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Abstract
This article explores the online Arabic communication between partisan Algerians, Egyptians and Arabs of other nations during the recent soccer qualification matches for the 2010 World Cup. It assesses the role of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in the online furore that developed in connection with those matches. It focuses mainly on the way YouTube (vlogging) and blogging are used, and explores the premise that most interpretations of ‘flaming’ (aggressive interactions online) do not take into sufficient account cultural factors that may influence the perspective of the sender, the recipient and the third party. This article also looks at the effects of ‘soccer nationalism’ and some of the political issues stirred up by the online debate.
Notes
1 See http://www.timeslive.co.za/sport/soccer/article192345.ece [Link no longer available].
2 Even the use of the ‘rap’ mode has caused some controversy among native Arabic speakers. One comment from Youssef55100 (presumably a non-Egyptian) raised the old argument about the purest and most widely acceptable Arabic dialect. Although acknowledging the skilful message of a particular rap composed in the Egyptian dialect, he stated that the dialect does not lend itself to ‘rap’ style, unlike other dialects such as Moroccan. For this, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = NkltbwbRjXs&feature = related.
4 Qur'an 5:33.
5 It should be noted that although this article focuses on Arabic computer-mediated communication, there is an enormous amount of material also available in English tackling similar subjects. One good example of the intense exchange of comments between Egyptians and Algerians (and people from other Arab nations) can be found at http://egypt.worldcupblog.org/uncategorized/egypt-vs-algeria-open-thread.html. One contributor in particular—ProudEgyptian—on 21 November 2009 at 14:05, points to the Egyptian contribution in helping other Arab nations. He notes how the Egyptian people lost many of their countrymen fighting for the Palestinian cause.
6 See Bruce Etling et al., Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture and Dissent, Internet and Democracy Case Study Series, Berkman Center Research Publication no. 2009-06, Harvard University, 2009, p. 35.
7 Jean Burgess and Joshua Green, You Tube: Online Video and Participatory Culture, Digital Media and Society Series (Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press, 2009), p. 77.
8 Jean Burgess and Joshua Green, You Tube: Online Video and Participatory Culture, Digital Media and Society Series (Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press, 2009), p. 11, citing Fiske.
9 Etling et al., Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere, p. 5.
10 The ‘rap’ style of rhythm and music actually lends itself very well to Arabic vlogging because of the latter's intimate association with poetry and rhyming prose. It is very interesting to note from the Berkman report (p. 10) that poetry was found to be very common in Iranian blogs examined for the study. In other words, tradition and culture are never far away in CMC.
11 Etling et al., Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere, p. 39. The report goes on to note (p. 40) that ‘YouTube functions more as a media platform than as a publisher with editorial control’. This is a very significant observation because it underlines why YouTube has the capacity to attract some of the most unexpurgated narratives of all computer-mediated communications.
12 Burgess and Green, You Tube, p. 16.
13 Etling et al., Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere, p. 7.
15 See http://www.watan.com/news/35-news-extra/18234-2009.html. [Link no longer available]. The 235-page report was based on a study of several of the main forms of computer-mediated communication, Link no longer available. including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs. Among the interesting data provided by the report is the fact that the number of Arab bloggers has now reached 600,000, and is growing daily, while the number of internet users in those countries is around 58 million. For more information on this and other internet access and censorship issues see Rasha Abdulla, The Internet in the Arab World: Egypt and Beyond (New York: Peter Lang, 2007), esp. chapter 7.
16 Source: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid = 4329892722&topic = 4102. [Link no longer available]. Link no longer available. The blogger notes that this number was at that time greater than the number of people on Italian and German Facebook networks.
17 See P.B. O'Sullivan and A. Flanagin, ‘Reconceptualizing “Flaming” and Other Problematic Communication’, New Media and Society, 5(1) (2003), pp. 69–94, at p. 68.
18 According to some researchers, flaming does not fall into the same category as ‘cyberhate’, a form of intentional antisocial behaviour that normally involves online extremist groups. For this, see Karen M. Douglas, ‘Antisocial Communication on Electronic Mail and the Internet’, in Elly A. Konijn et al. (eds), Mediated Interpersonal Communication (London and New York: Routledge, 2008), pp. 200–214, at pp. 201–202.
19 See, for instance, Dirk Oegema et al., ‘Flaming and Blaming: The Influence of Mass Media Content on Interactions in Online Discussions’, in Konijn et al. (eds), Mediated Interpersonal Communication, pp. 331–358, esp. p. 346.
20 O'Sullivan and Flanagin, ‘Reconceptualizing “Flaming” and Other Problematic Communication’, p. 67.
21 O'Sullivan and Flanagin, ‘Reconceptualizing “Flaming” and Other Problematic Communication’., pp. 80–81, and p. 78.
22 O'Sullivan and Flanagin, ‘Reconceptualizing “Flaming” and Other Problematic Communication’., p. 79.
23 O'Sullivan and Flanagin, ‘Reconceptualizing “Flaming” and Other Problematic Communication’., p. 83.
24 O'Sullivan and Flanagin, ‘Reconceptualizing “Flaming” and Other Problematic Communication’., p. 71.
25 O'Sullivan and Flanagin, ‘Reconceptualizing “Flaming” and Other Problematic Communication’., pp. 77–78.
26 For much more on this fascinating topic, see Dilworth Parkinson, Constructing the Social Context of Communication: Terms of Address in Egyptian Arabic (Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1985).
