Video That Describes Orientalism Written by Edward Said - Movie Review Example

1. In the first video, Prof. Sut Jhally describes the book, ‘Orientalism’, written by Edward Said, as one of the most controversial scholarly books in the last 30 years. Prof. Jhally tells us that the book is about how we perceive the people of Middle East, how we hold a preconceived notion about them, how we assess them based on skin colour and how these discourses are highly motivated. After this brief introduction, Prof. Jhally moves on to a talk by Edward Said. Said observes that there was a kind of repertory of images that kept coming up, in the depiction of Arab world by the media, literature and films, which were full of sensual women who were there to be used by men and East was depicted as a mysterious place full of secrets. This had no link with the people, who actually lived there, says Said. Said calls this viewpoint, orientalism and emphasises that this orientalist approach was creating an image outside history as if the life of the orient was placid, still and eternal. He elaborates his argument by saying that this was actually the creation of an ideal ‘other’. In the next part, orientalism is located by Said in the context of imperial conquest. Said reminds that Napolian invaded Egypt not only with his army, but with scientists, architects, philologists, biologists, historians etc. Said says that the job of these non-military people was to record Egypt for the Europians, conveniently suiting the invader’s ideology. The second section also specifically deals with American orientalism. According to Said, the ideas of Britain and France of the orient were weaved around direct experience of ruling these nations but US never directly occupied the east or Middle East and so their experience was indirect. So, says Said, the American orientalism is much more based on abstractions. And he adds that American orientalism is politicized by the presence of Israel. Said reminds us that there is no word spoken in US about the dispossessed millions in Palestine and the prolonged Israeli occupation of Gaza but Hamas is depicted as villains who kill Israeli children.. So the average American never gets the opportunity to see without prejudice, the real Arab world, says Said. Said enters the contemporary realm at this stage and goes on to say that orientalism today is mainly, the demonisation of Islam in the news and popular culture. He states that always the Muslims are shown dressed in black, wearing masks and conducting violent acts, by the media. Terrorism, which is incorrectly named as Islamic terrorism, is the topic of the third segment. How images of Islam are stereotyped and turned into cliché s is described by Said taking examples from Hollywood movies like Alladin. He says, in the popular media, Muslims are shown either as villains or fanatics; many films end up with Muslim bodies strewn out everywhere which suggests that Muslims have to be stamped out because they are a lesser breed who understand only the language of force. He then draws attention to the diversity within Islam taking examples of different nations. From this, Said derives that the predominant mood of the Arab world is very secular. Answering the question why the West is still demonizing Muslims, Said says that it is simply a justification for the gigantic military budget of US in the post cold war scenario. And to hide these economic vested interests, Islam is put as an enemey of Christianity, opines Said. The Oklahama bombing in which muslim terrorists were suspected first but finally an American white man was found to be the real culprit, is discussed by Said as an example. The fourth section of the video discusses orientalism and the Palestinean question. The fact that Said himself is a Palestinean is reminded by Professor Jhally. Said quotes Antonio Gramsci observing that the infinite traces of history marked in us, need to be compiled and made sense of. Said believes this is the only way to understand one’s history in relation to the other. He says that we need to transform from a unitary identity to a new identity that includes the other. He says that the importance of Palastine is that it is home to a mosaic of diverse kinds of people and a place significant to three major religions. He observes that the Zionist approach is of total exclusion of others while many Palestineans accept they have to pay the price for what Jews had to go through in history. Said asserts that many Palestineans are ready for coexistence. He also warns that if we do not learn to coexist with the other, violence, deaths and catastrophes will go on inflicting human race. 2. The second and third segments of this video presentation are the most important in my view. The second segment deals with the American stereotyped notion of Islamic terrorism. In this part, Said succeeds to prove logically what is wrong with the American war against terror and the ideology that leads it. The history of orientalism is linked by Said, in a very clear way, with the present situation here. Being a people who had a long history of viewing the East as a place of secrets, it was very easy for an average American to fall into the trap of the creation of a demonized other. The orientalism had always been lacking in a humanist approach while it indulged in the erotic tales supposed to have been the reality of the East. The conquest of the colonies by Europian countries were only a matter of Imperialistic pride for the Western countries. Even long after Europe and America proclaimed to have been standing for freedom and democracy, the colonies and its people were considered lesser humans who did not deserve these privileges. Said excuses the abstract nature of American orientalism as a construct of history but clearly infers that this abstraction was politically manipulated by the power centres in US. It is at this point, that the real culprit enters the realm of this discourse. The political rhetoric that American leaders indulge in regarding Israel is powerfully represented by the brief statement by Al Gore, the previous Vice-President of US. A clear differentiation is made here by Said, between the rulers of US and the common people of US. The common sense of the listener/viewer leads him or her to realize that the people were intentionally kept ignorant while the rulers decided the policies. The role of media in this whole business is stressed by Said, but his arguments fall short of linking the media interests to the interests of the rulers. Media is simply treated as an accessory of the state but the complexities