This moment I am lying in bed. I’ve been lying here for the better part of the last 48 hours, with a fever and a headache. It’s a common cold or a flu (apparently not of the swine variety).

As I write this, the Nile has turned into a river of tears. A little while ago Egypt, the mother of the world, as Egyptians like to say, has just lost 1:0 against Algeria in football match held in Khartoum.

The past 48 hours allowed me to “rediscover” Arab TV, as the TV in the bedroom kept me company for most of the day in my self imposed quarantine. So what better to do than watch the game of “brotherly hate” on the Egyptian “Space” Channel (ie the state run satellite TV channel). As I gradually immersed myself in Arab TV, I was emerging out of my usual web media bubble and starting to think about Arab real life.

So to get the whole thing out of my head, I brought out the long ethernet cable, got the net into the bedroom, and now, with a bit over 38 degrees celsius of fever, I will dump my thoughts into a blog post..

1. Football is the true “god” of Arab masses: Even Sheikh Qardawi is upset that this match (and the one preceding it in Cairo a few days back) is consuming Arab masses to such a level. The tension was so high between the two countries on both the popular and the official levels. State media and resources in both countries where working in overdrive. One rarely sees such state mobilization in this part of the world. Forget Palestine. Forget the prophet Mohammad cartoons. Forget unemployment. When a football is involved the whole Arab state machinery starts rotating around it.

2. The “modern” Arab national state is more than alive and kicking. Forget about the artificial borders that colonialists used to divide the Arab nation. These borders and the national states within them are now sacred. These were two Arab teams competing for a ticket to go to the word cup. But Arabness took a back seat here. This was the Nation of Egypt against the Nation of Algeria. To be accurate, there were also voices of reconciliation and Arab solidarity on various levels. But it was clear that people totally identify with their modern states.

3. As I watched the match on Egyptian TV I was amazed and amused by the way Egyptians where asking God every five minutes to bestow victory upon their team. Even some of the advertisers did that: “Pray for Egypt”.. “Oh God support Egypt”. If I was a martian who just landed on earth tonight (with a fever) I would think that the Egyptian where appealing to their own National God and not the God of all muslims. I mean why would God take sides between team from muslim countries??

4. Consumer brands are the God of media. The amount of advertising sold on the Egyptian channel was astounding. But just consider this: the very second the referee whistled the match to an end, the live images were IMMEDIATELY cut to show an ad for Pepsi featuring Arab pop icon Tamer Husni. To me this was unbelievable. For several reasons:

First, for goodness sake, think of the emotions of the tens of millions of Egyptian TV viewers. They are totally devastated. Their football heroes beaten in the battle field. Probably in tears. Can’t you give them a moment to mourn. To see their team for a few moments after it was defeated. To say goodbye. To cry for them as they make it around the field to salute the fans. NO. NO NO. DRINK PEPSI.

Second, if I were the Pepsi brand manager I would be horrified by my brand being the first thing people see (with a dancing Tamer and a cute girl) the very second of the Egyptian defeat.

Then finally, after a whole barrage of upbeat ads, that totally felt out of place, we get the Egyptians football analysts (which remind me old Egyptian military analysts explaining what happened in the 1967 war) who promptly embarked on a clinical analysis of the game. No consolations. No emotions. Just technical talk.

Earlier in the day I was channel zipping. On Al Jazeera’s “live” channel, which covers all kinds of events in their entirety, there was high brow cultural panel from Doha with the Palestinian intellectual Azmi Bishara, discussing his latest book: What does it mean to be an Arab in our days. I am sure that Mr Bishara has something super smart to say about today’s match. But I think that no one hears him when the football crowd roars.


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Comments

7 responses to “Egypt x Algeria: Football, brands, the Arab national state and God in a snapshot”

  1. George Avatar
    George

    Great post, loved it!

  2. Hareega Avatar
    Hareega

    Excellent observations. I have to say though that after a game I look forward to technical analyses devoid of any kind of emotions, especially that I did not feel too upset that Egypt lost or excited that Algeria won.

  3. Dalia Avatar
    Dalia

    you thought the girl dancing with tamer was cute?

    :P

    good post – as usual!

  4. Salma Avatar
    Salma

    Really really enjoyed your comment on the whole situation..and I do salute you, your ability to also comment on the whole situation with such a cool head… (especially considering your fever).

    Did you see Hajjaj’s Cartoon today? This is exactly what I have been thinking for the past few days..and every time I hear news about the Arab or Jordanian masses, media, and adminstration behaviour in similar cases… Really, I am so amazed that football has such a power of uniting a nation… Not the poverty, not the lack of freedom, not the health issues,… nothing but football can unite us!

    Maybe if all the Arab footbal federations decide to go for the Mondial as one team..then we would save the Arabs so much heart ache and energy… and we would finally MANAGE TO GET THE ARABS RALLIES BEHIND ONE GOAL And maybe once we get them all watching TV… we would seize the opportunity and try to raise their awareness about other important issues… crucial to their survivor as human beings and as a nation!!—-

    I have just enrolled my son in his school’s soccer little league… The idea was to make him learn to play within a team…and accpet the fact that in life sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Obviously, I was wrong.. that is NOT what you learn in playing soccer.. but that your whole existence and value as a human being relies on your winning a stupid game…

    I just hope tomorrow…I don’t end up getting into a fight with some mom or another… you never, maybe they’re not over Egypts Defeat!

  5. P Avatar
    P

    Hehe, so I gather from your post that in the Arab World, sports is a greater opium than religion, interesting! No wonder why Qardawi was so pissed! :-) Although that’s a dangerous signal, as the Taliban did ban “excessive” or “loud” cheering during football matches, and even carried out several executions during the half-time in football matches.

    I’m not sure whether the Pepsi commercial was choreographed, but to connect it to something somewhat irrelevant, George Bush DID encourage Americans to consume more (and therefore express their allegiance and patriotism to America) almost immediately after 9/11.

    People were vulnerable, anxious, and hey, probably thirsty from all of that cheering! They can either celebrate over a can of Pepsi (had Egypt won), or numb the pain with it…

    Again, probably it sounds irrelevant, but I feel it strikes an eerie similarity to selling flags (to burn or to use) during a protest … Total emotional manipulation; or capitalization, to put it more accurately. Advertising, in my opinion, is almost always insensitive and manipulative.

  6. super devoika Avatar
    super devoika

    If you have an empty vessel sitting outside… and it happened to rain or the sewage from the upper apartment broke or the dry leaves fell or it snowed… the vessel will be filled…
    If nothing happened… the vessel will still be empty… waiting for whatever…

    Good post… and an interesting read to this whole event…

    btw, Salamtak…

  7. Redha Avatar
    Redha

    Dear sir,
    regardingless my nationality, (I’m Algerian), but I band in respect for your article. Believe me, I hated football, I wanted to hate all sports combined, but…. what shall we say in this bad era we’re living in. I asked an other question which I really found interesting to get an answer about: Is the arabs relations, especially (algero egyptian relations) are so weak to be influenced easily by a football match???????