Hello and welcome to Armagnac. The Oxford Middle East podcast. My name sputters Focus, and today I'm joined by the whole team.
Discuss what are moments of note in 2020 were what we're looking at for in 2021 and our favourite book on the Middle East.
This episode was recorded in late November and was meant to be published before New Year's, but unfortunately got quite delayed.
However, everything was does remain. So hello and welcome, everyone, to the Almanack Christmas episode.
What's going to happen for this episode that this is that each of the eight
people that have shown up says what their big event of 2020 was and after that,
what they're looking for in the Middle East and 2021. And then finally, what their favourite book of books about the Middle East is.
Felix, do you want to start? Yes, sure.
According to me, the most important event during 2020 or issue basically is the Eastern Mediterranean resource crisis.
It has been going on for a couple of years, but I feel like 2020 was quite a crucial year in that issue.
So basically there was a discovery of large resources of oil and gas in the eastern Mediterranean basins.
And this concerns not only Turkey and Greece.
And to hear a lot about in the news, but basically all the countries that have a coastline in the eastern Mediterranean.
So, you know, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Turkey, Greece, Italy is getting involved.
France is also trying to get involved through some sort, through some local actors and then the UAE as well, and Gulf countries in America.
So it is basically an important issue because it brings a lot of people together and it has the potential of basically.
Going past diplomatic conflict and perhaps feuding a military conflict at some point.
Because what we're talking about is billions of dollars of resources.
It's evolved to a point of very high tension, especially between Turkey and Greece.
This leads to my fiance to to the second question, which is when I'm watching out for in the Middle East at 20, 21,
which is basically the Libyan civil war, because this eastern Mediterranean crisis, despite currently only being a diplomatic showdown,
it is being the diplomatic conflict is basically being played out in sort of proxy conflicts in Libya,
for example, because the sides that are opposed in the east of Midrand crisis are opposed in the Libyan civil war.
And a good example to illustrate this point is the fact that Turkey having basically nearly
no allies in their claims to the resources in the Middle East and in the Mediterranean,
decided to, in January 2020, help the living,
the internationally recognised government of Libya to fight against the renegade dictator or General Haftar.
And basically the deal was, we'll help you militarily and you will support our claim in the Mediterranean.
And on the other side, the exact same thing. Exact same thing is happening.
And I think that this means that these these civil wars are basically going to be the
deciding or one of the deciding factors in the larger eastern Mediterranean resource crisis.
And that's what I'll be watching out for in 2021.
And finally, my favourite book about the Middle East would be Karen Armstrong's Mohammed The Biography of the Prophet.
So it may not be a very current. But because this is more about, you know, early Islamic history,
it was published in 2006 by a former Roman Catholic religious sister who worked in a rabbinical school teaching comparative comparative religion.
And I basically find it a very interesting book, because not only does it all about and teaches you a lot about Islam,
but it also teaches a lot about the Middle East in general and on the West like historical and current view on and relationship with the region.
And the rest of the Western world deconstructs many myths and stereotypes surrounding the life of the prophet and Islam that we hold in the West.
And it gives you a good grounding in pre Islamic and early Islamic history, but also really helps you.
I understand where a lot of the current issues stem from or whether they're what they are, you know,
ideologically based on, and I think because it sounds quite big, it's not too big, actually.
And it's it's she's managed to take a complicated topic.
And basically, once, you know, any person to be able to read it, you don't need any grounding in in Middle Eastern or Islamic history or theology.
And B, her mission behind it, her life mission in general, is to try and create interfaith dialogue and tries to insist on the interdependence
between the West and the Mideast and the Arab and Islamic world in general,
and the importance of compassion between countries, religions and individuals.
And she really wants to work against those both deeply rooted in an ancient Western conceptions of the Middle East, of the Arabs and of Islam,
which have and continue to participate in the rise of xenophobia today or the
discriminating domestic policies that we have within our own countries in the West,
or the detrimental foreign policies and unfair targeting that with me, you know, do in the Middle East.
I'm going to stop you there because I was just going to take a look. Okay.
