Ithnayn Karak Please!

When I return to my home country and people ask me what Doha is like, I just pause and non-nonchalantly say "It's simply multiculturalism on steroids!". I honestly do not think i am too far off when I say that. From my modest experience in my three year stay in Doha, I can say that culture develops in Doha in a way that it develops nowhere else. On a daily basis I interact with people from at least 4-5 different nationalities which is amazing by any standard! My social network or a group of people I am connected with in one way or another is extremely diverse. Interacting with these groups of people allows for our habits, hobbies, cultures or even tastes to converge into this beautiful melting pot of civilizations which makes Doha today. It's amazing to me how culture diffuses and adopts parts of other cultures to incorporate it into a unique blend.

I will tell the tale of introducing my father to ritual of Karak in Doha. Rituals enable groups to gather collectively and reinforce collective identity, or in this case, converge with a part of a different culture. We had a conversation last night while having tea about Karak and he told me he's heard of it but that he's never tried it. To provide some background, he is a diplomat living in Doha for three years now. His interaction is limited to other diplomats or businessmen; the venues he visits are mostly hotels, malls, restaurants, diplomatic receptions etc. He has visited Qatari majlises and interacted with Qataris, but the way they treat him his very flattering simply because of the nature of "His Excelencly's" tittle. So, I decided to be the one to show him one of the most "Doha" things to do in Doha.

It was almost dusk and we had finished our family dinner so I told him that instead of tea, tonight we should head to get some Karak. He complied with a dose of skepticism simply because of the age gap and i don't think he knew what to expect; I had previously told him I go there with my friends in the late night hours so I can understand his reaction. Whilst driving to Bandar which is a place that serves Karak near the Corniche, i witnessed culture diffuse in traffic where he took his Balkan temper and driving etiquette and applied it in Doha traffic. I tried explain my fascination to my father but the response was "What Balkan temper?" so i decided to switch the topic. We reached Bandar and he unfastened his seat-belt and tried to get out of the car. I told him to stay and honk the horn; he looked at me doubtfully and asked me why. I just told him to do it so he did. Seconds later, a man knocked on our window and asked us what we wanted. My father looked confused and in awe that a man would come and serve us simply by honking the horn. I quickly responded "Etneyen karak, please" which means "Two karak, please" in English; the man nodded and walked off. I spent some time explaining the process to my father who found it unacceptable and disrespectful to honk in front of a store. The epilogue of such an action in the Balkans would have been quite different, but culture is relative after all!



While we talked about this whole ordeal, the gentleman came back with our karak. I took the karak, payed the man and we drove away to find a spot to enjoy our oriental chai. We found a spot which faced upon the beautiful Doha skyline. I asked him what he thinks of it so far, he responded he likes the view of our Charshija which is the equivalent of the Souq in Skopje and that our traditional Turkish tea tastes better than the karak. We laughed about it and I told him that this could be a modern substitute of his former favorite place. He suggested that one day we play tavla or backgammon some day while drinking karak. That is one of the traditional games people in the Skopje Charshija play while enjoying a small glass of Turkish tea . We just made a plan to glocalize a domestic ritual with what we have in Doha. The process of glocalization is adapting a particular aspect of a culture to a certain locality or culture. We were going to participate in cultural diffusion! I was proud to say that next week inshallah, I will be participating in the process that makes Doha amazing!

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I just sat back and reflected on the blend of culture that I participated in. Simply drinking the traditional karak while gazing upon the colossal skyscrapers that made Doha what it is, i thought of the magical blend of tradition and modernity and how globalization and glocalization occurred at the same time. I was going to participate into this process and bring our traditional game to our tea time; perhaps that will catch on and people will be going for karak and a game of backgammon or tavla soon. If you ever see that at Bandar, you know who started it! Selam Aleykum!

Global Citizenship

I am often confronted with the puzzling question "where are you from?" Hmm.. this seems like it should be an easy one, shouldn't it? I was born and raised in Doha, Qatar, in 1991. My dad was born in New York, moved to Canada, finished his last year of high school in Egypt, and came to Qatar, where he remains to this day. My mother was born in Qatar, and both of my grandparents have mixed national backgrounds.



