.
Payvand's Iran News, April 2007. 12.
Brzezinski served as US national security advisor
to president Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981.
Kissinger served (1969-1977)as national security
advisor and later concurrently as secretary of
state in the Richard Nixon administration and as
secretary of state in Gerald Ford's
administration. Scowcroft was national security
advisor under presidents Ford and George H W Bush.
K Darbandi is an independent
Iranian-American scientist and a former member of
the Islamic Republic opposition.
(Copyright 2007 K Darbandi.)
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please click hereif you are interested in
contributing.
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