Somehow a Russian Reporter found me on Facebook. She was interviewing me for a piece for her magazine. I took out her name to protect her identity. But I thought you might interested in our discourse.
---------- February 18 at 6:06pm Report
Mr. Beeman,
My name is ---------, I work for the Ukrainian weekly magazine Focus. We plan to write an article about foreigners who stay in those Arab countries where during the last weeks people have been protesting. What I want - to show some life stories of those Americans, Europeans who can tell me why they do not flee, why they stay and experience those events along with Muslim people. What I ask - just your views on that, I know that you live in Dubai, but still you can share your opinion with us. Or, may be, can help to contact some friends of yours who live in either Egypt, Bahrain or Yemen etc.
Appreciate your help in advance!
All the best,
-----------
Foreign Desk Editor
Focus magazine
Rick Beeman February 18 at 11:39pm
Hi ----. I would be glad to speak with you. I lived in Bahrain for nearly two years and followed the political situation quite closely. I blogged about the unrest yesterday http://rickbeeman.blogspot.com/
I can connect you with ---------, he is a Brit right in the middle of all the action in Bahrain. Another guy is an American named ---------- he was in the Egypt mess too right before Bahrain. His fiancee is egyptian.
My situation is a little different. I loved living in Bahrain and moved only because I wanted a bigger platform to share my worldview. I was actually in Bahrain talking with my former employers about the unrest last week and left two days before the demonstrations started.
I want to use media to change the way that American think about Muslims and the Middle East. Most Americans think that this place is just a warzone filled with terrorists. I found Arabs to be great people. Unfortunately with this unrest the stereotype which I am fighting is being cemented in the consciousness of the west.
I am not worried in the UAE at all. The UAE is only 12% emirati with the rest being Ex-pat. There is no way unrest will happen here especially since the citizens love the government. If you have any more questions -----, I would be glad to answer.
Rick
--------- February 21 at 1:40am Report
Dear Rick,
I do not know whether you received my answer earlier this day, I wrote you from my cellphone and it seems that the message haven't been sent. Anyway, I want to thank you for your quick reply and for contacts. You wrote about stereotypes of Americans about Arab people. Yes, we all are the victims of images that are often planted in our minds by force. However what do you think about stereotypes of Arab people about Western nations (meaning both Americans and Europeans)? On the other hand, what Arab world wants these days while protesting - to follow the way Western countries live, am I right? And what is the formula for a riot to explode, as well as among those countries where people protest now there wealthy as well?
Rick Beeman February 21 at 2:19am
No ----, I didn't get your message. Stereotypes are given to us by our parents generally. We adopt the same prejudices that are modeled to us by our family. I was fortunate to grow up in California in the United States, which is a melting pot of cultures. Its the American way to accept everyone as equal no matter what gender, race or creed. Of course some people do this better than others. There is still racism in the US, but far less when compared with the rest of the world, especially here in the Middle East. I ran across this prejudice not just with sectarian divisions but divisions within arabs themselves based on the region where they emanate.
As far as the stereotypes of Westerners I have a funny story. I taught acting classes as kind of a hobby while in Bahrain. One of my young Bahraini students, age 21, was very talented. I was throwing a small little party. He was scared to death to attend. Because he knew I was a former Hollywood Director he thought the party that I was throwing was going to be filled with drugs, sex, and alcohol. He was a good muslim that thought he might be walking into an orgy. That was the stereotype that he was working with. When he arrived and found a quiet, mild, social gathering he was quite relieved. But that is the wild perception of Americans that most Arabs especially in Saudi Arabia have. The perception that these Americans live these wild and debased lifestyles. We, the Americans, stereotypically are the personification of too much freedom. That is what the Muttawa and other clerics warn against when justifying their conservatism. Interestingly enough, most Arabs I found aren't really opposed to that perceived lifestyle, many of them are envious of it. When my Arab friends get to know me on a social level they realize that we are very similar. We have the same hopes, dreams, and fears. We are not that different. However it is human nature to want to be better than the "other guy". That is why so many people adhere to stereotypes, its easier to believe corporately that one race is better than the other. It makes us feel better about ourselves. It takes a truly enlightened mind to recognize their own flaws and extol the virtues of our neighbor.
Many of my friends are concerned for my safety because of the riots that they see on CNN. What they don't realize is that these demonstrations are not Anti-western. In fact they are trying to embrace democracy and the American way of life. If anything we are supporters of this. It is unifying the great divide not increasing it.
I think it is human nature to blame someone else for our problem rather than look in the mirror of self-accountability. So when the poor rally against a regime it is giving them a tangible target to focus their frustrations. So you have this pool of emotional petrol with the protestors. All these protestors need just a small spark to ignite. The bigger the protest the smaller the spark needed. So just one person needs to be unjustly (as perceived by the public and media) injured or killed for the ignition and eruption to take place. That is where the military in Bahrain got it wrong. In today's information age, facebook and twitter "Might does NOT make right." Quite the opposite actually. The governments that fight are only hastening their own eventual demise. This is only a recent trend due to increasing power of social media. The uprisings that failed in China (Tiannemen Square) and Iran, would most likely succeed today as they did in Egypt and now Bahrain.
As far as the wealthy people protesting...well its pretty trendy isn't it. Everyone wants to be in the in crowd.
No comments:
Post a Comment