Next one. Michael, the event that I would say was very important this year is one that just happened recently,
the assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist, Mossen, that is out there.
It shows a lot of issues at play, not just this year, but going forward.
One of them is this problem of discourse that we have in the West, in newspapers that covered the event alone,
described him as the top nuclear scientist that helped Iran's nuclear weapons programme.
And so, again, scholars have repeatedly criticised this this portrayal of Iran's nuclear programme as necessarily being a nuclear weapons programme,
especially as there's been a shift pre 2003 and post 2003 and its nuclear programme.
So there's this dialectic issue at play here.
But more importantly, it shows the impediments of diplomacy between the U.S. and Iran, both past and future,
obviously tying in with Trump's maximum pressure campaign and the struggles that Iran has had to face as a result of them.
Interestingly enough, nobody has claimed this attack. If it were a non-state actor who committed this attack.
They would have every motivation to want to claim it because of propaganda for prestige.
That indicates that this was. A state sponsored assassination.
And the state, at least in the region that has the most experience assassinating members of the national
security apparatus of other regional states is Israel and its intelligence service,
Mossad. And it's unfathomable to think that such an assassination happened without the at least implicit endorsement of America,
which would be unsurprising given the Trump administration's policies towards the Middle East and Iran, particularly this event.
It's also important because it shows that there are a lot of actors that are still
committed to preventive diplomacy and normalisation between Iran and the US.
And this ties to the events that I'm looking forward to in 2021,
which are how does the by the administration approach Iran and the negotiations over re-entering the JCP play,
particularly because there is a lot of uncertainty about the strategy that the bottom administration will take.
Will it just re-enter the JCP or a.
In exchange for Iran also re-entering the JCP or I should say re-entering the JCU p0.
But. Going into compliance with it again after it was so patient.
But then eventually became non-compliant. We thought we would see that.
That's. Well, that's the question, because it's also tied with other developments,
which is the presidential election coming up in Iran because of the failure of the JCP
away to really manifest the economic and financial promises inherent in the agreement.
Mostly because of U.S. non-compliance and maximum pressure, hardliners have the upper edge.
And it seems like they are going to take the presidency.
So this just creates another impediment to diplomacy in terms of how willing they are to negotiate with the Biden administration.
There is a lot of things up in the air right now.
And whether or not the Biden administration also tack on, you know, Iran's ballistic missile programmes or its regional activity,
there's a lot of pressure coming from Republicans as well as some more centrist
Democrats to tack on these additional issues with nuclear negotiations,
which is extremely problematic. And for Iranians is a non-starter.
So we'll just have to see in terms of my favourite book.
I'm going to have to say the let's see sub Alton's and social protest history from below in the Middle East and North Africa,
edited by Stephanie Cronon. And this is actually a book that I read for a tutorial that I recently took.
What I enjoyed about it is the method of analysing history.
It upturns traditional historiography on its head and rather than analysing historical events and movements from above.
It reassigns agency to non elite social groups.
And really highlights their ability to influence historical events within their own countries.
One chapter talks about the role of women in Iran's constitutional movement.
Other chapters talk about role of gypsys in the Ottoman Empire and the agencies
that they had in terms of implementing the so-called weapons of the weak.
So it's a very interesting book to sort of analyse the region from a different perspective.
Freddy, you're next. So the event that I think was most important in the Middle East in 2020 was the
normalisation of relations between Israel and the UAE and Israel and Bahrain.
And then just a few days ago, we then have the secret talks in neon between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which I like partially confirmed.
And so that is that is a situation that is still unfolding. And so what I'm I mean,
what I'm really watching out for for 2021 is therefore how the normalisation of relations
between Israel and Arab states will continue and especially what role Biden will have in this.
Will Biden push for more? Because obviously the U.S. has been a key player in these mobilisations.
Will there be a slight reversal of relations?
Is 2021 going to see the normalisation of relations between Saudi and Israel, who, of course, had relations since the 90s?
But will it become official? So I.
I wish I had any answers, but I just have a lot of questions actually on this topic.
