Laughing away the Financial Crisis

The Financial Crisis is in the news. Finally. The number of financial experts who have been warning against the looming financial crisis are legion, among them Switzerland’s Marc Faber, Max Otte from Germany and U.S. investment legend Warren Buffett, just to name a few. Some predictions of a huge market and economic crash do not just reach back to 2002 but to the late 1980s. Yes, this is right. What we are facing now would have been over since the late 1980s, had it not been for the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, who delayed the crisis by producing more and more dollars. He drowned the world in fiat money. The hook is that you cannot solve the problem, you can only delay it. And it seems that we have to taste the bitter pill of the result of using fiat money instead of real money now.

(By the way, if you want to read more on the issue of fiat money vs. real money, try websites such as the Mises Institute or Lew Rockwell.)

Let’s see how Middle Eastern caricaturists look at this issue.

The way that most people undergo the financial crisis first is either by losing their jobs or seeing their income shrink. This is what this cartoon here (Al-Watan, Feb 4th) wants to tell us: The dude (and his income) is slipping off a word probably meaning “dakhl – income”.

In small letters it reads “the markets”. Especially the tiny Gulf states rely heavily upon specialized financial markets, be it oil or the stock market.

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If these markets get hit, the Gulf states might face hard challenges. The following cartoon (Al-Watan, Feb 24th) depicts the industrial sector leaving Dubai for the mighty Saudi kingdom. It is entitled “The migration of factories” and the street sign reads “Saudi Arabia”.

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But also the man in the street suffers. This cartoon (Al-Quds al-Arabi, Feb 11th) depicts the ordinary man as being tied up and sitting beneath a huge rock. Look at the rope, it can get torn at any moment. On the rock there is written: “Global financial crisis”. Let’s hope the neat guy at the right doesn’t get his suit dirty.

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And global it is, our financial crisis, as Turkey’s Zaman shows in this cartoon (Zaman, Feb 23rd). The Chinese dragon gets hit by an American economy that drops like a brick. No chance to dodge this deadly arrow:

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For Arabs, as for many people around the world, the way to financial success and freedom has become quite bumpy, as shows the following cartoon (Al-Watan, Feb 6th), entitled “Vibration in a narrow scope”:

Yeah, this one can make you laugh. By the way, do you notice that the line at the very right shows up again? Seems we got an optimist here.

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Most people, however, would rather choose this cartoon (Al-Watan, Feb 16th) to depict what really hurts about all this global financial crisis thingy. Money’s gone!

The purse, the credit cards, the cash, everything pronged by an arrow.

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And the markets? It seems that the rally is over. Remember how back in 2004 and 2005 stocks markets such as Oman, Egypt, Tunisia or Kuweit would hit the sky? Well, sky is truly the limit. Nothing grows into space. Of course you can also express it in a more, er, spiritual way. “The djinn of the profits” reads the title of this caricature (Al-Watan, Feb 17th). Do I see a raised forefinger here?

Well, greed and fear is what moves the markets, isn’t it?

To be continued…

Terror in Cairo

Yesterday, on February 23rd 2009, an explosion hit Cairo’s Khan al-Khalili, a famous tourist spot. So far it is not yet clear who is responsible for the terror act. The way the action was carried out might be a sign that the explosion was not caused by “professional” terrorists but by “frustrated youths”.

Despite being a frequently visited tourist country, Egypt has been a target for Islamist terrorists for decades. The first Salafi group, the Muslim brothers, was founded in Egypt. That was back in 1928. When Egyptian presidents Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak followed a non-religious way of politics, Islamists were quick to declare war on them. Especially in the southern part of the country, terrorists were quite successful in cutting off government influence off villages and small towns. No wonder current president Hosni Mubarak makes no bones about Islamists.

Egypt’s Al-Ahram, however, presents this caricature (Feb 24th), entitled “The return of the black cloud”:

The black cloud carries the word “irhab – terror” in it. Beneath it the chap utters: “It fades!” It seems that many Egyptians do not take terrorism seriously. At least according to this caricaturist.

Forms of suicide…

That’s what this funny cartoon’s headline reads (Asharq al-Awsat, Jan 17th). Remember to read it from right to left, so the last picture is the one down left. Hilarious!

If it comes to hygiene, Middle Eastern restaurants cannot always stand the test. Shwarma or döner, as the Turkish version is called, in general is very tasty, but you have to watch out if the restaurant is clean. If so, then go ahead and enjoy your food.

Screening the world

Although the internet plays a larger role every year, most people in the Middle East still rely on television to get to know what’s going on in the world. This cartoon here was already presented a few weeks ago, but since it perfectly fits into this article, here we go again (Al-Ahram, Jan 20th):

The spectator in the Arab world is torn apart between the two largest Arab news channels, Al-Jazeera (right) and Al-Arabiya (left).