I went to a British kindergarten, an American primary and secondary school, and an American Jesuit university. I speak predominately Arabic with my mom and predominately English with my dad, and travel often, exposing myself to different cultures and languages. So whenever I'm confronted by the topic in a conversation, I usually announce, proudly and with a sheepish grin, "I guess I'm a global citizen then."



People often discount such a statement as too cheesy or cliche; however, rare is it when an individual realizes the implications of such a statement. I'm not saying I'm profound or anything, I'm just a byproduct of this global culture, of the phenomenon obsessively termed globalization by the masses. It connotes Western ideological domination over the East and Northern economic supremacy over the South. However, in his book Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture, sociology professor Roland Robertson, described the process of globalization as "the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole," and sociologists Albrow and King define globalization as "all those processes by which the peoples of the world are incorporated into a single world society." Waters concedes that it is a "social process in which the constraints of geography on economic, political, social and cultural arrangements recede, in which people become increasingly aware that they are receding and in which people act accordingly." I see this everyday in Qatar; expatriate, or non-Arab/non-Muslim kids saying insh'Allah or getting karak,



or a Corvette with an American flag bumper sticker driven by a young Qatari male, or a non-married Arab couple walking and holding hands. More and more everyday cultural norms are readjusted and boundaries redrawn. The sheer proliferation of mixed-sex education in the Middle East shows the ideological rearrangement between what once might have been mores or even taboos (such as having Qatari men and women in the same classroom socializing outside of an appropriate cultural context). The fact that I sit in the atrium of Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, where education based on the Western Jesuit experience is imported from the United States of America to Qatar, writing on a laptop that was manufactured in another part of the world, wearing clothes from designers that claim to be Italian but have factories in China and India. All our societies are connected on a microscopic level, and our ancient cultural heritage, although to be held with pride and regarded as majestic, has slowly changed and molded itself with the proliferation of mass media and travel, exposing a majority of people in all corners of the world to an ever-flowing milieu. For our last class, on Wednesday, we discussed functionalist theory, which views that different social environments maintain an orderly and consistent status quo, where people actively endeavor to maintain stability and order. David Grazian believes that popular culture is functional for society, acting as an agent that maintains stability the systematic nature of social worlds. Popular culture, accordingly, includes rituals and totems that are shared across the world through the appropriately titled "popular culture." Rituals are cultural acts of solidarity, social cohesion, and rebellion, according to Grazian, and that they enable groups to gather and enforce their collective identity. Through globalization and mass media, especially through popular mobilization media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook, we see people that would never otherwise have met build relationships and experiences vicariously. They become desensitized and their sense of understanding of the world they inhabit expands outside their immediate national sphere of influence, and a supra-culture that transcends national or regional boundaries is developed. Popular culture, as base and denigrating as it can get in some cases, unites people through ideas, songs, dance, blogs, personal pages, and other forms of expression, forming a massive culture paralleling the consumer culture, although more and more we are connected by ideas in lieu of commercial products.

Bibliography Robertson, Roland. Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture. London: Sage, 1992. Waters, Malcolm. Globalization. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2001. Albrow, Martin, and Elizabeth King. Globalization, Knowledge and Society: Readings From International Sociology. London: Sage Publications, 1990.

Heavy Metal in Pakistan - Final Class Project

Heavy Metal in Pakistan - Final Project from Hassan Asif on Vimeo.

