Most have heard the old adage that no two countries that have a McDonald’s have ever fought a war against each other.
In his book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas L. Friedman proposed The Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention, observing that no two countries with a McDonald’s franchise had ever gone to war with one another, a version of the democratic peace theory. Shortly after the book was published, the NATO bombing of Serbia proved an exception to the theory, though in a later edition Friedman argued that this exception proved the rule: the war ended quickly, he argued, partly because the Serbian population did not want to lose their place in a global system “symbolised by McDonald’s” (Friedman 2000: 252-253). [Link]
A reporter from the Christian Science Monitor asks, “Why not Salsa?” Once those hip start swinging who would want to fight?
What if it could be proved that no two nations that play salsa music have ever declared war on each other?Some of the best salsa music in the Middle East comes from Egypt and Israel, for instance. Both nations have been at peace since 1979, the same period when salsa began to take hold.
The first time I heard Arabic salsa music, I was in a taxi in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, racing to catch a connecting flight to Afghanistan. The taxi driver, a Pakistani, was playing an incredible song on his radio. First came the Latin rhythms on bongos, then the rush of flamenco guitars. It sounded like the sort of dance music I grew up listening to in south Texas but with a distinctly Middle Eastern trill of the voice and the guttural lyrics that could only be Arabic.
The music was a revelation. After Sept. 11, and the media barrage proclaiming a “clash of civilizations” between the West and the Arabic world, here was evidence of something quite the opposite. Instead of a clash, this was a blend, and a gorgeous one at that.
It was a reminder that there were other voices in the Arab world than Osama bin Laden, and good voices at that.
“Amr Diab,” the taxi driver announced proudly. “He is Ricky Martin of the Arab people.”
Age has taught me manners, so I remained silent until I reached the airport. But in my head I was thinking: I know Ricky Martin, from his few years at the top of the charts. And Amr Diab is no Ricky Martin. He’s much better.
It is the same in every non-English speaking country. No matter where you travel the most frequent inquiry you get as an English speaker is someone asking if you can translate the meaning of an English song for them. “Yes, but this part. What it means?” Song lyrics are the way many people around the world learn English and perhaps better their lives by utilizing it. The discussion of one’s favorite song can also form instant friendships.
Ya Allah, indeed, the Islamic extremists must be thinking, as they tug at their beards. What has happened to the new generation? All they want to do is dance, and run down the street singing, “Habibi… habibi… habibi… el Nuor Elain (My darling, you are the light of my eye….)”
India and Paksitan had the Kargil War after McDonald’s opened their store in India.
I guess that the argument would be that it wasn’t a war but a game played by the people in power in both the countries to up the arm purchase (and coffins).
check out tom friedman is a great man. itz the fictional weblog of his black wife, bettina.
Hmm…it’s not quite as Baldauf portrays it, Arabs liking music is not a new thing. They’ve been making great music for years – the fundas and the fun-lovers have lived together uncomfortably for decades.
On a musical note, the Arabic-Spanish blend of music has been popular for a while (he mentions Alabina by the Gypsy Kings), but Amr Diab has also collaborated with Anna Vissi (BIG in Greece). Actually, now that I think about it, Arab musicians have worked with representatives from every field.
Cheb Mami and Sting, Khaled and the Fonky Family (France) and Amar (India), Hisham Abbas and some other Indian singer on Nari Nareen (you must’ve all heard that) and if you extend the genre to include north Africans (like Amr Diab), their collabos are even more widespread.
Ah I just felt compelled to comment in a post that had ‘bongo’ in it.
Its only natural that the Arabs love salsa. I’ve always noticed a striking similarity between traditional Arab string music and flamenco guitars, and I reckon it has something to do with Arab rule over Spain over centuries.
And oh yes, Friedman’s theory fails yet again, considering that Pakistan has had a McDonalds since 1998, and India even prior to that. Of course he would argue that Kargil was a short skirmish, and that the current rapprochement is further evidence of the Golden Arches theory.
There are several great salsa-Arabic tracks. They work very well together because both are high-pitched.
Much of Spanish (especially Catalan) music and Arabic music uses a chromatic scale, which is not that common in other parts of the world. For those that don’t know, a chromatic scale would be the black notes on a piano.
no real comment – saw your handle ‘alybaba’… but read it as alubaba. i personally think that’s a cooler name. I can create a new persona, the ubertuber, the one and only, alubaba.
