Power to the people (Hurrah for soaps)
You will most definitely not hear me say this very often but: Hurrah for soaps!
RAMALLAH, West Bank — With its tales of brave men and dutiful women in a simpler, long-vanished Middle East, a Syrian soap opera has become the latest rage in the Arab world during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Throughout the month, people across the Middle East have rushed from mosques and flocked to coffeehouses each evening to catch “Bab el-Hara,” or “The Neighborhood Gate.”
You know, with all this endless and boring talk about the clash between civilisations (or, bless, World War lll even) - one would almost forget that most people just want to live their lives in peace - want to be left alone, basically – and would probably, like that old Polish farmer, say something like, ‘May God bless and keep the Czar far away from us’.
Sometimes, we need the mindless comfort that soaps offer, to remind us that most people would rather stay at home and watch TV than go to demonstrations – or go to war, or blow themselves up for one stupid cause or the other.
As one imam readily admitted…
Imad Qadi, a preacher in the West Bank town of Ramallah, said more worshippers this year were hurrying home to watch the show instead of undertaking a lengthy evening prayer traditionally performed during Ramadan.
How comforting too, to read that, if you let them be, Palestinians, like Cindy Lauper, just want to have fun:
At one upscale restaurant in east Jerusalem, waiters hastily set up a large projector screen minutes before the show began one recent evening. Tables of Palestinian men and women faced the flickering screen to watch, hushing children and forcing waiters to duck under the projector as they served beer to Muslims unconcerned with Islam’s ban on alcohol.
What’s more, even Hezbollah can’t get ‘their’ people to listen when the soap is on:
Last Friday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a televised speech to mark Al-Quds Day, or Jerusalem day, in support of the Palestinians. But the speech was broadcast at the same time as “The Neighborhood Gate.” For many Palestinians, the choice was easy.
“I would prefer Hassan Nasrallah to anybody, but … I didn’t watch because ‘The Neighborhood Gate’ was on,” said barber Mutasem Nuwara as he watched the show and cut a customer’s hair simultaneously in his Ramallah barbershop.
So, yes, let’s hear it for soaps.
And what’s more… Sorry…? What was that you said…?
Ah, yes…
Fair enough, I suppose.
Sorry about that, but I’ve just been told that some of Nuwara’s customers haven been less than pleased with those soaps, or their soap-addicted barber.
He should do what, you say…?
Well, it’s a thought but… Come again…?
Right, it’s creative, I’ll give you that, but I’m not totally convinced that calling it a ‘coup van Gogh’ will really help the barber all that much to win these customers back.
Still, a few bleeding and disgruntled barber’s clients doth not a backlash made, so I will say it again, one third and final time:
Hurrah for soaps!
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