Little dilemma
Quite a start on nomadlife it has been for my first post!
Usually I would say that the most touchy issues would be rather local regional, but this time I was afraid of what the reactions might be when speaking about the west and this region..Because I forsaw that some westerns, would read it, now that I switceh to nomadlife, and it might be touchy..
I have nothing against discussions, and it was indeed a long discussion..37 comments for the first time! But..I don't really have the time to discuss such things a lot on the net, not for ever. Specially when it seems so toutchy..And I never really wanted to. I could have gone to a discussionboard if I wanted that. Mabe I prefere having a tee with you and discuss in real life in that case :)
I critsize the regime of the place I love a lot, BECAUSE I love and care about this place. So it does'nt mean at all that I hate the country when I do that! And I critisize, just as well, when I see pepole here suffering from some US- and Israel -politics, and I WILL talk about them and not be silent! But It does'nt mean I can be labeld as an " America" hater.Which truly hurt me.. America in all generalitiy with ALL it's pepole, children, families, their culture, cities..etc! No ofcourse I don't hate America!
But I am not going to keep silent when innocent pepole in this place suffer and get killed, just so I won't be , wrongly, labeld as "America" hater.
A lot of Americans, usually who knows, and sometimes even seen, more about this region, do dare to critisize US-politics here as well. And sound usually very much like a lot of pepole here..I doubt they are "America haters"! And there are always a lot of smaller minded pepole who accuse them of all sorts of things.
An example : Yesterday I had hard time to sleep, so I was watching tv late..And while zipping channels I suddenly saw a report where an American reporter talked about the video with the wounded man. He was the one who filmed the video. And he said that he knew it was one of these very rare moments where such things in wars get caught on camera. And he said something about that we need to ask ourselves if terrorism and hatred are raising because of too violent and barbaric actions commited by American soldiers. After the videotape he spents his days receiving hate mails and death threats, by angry Americans, who accuse him of treason. He said that there are moments where he wish he had destroyed that tape. His name was Kevin Sites.
And it is not just about the politics here when it comes to Israel . Most US media play an unfair roll too.
Now...About my dilemma : I don't like when peple get too touchy, and don't likebeeing called America hater..Ands mostly, I want to write mostly about the local problems and flaws in Syria and the region that bothers me.Not about the west. But I want to write about that to mabe Syrians mostly: I don't want to give a bad image about Syria to foreginers..I think arabs allready have enough bad image in the west!!So..What to do? I thought mabe I should'nt be in nomadlife then.
But then I realized..It was not like a whole bunch of westerns who visited and commented. It was only 2 new persons. So..I might just as well continue here.
6 Comments:
Yep, no America hating going on here.
'Yes darling, they killed him- the Americans killed a wounded man; they are occupying our country, killing people and we are sitting here eating, drinking and watching TV'?" He shook his head, "How much more do they have to see? What is left for them to see?"
They killed a wounded man. It's hard to believe. They killed a man who was completely helpless- like he was some sort of diseased animal. I had read the articles and heard the stories of this happening before- wounded civilians being thrown on the side of the road or shot in cold blood- but to see it happening on television is something else- it makes me crazy with anger.
How do you think the American public feels when they see your Arab brothers cutting a truly innocent Americans head off, and have to hear the dying American gurgling in his blood, while some Arabs chant "praise to Allah" in the background. Or when Arabs drag Americans behind cars and them hang their burned remains from a bridge, or scenes of Muslims flying Airplanes into our buildings and killing 1000s of us in a single swipe, then on that same newscast we see Palestinians dancing in the street while celebrating our huge loss of life.
It makes us crazy with anger too.
How do we explain to our children that after being attacked for the last 25 years, we are now sending our young men and women to Iraq, not to kill as many as they possibly can, but to bring Freedom and Democracy to a part of the world that has never been able to achieve it on their own. Its hard to explain to our children why we are investing so much resource into improving a country's infrastructure, when the workers we hire to build the Iraqis water treatment plants are being gunned down like animals on their way to work. Its hard to explain to them why we are trying to improve womens rights in the Arab world, when those same Arabs are assassinating freely elected female Iraqi politicians as fast as they are elected. Its hard to explain to them why we are even trying to improve the quality of life in the region, when many of th people seem to have preferred living in oppression and poverty.
Bottom line is we are not doing it just for them, we are doing it for our future security. If these folks have a job they want spend so much time sitting around smoking opium and trying to figure out how to blame all their failures on us.
Your blog description reads: I am sharing my thoughts and impressions here, in an attempt to connect with people, and talk about some of the situations and problems in this place that I love.
It appears to me know you only want to "connect to people" that share your biases. I am not one of them, so this is the last time we will "connect". You could always blog without allowing comments you know, a lot of people that just want everyone to hear what they have to say, but don't want their thoughts challenged do that.
Its got nothing to do with moving to nomadlife, this is the first nomadlife blog I have ever commented on.
Let me leave you with the truth, if your not too fragile to handle it. The American people want nothing less than to live in peace with you. If you could somehow manage to keep your terrorist brothers from attacking us, there is nothing we would rather do than peaceful co-exist with you. Until the day comes that you are willing or capable of policing your international terrorist brothers...we will keep doing it for you.
Salaam Catherine,
I would ignore the label "america hater". That phrase is often thrown around here (in the US) especially in the realm of political discussion and it's useless and very unfortunate.
A lot of people is reading this weblog with great interest because the perspective you bring to the table. I'm glad you are here in nomadlife.
Dody G.
Thanks dody.
Catherine,
I enjoy reading your blog. It challenges my perspective and how I view things.
Just because you may not agree with someone doesn't make you an America hater. Not everyone in the U.S. agrees with everything our government decides to do. And that doesn't make them unpatriotic or America haters either.
to redneck texan....
allow me to disagree with u. we are not spreading "freedom" and "democracy" in iraq. tell me where were these ideas when rumsfeld was shaking hands with saddam in the 80s? why is there an oil tank with condolissa rice's name on it? why did bush tell he iraqi ppl not to attack teh oil wells...and yet let the musuem get looted? why do our troops have to pay the price for an oil war???
What strikes me is that such redneck texans REALLY TRULY BELIEVE that they are spreading democracy and that US interests are genuinely conflated with the 'Global Good.' It seems that we could rail at them all day about the evils of American foreign policy and trade relations etc. etc. and all they would hear is 'Anti-Americanisms'... Even just trying to explain and understand why some people have reason to resent America is taken as sympathising and exonerating them. Life is not this simple, this black and white. It is NOT the case that, as Bush says, 'you're either with us or against us.' Such a crude dichotomy is unhelpful and will perpetuate stupid polarisation of the West and the Rest that causes so much pain, misunderstanding and bloodshed.
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