This video features three of the active underground heavy metal acts in Pakistan: Dionysus (Lahore, Death/Doom Metal), Takatak (Lahore, Groove Metal) and BlackHour (Islamabad, Thrash Metal). The video includes small extracts from the in-depth interviews conducted over a period of one year. In addition to these three bands various other heavy metal performers and online bloggers were interviewed to give this study a well-rounded approach. I also attended various performances and jam sessions of these bands. This research aims at studying how heavy metal is re-contextualized in Pakistan as a genre and as a social phenomenon. The analysis that is conducted in the written paper shows that, heavy metal music in Pakistan is essentially elitist in character and these musicians adopt/prefer this genre over other available options primarily because of its foreign-ness. These performers treat heavy metal as a labor of love, with no possible economic, or even cultural gains. The distinctly non-local nature of this kind of music allows the Pakistani youth, both performers as well as the audience, a means to craft and perform temporary alternate identities in the highly polarized Pakistani culture. In case of heavy metal, “foreign-ness” first restricts the access to the genre to a particular social class on the one hand, and re-contextualizes and transforms it during reproduction in an alien land on the other hand.

Cheb Khaled and Pitbull: Rai and the World

Cheb Khaled’s latest studio album, C’est la vie, was released in September this year. The album features signature Khaled songs such as Wili Wili that are slow and catchy, reminiscent of hits like Aicha and also songs like Hiya Hiya which are upbeat dance tracks similar to previous chart toppers, Didi Didi.

Most of the songs on the album consist of the quarter-tone notes (Langlois pg.265). These are a rather rare feature in Rai music considering the element of fusion with Western instrumentation. The use of the derbukka (goblet drum) is also prominent in some of the songs on the album.

Khaled has followed the trend of merging the local and global and ‘East’ and ‘West’ (Langlois, pg. 259) in this album. This sort of musical style is not new in the Rai musical scene where previous experiments by artists like Cheb Mami and Sting have proved to be very successful in the form of hits like Desert Rose. This particular type of collaborative art between the different regions has elevated the status of the Rai music scene in the ‘World Music’ business. Khaled’s song Hiya Hiya in this new album, is in line with the tradition mentioned above. The song features Pitbull, who is a hip name in the world dance music scene. Pitbull’s musical affiliations and marketing strategies are interesting to note here because he uses various alcoholic beverages as elements of product placement in his videos. The implications of this kind of collaboration with an international artist like Pitbull on Rai music will be an interesting subject to study. Previously collaborations between the Rai music producers and the ‘West’ have also been seen as having certain political connotations. An example is Rachid Taha’s song Barra Barra that was featured in Ridley Scott’s film, Black Hawk Down (Swedenburg pg. 183). Critics comment that this application has relevance to the political contexts of that time, that is, the Iraq war. These kinds of examples are recalled as the ‘cultural resistance’ feature notably present in the original Rai music forms. The joint production with Pitbull can also be regarded as a return to the roots of the Rai music that goes with its association with spaces such as nightclubs (Langlois pg. 260). However, such premature conclusions are inadequate, as a confluence of forces such as globalization, glocalization and cultural hybridity are at work here. This album presents a unique situation in terms of the merging of East with the West. But this phenomenon is not entirely new as pointed out above. It is a definite recommendation for those who want to get a sense of the typical Rai dance tunes sprinkled with English verses sung by Pitbull at different points, leading the music to be relevant across different cultures.

Naturalization in Sport

"Andrés Sebastián Soria Quintana, is a naturalized Qatari footballer who plays as a striker for Lekhwiya" This is the brief introduction of Soria's profile on most websites. Sounds weird? Sebastian = a Qatari name? Well, no, he is a naturalized footballer who now plays regularly for most of Qatar's national team matches and is also extremely popular at club level football. Turns out, that he is not the only one. At a football match that I recently attended in Doha, I noticed that many players had Christian names and did not look Arab as well. As a student of sociology, I found this particularly interesting since one would expect to see the best local players on the national team. So how did this major change happen? and Why?

 

Qatar's National Football team

Club football has contributed a lot to the exchange of players globally. Today, most major clubs world over have international players coming across the border to play for them. The major reasons for this of course are the financial benefits that they may receive and also, the feeling of being associated with a top of the league club. Globalization has had a huge impact on the sports arena. Players, professionals, staff, money and brands have all been and continue to be exchanged across borders at high levels. Football , or Soccer, has always been the number one sport in terms of fan following, television rating points and investments. As an effect of globalization, several players moved to different parts of the world where their talent could be harnessed and they had better opportunities to make money and develop professionally.

