{"id":597,"date":"2021-06-15T05:09:52","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T03:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/2021\/06\/why-wasta-when-nepotism-amp-corruption-are-equally-rife-in-the-west\/"},"modified":"2022-12-18T00:23:20","modified_gmt":"2022-12-17T22:23:20","slug":"why-wasta-when-nepotism-amp-corruption-are-equally-rife-in-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/why-wasta-when-nepotism-amp-corruption-are-equally-rife-in-the-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Why “Wasta” When Nepotism & Corruption are Equally Rife in the West?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n \"Photo
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Photo of The Diplomats’ Quarter north of Ramallah by Bassam Almohor.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tribal Arab culture didn’t invent nepotism and corruption, but it did develop a complex system of wasta<\/em>. As Aseel Zimmo writes in the Arab Law Quarterly<\/a>, in a paper titled “Wasta <\/em>in Jordan: A Distinct Feature of (and Bene\ufb01t for) Middle Eastern Society”:<\/p>\n

\n

Wasta <\/em>means both the well-connected, personal intermediary-intervener and the process of inter-mediation-intervention\u2026Wasta <\/em>literally means the middle <\/em>and is associated with the verb yatawassat<\/em>, to steer parties toward a middle point or compromise. Wasta <\/em>refers to both the act and the person who mediates or intercedes. Wasta <\/em>has been an institutional part of Jordanian society since its creation. Its tribal origins centred on an intermediary role that is associated with prevention of retaliation in inter-personal or inter-group conflict.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

However, while wasta<\/em> may have originally involved mediation and conflict-resolution, it has evolved into a malignant Hydra in many countries the world over \u2014 what no wasta<\/em>? no connections? Then you don’t have the clout to get what you want. <\/p>\n

Wasta<\/em> via its ex-warlords has certainly been costly for Lebanon, as novelist Samir El-Youssef observes in Lebanon’s Wasta Has Contributed to the Country’s Collapse<\/a>, where he recalls adolescent challenges and more recent experience in which wasta was a necessity (see also Lebanese Oppose Corruption with a Game of Wasta<\/a> by Victoria Schneider). After surviving an Egyptian prison and obtaining asylum in the United States, writer Ahmed Naji contemplates wasta and standing in line in I Love Wasta and Hate Standing in Line, but I am Poor<\/a> (translation by Rana Asfour). And Middle East historian Lawrence Joffe looks at how the al-Assad and Makhlouf families have mastered the art of control and corruption in a country decimated by a decade of war, in Syria’s Ruling Elite \u2014 A Master Class in Wasta<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Lest we delude ourselves into thinking that wasta<\/em>-level corruption is exclusive to the Arab world, contributing editor Mischa Geracoulis discovers the film Push<\/em> and explores the incredible greed and inequity of the speculative housing market, particularly in the US and UK, in Wasta on Steroids: Speculative Finance & the Housing Market<\/a>. She establishes that “dark buildings” and tax avoidance\/tax evasion are universal phenomena which exacerbate homelessness, denying to millions what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says is a human right: having a home.<\/p>\n

Two contributions critique wasta<\/em> outcomes in Palestine, when author and attorney Raja Shehadeh recounts the legend of a ritzy Ramallah neighborhood, designed for heroes of the PA, in The Diplomats’ Quarter: Wasta of the Palestinian Authority<\/a>. And Bethlehem chef Fadi Kattan recalls the disaster of wasta<\/em> leading up to Christmas Eve at Fawda restaurant, in Wasta Tawla, or how the Wastafarians Fared at Fawda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our correspondent in Tunis, Emna Mizouni, reports on the vaccination crisis exacerbated by wasta<\/em>, in In Tunisia, Wasta Kills When It Comes to Covid-19<\/a>.<\/p>\n

TMR 10 rounds out with two well-told accounts \u2014 novelist and filmmaker Tariq Mehmood weaves a tale of wasta, women and booze in Rawalpindi, in Pakistani Bureaucrats & The Booze Permit<\/a>, while C.S. Layla, the American daughter of a Jordanian professor, remembers life and wasta<\/em> in the old country, in Vitamin W: The Power of Wasta Squared<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We invite you to read, comment on and share these contributions, in the search for a better understanding of the nepotism and corruption plaguing societies east and west.<\/p>\n

\u2014Jordan Elgrably, editor<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our editorial outlines the fact that wasta<\/em> isn’t exclusively an Arab problem, but one that plagues societies east and west.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2196],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy "Wasta" When Nepotism & Corruption are Equally Rife in the West? - The Markaz Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/why-wasta-when-nepotism-amp-corruption-are-equally-rife-in-the-west\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why "Wasta" When Nepotism & Corruption are Equally Rife in the West?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our editorial outlines the fact that wasta isn't exclusively an Arab problem, but one that plagues societies east and west.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/why-wasta-when-nepotism-amp-corruption-are-equally-rife-in-the-west\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Markaz Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-15T03:09:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-17T22:23:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/tmwwastaissuepromo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jordan Elgrably\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/why-wasta-when-nepotism-amp-corruption-are-equally-rife-in-the-west\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/why-wasta-when-nepotism-amp-corruption-are-equally-rife-in-the-west\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Why “Wasta” When Nepotism & Corruption are Equally Rife in the West?\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-15T03:09:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-17T22:23:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/why-wasta-when-nepotism-amp-corruption-are-equally-rife-in-the-west\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":591,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/why-wasta-when-nepotism-amp-corruption-are-equally-rife-in-the-west\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/06\\\/tmwwastaissuepromo.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/why-wasta-when-nepotism-amp-corruption-are-equally-rife-in-the-west\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/why-wasta-when-nepotism-amp-corruption-are-equally-rife-in-the-west\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/themarkaz.org\\\/oldsite\\\/why-wasta-when-nepotism-amp-corruption-are-equally-rife-in-the-west\\\/\",\"name\":\"Why \\\"Wasta\\\" When Nepotism & Corruption are Equally Rife in the West? 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