And so, yeah, that's what I'll be watching closely.
And 2021. And then my favourite book about the Middle East was actually published in 1988,
and it's colonising Egypt by Timothy Mitchell, and he it's some people love it.
Some people hate it. People seem to have very strong opinions about it no matter what.
But I'm someone who absolutely loves this book.
It's one of those books were written where you read it and you think, damn, I wish I came up with this.
I think it's genius.
So Mitchell combines sort of deconstructed theory with history and politics of the colonies, the history of colonisation of Egypt.
And I think that this book is valuable for historians, anthropologists, politics, students, linguists and military.
Anyone interested in the Middle East. I can't do the book Justice in just a few minutes because it's so complex and it takes linguistics,
architecture, literature, pedagogy, urban planning,
politics and anthropology and art to sort of illustrate the sinister ways in which colonisation transformed Egypt and the Egyptians itself.
And while it was published in nineteen eighty eight, I think, you know,
I read it for the first time last year, I think, and I just it could have been published last year.
Mitchell shows the ways in which colonisation, technology and Western ideas of truth and order work together.
It's Mitchell's book is really interesting and like a really interesting explanation of the Middle East as a representation,
which is something the Middle East is something that people know before having set foot there,
which is something that I'm sure everyone who reads the news about the Middle East recognises that,
you know, everyone seems to have an opinion about the Middle East and everyone seems to be somehow an expert,
even if they've, you know, Victor Cruz on the Nile and somehow they know everything there is to know about the Middle East.
Although he explores the idea of of the eye of the people represent the Middle East as a chaotic place,
something that needs intervention to be ordered.
This is also, I think, a very persistent Orientalist trope that I see in the news in literature TV series.
The idea that that the Middle East is really chaotic, mysterious place that we cannot understand.
But we need to help them, you know, order and end and create a system.
I also think that the book is really important for anyone interesting and decolonising curriculum,
which is a movement that we've seen in a number of universities, including occiput, but also UCL and a couple of others.
And because Mitchell discusses the colonisation of the mind after colonisation of Kerlan colonising the body.
And then lastly, what what I found super interesting is that he explains how education moved from something that was personalised and organic,
which was the traditional form of education in the Middle East to something that was separate from life, something institutionalised and structured.
And therefore, like colonising Egypt. Let me read another.
A lot of other books about Occulus centrism,
which is the privileging of vision over the other senses and the way that Colin colonisation changed teaching in the Middle East.
And I don't know, I just think that this book is a gateway to so many interesting issues in the Middle East.
And so I think that, yeah, I'll stop my rant. I think that everyone should read it, therefore.
Yeah. I think that was by far the most enthusiastic book review.
I don't understand, like the teacher who actually recommended it to me. Walter Armbrust.
He said that he really disliked it. He was like, I is important.
You got to read it. And I came back to the editorial saying, like, how do you not enjoy this?
This was the best book I've read in ages. I am the next person on my list.
And the sort of my at my events is a series of events, because in starting in June,
there was a major explosion at a military complex analytical position, which is close to term.
And at the same time, there was a power shortage in the city of Shiraz, which has major military facilities.
And then in July, there were a series of explosions of five in total.
I think. Wage all targeted either nuclear facilities, suspected nuclear facilities or military complexes.
And basically the you know, the most reasonable assumption is that this has been done by Israel to put more
pressure on Iran and to undermine the Iran nuclear deal as much as they can before.
Biden would get into office. Israel has not.
Claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, but it would you know, it's unlikely it is anyone else.
Let's put it that way. And similarly, in August, all sorts that high ranking al-Qaeda members who was killed in Iran,
presumably by an Israeli or Israeli supported hit squad.
And, of course, as Michael mentioned earlier, in nuclear scientists was killed in in November.
And this, you know, it shows the Israeli desire primarily to undermine the Iranian Iranian nuclear ambitions,
which as these nuclear plant scare Israel a lot.
And equally so is with the Gulf Arabs. It's presumably also to be aggressive before the Biden administration entered into the White House.