The idea of capitalism is of course at the heart of all this change. Club football is probably one of the highest revenue generating form of sport today. Corporations spend millions of dollars on advertising and communication so that their brand gets noticed by the majority. Most major companies like McDonalds and Coca Cola are official sponsors of world class events such as the Olympics, FIFA World Cup etc. This gives them huge exposure which of course any major corporation would love to have. Corporations are known for their extensive support when it comes to subcultures and hence, sport is a major area of interest for all the big brands in the industry today.


                   
                                   The usual sponsors at most events

The process of naturalization is not really new but its just that there is a lot of focus on it today since many countries are practicing it. Several countries today have naturalized players representing various national teams. In Qatar, most sports have naturalized citizens playing for them. In football, table-tennis, basketball, swimming etc. there are several players who are not originally from Qatar. While many players are born in Qatar and perhaps have lived in Qatar all their lives, they wouldn't have been granted citizenship under normal conditions. But, when it comes to sport, this exception seems to be made easily. In class this week, we discussed about variance. It is important to note here that variance can go in both directions. It doesn't necessarily have to be deviant. The idea of naturalized sports persons can also be seen as a form of variance. The team demographics in general isn't deviant in any respect, but there is a level of difference that seems significant. For instance, at the beginning of the national anthem in the Qatar-Japan game, there were hardly any Qatari players who were singing the anthem. The reason being that they probably didn't know them in the first place.


                                           
           The band ready for the anthems

But this is an accepted culture in the world today. The idea of dominant culture is key here. In this case, the dominant culture is the culture of FIFA, that sets the rules and regulations for international football. Players too seem to make the shift without any major issues since ultimately they benefit the most. We discussed the idea of tribalization and de-tribalization in class last week. Given the huge financial incentives, many players don't mind de-tribalizing from their original communities and seek citizenship in other countries.

Still, for varying political reasons, FIFA has deliberately kept eligibility rules rather vague. Its Article 18 reads in full:
1. Any player who is a naturalized citizen of a country in virtue of that country’s laws shall be eligible to play for a national or representative team of that country.

This culture has been introduced and to some extent supported by FIFA and so the other countries just try to adapt and thereby take advantage of the dominant culture and make it look like they are merely adhering to the broader culture. Communication needs to be clear and definite.  Statements such as these need to be more specific and clear. As per this statement, any country could grant citizenship for a period of time and have a particular player represent their country. The homology of FIFA has begun to take a different direction though. Recently, they have introduced strict regulations on the naturalization process. For instance, a player must play at least five years of club football in the country before he/she can represent the country. Qatar has done a great job with following the rules and developing a strategy. Players like Sebastian Soria and others have been around in Qatar for years and they played for Qatar only after clearing the eligibility requirements. The Qatari crowd today loves Sebastian and he is still a key performer in most matches for Qatar. The video below shows how the country embraces Sebastian as their player. Notice the commentator's support too!

                              

While FIFA has set several regulations for this, there are other sports that continue to naturalize players for a short duration. This perhaps need to be re-thought and is in fact a complex debate since it deals with several socio-political domains such as nationality, ethnicity, religion, diplomacy, culture, belief and values. The global sporting arena would be interesting to look at in the coming years.

My Residency Experience – Grayling UK

As a journalism student at Northwestern University in Qatar, I was required to go on a student residency abroad. This was one of the best experiences of my life, because I was able to gain work experience from a top-notch PR firm, as well as immerse in four different fun departments - Internal Marketing, Corporate and Finance, Digital Media, Consumerism. Moreover, this experience helped me realize the importance of globalization to global firms and how the various tools of communication have helped make that happen.

