Quote:
Originally Posted by Mosaic
Reading an article like that on how people view & treat bellydancers is sad. I know dancers want to dance there, but goodness! to be treated so badly, maybe only sometimes, maybe a lot of the time, it doesn't matter, I just don't see why anyone would put up with it, when you can be accepted and appreciated in so many other countries.
I can understand the draw and the desire to dance in the "cradle" of BD, but I sure don't get the fact that so many stay and allow themselves to be badly treated.
Mind you I can't wait to go to Egypt in January  But I certainly wouldn't be dancing there, I just want to take in the history and maybe see 1 or 2 shows. I might even get brave enough to do a workshop, and of course buy a couple of costumes. But overall the main draw card is the historical value for me.
As for the neighbours poisoning the dancers cats, that is horrific and disgusting! But so many of these countries, don't have the same respect for animals as the Western world does and I can't see that changing in a hurry. Putting aside the emotional aspect of animals, I can understand that people are seeking their own survival in many cases, and animals in such situations take 2nd place or less in the scheme of things.
~Mosaic |
Dear Mosiac,
I think one of the problems is that westerners have the luxury, if you want to call it that, of deciding how they choose to see the dance, rather than acknowledging its reputation and meaning in countries of origin among the people who are not professional dancers, which is of course the majority. I think that the native dancers are much more real with themselves about it all and have a much less romantic outlook on what they do than westerners have created for themselves. Most of us do not have to do this job for a living. It is a personal choice around which it is easy to create a fantasy. Not so with most Egyptian dancers unless one is really rich and famous.
As for the treatment of animals, well, when my journal finally gets up on my website, you might want to read about my visit to a rescue farm there, run by a European. One night I saw this poor Beledi dog limping, walking by a guy who just sort of looked at the poor creature like it was pond scum and kicked out at it and yelled at it in Arabic. The dog was obviously hurt, but that did not seem to occur to the guy at all. I know the Beledi dogs are pretty vicious but this one was limping badly. There are bazillions of feral Mau cats that are everywhere, many of whom are so thin it is amazing they can walk. The hardest two things for me while I was in Egypt was that many, many people do not seem to realize that animals are sentient creatures........ and that many humans are treated the same way. It is so rampant that it is impossible to ignore, though everyone I met who lives there says you get used to it.
Regards,
A'isha