Hospitality, then and now

Yesterday's NY Times had an article about Libyans fleeing the violence in their country, and finding shelter across the border in Tunisia. Residents of the town of Tataouine have opened their homes to total strangers, even moving into less comfortable parts of the house and giving the best rooms to the refugees. (See http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/world/africa/29refugees.html?scp=2&sq=Tunisia&st=cse.)

One of the homeowners "described his gesture as a matter of obligation and pride. 'This is how it is, these are our customs,' he said. 'If there is something to eat, we will eat it together. If there is nothing to eat, we will have nothing together.'"

I am pleased but not surprised. These customs arose from the struggle for survival in the desert. Any stranger might claim three days of hospitality, simply by putting a hand on the guy ropes of your  tent, and if you were in trouble, you could claim it at another encampment. The three days were "greeting, eating, and talking." As host, you were expected to feed the stranger as well as your means allowed, even if your own family went hungry. You couldn't ask his business until the third day (it was almost always a him). And if pursuers came after him, you were expected to defend him with your life. It was a matter of honor. Often that hospitality extended well beyond the initial three days.

This tradition originated in the pre-Islamic Middle East and spread via Islam to North Africa, Central Asia, and east to Indonesia. It explains why the Afghans refused to turn Osama bin Laden over to the Americans, even though their country suffered terribly for it.

This is no doubt why the Afghans refused to turn Osama bin Laden over to his American pursuers. He was a guest, and had to be defended

My 15 minutes of fame

I'm in a movie called Stonewall Uprising. It was broadcast on PBS this past week, on a program called American Experience. The producers did a good job--they even interviewed the cop who led the raid on the Stonewall Inn, and who now regrets being on the wrong side of history. I think you can still watch the movie on your computer, or you can purchase the DVD.

Assyria and Us

Before going on about how we compare to the ancients, I should say that people were having a problem commenting on this blog. The link has been fixed now, so comment away.

Let’s start with us:  I’ve heard many times that the U.S. spends more than any other country on the military. We’re responsible for 43% of the world total. Now I find—in time for tax day, when it is most likely to gall me—that our military spending has nearly doubled in the last nine years, from $379 billion in 2001 to $698 billion in 2010. And that’s in real dollars, not inflated ones. (http://www.sipri.org/research/armaments/milex/factsheet2010)

Meanwhile, the country is going broke. I feel like I’m married to a junkie, watching him drain the family budget, wondering how long it will be before we’re out on the street. Back in 2001 the Neocons began talking about American exceptionalism, as though this country was exempt from the historical forces that affect other nations. I don’t know if they’re still promulgating that theory, but it’s been taken up by the Mad Hatters of the Tea Party.

Every empire seems to delude itself in the same way, but the one I studied while researching my book was Assyria. At the beginning of the 9^th Century BCE, the Assyrians lived on a tiny strip of not-very-fertile land—about 2/3 the size of modern Israel. Hostile tribes surrounded them and controlled the trade routes. Initially they fought a war of national liberation. In the process they developed military skills that overwhelmed their contemporaries. The now free nation metastasized into a predatory state, conquering its neighbor in order to devour their resources. Their shock-and-awe techniques were the ancient equivalent of carpet bombing or napalming. In those days it wasn’t necessary to pretend you were bringing democracy or civilization to your victims.

By 640 BCE the Assyrians controlled their world from Egypt to the Persian Gulf. Originally the Assyrians were farmers and citizen-soldiers. Those citizen-soldiers became aristocrats, turning over the dirty work of farming to lesser people, and hiring mercenaries to do the soldiering. The end came shockingly fast. Egypt regained its independence, the Babylonians revolted, the Medes attacked, and by 610 the empire had ceased to exist.

I feel like I'm looking in a very scary distant mirror, and wondering what we can do to change course.

Welcome to my first post. I'm rather excited about it.

I've been thinking about the veil this week, ever since the French government banned it. The Koran prescribes modest dress for both sexes, but doesn't mention any specific item of dress. In my research on the ancient Middle East (from over a millennium before Islam), I found that people started to conceal more and more of their bodies over the centuries. Women always covered more of their bodies than men did. So when the appropriate garment for a man was a short kilt, a woman would have to wear a longer skirt. When men began to wear some kind of shirt, women had to cover their breasts and shoulders.

I'm puzzled by the French Muslim women who insist on wearing the niqab, or full face veil. France has a history of oppressing its Muslim minority, so I can understand why the women are in rebellion. But when I last went to the DMV to get a driver's license, the clerk took my picture in front of anyone who happened to be walking by. If I get pulled over for an infraction, the cop is going to want to see if I look like the photo on the driver's license. I don't sign my credit cards--on the back I write "see driver's license"--so shop clerks look at the license and at me, to make sure I haven't stolen the card. I can't walk into a bank with my face covered. How are those Muslim women going to drive or conduct business?

Of course, in Saudi Arabia women aren't allowed to drive, and they have segregated banks where they can remove their veils and be served by female tellers. If the French government wanted to be reasonable, they might allow the niqab in the public street, but forbid it while driving, banking, or paying by credit card.