On 26 January, just a day after the demonstrations began in Tahrir Square in Cairo, the Egyptian poet Hisham Al Gakh appeared on television in the program 'Prince of Poets', a kind of Pop Idol organized by the government Abu Dhabi in the competing poets from all over the Arab world. With his controversial poem "Al Ta'asheera (Visa), Hisham shocked the public to express their desire to travel freely between all Arab countries because Arabs are all brothers and all Arab countries are considered our home.
These words, broadcast live throughout the Middle East, resonated strongly in the hearts of many Arabs to appeal to a deep rooted feeling as is considered themselves part of a community that is beyond national borders. What Hisham himself, and viewers probably did not expect was that feeling stoke the wave of riots that now affects the Arab world.
And is that the demonstrations in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and Yemen are not understood without the supranational identification in more than 200 million people. The Egyptians, Lebanese, Jordanians, etc. UAE residents observed the events of recent weeks with a mixture of hope and fear.
All yearn for political reform, but most wary of the possibility that there are real changes. The riots are experienced as a common tragedy, a widespread social mobilization against tyranny, but the pan-Arab identity collides with a reality that is evident as they occurred: that each country follows its own evolution.
Morocco is not a democracy, but has nothing to do with the Egyptian dictatorship or the Saudi monarchy, in fact, King Mohamed VI has a prestige that makes it difficult to envisage a revolution that dramatically change the established order. For its part, Libya is a conglomeration of tribes based anesthetized public subsidies, but have decided to end the eccentricities of the longtime dictator of the region.
Bahrain is a small geo-strategic location with a population ruled by a Shiite majority and Sunni Arabs that no one is willing to put into the hands of Iran. And Saudi Arabia is the most conservative and oppressive regime between the existing internal unopposed beyond disputes between members of the family heir.
Unfortunately for the poet Hisham, Arab unity is only a utopia in the minds of the population, an illusion that, if it ever existed, never will again. An identity of medieval origin, however, in times of great change is reborn, if only in the hearts of its people. Next to it, new technologies allow for greater mobilization and become powerful tools in the service of change.
In fact, the poet Hisham has more than 90,000 Facebook fans, followers of their political demands. This blend of tradition and modernity clearly defines the Arab people, somewhere between the pride of a mythologized past and hopelessness to a future that promises only oppression. The manifestations of these weeks have been presented as a single revolution that is ongoing unavoidable in the hands of a new generation of young surfers who demand their rights but at the same domination.
However, access to new tools do not guarantee anything when it preaches a dead ideal, the common feeling of fullness and release allows the overthrow of the dictator, but after his fall is necessary to propose a credible alternative. Pan-Arabism may serve as a spur, but real change will only occur in those countries where the opposition can and learn to articulate the demands of a population excessively punished.
Final point worth as Hisham Al Gakh finished second on 25 February at the end of the contest 'Prince of Poets'. In the eyes of the jury, his poems were used to express the feeling of an entire people, but the metaphors and the quality of the verses of his rival took the prize. Perhaps the defeat of Hisham is itself a metaphor for the task Arabic, which is sometimes overcome their difficulties through outdated paradigms of their time. 
These words, broadcast live throughout the Middle East, resonated strongly in the hearts of many Arabs to appeal to a deep rooted feeling as is considered themselves part of a community that is beyond national borders. What Hisham himself, and viewers probably did not expect was that feeling stoke the wave of riots that now affects the Arab world.
And is that the demonstrations in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and Yemen are not understood without the supranational identification in more than 200 million people. The Egyptians, Lebanese, Jordanians, etc. UAE residents observed the events of recent weeks with a mixture of hope and fear.
All yearn for political reform, but most wary of the possibility that there are real changes. The riots are experienced as a common tragedy, a widespread social mobilization against tyranny, but the pan-Arab identity collides with a reality that is evident as they occurred: that each country follows its own evolution.
Morocco is not a democracy, but has nothing to do with the Egyptian dictatorship or the Saudi monarchy, in fact, King Mohamed VI has a prestige that makes it difficult to envisage a revolution that dramatically change the established order. For its part, Libya is a conglomeration of tribes based anesthetized public subsidies, but have decided to end the eccentricities of the longtime dictator of the region.
Bahrain is a small geo-strategic location with a population ruled by a Shiite majority and Sunni Arabs that no one is willing to put into the hands of Iran. And Saudi Arabia is the most conservative and oppressive regime between the existing internal unopposed beyond disputes between members of the family heir.
Unfortunately for the poet Hisham, Arab unity is only a utopia in the minds of the population, an illusion that, if it ever existed, never will again. An identity of medieval origin, however, in times of great change is reborn, if only in the hearts of its people. Next to it, new technologies allow for greater mobilization and become powerful tools in the service of change.
In fact, the poet Hisham has more than 90,000 Facebook fans, followers of their political demands. This blend of tradition and modernity clearly defines the Arab people, somewhere between the pride of a mythologized past and hopelessness to a future that promises only oppression. The manifestations of these weeks have been presented as a single revolution that is ongoing unavoidable in the hands of a new generation of young surfers who demand their rights but at the same domination.
However, access to new tools do not guarantee anything when it preaches a dead ideal, the common feeling of fullness and release allows the overthrow of the dictator, but after his fall is necessary to propose a credible alternative. Pan-Arabism may serve as a spur, but real change will only occur in those countries where the opposition can and learn to articulate the demands of a population excessively punished.
Final point worth as Hisham Al Gakh finished second on 25 February at the end of the contest 'Prince of Poets'. In the eyes of the jury, his poems were used to express the feeling of an entire people, but the metaphors and the quality of the verses of his rival took the prize. Perhaps the defeat of Hisham is itself a metaphor for the task Arabic, which is sometimes overcome their difficulties through outdated paradigms of their time.
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