Lawrence & Tin Tin

 
In Tin Tin: Land of Black Gold, not only are the Arabs simplistically represented. Everyone’s, well, a cartoon, and a tad laughable. The Tin Tin comix probably didn’t have a tremendous obligation to dig real deeply into the Arab soul, though the veiled actors in the drama do reflect some of the players in the incorporation and kingdomification of oil in Araby. And to Herge’s credit, there are all permutations of Anglo and Arab good guys and bad guys. He is said to have been a humanist.

T.E. Lawrence’s book, Revolt in the Desert, the unabridged version of Seven Pillars of Wisdom which greatly informed the film Lawrence of Arabia, also offers a reasonably balanced, albeit necessarily outsider’s view, of Arab culture and politics in the tumultuous days during which Turkish-ruled Arab tribes came to unsteady unity and dominion over the world’s richest oil fields. In a politically multi-polar world, it is of interest to consider how this reasonably curious and balanced approach transformed into such heavily black and white thinking about Arabs, a topic Jack Shaheen addresses in his book Reel Bad Arabs. 

Shaheen, previously a Southern Illinois University mass communications professor and researcher, started his description and research into the phenomenon of the “bad Arabs” in the ‘80s when it wasn’t very popular to do so. He has since become a Middle East consultant with NBC News. Mainstream media mended its ways some after the 70s and 80s when all Palestinians were guerillas and terrorists and Israelis were always Freedom Fighters. 9/11, not surprisingly, produced a set back not per se for Palestinians, but for Muslims. In addition to harming innocents when such stereotyping takes hold, and perhaps this is the reason for the stereotyping to begin with, it gives an oversimplified view of the individuals, movements, motives, and even the intellectual capacity of the individuals being stereotyped.

The lack of respect contributes to ineffective methods for interfacing with the culture, power structures, and mindset of a sophisticated people with a troubled faction. To short change Arab and Islamic culture is to short change our own capacity for our most intelligent response to our role in 21^st Century. Arabs in the Gulf States are keen on economic success to the point that the conservative protective stance with women is starting to change to permit women access to education, employment, and the steering wheel. We’re talking hell is freezing over. So far, the oil-rich Middle East has been competing with one hand tied behind its back. How might things go if both hands are employed?

Trike

I'm addicted to centrifugal force. It's so reliable once you get the hang of it riding a bicycle, a motorcycle, a horse, a roller coaster.  And it's such a secret.  People often love doing these things, but I don't think many of them have deconstructed it. Centrifugal force is a blast. We're glued to the Earth by centrifugal force.  It's just the coolest thing since Speed Queen washers.

A couple of years ago we got the energetic Black Lab Cubby.  I was casting about for ways to get him enough exercise, something working dogs really need.  I had a bum knee and foot and walking very much wasn't going to work out too well.  I pondered and figured getting an adult tricycle might fill the bill. I didn't like the idea of having him run on a lead with a bicycle.  I didn't know him well enough to trust he wouldn't do something nuts.  He may have thought the self-same of me.

So I thought: a tricycle. Nice and stable.  Michael and I went to the bike shop, picked one out and got it home.  I was utterly leveled when I found I simply could not ride the thing.   I'd get on and get going and, as will naturally occur, I'd need to make a turn or at least an adjustment from straight line.  I couldn't do it. I was just dumbbounded.  People were screaming at me to turn the handlebars, but I couldn't stop reflexively leaning, instead. This went on for a weekend. I was nearly in tears at my own "stupidity."  I made Michael take it back.  I was too embarrassed to face them at the store.

I Googled and came to understand I was not the first sap this has happened to.  An adult "trike" isn't really like our kid tricycles. It's a two-wheeled vehicle connected as usual by the chain drive mechanism with a third wheel added. You'd think a motorcycle with a sidecar seems like a swell idea. Safer. Easier to balance.  Can't fall over so easily. Well, it turns out experienced motorcyclists too experience the "tricycle phenomenon."  I deduce from my own experience that individuals who are used to sailing under the principles of centrifugal force are quite disoriented when all the unconscious balancing and compensations that come to them without conscious thought are a hindrance if they have had the power of centrifugal force removed.  Actually, the hindrance is that those skills don't work when you ride a faux tricycle and your mind goes nuts trying to get things worked out before you hit the tree or end up out in traffic. It's a horrible panicky feeling.
The experience made me think about the attitude from iron workers who railed mightly against the wearing of safety lashings of assorted types that came to be mandated by OSHA when they worked on high iron (or even-off the-ground iron these days).  I attributed the 'tude to some sort of ignorance, machismo, and disregard for non-union authority.  I now think that quite the contrary was true. These individuals were adapted to working on high iron using their built-in safety (their instincts and skill) and they found external trappings were disorienting, confusing, cumbersome, and dangerous.  No wonder they protested.  But  nobody much listened.  It made other people feel safer if iron walkers had visible harnesses with which to impress the workmen's comp insurers. Skilled iron workers left their trade because of this issue.  It wasn't hard-headedness; it was self-preservation.

Consider individuals with disabilities, though they are not as homogenous a group as the above-mentioned ironworkers, of course. I have heard or activists avow they would not care to lose their disability were it possible to do so.  They would not elect to be non-disabled.  These declarations came across to me as incredibly strident and it made me wonder about dependency on secondary gains. However, wouldn't it be like the ironworker or the motorcyclist who's learned how to live without third wheels or tethers because they find them distracting, cumbersome, confusing, and dangerous. An individual can become highly--brilliantly--adapted to circumstances others cannot fully perceive. I know I can hop on a bicycle, motorcycle, or horse and feel quite at home; and I love a roller coaster. But keep those tricycles away from me.

Read More:

A Day in the Life of a High-Iron Worker