Yes, music is truly universal. I have been to some countries where they dont speak ONE word of english (literally), yet you see them jump up and down to Jay Z!
So if Salsa is supposed to bring peace, maybe SM’s inhouse resident Salsa expert should embark on a peace mission 🙂
Who is SM’s resident salsa expert then OYBBB? I took a lesson once, mostly as an excuse to dance with a particular pretty girl. Cool dance.
By the way I wouldn’t use the word ‘salsa’ when describing the fusion that occurs between Arabic music. Salsa is a specific type of Latin music. If anything, the rhythms used most commonly with Arabic music are flamenco.
Interesting, but is “Arabic salsa” the correct description? I think what Abhi heard in the cab was closer to flamenco music than salsa. While both have distinct rhythms, they are quite different from each other — flamenco sometimes has odd time signatures and the dancing style is centered on rhythmic foot tapping.. while salsa is more fluid and is based more on hip movements. I dunno, I guess salsa lessons made me an armchair expert on the subject (not).
Also you hear a lot more piano, horns, congas, latin percussion, etc. in salsa while flamenco is guitar driven.
Now for some reason I’m craving salsa (the dip), pita chips, and hummus.
Nah you’re right timepass. You also reminded me of another similarity between Spanish and Arabic music, other than the chromatic notes. Both flamenco and Arabic music make use of the off-beat. In Arabic music one person claps along to the dominant beat (1-2-3-4) and the other claps the off-beat, which takes some practice. In flamenco, the all 8 beats in a 4-bar are used, hence sometimes steps are on the off-beat as well (baile).
These things are quite peculiar to these types of music, which makes them so compatible. Flamenco actually has Moorish and Jewish roots – the word Flamenco is Arabic I think. Arabic music and flamenco are cousins.
I was under the impression that Flamenco had gypsy origins, traceable back to India (or what was then India) around 1000 years ago….
Will the real Salsero please stand up…please stand up…
I read somewhere that music from the middle east – Persia – made its way east and west. Presumably in South Asia it’s Qawaali and in spain/ france its Flamenco.
Doesn’t Flamenco have connection with the gypsy’s, who have roots in South Asia ?.
Check out Oliver Rajamani, who sings mostly in Tamil and uses elements of Flamenco http://www.oliverrajamani.com/
If you think hard enough, then everything is connected to everything else. And all without the aid of Kevin Bacon or the Internet or Thomas Freidman.
Well, when it comes to real fusion of Arabic and Spanish, who else could be a better fit than Shakira
She is half Lebanese and half Spanish Descent. The reason why I am posting about her, coz she is my cutie pie. I just luv anything Shakira….
Haha! What a post Manish! My favourite line was this:
How exactly do you enjoy women’s upper backs? Is illegal in any states?
England’s brief war with Argentina is the only exception I can think of on short notice to the proposition that democracies don’t go to war with each other. Perhaps if England had been listening to more salsa music back in the 1980’s, they would have been willing to let the Falklands go.
The oddly parallel interwar experiments with democracy that Germany and Japan both embarked on in the 1920’s (Weimar era; Taisho era), both collapsed. Sure enough, war came.
Had their peoples still been voting, they would have at least called their aggression off earlier.
Friedman has run out of observation ideas and HOLAs(Homies One Liner Analogies). In case of MickeeDee’s pakistan has had franchise or local operations probably 3-4 yrs before india did. But hey India and pakistan never formaly declared war after that so it must be be because of the cooling effect of Mcflurry.
Razib’s mention of the Bettina blog reminded of one of my favorite McSweeney’s articles “write your own Tom Friedman column“
Asha Bhosle and Koronos….on NPR Checkout the Mehbuba-Mehbuba by Herrington on Cello Asha
Her voice is not as powerful as before but she is good. This is acoustic singing so, no modulating the harmonics in the studio.
I went to see Asha and Kronos perform two weekends ago. I had no idea she was in her 70s. She didn’t look older that ~55 from my vantage. She was teasing Kronos throughout the concert. “Usually I have a 100 piece orchestra. Now they give me 4.”
The story makes one grievous mistake:
Salsa is not from Spain, it’s from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Nuyoricans. It’s so not from Spain that when I went to a salsa club in Madrid, two-bit intermediate that I am, pretty girls flashed their eyes. Big fish small pond.