First off, I was working with the internal marketing team. Our job was to make sure the firm, GRAYLING, was on track with its clients, and maintained a good image on the global and local scale. Grayling employs more than 1000 people around the globe. As an intern, I had to research the top players in Public Relations, and create an in-depth presentation comparing Grayling’s standard against theirs. In doing so, I had to study the social networks, web design, number of offices, client names and much more. My findings proved that each of the competing firms was trying to grow a larger global empire and gain top clients. In CAPITALISM, success comes from making more profit every year than the one before, and to do so the firms need to win more clients. Another interesting fact was that Grayling had several different versions of its website in different languages to reach the maximum number of people. This is a form of GLOCALIZATION, whereby a company is making itself more accessible and easy to use so that it can grow and reach more people. Although the headquarters are in the UK, the firm had established offices in many different regions including the USA, Australia, Ireland, Spain, Dubai and their latest addition, Doha. I got to sit in on meetings with BRITISH AIRWAYS members, brainstorm ideas with other departments, make phone calls to local agencies and had to present my findings to the department I worked at. The most interesting part of my stay was when I moved to their Soho office and worked with the digital team. They were working on a top-secret proposal on a project for HRH Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser. This was a dream for any intern. I was the perfect asset because, a) I was the only Arabic speakers, b) I grew up in QATAR and am a student at QATAR FOUNDATION. They extended my stay at the office an extra week to make sure I was there the entire time they worked on that project. There were several procedures we had to do including, monitor the Internet for any news, publicity or negative feedback of her. We had to translate some articles from Arabic to English. We measured her reach globally and compared it in different regions. We also found out how many times people search her name. Having an experienced Arabic-speaking team member made the process much faster, and allowed me to share general knowledge that is not usually available online. Our main goal was to make her a GLOBAL FIGURE, and increase her outreach as much as possible.

I witnessed the power of the internet and globalization at its fullest, because here I was in an office full of people who had never been to Qatar, working on a project that requires familiarity with the culture, history and current situation in Qatar. It was very exciting for me to see how quickly information could be gathered and understood. Also, it was scary that so much information was available with the click of a button! I don’t know if Grayling ended up working on this project, however when I returned to Qatar I was offered a summer internship with their local office here. By WORD OF MOUTH, the local team heard positive feedback about my internship and thought I would make a good addition to the team. PUBLIC RELATIONS is all about spreading the message, maintaining a positive image and monitoring feedback. Whether for the company itself, a client, or even an individual, communication methods play an important role in providing us with information. We need to be aware of where this information came from and who we share it with. Knowing that I was able to survive a three-month-internship with a high standard, demanding firm, I am now much more confident with myself and feel proud of my accomplishments!

Church City in Qatar

This Sunday, almost like every other Sunday evening, I drove all the way to the Mesaimeer area, in which the Church City or Church Complex is located. As usual, there was a huge traffic jam and there were too many policemen around who were trying to redirect the traffic in different directions and resolve the issue. The roads nearby are still under construction and this was causing a lot of trouble to church goers and more importantly, for the residents of the Barwa Housing Complex which is located nearby. While I was waiting for the traffic to clear, I just thought about how things were in the past and how things had changed over the last 5 years.

Inside the Catholic church in Qatar

Flashback to year 2000, and I remember going to small villas and houses for Church and Catechism classes. At that time, there wasn't a definite location set for the church and there wasn't a proper setup for conducting religious classes as well. To be honest, even talking about the Church or the idea of having a large space dedicated for practicing Christianity was doubtful. It was almost impossible to see a Christmas tree around in the malls or Santa Claus costumes for sale. Last winter, I remember the huge Christmas tree that was erected in the City Center mall and I saw so many Santa Claus costumes for sale at various malls. So how did this happen? I mean there was a drastic change and it happened sequentially.

Interaction between communities:
In the readings in the sociology class, we read about Grazian's theory of interaction. He mentions that culture is to some extent conditioned by interaction and the context that surrounds it. Over the last decade, there has been a strong influx of expatriates from various nations. A vast majority of the expatriate population in Qatar today comes from the South Asia, particularly the Philippines. Moreover, there are large Christian members from Western countries, some African nations and also from Southern India. It is perhaps the interaction between these cultures and the predominant Muslim culture in Qatar that led to a better understanding and the permission from the government to go ahead and build the Church.


