Many of you attended the Arabian Nights festival held on campus this week and enjoyed good food, good music and Arabic Poetry. I’m so pleased with the enthusiasm I’m seeing in all of you. Our attendance at lectures, films and other activities can only enhance the opportunities to learn in this course. Please feel free to comment on your experience with ‘immersion’ in readings, films, maps, current events and any of the other paths to learning that have been employed in this course. What has been MOST useful to you? Most fun? Most interesting? Enhanced your learning?
Middle East Immersion
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I attended the Arabian Nights festival and found that it was a wonderful learning experience. Middle Eastern food was presented, as well as caligraphy writers, a poet, and an oriental ensemble from William and Mary; there was even a point in which everyone was welcome to participate in the dabke dancing. I found it amazing that everyone seemed to share the same passion and interest in gaining knowledge regarding Middle Eastern culture and traditions. I found this event the most fun and interesting because of the hands on activities and direct contact with authentic Arab people.
Films and the presentation of current events were also very beneficial for me.
Current events allow us to know what is going on now, presently, as we speak. I feel they have broadened my view as to what is going on in the Middle East, a result of the diversity of the presentations.
Watching films that concentrate on Middle Eastern backgrounds, dilemmas, conflicts, etc., is a great way to gain insight on the lives of Middle Eastern families, and in some cases, what they have had to go through as a result of outside parties. They are also beneficial in conveying historical events at a personal level so we can gain perspective as to how the Arab World has been influenced, whether positively or negatively–an example is a Lebanese movie we have yet to watch, that focuses on the effect of the Ottoman Turks on the people of Lebanon, and the struggle to gain independence.
I unfortunately was unable to attend the Arabian Nights Festival but have been to Egypt and had some real good middle eastern food before…and I certainly recommend everyone try it!
Sometimes, more is really better, and the more you immerse yourself with another culture, the greater understanding you gain. If you happen to immerse yourself and not like something about a certain culture, then at least you have a firm backing as to why you do not like/disagree with something. Without immersion, there is no credibility.
The numerous films and presentations have allowed me to see things from a different perspective that I would not have previously had access to. For example, the talk given by the officer from ROTC last class was extremely informative and interesting. It was neat to hear a first hand account of what it took to be successful in such a complicated region, even if it was only in a small part (of Iraq). It was nice to gain insight on the local people there, and hear someone talk about the trust they had built with Iraqi’s. We were able to see the progression of trust because as time went on, the Iraqi police started working with the American forces. At the same time, I was quickly reminded about how dangerous the war (well any war) is when the other ROTC member mentioned how he did not really trust anybody unless they were an American. It also made me realize that the higher ranking officer has had the opportunity to serve in a completely different role…in a relationship building role rather than a purely physical war.
Personally, the most useful and interesting event thus far was the lecture
by the ROTC officer and professor.
The talk filled in many gaps about what US forces are doing in Iraq as
well as their interactions with and the utilization of local Iraqi tribes.
It is easy for one in the US to forget the reality of the war in Iraq
and blur together much of the news from the country such as bombings and
soldiers being killed. However, this talk effectively brought the
conflict to life.
Also highlighted during his talk were the rich cultural roots of the region. The Professor described the rich history many local Ramadi tribes had. Many tribes were Sunni which is particularly important to the success of the region due to it’s Sunni majority. Also the region historically had a jewish community. Similarly, Naji’s narrative provided a jewish perspective for that time period in Iraq.
Another narrative that enhanced my learning was Hagob, the Armenian truck driver in Iran. Prior to this reading I had very limited knowledge of the aftermath of the Armenian genocide and how it effected the surviving populace of Armenians. The sense of community that many refugees were able to build in communities abroad is quite remarkable. Some examples were when Hagob lived in Tehran and later in the United States.
I also enjoyed the ROTC professor. Getting the perspective from someone who has actually been there and in an important role is extremely valuable. It was a breath of fresh air to hear from someone other than politicians or the talking heads on TV.
Even though I have talked to three of my friends who have served in Iraq, Colonel Garkey had much more interaction with the Iraqi police and local tribal leaders. It was exciting to hear about all of the positive trends over there. Not only the decrease in violent activity, but I thought that the increase in the involvement of the Iraqi police and improvements in infrastructure are important to creating a more self sufficient Iraq.
I have really enjoyed the films shown for all of us in Weinstein. “Persepolis” and “Syriana” were both great movies, and I think the viewing experience was definitely enhanced by watching them with my peers and professor (not to mention being able to see it on a large projection screen rather than my laptop). “Persepolis” was especially interesting to me, for it provided an alternate perspective on the Iranian revolution from somebody very similar to my stepmother’s. She is quite young, so she was born just a few years before the revolution, like Marji. She attended primary and secondary school in Iran under the Islamic Republic, and then left for university in Austria at the age of 18. After graduation, instead of returning to Iran, she chose to immigrate to the United States. As I mentioned in class, she never has said anything negative about the Shah. In fact, she said that life under the Shah was much better than life in modern-day Iran. Her parents still live there, but it has always perplexed me that they are American citizens, free to visit their daughters in California whenever they like without having to go through the lengthy process to get a daughter. Perhaps they had some connections with the Shah, who clearly had connections to the United States?
I thought the ROTC presentation provided a new perspective as well (on Iraq), which was interesting (if not enlightening). I was appalled that the lieutenant colonel said “Indian country” so many times, and that the other officer admitted, “We went to one day of cultural training, we was (sic) mainly just focused on fightin’,” but it was good to see that they had made Ramadi a safer city for its residents€¦ I think.
I really enjoyed the lecture from Colonel Garkey on Wednesday. It was a great change of pace for multiple reasons. It brought together the current event and news aspects of the course with real life experience. However, what was most interesting for me was the commentary he had on the people he met while he was a solder. I understand the missions and the directions of certain objectives, but really enjoyed his notion of what really changed the culture of Iraq when he was there. The Americans, in his opinion, were there to essentially revitalize an entire community that had become stagnant, mainly because of fear. It was eye opening. Imagine being scared to go outside to the grocery store or walk to school because you don’t know what enemy factions in the area may arrest, kill, or kidnap you? The graphs that he showed of how many killings were going on at that time (more than 5) every single day, puts you in a position of really appreciating our lifestyles and also shows you how much help you can actually do in the world, in palces you may not have otherwise anticipated.
In Huntington’s piece on the “Clash of Civilizations”, he touches on the fact that because of the constant differences in culture and ethnic diversity, conflict innately exists. However, always thinking more so along the lines of Said and now in listening to this lecture, it frames cultural clashes completely differently. At the end of his presentation, Colonel Garkey showed a picture of the “results” of his mission. He commented that these people were now living in the fields once again, raising goats and living out of tents. He stressed quite adamantly that “this is how these people WANT to live.” We, as “American liberators”, understand our duties, it seems, to preserve the good of humanity where that concept has been hidden. However, the definition of what is “normal” is a very contextual and cultural definition. I really enjoyed the end of the talk when he said that we should not impress our notion of normality on a culture that has been a completely different “normal” since the beginning of civilization. Going back to Said’s argument in his “Clash of Ignorance”, it is that ignorance that counteracts all of the good work that the military is doing in the world, that we think we have to conform people rather than give them stability in their own lifestyle. -ali (Reposted by Queen Soraya as a comment)