Middle East Focus: Smiling Arab Leaders, the Boumedienne Syndrome, the Ahmadinejad Syndrome……….

Arabia Deserta

Smiling Arab Leaders, the Boumedienne Syndrome, the Ahmadinejad Syndrome……….

Rattlesnake Ridge

BFF

Cheerful UAE leaders
I posted briefly yesterday here about Jordanian humor and Algerian leaders being grim. I didn’t mean to imply that the people are any more cheerful than the leaders, it can be the opposite. As an example, Iran’s Ahmadinejad is always smiling, sometimes even laughing (the mullahs mostly tend to scowl). He is the grinning-est leader anywhere in the Middle East, which is also odd, since the Iranian people are not given to hooting (or smiling broadly) in public. Which makes me wonder what he is up to; maybe that is why many don’t seem to like him. Maybe that is why all these Gulf potentates suspect him: did you ever see the ruler of the UAE Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed al-Nahayan laugh (or even smile)? Or the ruler of Dubai? Is there a sign of life there? As for old King Abdullah smiling or laughing….oy vey. Besides, how would we tell? The Saudi people are generally reserved and not given to laughing or smiling in public (hopefully they do some in private, otherwise divorce rates will skyrocket even higher than they are now). Muammar Qaddafi also rarely smiled in public, and never ever laughed in public. I bet he does even less nowadays. Bashar al-Assad practically cackled once inside his tame “parliament” when talking about the protests, but that was before it got serious and spread across Syria.

I must admit one thing: Tunisia’a Bin Ali always smiled, at least in public, but maybe that was because he was out of the house so often. He probably doesn't smile as much nowadays, Saudi Arabia sometimes tends to have that affect on a 'tourist'. As I noted earlier, Algerian leaders haven’t been seen smiling or even grinning since the late Hourai Boumedienne staged a coup and took over in 1965. Turkish leaders barley grin, but then the Turkish people are not given to public mirth, at least not when I was in their country. I tried cracking some jokes in Istanbul, but gave up quickly because they just looked at me with the same old expression. Benyamin Netanyahu does smile in public, but he seems to send the message that it would be a good idea to check your wallet and count your fingers.

In summary, there are two syndromes of being mirthful in public, tow schools of thought: (1) the Ahmadinejad syndrome, always smiling which can be worrisome if the others rarely smile. Besides, it hasn't improved his popularity. And (2) the lasting Boumedienne syndrome, which probably set the trend for most Arab leaders.
This has trickled down to the people (as Reagan would have said). All across the Gulf, a good example, people tend to keep a straight face at best, but they interact by frowning or even scowling. Last time I was back home I tried smiling at strange people, okay strangers, in the markets and received some of the most unqualified scowls in return. Someone reminded me that we tend to frown or scowl on the Gulf as a sign of a gravitas our leaders pretend they have. I didn't know gravitas was spelled a-s-i-n-i-n-e.
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com