Things of beauty, dancers’ backs.
It was the CSM reporter, not Abhi, and he sounds confused (he mentions flamenco guitars), but there are indeed some incredible salsa/rai tracks, like the Cheb Faudel one in the story.
BB, did you mean a pentatonic scale? (The chromatic scale would be half steps, i.e. all the keys on a piano, I believe.)
Chinese traditional music also uses the pentatonic scale – and I think you can also find it in some Indian classical music.
Sorry, I meant including the black keys as opposed to them alone.
Manish, no no I know dancers backs are attractive (I date a dancer) but the way you said it made me think that enjoying a woman’s upper back involved some sort of action. Like if I were to say I enjoyed a young girl last night. It just made my schoolboy mind titter.
Teehee, I said titter!
Salsa’s a bit too fluid for me. I don’t know if that’s the right word. I didn’t find it as easy as other latin dances, like the pasa doblé. So I’m always impressed by people who have mastered salsa. I’m not very good at partner dances in general. But I’d really like to learn the tango. That also has an interesting history, it came from Argentinian farmers dancing with the local wenches. The farmers stank so bad, the girls would turn their head – hence why tango dancers incorporate so much head movement into the dance.
you called? 😉
Back that back up!
AFAIK, Alabina is a singer + band and the Gypsy Kings are a totally separate entity. Ishtar, the chanteuse, usually performs with HER band, Los Ninos de Sara
I always thought flamenco and bharatnatyam had similarities…so I’d go with the gypsy theory.
Salsa Rocks!!! Salsa for world peace!!!
I just attended my first salsa congress. Here’s a Houston salsa blog I occasionally contribute to:
The Wandering Salsero
Any fellow desi salser@s here (1st, 2nd, 17th generation, On1, On2, On17, doesn’t matter), I’d love to hear from ya.
OK I’ve looked it up. I was right about it being an Arabic word, so I managed to avoid at least one thing corrected, hooray! Wiki says:
So flamenco’s not really gypsy in origin.
DD, I got a chance to check you out this past Sunday. But I don’t think you show much of your back in your moves.
I recall a post about Flamenco and Kathak being related.
OYBBB- the costume was open in the back, not that you could see it around my big teased Jersey-style hairdo… You’re right though, most of the performance was forward-facing. Your loss 😉
You didn’t come introduce yourself? For shame!
DD-
The costume was open in the back !!! Then what were we doing sitting in the front????
As for introducing myself…I got there as you guys jumped on stage. And by the time I headed past your booth nobody was there but Sarina Jain – and I didn’t want to feel like our friend MoorNam , so I told myself – maybe next time !
But ur quite the celebrity, huh? Btw, I loved that aunty MC.
What the hell did I direct link it too !!! Darn this thing is dangerous.
Corrected: Like our friend MoorNam
OYBBB wrote…
… time I headed past your booth nobody was there …
Amsterdam ?
OYBBB, Desi please. I’d never go SriDevi on you 🙂
Here are some Palestinian rappers!
i used to sing in an afro-pop band in austin, and was amazed to see the latin flavors in senegalese music. check out richard bona (cameroon), orquesta de la luz (japan), arnell i su orkesta (curacao), and toure kunda (senegal) for more global salsa.
midnighttoker – are you a fan of oliver? i’ve actually been to a couple of dinner parties with him, and found myself sitting as far away from him as possible. he’s so full of himself! while everyone was pleasantly conversing, he sat in the corner of the room and played the guitar! even as a musician he makes me cringe. many times it’s him wailing with a sarod, and 4 white guys with djembes banging out some mundane rhythm. i’ll give him E for effort, but after 5 minutes it’s time to deuce.
And Orchestra Baobab. Maybe it’s not salsa, but it’s latin/caribbean. And speaking of caribbean, I like the reggae beats in North African Rai music.
to answer a few questions above:
yes, flamenco was originally performed by Roma (Gypsies is a derogatory term), and even today, most of the flamenco performers in Spain are Roma, but due to European racism, most Roma do not disclose their ethnicity. (a sad truth) Another reason this is not well known is that most Roma in Spain speak Spanish instead of Romany, which differs from much of eastern europe. But there is a clear difference between Spanish music and flamenco.