Cruise Ships for Peace in The Middle East
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Humour as on of our tools for understanding, reconciliation and change
Humans are social animals and love sharing the good things of live, such as humour, art, music. They also love sharing in competition, ie buying and selling. So economics can join us, too. Then we all love our children, we [almost] all want peace and prosperity, though we all want some excitement from time to time. Football on TV may not be enough. In the ME there are so many more things which people have in common than things which divide them, it is so stupid that the hate and fear goes on and on. But hate is self-perpetuating, fear makes you make bad decisions, and worst of all, there are lots of people who gain an advantage from the hate and fear. e.g. weapons-dealers, to give an obvious example. But a bit less obvious is the power which politicians get, and the influence and sales which newspapers and TV shows get. Young men need to compete with one another and to test and show-off their leadership capacities. The young women watch and encourage.
Anyway, this morning I saw a couple of brilliant funny movies on youtube, one deliberately so, the other not deliberately, but no less funny. Can we ME-peace-makers do more with our God-given capacity for laughter? It is infectious! It is good for you! We must laugh together.
I was at a showing in former East Germany of the movie "Goodbye Lenin". The audience was laughing all the time. Actually, alternate halves were laughing: the Wessies laughed at the Ossie jokes and the Ossies laughed at the Wessie jokes. But they all came out happy together.
I notice that Organised Religion does not approve of laughter. I hate organised religion, hence I do my best to laugh at it as much as possible.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Richard Gill on
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Permalink Reply by Tanya Kasim on
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I like that people are using humor for the better. The Axis of Evil comedy tour is an example of the use of humor to dispel stereotypes and defuse tensions. Where does it say in our religion that we shouldn't use humor or laugh at the stupidest things?
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Permalink Reply by Ohad Bracha on
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you should watch some "Eretz nehedert" and other Israeli satire shows there are a Palestinian shows like "Watan ala Watar". as well . its not new and some of the funniest shows on both sides are coming in time of war,
about the first part of what you wrot both side have a very good case for their fight, and yes we also have a lot in common, does not mean that there are no issues that need to be solved
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There are a lot issues that need solving, that's true.
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I don't know if you remember Mat3am Abu Rami, but I used to watch it when I was in the seventh grade. It brings a smile to my face whenever I remember it.
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Permalink Reply by Linda Feldman on
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I loved the way this skit fearlessly dives into all the taboo areas. Gorgeous, and very reminiscent of the type of humour with which I grew up. Having said that, I always approach humour with caution: what flies well in one culture can bomb (metaphorically speaking, of course) in another. Thanks for the levity.
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this movie was snubbed by film distributors in Israel for lack of interests by audience.
it showed a lot of interest in Iran thou ... its interesting .
I think that while the Muslim world see the conflict from a religious side the Israelis see it as a national conflict more , that is what I though as an Israeli when I watched the trailer "oh no anther one that does not understand what it is all about"
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I think the response to the film is probably going to be fairly complex and may well differ, depending upon who is seeing it and in which country it is playing.
My first point is:
This is a diasporic film, both in terms of the circumstances surrounding its production as well as the situation it depicts. I think members of diaspora communities are often acutely conscious of how they may resemble or differ from members of other diasporic cultural communities, particularly when there is a majority discourse and culture that tend to override their cultural distinctiveness. Interestingly, I sent the trailer posted by Richard to my children, whose identities are as jumbled as those on the screen, and both immediately wanted to see the film. So clearly, despite the generational difference between them and me, something is resonating, although it is quite possible that our cumulative responses are being conditioned by a series of different factors. BUT--whatever those reasons, the subject of the film does not leave us indifferent.
Second:
I think the film will also be of interest to a significant number of viewers in Canada at least because of the way members of diaspora communities have to negotiate the complexities of events in the old country with the exigency of cooperation in their new society. This issue, also thematized in Richard's posting, poses the question of how much to "forget". I understand forgetting in this context as an active and often constructive process which enables the individual to participate in community-building processes in the new country. It goes on all the time. Then again, one may need to "remember" “forgotten” facts in order to build common ground on which to erect relationships.
Tonight, for example, I was reading about growing Jewish-Ukrainian collaboration in the observance of the Holodomor--an event which divided the communities in the past. A second example comes from my local Yom Hashoah committee, where a few years back members opted to change a poem referring to the "Germans invading Poland" to the "Nazis invading Poland". Or, to cite a third example: despite the conflict in the Middle East, I have recently heard members of both the local Jewish and Arab communities refer to members of the "opposite" group as "cousins"--a trend I find encouraging since it points socioculturally and traditionally not just to the potential for strife but also to the potential for reconciliation, alliance and marriage.
Now, I'm not going to argue the historical merits of these examples. I merely want to point out how they serve to lubricate social relations in a context where all are expected to be able to interact civilly and constructively with all.
Shared recognition and shared laughter when viewing Djalili's film might certainly contribute to achieving this goal.
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