Globalization:
With the entry of several global corporations into Qatar, there have been so many high level/executive level professionals entering into the country. A growing country like Qatar does need to keep up to the standards of other international countries in order to cater to international customers, corporations and clients. In fact, the organization of the Asian Games in Doha, 2006 perhaps triggered the need for the establishment of a church complex. While bidding to host key tournaments such as the World Cup, Olympics etc., these are some aspects that the judging committee would evaluate the country on. So there is definitely a capitalistic idea of growth behind it as well. Now that the FIFA World Cup 2022 has been awarded to Qatar, it's only fitting that the nation provides services for all the diverse communities in Qatar.


Communication:
After attending the church session (mass), I wandered into a nearby building in the complex. I noticed that there was an Arabic service going on at that time. It was really interesting to see a fairly large Arabic speaking community in the church. There are many Christians in the Arab countries such as Lebanon, Syria, Egypt etc. On the church website, one can find the timings of the various masses and the different languages they are being offered in.
http://www.rosarychurchqatar.com/mass.php?pg=timings

There are masses in English, Spanish, Arabic, French, Tamil, Tagalog, Sinhala, Malayalam etc. There are various subcultural groups that exist within this complex. The whole group of Christians in Qatar can be seen the complex and yet there are special areas in the complex assigned for each group. However, there are special occasions in which all communities get together to celebrate mass together. The picture below was taken on one such occasion where two Indian Catholics can be seen alongside Indonesian Catholic members.

        

During the church inauguration 

Dramaturgy:
The term is defined as a theory by which organizations or groups can be examined like plays or movies. In this case, the entire setting of the church before a service begins can be seen as the arena. The priest and the alter servers can be looked at as the stage. They play various roles during the service. Also, the religious members present in the church make up the audience of the 'drama'. Additionally, there is the church choir for the music aspect of it.


Below is a video taken during the occasion of "Holy Communion" which was a function common to all Catholics regardless of their language/ethnicity etc.

Within all these, I looked closely at the identities of the individuals present there. In my opinion, the members attending the regional language services were making a strong point about their identity; for instance, their identity as Arab Christians or Indian Christians. In the reading about the Identity Expression on Facebook earlier this week, we discussed that personal identity is different from group identity in the way that we define the features. A group/subcultural identity is formed and developed by the heads of groups or a group of accomplished members rather than by an individual.

The major change in Qatar took place during the last decade, in which the society and the government in general has become more tolerant and open towards different cultures and religions. This is a good sign, especially since a large proportion of the population is made up of expatriates. The government has thus far done a good job in catering to the needs of the expatriate community without harming the needs and preferences of the local population as well.

      

   

Third Culture Kid

So far, I have noticed that the majority of our blog posts have been very much centralized around consumerism. Although what we eat, what we buy, and how we entertain ourselves are important in the contexts of globalization, glocalization and different subcultures, it is also necessary to examine one of the most important aspects of this cycle of human nature which is, of course, ourselves. I have to admit I did chose to discuss this because I love to talk about myself and am maybe a little egocentric (although not ethnocentric!) but I also think it is important that we examine why different people are attracted to certain subcultures, or how we can relate to others around us in a globalized environment. I myself, as a Third Culture Kid, am a product of globalization and often have issues identifying with certain groups whether it be in terms of religion, nationality, language and accents, or just general social groups. Sometimes I feel sorry for myself when people as me ‘where are you from?’ and I panic as to what to tell them, but on the other hand, it is nice to be able to be somewhat of a nomad when it comes to traveling and experiencing different cultures as I have no real attachment to a specific place and am always eager to adapt to new cultures.