The irony of this is, of course, that they undermine diplomacy, which ensure that Iran will not be willing to return to the JCP away.
And I don't understand this logic at all because they want to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
And their diplomatic approach has what was by far the most effective way to do that.
And it's the only way to safely guarantee that Iran won't get a nuclear weapon.
But by putting this much pressure, using assassinations against Iran and the Iranian scientists and installations,
I the only thing they do is make diplomacy less likely, which.
You know, makes war more likely, and that is deeply, deeply problematic.
My big event in twenty, twenty one, which I'm looking at for, is the death of the king of Saudi Arabia.
And it's not that I want it to happen, but I'm just very curious on know what is going to change within the country,
because he is from a very different generation from his son.
So there have been reports that he is the one who has stopped Saudi Arabia from
recognising Israel because of his allegiance to the old way of doing things about,
for example, they are abusing the peace initiative.
So it is possible that once he dies, Saudi Arabia will recognise Israel, and that would, of course, be a very big deal.
So it's interesting to see if he is sort of limiting focus on it.
And, yes, his worst instincts or if the reforms in Saudi Arabia can accelerate once the king goes.
I know if if he knows, we're going to see potentially some very big changes in the foreign and domestic policy of Saudi Arabia.
And maybe a power struggle, as well as a number of people in the royal family are quite unhappy with us.
And then on to my favourite book, which was released last year by David Kirkpatrick,
who was the Cairo bureau chief for The New York Times from 2011 till 2015.
And the book is called Into the Hands of Soldiers.
It is the best book I've read on the Middle East and most also because of my intense love for Egypt that I enjoyed it so much.
But it does a very good job of explaining the revolution in 2011, the revolution in 2013,
and how impenetrable and how complex the situation was amongst the civil society within the country at the time.
And I do recommend anyone who takes it to to read because you can do it within a few days.
The next one is Howzat. So my my event of the year actually happened about two weeks ago in Morocco, in Western Sahara.
So Morocco launched formally a military operation in the West as a whole that is represented by the Polisario Front, a witness to harm women.
And this was apparently due to peaceful protests at the border.
So this is peaceful Western Sahara and protesters who are protesting for their independence.
And apparently, according to Moroccan reports, they blocked a popular border crossing, creating,
creating traffic and creating like, would you call it, a blockade of over 100 trucks.
Both sides exchanged fire, but no deaths were recorded. And so the reason why this is really,
really important is that actually marks the end of a three decade truce between Morocco and the Western Sahara or the Polisario movement.
And this was this was introduced, I think, in the late 1980s, approximately.
And it's actually caused a lot of problems in Morocco in the past few years in the sense that Morocco has very,
very tense relations with Algeria directly because of the Western Sahara and because of their colonial occupation of the Western Sahara.
And even the UN has been involved for over 30 years with many Western Sahara is moving to Spain, seeking refuge there and also neighbouring Algeria.
And for many people, the Western Sahara is considered the last remaining colony in Africa as Morocco controls over
80 percent of the territory and limits the rights of the indigenous Western Sahara community.
So that's why when my book is my favourite book.
I think what once the event for next year. Oh, do I have to do that now if I can?
Well, actually, my event for next year is directly related to this because three days ago,
Bahrain set up a consulate in Moroccan controlled Western Sahara,
which suggests that actually they're taking a greater interest in the situation there.
It suggests that the Arab states are essentially choosing a side and have decided that it's actually time to come down on the side of Morocco,
meaning that the future for the Western Sahara is looking bleaker and bleaker.
And actually, it's a lot less likely that they're going to get the independence and autonomy that they deserve.
But I think as the events have occurred so recently,
I think it'll be really interesting to see how they escalate and to see how foreign bodies step in,
because actually quite a few foreign bodies have direct interests in the Western Sahara.
And my favourite book or a book that basically anyone with an interest in
gender in the Middle East should read is Sex and the Citadel by Syrian effect.
She's a British Egyptian journalist and immunologist, actually,
and she spent five years researching every facet of sex possible in the Middle East or primarily Egypt.