expressed via embedded journalism and the connection of media houses with economic power centres are left out. Of course, a keen listener can fill in the blanks and a serious researcher can go about inquiring in this direction taking the lead from Said. The third segment deals more candidly with the politics of orientalism. The racist underpinnings of the depiction of Muslims in popular media are extensively discussed here using visual support. But the ignorance of the Western world about the diversity of Islam is only suggested by Said while he talks about the difference in cultures among different Muslim countries and Muslim communities. The theoretician does not try to substantiate his argument that the predominant mood in the Arab world is secular with examples or facts. While addressing the average American citizen,who is totally under the influence of the ideological brainwashing against Islam, this reviewer feels, Said should have given more time to this aspect. The most notable and relevant point made by Said is the real reason he finds behind the demonisation of Islam. The brilliant mind of a scholar is spectacularly revealed when Said raises the question why America, even long after the threat of cold war had ended, was spending double the money spent by the whole of other nations on earth, for its military developments. This is the billion dollar question that every American has to ask their rulers. Said logically points to the fact that it was more than anyone else, the nexus of US rulers and ammunition business houses, who wanted a demon to fight with. The US economy itself was dependent on such an eternal fight. 3. Samuel Huntington, in his famous book, ‘Clashes of Civilisations’, has argued that the centre point of the upcoming clashes in the world will be culture and religion. Casting away the dominant leftist notion that every conflict has an ideological and economic basis, Huntington placed culture in their place. By this approach, he was in a sense depoliticizing the nature of conflicts. Departing from the common perception that humans belong to a single civilization, Huntington divided the human race into different civilizations. He also predicted that civilisations based on culture and religion will transcend nations in their attempt to gain dominance. Critics have already observed that Huntington’s notion of civilization is highly ambiguous and mostly based on the single factor of religion. When compared to the approach of Edward Said in analyzing global politics, Huntington seems to possess a less coherent, confused intellect. The first question that arises from the reading of his text is, what the meaning is given by him to the term, civilastion, which is left unanswered. Huntington puts the Budhist, Hindu, Japonic and Sinic worlds into one bowl and calls it the Eastern world. This can be cited as one of the best examples of orientalism (less Islam), as explained by Said. The Muslim world is given a special position in Huntington’s analysis and is put as a potential enemey to the Westerm world. This position is diametrically opposite to the coexistence theory put forward by Edward Said. When Huntington predicts an inevitable clash between civilizations, all the values acquired by humanity along its path of getting civilized, that is, the values of democracy, humanity, tolerance etc., are underestimated and considered as having no cultural roots. Huntington does not deviate much from the orientalist position, where anything outside the Western common sense is considered as the ‘other’. Huntington attributes values like democracy and modern thought to the Western civilization alone, but forgets that more democratic forms of governance had existed in different parts of the world even among tribes, who are the earliest known form of a human society. The violation of sovereignty of nations like Iraq and Afghanistan by US and the civilian casualities that followed are reminders of the knee-deep-only notions of democracy practiced by the West. The attitude that a democratic end envisaged in a very distant future, justifies the violent means, is itself a failed argument. Until recently, the struggle of Palestineans was viewed by the world as a secular struggle. As recently, as the Camp David discussions carried out by Bill Clinton, this notion had prevailed. The increased American involvement in Arab nations was which gave it a different colour. As Amartya Sen had observed, a person is not a product of a single affiliation alone. Religion is only one such affiliation and that alone cannot determine the destiny of a people. This is the ideological milieu in which Edward Said anchors his arguments. And this is the milieu which Huntington forgets. 4. The opening montage of the first section of the four-part video series is created using two categories of parallel visuals. One relates to the Western stereotyped notions of orientalism and the other is connected to the ground realities in the Middle East. These two groups of visuals are weaved together into a parallel montage and these visuals set the stage for what is followed. The strongest part of this video presentation is the presence of Edward Said in person and the clarity and forcefulness of his arguments. Without much visual support, a strong case is made against orientalism. The sporadic visuals are also very carefully selected to amply substantiate what is argued. The weekness of this video lies in that no counter arguments are presented. For, example, Said somewhere in this video, we hear Said saying that majority of Arab countries are ruled by dictatorships and that was why they could not effectively counter the stereotyping. But, the question why these nations are not able to move on to become democracies is not addressed. Similarly, the issues of personal freedom (like gender issues) existing inside the Muslim world, remains yet to be incorporated into these arguments. Said also has not, in this video, taken into account the counter reactions to stereotyping assuming a violent form. The fascination in the ‘other’ may also have contributed to orientalist stereotyping in its early years of development. This aspect of human nature was rather ignored by Said. But altogether, this video imparts significant insights into the issue of terrorism. This video should be screened in US and all over the world in as much venues as possible so that people may get to know there is another way of seeing things. Also the positive note in which the video ends may inspire a search for peaceful options of resolving the conflicts related to the Arab world. Read More