This reminded me of a brief section of our reading, which mentioned supermarkets of style, and shopping for subcultural identities. For me, often traveling and settling in many different places, I end up trying out different groups, fashions and identities until I find some sense of belonging. When I lived in Singapore, I was very active in the middle school cheerleading and dance scene, and yet in Qatar I was more inclined towards socializing with very diverse groups of people, some of whom have pink hair and wear studded jackets.

Some view this bouncing back and forth between countries, cultures and subcultures as an inability to fit in and a sense of being an outcast. Yet I feel my ability to blend in and look at these different subcultures from a more external perspective helps me understand people better in terms of why they do what they do, whether it is due to a deviance and resistance issue, or a conflict of power between different groups.

Skip to 0:55 to avoid the sappy poem - and learn more about the melodramatic lives of these Third Culture Kids

Additionally, something that I always find intriguing is how certain people in Qatar react to my white-ness. I suppose it has something to do with the notion of white privilege, but from my experiences, this has not been a positive thing especially being a girl, I face a combination of racism, sexism, and also being idolized due to my skin color (which is always awkward).

Friends sometimes comment on how lucky I am to be white because my parents aren’t strict, or that I can drink and do whatever I want, but I also get harassed by some people who label me as being ‘a whore because you’re white’ or having police officers and really creepy Lebanese men constantly ask me which part of ‘Amreeka’ I am from.

My favorite comments, which I get a lot of, have to do with my freckles, which aren’t even that obvious. “You have dirt on your face”, “there’s something on your nose”, “do you want something for your sun spots?”, “when did you get that skin disease?” Mostly these comments come from Arabs and East Asians, which amuses me because really - have they never seen a white girl with freckles before? Imagine what will happen if they see a ginger. When this happens, I have to remind myself that not everybody subjects themselves to, or are open to the idea of globalization and different subcultures. I suppose certain areas of Qatar, or places where they are coming from, are not as globalized and full of western expatriates as you would expect.

UTURN on Youtube!

Subcultures make our life interesting! Subcultures can be define as a group who looks different, shares different beliefs and activities as a result of resistance against the societies’ problems and norms. However, what defines youth subcultures are music and style!

Uturn is a youtube channel. The people behind it can be seen as an example of a subculture or they are trying to be one. They are a group of Saudi youth who shares the love of creating interesting videos on YouTube. Currently they produce 15 different shows discussing local news, popular YouTube videos and social issues in a comedic manner. The channel got so popular that many western news channels, such as CNN talked about it.

Click here to watch the CNN video

Subcultures, such as Uturn, emerge in societies as a result of struggle. When the hip-hop subculture emerged, it was the poverty and discrimination that led to its emergence. People might wonder what might be the struggle in the rich Saudi society that led to the creation of Uturn? It is the corruption and the social problems the conservative Saudi society suffer from. One of Uturn members is Omar Hussain, who presents the show 3al6ayer. He discusses the Jeddah floods in many of his episodes. He focuses on the financial corruption in the infrastructure. For example, the person who was supposed to spend government money to fix Jeddah streets did not use it in that way resulting in the floods.

The Labeling Theory is one of the theories used in studying subcultures. In his book, Goths, Gamers and Grrrls, Ross Haenfler explained by saying that the theory “proposes that actions or people are deviant only when society label them deviant.”
Referring to the Labeling Theory, the Saudi society labeled Uturn as deviant. There is gender segregation in Saudi Arabia. Even in restaurants lines, men stands in separated lines. The people at Ururn are a mixed group of men and women. This might not sound like a big deal, but in Saudi Arabia this is considered deviance. Deviance is one of the things that make a subculture one.

The pictures below, are from the show Alfe2a Alfala. The episodes end with rap songs most of the time. Their pictures on Uturn pages of show how they are trying to look deviant by trying different styles.

One of the essential elements in a youth subculture is style, such as language and fashion. The group refers to their fellow members as “Youturenii” (Youturner). They use weird slang words such as “Shamangahabash!” This is the word used when a situation is missed up and confusing. The other part of style is fashion. Bader Saleh, EyshElly presenter, has an interesting style in fashion. In some episodes, he wears a normal Polo shirt. However, instead of the Polo logo there is a drop shaped logo. This logo says “Marka Muya” (Water Brand).
Another example of fashion is Omar Hussein. Sometimes he plays a superhero role in his show. The way he dresses when he plays this role is abnormal and deviance. This reflects their want to be a subculture. The superhero is called Abu Serwal wa Faneela.