Your favourite place to go to. And she spent time sort of like discussing sexual attitudes, discussing the transforming face of marriage,
the increased pressure on young men to get married at a certain age, despite the sort of [INAUDIBLE] economy that's in place.
Things like masturbation, things like sex before marriage.
Things that haven't previously been discussed in a sort of clear and measured and unbiased manner.
She spends a lot of time like interviewing Islamic clerics and she runs a lot of
time interviewing loads of body positive and sex positive Middle East activists,
something I think which gets or brushed under the carpet quite a bit.
I don't think people are very interested in actually hearing what the communities they study have to say about these things.
So I think that's what she does very, very well. And she actually asks a large range of Egyptian women their opinions and attitudes.
And I think it's just such a great book to sort of like start your own personal research
and personal interests off and kickstart them and like push them in the right direction.
I think she does that very, very well.
And she gives a great foundation for people to make their own judgements, whereas I think a lot of sex and gender focussed books.
About the Middle East tend to make the judgements for you, Rose. My moment of note this year is the death of Mama Shajarian in Iran.
Iran is in a year with so many different moments of mourning and death.
But this is like a this is a cultural loss. And it is market.
It is a remarkable woman because it brought together people from lots of different school and social backgrounds.
And yet it's a moment that reminded people of that shared cultural history rather than
just the modern divisions that divide the often come from cultural features as well.
He died on the 8th of October. And for a number of days, the streets were full of people all over the country singing,
holding candlelight vigils and just uniting and mourning in a way that was so deep.
I don't think I've seen that in any other country. He also won to UNESCO awards for music.
You should listen to him. He's brilliant. He's on Spotify. Yeah.
So he's a classical musician and he's most known for making classical music popular amongst the younger generations
and kind of bringing that very traditional art into the modern cultural scene and making it at the forefront of it.
He also gained some notoriety in 2009 during the protests. He sided with the people against the government, which was quite a bold move of him.
And then so I think for what I'm looking for, for next year,
I think we've already been talking about Iran calling it kind of underpins everything that's going to happen.
I mean, they've just. Iran has had the most unbelievable year. The assassination of President Sulimani.
And then she shot down the passenger plane protests all over the country.
They had a terrible experience of covered. That was the execution of the wrestler Steph Curry as this new assassination of a nuclear scientist.
So, I mean, it's just been you can't believe what the country's going through.
And the economy is completely in taxes and inflation is through the roof.
And people just can't afford basic amenities like meat. So it is just the most unbelievable year.
And so, I mean, as Michael said, we're just looking to see what's going to happen with sanctions and the nuclear deal and just really
hoping that that's all going to that the economy will improve and people's quality of life will recover.
That is what is what is important here.
And also, there's the presidential elections coming up in June, which is also something to think and worry about.
And as my book, I thought I'd go for a piece of fiction because I mean,
Iranian literature and then modern art like cinema and the poetry is just some of the greatest in the world.
And so I thought this is a modern book, though. This is published, I think maybe two years ago.
And it's been shortlisted for the international Booker Prise 20/20 and long listed for the National Book Award 20/20.
It's called the Enlightenment of the Green Gauge Tree or in Cousin Ashoka.
That after Jessup's you can get copies in both languages pretty easily.
And it's a story of a family in the aftermath of the revolution, kind of coming to terms with the execution of the son in the family.
And it's written with that magical realist style. And that's just very entertaining.
And it's filled with lots of kind of troops from classical literature,
but also lots of anecdotes from what daily modern life, at least in the 80s, was like in Iran.
And it's just it's it's brilliant and it's fast paced and it's upsetting.
Well, just so I recommend it. Fantastic. Max, before Rose goes, if she is talking about show Geryon.
It might be fun for her to talk to everybody a little bit about how we used to learn the sitar.
Well, specifically, Rose's skills of playing the sitar in Iran. Before I then go on to talk a little bit about what I'm saying.
You know, you've got to publicise it. We we were both stars.
And I think it's very sad. Where's yours?
Sorry. Where's yours? I think it's with my.
