States of Subsistence by José Ciro Martínez

Author:José Ciro Martínez
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2022-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

I began this chapter with Basel because of how often he spoke of the state as a tangible thing. Usually it was to criticize; at other times it was to mock and, very occasionally, to praise. Longing and fear, desire and condemnation were all entangled in a “relation of misrecognition” from which he simply could not, and probably did not want to, be extricated.93 For besides his fondness for cold beer, Basel was also a notorious lover of falafel sandwiches, wrapped exclusively in subsidized khubz ‘arabi. I would beg and plead for a dietary shift, maybe an occasional rice dish, perhaps some fish. Very rarely would I win him over. Basel adored what he termed kebab al-fuqara (kebab of the poor) and would go out of his way to find those sandwich makers who used handmade subsidized bread. As the end of our weekend visit in Aqaba approached, we needed to make two final stops, Basel told me. “First we get beer for home,” he declared, “and then falafel sandwiches for the road.” As we left, once we had crossed the customs checkpoint and set out on the long drive back to Amman, I told Basel how much I had enjoyed the weekend and hoped that we would come back more often. “Aqaba is great, I love it,” he responded. “If only the rest of the country were like this.” I asked him what he meant. “The police treats you with respect. The state doesn’t tax you. It gives you cheap beer and bread. What else do you need?” Presence and absence; approval and critique. The spatial, moral, and historical grounds that underpin these encounters and appeals vary, but all work to constitute the state in some shape or form. Representations have productive effects—they echo. Citizens may relate to the state through compromises, complicity, cynicism, or sincere appeal, but they do not cease to reproduce the state as the great enframer of their lives.

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