Algeria and Egypt Bronze Up Beijing
Sweet Revenge: Soraya Haddad of Algeria became the Arab world's first medalist at the 2008 Olympic Games, and one of its rare women to win in history. (Clive Rose/Getty Images).
Bronze is the natural color of North Africa--has been so since the (mostly mythical) lounging days of Cleopatra in Egypt and the melancholy days of Camus beneath the sun of Oran. So it's somewhat of a natural fit that the medals most won by north African nations at summer Olympics are bronze: 8 for Egypt, 7 for Algeria, 9 for Morocco, 3 for Tunisia, though none yet for Libya. That's all time.
The tallies have been going up slightly in Beijing. Egypt's Hisham Mesbah won himself a bronze in judo, the men's middleweight category (81-90kg), actually tying for the medal with Switzerland's Sergei Aschwanden. I was forced to be a judoka in my earliest youth, hated every minute of it, even hated that half-burnos, half-burlap uniform they call judogi, never made it past a yellow belt (I'm embellishing, of course: I never got a yellow belt) and finally convinced my parents that they were wasting their time and everybody else's time if they thought I was going to start pulling koshi-wazas and ma-sutemi-wazas on my opponents. All this to say that to this day I have no idea how they score the thing to pick their medalists, so we'll leave it at that: a bronze for Hisham Mesbah, a 26-year-old who defeated Yves-Matthieu Dafreville of France.
Algeria’s Soraya Haddad also pulled off a bronze, beating Mesbah to it and making it the Arab world's first medal--a sweet irony, given the Arab world's still mostly retrograde attitude toward women (Saudi Arabia, as I've mentioned previously, won't even let women participate in athletics, let alone be part of any team traveling abroad). Haddad's countryman, Amar Benikhlef, then one-upped her with a silver in judo, too, in the men's Middleweight division (81-90kg).
Le Temps, the Algerian daily, described Algeria's first medal as "an unprecedented achievement for African and Arab women's judo. After boxing and athletics, judo is the third sport in which Algeria has achieved success at the Olympics. It was a historic day for Haddad and Algerian judo, which finally has an Olympic medal after tasting success at the 2005 World Championships in Cairo, thanks once again to Haddad along with Abderrahmane Benamadi, who won bronze and gold respectively." Rounding off the Middle East's medal count so far, Nazmi Avluca of Turkey joined teammate Sibel Ozcan with a silver in Greco-Roman wrestling, men's 74-84kg division.
Comments
I am very proud of Soraya Haddad for getting that medal, but just so you know, Algeria is NOT an Arab country, NOR is it situated in the Middle East. Bravo Soraya!
Ah, the old debate, proving once again that all geography, like all matters of race or, for that matter, of culture, are exclusively the province of subjective constructs. It’s very hard to come across too many people anywhere from the Levant to the Maghreb who’d agree on what they are, as opposed to what they passionately are not, my ex-fellow Lebanese among them of course. We too used to say not only that we’re not Arabs, but that, by some wild sleight of geography, we’re not even Middle Easterners but European. If Israel could pull it off, why not Lebanon? These days I’ve transplanted my geographic indignation to Florida, where I’m in semi-permanent exile, a state that sometimes pretends not to be part of the South and sometimes pretends the Civil War was never lost (depending on where you are in the state). I, of course, always say I’m neither a Floridian nor a Southerner, preferring to call myself a Yankee, a Nebraskan or a Montanan, depending on my mood and the day of the week, though I’ve never lived in either of those last two sprawls of heaven.
So I understand what you’re saying Feriel, though just for clarity’s sake my definition of the Middle East, or rather the Greater Middle East, especially as it applies to this site, is primarily a political, rather than a geographic; it extends from the Atlantic shores of the Western Sahara and Mauritania to the Indian Ocean’s shores lapping at Pakistan. At any rate, Vive Soraya!
Hi all,
Mr. Pierre ‘answered’ Feriel’s question by calling the Arab/Berber misinformation an old debate?
This is definitely NOT a debate !!! A debate is where people take up their own position regarding a particular topic. And often many ideas, and subsequently opinions, can emerge from that kind of a setting, but with not just two positions but many. In the U.S, its usually a debate between the two classic factions, called Republican Vs. Democrats, conservatives Vs. Liberals, Right Vs. Left, …bla, bla ,bla . Well sir, this is not a debate, we don’t debate facts on planet earth. Not All Algerians are Arabs,… THIS IS A FACT!!!!!! .
I have a question…. is there a debate out there in the bush about Newtons’ law of Universal Gravitation? ….NO there isn’t. Algeria is NOT ALL Arab, Its a fact.Arabs invaded North Africa, yes, sometime ago, but again,there is fortunately some Berbers who are still alive and who do not, for the most part, appreciate to be called Arabs ( unless its for the NYT or Fox News audiences, of course !)
The article could have had a better title, such as ” The First Muslim Women to win ,,,bla ,bla” ( By the way, this one would have sold more copies for your paper !) or First Mediterranean Women , bla, bla, or the first African Woman, Bla, bla or even better, ….. “The First Berber Women…bla bla “, anything would have been a FACT,but in this case, Not YOUR TITLE !!!! I am sorry, it is not. ( assuming the journalist, expert on the Middle East, would know something on North African history)
My point is that, I have no problem with the geopolitical jargon of the Middle East and where Algeria is situated in all of that, in fact you can get it closer to hell if you wanted to, I don’t care , its already there!!!! or gettin’ closer !! I now that, it makes it “easier ” for your readers to ‘understand’ the region better. That is, if they even care!!
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But if you want to discus the geography and/or culture aspect of sports, I am ready do debate that!. In this case, if next time a Spanish tennis player or cycling sprinter from Grenada (or Al Andalus region) wins the Rolland Garros or the yellow jersey, then he better be the first Arab to finally do something. They have Mosques in southern Spain too you know?? , some very nice ones as well, or is it too old of a debate??
I was not talking about the geography or the shity politics of either the Olympics or the nationality of the athletes, I am pointing out to a journalistic error I often see in the Western and Algerian media as well.
By the way, do you know Why Israel feels more ‘European’ than Middle Eastern ??
Answer: They are not from the Middle East!!!, they are European and East European colonizers who are using their religion, to the extreme, to invade other people’s land and properties, …. this is AGAIN another fact.!!!
For the Lebanese, if the Druze or the Maronite would prefer to be called Arabs ( Muslims, Christians or Jews) its pretty much there will, not mine !!Don’t call me Arab !! and perhaps, Mr. Pierre should go visit Algeria and write about the Berbers in particular or the Algerian Economy (corruption) in general, instead of writing about an athlete and the first “Arab” medal. People are hungry and
angry too, a medal won’t take the Arabs to the moon.
To bring the Israeli example to this conversation is a proof of either ignorance or guilt. Call Algeria Arab and even all of Africa if you want. This way, it would make the Arab land larger and greater than it should ( from western Mauritania to to the southeastern tip of the Arabian peninsula, …wow!! Huge area) . This way, Israel will only look so poor and so small in this huge Arab land. It always seems like Israel should get a bigger piece of the cake by making the Arab land greater and bigger. ! don’t you think ?!
I am Algerian but not Arab !! I am Berber and proud of it