It was said that when you don't see something, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I walk around the libraries to see books, and make comparisons between Arabic and English. English books meet what I want more than Arabic books, which make up only 10% of the libraries I mean in the country.
I entered the huge library in the Dubai Mall, searched for a book about the history of the Gulf song or Saudi Arabia, and found two good books .. But they are not comprehensive. Maybe there are more books in the book fair, but I was not in the state.
We have nearly 100 years of rich artistic and recorded history, almost as old as the oil boom in the Gulf, but I have found only two books documenting part of the stage almost adequately.
This means that the next generation will know nothing about the history of art in the region, because it has not been well documented. If you want to know the story of a song for Madonna, for example, you will find all the information on her page on «Wikipedia» in the details of the minute, means that the page editor even mentioned how Madonna chose to record a piece of guitar, to fill a certain space in a song of the early nineties!
Wikipedia pages contain rich details of any foreign artist, from the date of his albums to the details of each song, the date of its release individually, in addition to criticism written about it in the press, and figures on its sales, even if a particular album provoked controversy, there is a section dedicated to it . If this is just a Wikipedia page, let alone the books on the singer's life story. There are pages on some of the most prominent Arab singers on Wikipedia, but that is not enough at all. Even the story of the song “Lana Allah”, by Mohamed Abdo, is not found in Wikipedia with the same details that I found on the website of Okaz newspaper dated 2006.
There is scarce information on the Internet about many Arab musicians and composers geniuses, does this mean that the next generation will know nothing about them? I looked at Google and found very few titles, maybe less than five of them all outside the country, and there is not even a full explanation of their content.
I do not believe that there are no specialized books documenting the history of Gulf and Arab singing. I am sure that they exist somewhere in this vast Arab world, but why are they absent from our libraries? Probably because they do not sell within the state, the prevalence here is for empty talk books and poor translations. Our newspapers print weekly technical documentation pages, which chronicle Arab art, but we do not find these pages printed in books sold in libraries .. As was the case in the nineties. During my tour of the huge library in The Dubai Mall, I found a European researcher asking the seller: Do you not have books documenting the parliamentary experience in the country? The man answers no, which is very surprising Neve! I walked two weeks ago in a five-storey library in London that sells everything that comes to mind, and I did not find one trivial book written by a teenager describing his life experience, all specialized, all because they are interested in monitoring and documentation .. We do not care!
I entered the huge library in the Dubai Mall, searched for a book about the history of the Gulf song or Saudi Arabia, and found two good books .. But they are not comprehensive.
Abdulla.AlQamzi@emaratalyoum.com
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