São Paulo – Historian Arlene Clemesha will talk about the East-West relations in a lecture on September 8th, at the Arab Chamber Space, at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce’s headquarters, in the city of São Paulo. Director of the Center for Arab Studies of the São Paulo University (USP), she will cover the diversity of the Middle East and show that western countries have a unified and mistaken image of the region, based mainly in extremist groups.
“We have a vision not only simplified but that also tends to nullify the complexity of the contemporaneous history of the region, as well as a schematic representation, which employs a monolithic concept to the Arabs and place them in a certain worldview designed to justify and perpetuate the now existing powers”, says Clemesha, in a preview of what she will talk about in the lecture. According to her, at the core of this schematic vision is the own artificial division of the world between West and East.
Taking down the current image, the historian will present the thoughts of some authors that have demonstrated that the roots of democracy were present in the origin of the Islamic theology and the philosophical thought in the Arab world. She blames the lack of an elevated level of democracy in the Arab countries to historical reasons and not those intrinsic to the people. “The free debate of ideas can be seen as one of the main aspects, or foundations, of democracy and we have seen how the young people in the Arab countries fought and keep fighting, risking their lives, for the freedom of speech”, she says.
Clemesha believes we should stop using the terms “West” and “East” for the two regions. “After all, what we have are several people that live in the globe, that relate and have related throughout history, with ideas that have travelled, impacted and merged with others, giving birth to everything we have that are the most advanced – and backwards – in the world. Democracy and human rights, the war and terrorism, are not attributes of this or that people or ‘civilization’”, says the teacher.
The speaker has a major degree in History at USP, a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Economic History also at the same university, where she currently is a professor Ph.D. at the Eastern Languages Department. Clemesha also is a member of the coordination committee of the United Nations International Coordinating Network on Palestine (ICNP-UN) and of the meta curatorial glocal of the Institute of Advanced Studies of USP.
The lecture by Arlene Clemesha at the Arab Chamber is part of the Lectures Cycle that the organization promotes, which brings specialists on topics such as economy, trade, history, behavior, among other matters of business interest and with relations to the Arab world. Registration is free, but capacity is limited.
Service:
Lecture “The West-East Relationship – the point where schematics and simplifications fail”
With Arlene Clemesha
September 8th (Tuesday), at 7 PM
Arab Chamber Space
Av. Paulista, 326 – 11º andar – Bela Vista – São Paulo – SP
(Free parking facility at rua Teixeira da Silva, 204)
Free admission
Registration: http://www.ccab.org.br/arabe-brasil/br/home/eventos/ciclo-de-palestras-as-relacoes-ocidenteoriente.fss
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
