Hey everyone! So as you know, we are working on the next few country episodes
which means this is gonna have to be a filler week!
This week, I was given a topic by you guys that I thought was pretty interesting.
What are the differences between Arab countries?
A lot of people think all Arabs are the same (nah they're not). Before we get into this though,
just want to give a huge shout out to Squarespace for being our sponsor for this episode.
A lot of you have probably heard about them,
You know exactly what they are and we are really
thankful that they're sponsoring Geography Now.
We'll talk more about them later. So anyway,
I am not Arab and I feel like the best way to go about this tricky topic
would probably to have an Arab with me in this episode.
So you guys remember my Arab friend from Egypt and the Egypt episode, Mohab?
- Hello! Nice. - Good to be here.
Now, there are a lot of countries that either speak Arabic or have Arabic as a national or recognized language.
However, in this episode we're gonna do the twenty two nations of the Arab League.
These are the countries that actually get to call the shots for the most part in the Arabic area.
Before we start, little disclaimer:
Yes, everything we're gonna be discussing in this episode might be a little bit touchy-feely.
There's no universal agreement.
A lot of this stuff we're about to say is also kind of based off of what you guys the Arab Geograpeeps have said to me.
- All right, cool? - I say, let's begin!
*Algeria* Algeria is a ma-ha-REB country not Ma-GREB
[demostrating Arabic rolled r sounds]
You can't really mention Algeria without talking about soccer(or football),
to the point where when these countries play soccer(football) together, things get heated up-
and that's an understatement - Huge rivalry.
Size-wise, they are the largest country in all of Africa
and they are the largest Francophone nation in the Arab world.
They were under the French at one point and they speak just like French people like.
100%, almost.
Culture-wise, Algeria is the home of what we know as Rai music.
Algerian folk music that became a phenomenon with people like Cheb Khaled, Cheb Mami...
*Bahrain* Now I have been here and the impression I got is that Bahrain is kind of like the
secret Dubai of the Middle East and it's also kind of like Saudi Arabia's girlfriend. They don't have any rivalry with any other countries.
They are very stable economically very open-minded and liberal.
They even appointed a Jewish female ambassador to their government, which is pretty much unheard of for pretty much any Arab country
They have the money but they're not really being *demonetized* about it.
but they do know that they have the money so they conduct themselves in that way.
Mohab, what do you know about the *Comoros*?
*crickets
- Yeah... - Yeah very few people in the Arab world know anything about the Comoros Islands.
They are the smallest nation in the Arab League with only about 800,000 people.
They actually speak three languages, Comorian, French and Arabic.
They do have a little bit more of like a Black East African culture applied to them.
They would be like this strange extended family kind of cousin that you never met growing up.
*Djibouti* Uh, yeah, the Arabs don't really pay too much attention to Djibouti either
partially because only about 5% of the country identifies as Arab even though they speak Arabic.
Basically, they're known as being Ethiopia's only access to the sea.
Djibouti would be the country that shows up to the party,
sits quietly, sips his drink, leaves early because he has work in the morning
he's like the Wallflower of the Arab party.
and now we reach *E G Y P T* - Oh, yeah.
Egypt is basically the hub, the godfather of the Arab world,
the most populated one with over a hundred million people
That's the problem.
A hundred million of Egyptians live in a little under 5% of the land.
- Heavily concentrated. - Very much so.
So this is the thing about Egyptians, when the revolution started in 2011 and people were dying in the streets,
Guess what, you find that people are just making (dank)memes and jokes about it
because this has been always the way Egyptians cope
with sadness and tragedy, through dark comedy.
You can imagine soccer in Egypt
exactly the same way you would imagine soccer in Brazil.
We might not have a soccer(football) on the flag like in Brazil,
but it's like people religiously follow their teams.
if the Arab world was a high school,
Egypt would kind of be like the really popular kid
maybe not the smartest or richest but the most popular
Everybody's paying attention
*Iraq*
Probably won't find too many Iraqi people outside of Iraq
They kind of generally stay in their country except for the ones that are not Arab like Kurdish people or Assyrians, right? Yes
Yeah, the country is known for having the heaviest population of Shia[s] in the Arab world in the Arab world.
I would say that most Arabs we we don't have a whole lot of intake from that country, which is very unfortunate.
They know Iraq. It's not a small country, but and meet a recent controversy
just kind of like it's just like that's all they're known for I guess you could kind of say Iraq is kind of like the
goth kid of the Arab world
(it's very accurate depiction)
Jordan the one everybody kind of wants to be friends with right? Yeah. Yeah pretty much every Arab country can be friends with them.
They're kind of like the Wisconsin of the Arab world. So when it comes to Jordan and Lebanon, there is no way earth
You're gonna be able to differentiate between the different dialects.
Both countries would be kind of offended when you say this because they tell you. Oh, no, we do not sound the same.
It's like when you say the Australians and the New Zealand Kiwis sound the same they would be like no we don't we don't.
(yeah)
*Kuwait* they kind of went on like a bad blind-date with Iraq and they just really don't want to talk about it anymore.