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All around the world, huge news channels often get criticized for not displaying the whole truth. Each side considers itself to be mis- or underrepresented. To be honest, there is some truth in that. Unless your name is Barack Obama, you probably didn’t have the chance to be on air over the last three months.

One of the few topics that despite the hype around Obama still made it into the news, however, was the war in Gaza. It is thus nonsense to claim that TV news channels didn’t show the whole truth, as is claimed in this cartoon (Al-Jazeera, Feb 11th):

The cartoonist (who is audacious enough to publish his cartoon on Al-Jazeera) claims that you’d never see any pictures of dead or wounded Palestinians on TV while the Israelis soldiers were represented as the good guys. How impudent is that? In fact the TV, the newspapers and the internet drowned in pictures of dead, wounded, dying people (usually Palestinians). It was an awkward and an impious way to use the agony of other people to distinguish yourself. Don’t tell you don’t agree with me, dear cartoonist, if only deep inside.

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One day later, on Feb 12th, Egypt’s Al-Ahram takes the same line:

The blitheful chap on the screen is telling us: “Hey, you guys at the TV screen, there ain’t no rubbish around as some malicious people keep repeating.”

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Asharq al-Awsat tells the same story, but with a different stress (Feb 10th):

Directly above the Arab’s head, it reads: “The truth”. While the caption outside the TV reads: “Natural errors”.

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This cartoon (Al-Jazeera, Feb 10th) directly addresses the Western media. According to the caricature, the BBC turns a blind eye on the victims of the Gaza war. Or, as it is depicted in a smart way, BBC acts like closed box or – am I allowed to interpret it this way? – even as a castle that is too snobbish to let in the truth:

To sum it up, all these political cartoons are trying to tell us that on TV you allegedly never see the truth, e.g. the victims of the war in Gaza. Well, don’t you agree that this is simply not true?

The Development of the Egyptian beauty in the course of time …

… that’s what the title of this beauty here (Al-Ahram, Jan 29th) reads:

And with beauties it deals. Please keep in mind that you have to read it from right to left! This means that the beautiful girl represents the type of Egyptian female of the past, while the ugly virago on the left stands for the modern madame of the Nile.

To be honest, this is no joke. In the past, until deep into the 20th century, even the peasants in Egypt would leave their women unveiled. It all changed with the emergence of Salafi Islam (also known as Islamism) and the growing influence from Saudi Arabia, beginning in the 1970’s. Except for the luxurious upper class and sometimes for the middle class, it is nowadays hard to find a Muslim female Egyptian without a veil. The lower class and of course religious smart-asses of all backgrounds have fully adopted the Islamic doctrine of hiding women under woven fabric. If you agree with this, then answer us this question: If displaying your hair is Satanic, why did HE fail to create women with a natural veil? Imagine this – a piece of skin like a huge eyelid to cover your hair. Flirting on a totally new level…

However, it is great to find such a rare masterpiece of self-criticism in Al-Ahram. We want more of that, don’t we?

Watching Israelis vote

Yesterday, on February 10th, legislative elections took place in Israel. Of course this topic is not only important in the news, but also for caricaturists. So let’s see what you find in the Arab media these days.

Already a few days ago you wouldn’t have had to be a soothsayer to predict that the elections would be connected to the war in Gaza. It seems that some caricaturists still have a bone to pick with the Israelis. In general, the elections are depicted as a threat towards any peace in the Middle East.

Like in this one here (Asharq al-Awsat, Feb 11th), entitled “Far right”:

On the big car it reads “elections” and you can see an Israeli flag on it. Recklessly it bumps the small car off the road and down the canyon. On the small car it reads “Peace missions”.

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Here too you can clearly see the connection between the war in Gaza and the elections. The votes are thrown off a warplane into the ballot box, which has written “Israeli elections” on it and is enthroned on the ruins of Gaza.

Al-Hayat, Feb 10th.

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This cartoon (Al-Quds al-Arabi, Feb 11th) shows the elections as the erection of a wall, clearly a sign of the wall between Israel and the Gaza strip.

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While two days earlier, the same newspaper depicted the “Israeli elections”, as it is written upon the guillotine, as the ultimate execution of peace.

Al-Quds al-Arabi, Feb 9th.

Doesn’t look too optimistic, does it?

Gunning for the IDF (4)

Depicting the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) as a bunch of blood-thirsty madmen seems to be an important issue especially one day after the Israeli legislative election of Feb 10th 2009. Here is what appeared today (Feb 11th) in Al-Watan:

The different Palestinian groups are arm-wrestling with each other, while in the meantime a loony looking Israeli soldier uses their hands as a tripod for his assault rifle. Take a guess who he supposedly is firing at …