http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/lesson-in-sage-lines-borrowed-by-kennedy-20111228-1pcvm.html
Lesson in sage lines borrowed by Kennedy
December 29, 2011
Sydney Morning Herald
A Lebanese-American poet wrote wise words for Arab states, writes Joseph Wakim.
‘A sk not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
These words were made famous by United States President John F. Kennedy in his 1961 inauguration speech. He should have said, ”In the words of Kahlil Gibran … ”, referring to the Lebanese-American poet and artist who lived from 1883 to 1931.
But Gibran never intended these words to be addressed by a president to his people. He was writing an open letter, in Arabic, to Lebanese parliamentarians in 1925, during the fall of the Ottoman Empire. His letter was titled ”The New Frontier”, which gives a completely different meaning and context. ”Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country?” he wrote. ”If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert.”
JFK even used the new frontier idea in his convention acceptance speech, a few months earlier, and later made it a theme of his administration, saying: ”We stand today on the edge of a new frontier – the frontier of the 1960s, the frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, the frontier of unfilled hopes and unfilled threats.”
As we reflect on the year of the Arab Spring, Gibran’s words apply to aspiring Arab leaders today in precisely the way he intended nearly a century ago.
Gibran’s letter could pertain easily to this year’s bloody revolutions that have been led by the younger generation and claimed many martyrs. He wrote: ”In the fields of the Middle East, which has been a large burial ground, stand the youth of Spring calling the occupants of the sepulchres to rise and march toward the new frontiers … There is on the horizon of the Middle East a new awakening; it is growing and expanding.”
The literary genius, famous for his timeless masterpiece The Prophet, was ironically prophetic about the young majority expelling the old guard, also writing: ”In the Middle East, there are two processions: one procession is of old people waling with bent backs, supported with bent canes … the other is a procession of young men, running as if on winged feet.”
This accurately depicts the generational divide of the Arab Spring. The youth who have led the uprisings are the majority of the citizens. In the region, 63 per cent of the population is under 29, and 30 per cent is between the ages of 15 and 29. As for their rulers and regimes, many like Egypt’s Mubarak and Libya’s Gaddafi were not their parent’s generation, but their grandparent’s generation.
One of the resonating legacies of Gibran was a spiritual revolution for universal human rights to emancipate women, build bridges of understanding between religions, close the gap between rich and poor and curb all forms of exclusivism. Such themes were manifest in the placards of the protesters who sought their rights.
Gibran was a Christian who embraced Islam, an easterner who lived in the West, and therefore a living example of the spiritual revolutionary. With elections in Tunisia and Egypt, the candidates are being asked what they can do for their country.
This is a great time to focus on the visions of this great revolutionary of the Arab world. Syrian American film producer Malek Akkad, son of the late Moustapha Akkad, is preparing for the world’s first Hollywood movie about Gibran.
By coincidence, Lebanese Australian filmmaker Glen Kalem is also ready to produce the world’s first feature length documentary on Gibran, after 14 years of retracing his footsteps across four continents.
Gibran’s spiritual revolution is deeply rooted in the Arab culture and transcends the three monotheistic faiths, as he promotes the unity of being. The concept of a united unarmed uprising cannot be dismissed as Arab jealousy of modern Western democracies.
The armed tribal battles in Arab history have overshadowed the centuries of mass movements and sacrificial martyrs for human rights, long before Facebook aided protests.
The visions of Gibran have inspired a bastion of democracy and the Arab Spring. But his spiritual revolution grew from inner peace. If the newly elected Arab leaders emerge as conciliatory rather than power hungry, then Gibran’s message would have been heard: ”The wisdom of the many is your shield against tyranny. For when we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.”
If JFK was inspired by Gibran for his successful political platform 50 years ago, surely we can all gain insights from Gibran by reading ”The New Frontier”. Elections and democracy do not necessarily lead to peace and rights.