So Kuwait is kind of like the rich older sister who is part of like a very exclusive
Country Club really hard to be a Kuwaiti citizen.
Even if you're born there and even if you are born it only applies if your dad is Kuwaiti.
And then you have 20 years to be staying in the country
And I guess yeah, you have to prove that you've rendered service and what else you have to speak Arabic?
Muslim most likely Muslim it would be that.
Fancy-schmancy Country Club and Bel Air, exclusive Country Club of the Arab world very much. Yeah, next one Lebanon
P A R T Y !
Lebanon is the party capital of the Arab world.
it really is!
Yes, they are the most religiously diverse nation in all of the Arab world!
There's like 18 recognized religious communities and their government system even requires leaders from each community to represent them.
I'm not trying to be offensive but Lebanese people I've met so many Lebanese people and they are delightful.
But they have a little bit of 'tude -
- attitude
yes, they do.
(laughing)
They provide some of the finest most prolific singers of any Arabic country. Arabic, French, English
It's all mixed up. baba ganoush
Fatuous
Lebneh. Oh my gosh that Manakish stuff Manakish Manakish Yes. Oh my god I love that,it's like Arab pizza. Okay, here's a funny fact
I have yet to see on ask it from one to ten a seven Lebanese person
I have not they're all nines intensity, but they're just really really attractive. Good-looking people *Libya*. Yeah
As mentioned in the episode the only Arab that kind of speaks Italian-ish because they were under the Italians at one point
So, I don't know
I mean, what do you think about Libyan people really kind really understanding they love to laugh and leave it or not
Just much like a difference. They like to learn the Egyptian dialect. Some of them actually nailed it and they're just good people
It's just unfortunate kind of like Iraq just unfortunate circumstances have kind of put this title on them that didn't ask for but correct, *Mauritania*
It's not talked about too much either. They aren't a super popular one
But one thing that they're known for is that they take Islam very seriously, they're pretty conservative
They are deemed also to be one of the most countries that would be memorizing like the whole qur'an
I have huge fortune Quran memorizers and Islamic poets as well intellectuals that live in the sparsely populated
Sandy areas with lots of wind. That's probably how they get inspired to write poetry. I don't know.
You know that that, Shaolin monk just sitting on the rocking chair and just
Writing. That's that's really what Mauritania is, the quiet monk sitting alone in the desert.
Morocco
This is the most Berber or Amazigh influenced country in the entire Arab world. The're Arabic, even if you're a native speaker
It's very very hard to understand. They have the weirdest accents, right?
Incredibly strong. It's kind of like what Chile is to the Spanish? Correct? Yeah, that's dead-on. I mean they are considered an Arabic country, but
.....Are they reeeeaally?...
So Mohab, if the Arab world was a family. How would you kind of place Morocco?
Comfortable. Financially Comfortable uncle. Stands up at dinner and he gives that big speech you couldn't really understand what he was talking about
He's like the guy that showed up. He's like hey
*Are you arlight Barbie?*
Oh, ok.
Oh, Cheers, Cheers! Cheer, oh yeah
*Oman. So when you say Oman, "Om" is actually mother in Arabic
It's like the the old mother or the old grandma was really really wise and really likes to keep things traditional
Not just culture and family
the grandma of the Arab world
Correct
I would say it could be easily the friendliest or the second(friendliest). No heat, no fights, nothing.
Yeah, Oman is kind of untouchable. Arab countries don't want to go in and like cause any trouble. When you go there
It's kind of like a travel back in time like that people's memory of the cities
They still wear the same clothing from like hundreds of years ago, correct?
I would say, if it ain't broken, why fix it? Yeah, Oman, don't don't fix it.
It doesn't need to be fixed.
Palestine
Oh boy, that's a little confusing because they are still considered part of the Arab League
But in terms of actual real legislation, it's kind of like in a limbo stage. So it's weird
Yeah, it's kind of a lot of Palestinians have told me that like a lot of Arab countries can stand in solidarity with Palestine
But they're kind of careful not to invest too much into it
cause two things they kind of want to keep Palestine as that poster child. People do not have the resources with the time to just
Get out of their own homes and go somewhere else to mind someone else's problem. You can't use my washer/dryer unless I actually finish it
Otherwise in terms of Palestinian culture and everything. I was told they invented kunafe.
I don't know. I don't know Mohab, when you meet a Palestinian person, what do you think? How did you get here?
I'm not even joking. They have travel documents, but they don't have passports because it's not a state
So you mean if you just think okay, there must be a story every single time
You meet a Palestinian outside of Palestine more often than not when they leave the just immediately seek asylum
Qatar
When I say Qatar, what are some things that immediately pop in your head? I'm not talking about the people
I am not talking about the people immediately
The two topics the two huge topics that come to mind would be the Muslim Brotherhood and al Jazeera Network
I don't know what happened over the past few years
But it's not one of those topics that you watch any Arabic channel or Egyptian media handling the topic of Qatar with grace
It's funny because yeah Qatar has like the highest
Expat ratio out of any country in the world at like almost 80, I think over 80%
So it's actually kind of rare to find a native Qatari citizen
Like they're all hiding in the penthouse suites of the building is it's like very close. You can't find them
It's so hard and they did score the World Cup
2022 - yeah, I actually really liked Doha when I visited that I'll say like I loved him there
It was great. Like Souq Waqif looked really cool. It's a really cool spot you can visit
Yeah, but at the same time I wasn't immersing myself with the entire underlying spectrum of politics and what's going on
It's a whole other story. Yeah, but I just liked my stay. That's all I can say.