He dresses in Serwal and Faneela, which are what men wear under their traditional thob. He also uses a wezar, traditional fabric men wear around their west, as a scarf around his nick. Although this weird way of dressing is for the show only, it is a fashion statement. It is about breaking the norms and keeping traditions that reflect their identity. This shows their cooperation of Arabic culture on the global website YouTube. Their sense of fashion make their subculture special.

Globalization in its simple definition relates to the blending of cultures. Globalization affected many of the ideas behind these shows. One cannot help but notice the similarities between these shows and western ones. 3al6ayer with Omar Hussain is similar to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The show was glocalised by having a Saudi young man talking about local issues. They are also making a superhero look more local by dressing him up in Arabic clothes.

Globalization cannot pass in a sociology blog without talking about its deeper meaning. Globalization is also about capitalism and resistance. It cannot be mentioned with out bringing up the big corporations who are making money out of it.

Big corporations started getting advantage of Uturn big fans base. Mobaily, the telecommunications company in Saudi Arabia is sponsoring Uturn shows. In return, Uturn advertise for them. Nestle Nescafe is doing the same thing too. Now, many other companies started paying Uturn for advertisements. This might be moving Uturn from being a cool subculture to being part of the mainstream type of media.

This subculture is making our life interesting through their videos on Youtube. Still, the Youturners receive lots of criticism in the comments section on YouTube. Many people resist them because of the bold topics they discuss and their including of girls in the show and behind the scenes. However, Uturn are resisting back and being themselves.

Tartans Got Talent

No, it is not a TV show; but an event that took place in Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar(CMUQ) in Education City this Thursday. The event showcased the talents of the various students studying in Carnegie Mellon, which included singing; playing instruments; rapping; beat boxing; and comedy. Other than that, the event is nothing like the show; there are no buzzers involved & nobody is judging anything. This event was open for students of all universities and even parents and siblings of students studying in CMUQ.



Since we covered Globalization and Glocalization for the previous class, I was thinking of the event in terms of five major elements of globalization – Multinational corporations; Ideology of capitalism; Governments; Resistance & Consequences. Lets start with the first element- multinational corporations. Now in every event that takes place inside CMUQ comes with free food for students. For this particular event the Shater Abbas restaurant was the sole caterer. Also, I had noticed the university had spent a large budget on special lighting and other effects for the area.



Hence, in this case, the restaurant and the companies providing the lighting and the audio equipment are the multinational companies involved.

Capitalism- The involvement of the multinational companied automatically paves way for capitalism or profits. Here, the restaurants that catered for the event earned a hefty profit. As mentioned earlier, a big budget was spent for lighting and audio equipment. The company responsible earned a big profit; also I have heard that the company increases its price for the effects every year. Moreover, the same event will occur next year as well and the Student Affairs dept. are planning to make it even better than this year.


Government- The forms of government involved here were the Student Affairs Department & the student body government (Student Majlis). All the performances were signed up and approved by the Student Affairs one week prior to the event. Also, Student Affairs and the Student Majlis handled the budgeting together.


Resistance & Consequences- There were a few conservative who were frustrated and disliked when girls were dancing during one of the performances. Moreover, there were a few students who were unable to participate as they came from conservative family backgrounds and their families were against it. All this contributes to resistance aspect of globalization. The consequences are not that many; however there are a few financial fallbacks. Since a large budget was allocated for the quality of this event; the other events that will be organized in CMUQ will be low-budgeted or cancelled (For example, previously there would a be a lot of free food events where every event staged within CMUQ would be provided with few food. However, in the recent years, very few events provide food due to decreased budget).

Every year, the event attracts hundreds of students across Education City from various universities.