29 Ian Buruma, ‘Soccer Nationalism Mirrors European Society’, 3 July 2008, at http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20080703a1.html (accessed 8 December 2009).
30 Ian Buruma, ‘Soccer Nationalism Mirrors European Society’, 3 July 2008, at http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20080703a1.html (accessed 8 December 2009).
31 Anne Applebaum, ‘Flag on the Field: Soccer, the Last Acceptable Form of Nationalism’, 18 June 2002, at http://www.slate.com/id/2067084/ (accessed 8 December 2009). One Egyptian blogger was equally emphatic in describing the elevation of soccer by some to the level of religion. For this and more, see Ursula Lyndsey, ‘World Cup: Egypt vs. Algeria, It's More than Soccer’, Christian Science Monitor Global News Blog, at http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews/2009/11/15/world-cup-egypt-vs-algeria-its-more-than-soccer/ (accessed 8 December 2009). [Link no longer available].
32 Ian Hawkey, Feet of the Chameleon: The Story of Football in Africa, (London: Portico, 2010).
33 For all this and more, see http://www.islamicaweb.com/forums/sports-recreation/14265-twenty-years-hate-match-between-egypt-algeria-again.htm. [Link no longer available].
34 This is not to suggest that political, historical and even religious wounds and differences are not the catalyst for acrimonious exchanges in other societies. A good example of this is the eponymous soccer rivalry between Celtic and Rangers, the two biggest professional teams in Glasgow, Scotland. In broad terms Celtic has always been the ‘Catholic’ club, and Rangers the ‘Protestant’ club. In 1995, for example, Paul Gascoigne (then a Rangers player) made a loyalist gesture of a flute player to the Celtic supporters, an act which led to Gascoigne being disciplined by the Scottish Football Association for inciting hatred. In 2002 some Celtic fans waved Palestinian flags, to which Rangers supporters responded by raising Israeli flags.
35 See Lyndsey, ‘World Cup’.
36 See Lyndsey, ‘World Cup’.
37 Douglas, ‘Antisocial Communication’, p. 202.
39 See Hassan Masiky, ‘Soccer Feud between Algeria and Egypt Spiraling out of Control’, at http://www.moroccoboard.com/viewpoint/68-hassan-massiki/752-soccer-feud-between-algerian-and-egyptian-is-spiraling-out-of-control.
41 O'Sullivan and Flanagin, ‘Reconceptualizing “Flaming” and Other Problematic Communication’, p. 81.
42 O'Sullivan and Flanagin, ‘Reconceptualizing “Flaming” and Other Problematic Communication’., p. 80.
43 See, for example, an individual called USB160 in the blog section at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = fln9D8F-QT8&feature = related.
44 I apologize for the use of irreverent language here, but it is essential to capture the flavour of the poem, and also to support the views I am about to make. Translation of the Arabic here will be very liberal but idiomatic, as evidenced by my decision to avoid any literal association with the vulgar term kuss, which in reality denotes the female pudenda, but is equivalent to the expletive ‘cunt’. Together with the word umm (‘mother’), this is probably the most inflammatory term any Arabic-speaking person could use towards another person with hostile (as opposed to jocular) intent. The other point worth noting here in what is a loaded message is that the author wrote ummig instead of ummik because critics of the Egyptian dialect sometimes claim that the Egyptians pronounce the ‘k’ sound as ‘g’.
45 Kuss umm ’inā wa-Asyūt wa-Suhāg, ayy agnabī yišūfik tilāʿī bitā'u hāg. The clever rhyme here is lost in the translation. The inference here could be manifold, but within the context of the whole poem it suggests that foreigners of any sexual orientation can easily find gratification there.
46 See http://www.ennaharonline.com/en/news/2475.html and the accompanying comments (in English and Arabic).
47 Fasīkh is a very pungent type of fish eaten specifically by Coptic people at Easter.
49 The clip of Hitler and his Generals appears to be doing the rounds as a template for a range of subjects. For example, it was used more recently with subtitles as a humorous response to the launch of the new iPad. Since the writing of this article in 2010 a number of Hitler clips of this type, which were taken from the movie The Downfall, have been removed from the internet. See http://reporter.blogs.com/thresq/2010/04/what-we-can-learn-from-taking-down-hitler.html
52 See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = 0xhkdW4GVhU. [Clip no longer available].
53 These are at http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/14/egyptians-algerians-wake-up/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = G9mI4zE8vfM. The first of these is the one I shall focus on here.
57 In the movie a boy sees his father die before his eyes at the hands of drug dealers.
58 Oegema et al., ‘Flaming and Blaming’, p. 333.
59 See Alireza Doostdar, ‘“The Vulgar Spirit of Blogging”: On Language, Culture and Power in Persian Weblogestan’, American Anthropologist, 106(4) (2004), pp. 651–662, esp. p. 651.
60 Wael Abbas is one prominent Egyptian blogger banned by Egyptian authorities. There is also at least one documented case of cyber detention in Tunisia (Abdullah, The Internet in the Arab World, p. 83).
61 See http://publius.cdt.org/international/000105humanrights.shtml. [Link no longer available].