Saudi Arabia
Big Daddy, the big daddy of the Arab world. They even have Arab in their name, basically when I was there a lot of assumptions
I had were kind of dispelled. You can check them out in the video here
But basically to outsiders and most Arabs, Saudi Arabia is kind of seen the same way
It's like money money oil and religion, right? Yeah. I mean, it's really really the hub of Islam. It is in Madina Munawwara
Mecca they have the Shahada (لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا ٱلله مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ ٱلله)(There is no god but God and Muhammad is his messenger)on the flag. You said that's so fast
Yeah, however, you also do kind of notice that they are
Slowly trying to progress into the 21st century a have been passing laws over the past ten years
What is that gonna look like we'll see
Time will tell
Yeah Somalia. This is this is probably the Blackest Africanist(what?) Arab country, right? It really is
Yeah, in terms of culture. They're pretty kind they're kind of
I don't want to say similar to Ethiopia and Eritrea, but they do have like similar food. I'm not trying to offend anyone
I promise this is just a little bit funny fact growing up in Egypt
Somalians or or the word somali would kind of connotated the butt of most of the jokes. I mean, oh
But it's endearing it's not a racism thing don't go there
I don't go there but you still use a people group in the context very rich in culture though,
Very colorful vibrant traditions and customs. Yeah, their colors are insane. Oh, yes, Somali people are very colorful Sudan
Sudan had that thing going on with Egypt
They have very very first of all, it's the borderline you share the same border. Yeah
Yeah, they were under an alliance at some point
They were actually the same exact country anything that happens with the Nile in Egypt
Will affect Sudan so. And vice versa and vice versa. Think about it this way
You have a brother and you love them so much, but you don't have a problem having a fistfight with them
Syria okay
Mohab what comes to mind when I say Syria Assad and Isis obviously so you can understand it
The country is just connotative to a lot of dark black terrorism again
They didn't ask for it
but just kind of what happens Syrians are kind of like the people that show up and they have the
craziest stories in the group
I pretty much that's how it you would probably yeah and everyone cries
But if you just meet them as people
I'm sure they're just people it's just there's always a story with a Syrian
Tunisia the artsy person of the Arab world they were voted the freest country in the Arab world as well
Yeah, they're known for having a lot of cool crafts people know them for their carpets and their carvings
It's just like they love art when you mentioned Tunisia what comes to mind again as an Arab?
Algerian even though it's a completely different country, but there's so much similarity and if you're not really well-versed in history
You would not really know a whole lot of difference between the two countries French also speaking people
I believe they speak French right they do
Yeah, and they also have really good health care which we explained in the Libya episode
Lots of Libyans go to Tunisia for health care the UAE United Arab Emirates now
It's interesting because they're called the Emirates but it's actually ruled by Sheikdoms seven Sheikhs
They kind of unified the whole country. So technically there's like no royal family. But I mean there's some super rich
It's kind of what this really is, but not really. The country played their cards, right?
They know they actually knew and they still do know at some point. We're going to be running out of oil
So what else to do? Let's turn this into some modern marvel twenty-five years ago
It was just like a fishing village on the desert. That's it
But then like late 90s like exploded when I was there
It was very crowded, you know, so many people were trying to look at the Burj Khalifa and you know
It's just like I couldn't find a single like what do you call like a Souq. I couldn't find a single one
maybe in other Emirates
Abu Dabi or Dubai definitely not knows like I couldn't find anything traditional everything was just glass and metal in conclusion will have what would you
Say I think it would be the rich VIP booth
That you see at a club in Vegas
And finally, Yemen
So most people kind of know this country as having a little bit of a conflict with Saudi Arabia
There is kind of like a Shia-ish minority
They it's weird because they actually kind of have like the almost the exact same population as Saudi Arabia but in a smaller concentrated area
Delicious food very very unique cuisine very very rich of protein-protein steak lamb and chicken. Mmm. Cool thing about Yemen
They are definitely known for Socotra island, which is all the plans are only unique to that one Island
You can't find them anywhere else on earth
It's a little hard to get there though because of the Somali pirates, but it's very cool
So Mohab, what would you say? Yemen is kind of like in the big broad Arab family
I would say someone very very comfortable in the shadow know what the emo kid
And that is it all the 22 nations of the Arab League, we did it.
We probably offended half of everybody but oh well reading those comments are gonna be fun
Yeah, and before we go
I gotta do this little quick shop for
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Interested in making the website check them out. Thank you Squarespace for sponsoring geography now. Thank you Mohab.
Thank you so much. If you guys want to see Mohab again, just let me know in the comments or something
I don't maybe we could put you in a different episode
I'm very exclusive like Kuwait with my crew in my group. So I mean
I'll work for it.
Thanks for watching!
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