I think we gave them away before we left. We gave them to money.
Money being a very, very lovely rolling friend because we couldn't take them back.
Sings We all got charged. I think probably you got judge nearly five 500 pounds in excess.
And I think that was after stuffing most of my things in Rosett Alfreds bags.
So a sitar wouldn't it wouldn't have cut it, so to say.
Good. We'll do an episode of both of you, please. We will release an album as part of our tools to increase awareness.
I was told that I categorically have no talent at calligraphy and the sitar.
So it goes, on the other hand, was told that she was talented of both.
That's genius. Anyways, you're listening to all of your guises, big events.
I sort of went with what what I considered to be a big person, and I think it's more of a personal choice.
Rose briefly mentioned Iranian cinema, and I just too,
I take that first point as an opportunity to promote some of the cinema of a
very famous Iranian contemporary running director called Ibrahim Hot Mikio.
He's not particularly well-known to the West just because his films are so Iran centric, but also just that much more tailored for a Iranian audience.
But I would recommend them to anybody interested in learning a little bit more about Iran, especially in the aftermath of the revolution,
and looking toward looking at, say, watching some films about how the Iran-Iraq war specifically was represented by this director, Hatemi Kyar.
He's still producing films.
I think he produced one from Cool Bodyguard, which is more of a sort of Iranian mission impossible, from what I could tell.
But he's also produced some unbelievably four provoking films, such as The Sense of Yusoff Coat and then no one calls hard care to tolerate.
And so from high ticket to the Rhine, which just looks at the lives of Iran, Iraq war veterans and their PTSD,
and even if it wouldn't have been categorised in such a way and I just think that his films and I've been
making my way through so many of his recently and I'm hoping to maybe write upon my thesis on his cinema.
So it's been a big personal event, I guess, in light of being stuck at home with nothing but my laptop for quite a while, a bit like everybody else.
I'm looking I mean, I'm looking forward to it.
I'm watching out definitely for the outcome of the Iranian presidential elections, even in light of Biden being elected.
And I think Trump has accepted this. I'm not particularly hopeful in that.
I think even if Biden were Speedy Gonzalez,
I think it's mostly impossible for him to even have got to even get rid hypothetically of all of the sanctions were he to want to do so.
And then, as we've already mentioned, try and sort of re-enter some sort of negotiation or agreement, such as the GCP away.
That being said, there's always some sort of reason to be hopeful,
even if I think it is looking particularly at the hardliners will be elected or hardline will be elected.
But that being said, that is what I am definitely looking watching out for in the next year.
I wouldn't necessarily say it's my favourite book, but it's a book that I've enjoyed recently,
probably in some part due to how difficult it was to read and reading in Persian.
And it's AB's at EGI by General Ahmad. There is an English translation out there for people who'd be interested in reading it.
But as a general matter, Akhmad is Iran's most prolific 20th century fiction and non-fiction writers.
And this particular work,
which would translate very literally as W struck CNIs often translated as a West toxification and I think Occidental ism as well,
essentially maps out in a particularly creative way.
I'd almost describe it as a sort of particularly acutely sensitive historian type figure, but it essentially looks at.
The ways in which the West and all of its enormous assets as a whole has contributed to
Iranians to an Iranian loss of cultural identity because their adoption and imitation of love,
Western models and education, the arts and political and economic institutions.
But I guess you can read lots of books like that, and you could probably pick up most books about contemporary Iranian politics to
look at the ways in which the West have intervened and usually to no benefit.
But I guess what really struck me was so stark, like so,
so striking and amazing about this book was just the way in which he wrote it and his strong sense of voice and the ways in which,
especially in the first opening chapters, when he maps out this disease, which he quite literally called the disease.
He outlines it in the sort of similar way that a doctor would diagnose a particular disease.
And he undergo he travels so widely in Iran and he interviewed somebody from people and he talks.
I think just so honestly,
insensitively about these issues and I think about the lives of people in villages who are struggling and a lot of industrialisation, urbanisation,
and I just think that it's for anyone looking to sort of understand the Iranian psyche in the 20th century
and to look at what was influencing their literature and was influencing various political movements.
I just think it's this sort of must read, even if it will seem a little bit alien when reading it,
because I think the English translations aren't always the best.
But then everyone planning and reading it could also take it up, take up trying to learn Farsi, because you know you're ready, sir.
The event that I wanted to talk a little bit about was the Bayridge explosion of 4th of August.
And just as a reminder, I feel like pretty much everyone knows what happens in Beirut.
But as a reminder, for those who may have forgotten, lustfully killed over 200 people,
the injured number was put at around five thousand, roughly three hundred thousand people made homeless as a consequence.
And the damage was in the ballpark of 10 to 15 billion U.S. dollars.
So it was a pretty tragic, horrific event.
But I think why really want to talk about is how the Beirut explosion is really kind of the culmination or.
The embodiment of everything that's been happening in Lebanon really in the last year.
So quite fortuitously, I guess we're recording this podcast.
Nearly a year exactly after the beginning of the Lebanese protests last year.
So they began on October 17th, 2019.
Record Leanness and 30th of October on twenty ninth of October last year.
Not October. November. Sorry, my bad. So a month after the protest and since then, Lebanon has just been through the wringer.
So not only has I had to deal with coverage.
Not only has I had to deal with massive economic strife and mass protest, the biggest protest the country has ever seen.
But then this explosion came in August.
And not only was it a horrible event, but it was a completely avoidable event had it not been for the negligence of the government.
As we learnt after so effectively,
the reason the explosion happened was that was an extremely unsafe amount of ammonium nitrate being stored in the ports,
which the government knew about and knew was being stored without proper precautions in place.
And ammonium nitrate, which is just like the most flammable stuff ever, just went off.
So all those people who died and all those people made homeless could have been avoided.
Basically.
You know, it's interesting because the explosion really caught the attention of the global media not long after Emmanuel Macron came to visit.
And that caused a big press media storm in Lebanon. And this really grabbed the Western press and in particular, its attention.
I think as horrific as it was the. The thing about is, is that this was not necessarily as horrific and as tragic, as traumatic as it was,
this was not surprising to the Lebanese people that this negligence and that this could happen was something that very much made sense to Lebanon,
which is why I think this explosion is important to talk about.
And I think for me, tacking onto that, what I'm fighting for, hopeful for, is that in twenty twenty one,
given everything that's happened in Lebanon and everything that the Lebanese have suffered in the last year,
that this is an opportunity for a new wave of political organisation and political activism and that this
provides an opportunity for the next generation to provide other options in response to this massive tragedy.
I'm not saying those guarantees. I think it's anything but guaranteed.
But that's why I'm hopeful in 2021. So that's why I'm keeping my eye on that.
And in terms of my favourite book, I do want to say it's my favourite book in the Middle East of all time.
I think that's too difficult for me to choose. But my favourite book of 20 20 is All Women on the Grounds.
It's an anthology of essays or written by our female journalists, edited by Zora Kid.
It's not like the most perfect book if you're looking for something that's totally representative of the Middle East.
It is very much based on experiences in the lavonne.
There are a few exceptions to that, but it is largely Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian women.
There are exceptions.
I think the reason why this book is so amazing is not only is the writing pretty consistently fantastic across the book by all these different women,
but it shows a real variety of storytelling.
And I think we're often talking about the need for non-white non Western female perspectives and stories as if they aren't out there.
But this book very much proves that those stories are out there. But you just go looking for them.
And so if anyone's interested in reading stories from perspectives of Arab women working in the field of journalism in charge of their own narratives,
I think this book is a great place. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Oxford Middle East podcast.
Join us next time. We'll examine the reasons behind Lebanon's ongoing political and economic.
Element anchors a student for an initiative ultimately sent Indians both to.
The opinions expressed in the podcast are not in any way represent the official opulence of the University of the Middle East.
Editors, and so we'll just focus. Lily Felix Walker.
Michael Murray Hauser. Max Randall.
Frederico Brookover. Rose Johnson. Helena Murphy.