Terrorism, Fundamentalism, Crusaders, and Conspiracy Theories

This is an extremely sensitive subject for me because 9/11 hit very close to home for me and I was convinced that I had lost my father all day that day. I would prefer, for this reason not to discuss the conspiracy theories about 9/11 because I reaaalllyyy realllyy hope our government would not kill that many of their own people.

As far as the government investigating peoples backgrounds because of their ethnicity; i feel two fold about it. I would never want something like 9/11 to occur again, so I understand that profiling is almost like a necessary evil, but the lengths and arrests that have occurred are not justifiable by any means.

Occidentalism

I think it is interesting to read and speak about Occidentalism. As Americans we are interested in seeing how we view the other, and attempt to investigate why we feel this way. In reality Occidentalism is more important for Americans because it helps explain our relations with the Middle East. Although we may sometimes not realize this, our President, our actresses, our clothing, and other pop culture type aspects of American life are what develop how people throughout the world percieve us. Americans need to come to the realization that the "American way of life" is not neccesarily the correct way of living or how other people would like to live. The study of Orientalism can not be valid without the study of Occidentalism, or else you are simply choosing the other's perception as different, and not admitting that you yourself may feel a certain way towards a culture.

Views of the Self

Palestine for me is a subject that I had little if any knowledge of before entering this class, and the more I investigate Palestine, the more I find myself destroyed inside over the tight relations that the United States has with Israel. The destruction of homes, the tearing down of neighborhoods, and the development of military blockades makes me incredibly uneasy, and as I read and understand more, i feel as though these people are kept like caged animals and are enslaved by Israel. Its an atrocity in my eyes.

Women and Film

I think that Said helps develop not only the idea of women in film, but also women in Orientalism. Women from the middle East are constantly portrayed as Harems. They are turned into sex goddesses that wear barely any clothing and can almost cast a spell on men simply by peering into their eyes. It disturbs me now that I look at the various films that display women in this manner. It is almost as if they are simply objects belonging to men and no longer human beings with ideals, thoughts, and freedoms. They are trapped like slaves in this frame that depicts them only in one light, and because of the horrific misconception of culture it continues to occur.

Women in Islam

The film that we viewed last class, "Not Without My Daughter", I viewed as an extremely controversial film, but at the same time it thoroughly explained the views of what makes the Orient so different from the United States. In a completely non racial way, because I think there was a considerable amount of racism in the film, I somewhat agree with what the film was attempting to portray. If i were in the shoes of the mother in that film I would have gone through the same steps to free myself and my child from the world that they were put into using if not the same desperate measures that she did, if not even harsher ones. Growing up in the United States, I grew up enstilling values of freedom of speech and dress and mind, while being allowed to express myself to the fullest; including ideals, fashion, etc. When entering a world of dress codes and forbidding a specific sex from making certain decisons and restricting a way of life, of course it would seem wrong. I completely understand that the headscarf is symbollic in the culture of the people who she was surrounded with and she was in their country, and one fact that I know would make me different from the film is that I honestly would not ever have the desire to go to the Middle East. I am 22 years old, and since I was born we have had on again off again conflicts with that area of the world, and this may be the American media talking, but I would be petrified to ever enter one of those countries. This is going to sound harsh, but the only way that I think you could get me to step foot on the soil of an Islamic country is if I were a soldier for a branch of the United States Military in fatigues and carrying weapons; otherwise, I honestly would fear for my life as a woman.

Does anyone agree? Think I'm wrong in feeling this way?

Colonial Harem

Reading about the Colonial Harem system got me in a very angry mood. Reading, I believe in Lockman's book, about the postcards and photographs disgusted me to no end. I started to assume the actions of the media and photography on Harems as making them unveil themselves, if not physically, in other ways, such as making them like models and making them this exotic being for everyone to just look at and admire as if they were for entertainment purely for ones eyes and attraction. The postcards, that I also saw someone else mention in their blog, irritated me to think about because I was imagining what that must do to the person on the card. Nowadays you can pick up a postcard of a girl in a bikini as a vacation sight and right to a friend back home on it if you really wanted to, but in all honesty, what does that prove? That you simply want to degrade someone and send them through the mail as if they are almost like your special gift to someone? The entire idea upon photography and painting Harems to give off a certain idea is what really aggravated me, and from what I read, I felt as though it was extremely obvious that they had absolutely no right in doing it, and once photography became involved and the photographers could control their "artwork" more, it became an even worse situation.

Sorry I know these blogs are late...I've been sick

I wanted to discuss the film that we watched two weeks ago, because I was sick last week, on To Die in Jerusalem. The film brought out countless emotions that took very long for me to accept and allow to process in my mind. I am still quite unaware of which side, or family, I would support in this situation. I am aware that I do not have to take a side, but I feel as if the film was created because it wanted me to take a side. The mother of the Israeli girl seemed to simply want sympathy from everyone because her daughter was murdered in a suicide bombing, and asked the mother of the Palestinian girl to apologize to her on countless occasions and tell her that what her daughter did was wrong. Why she was so forceful about this is still unclear to me because you are pleading with a mother to basically dismiss the death of her daughter and simply label it as a wrong doing and leave the impression that her daughter was evil or died with no belief, honesty, or feeling of anything. The mixed emotions came into play when I began to analyze the Palestinian girls family, though. Her father was filmed, most likely strategically, sitting in front of a painting of his daughter with a headscarf and also with possession of a gun, with beloved martyr written beneath it. This struck me as odd because I just found it unbelievable that you would cherish and individual for being a martyr and basically a murderer and find a way to explain her actions by saying that she was simply fighting for what she believed in and there was no other way. I suppose when it comes to this fact, though, this could possibly be the characteristics of a parent flooding through a situation and wanting to simply keep the good memories of your deceased child at bay and attempt to not look at the subjects in which you would be troubled by. Did anyone else feel this way?

Is Orientalism Real??

After viewing the video of the interview with Said I could not help but begin to contemplate whether or not orientalism was real. I found out that it was a term that he began to use to label what he felt became the problem which is now referred to as orientalism. It is a touchy situation considering the fact that it argues how people attempt to put labels and biases on different cultures and people, but at the same time, isn't that what Said is in turn doing? It is difficult to decipher how I feel as of this point in our class because every video that we have watched so far is displaying the same message to not believe the media or information that we take in from the news, and videos attempting to persuade us of having a different outlook than what is the truth. But, being a 21 year old girl living in the United States, born and raised in the state of New York, is their really a way for me to know the truth?

I am hoping at the end of this class to really understand the problems and understand fully what the definition of orientalism is. I think right now I am almost confused about what to believe, and what not to believe. It seems to be an issue which is far from black and white. Their are so many examples, and obstacles that I feel need to be ironed out before I can actually decide truth from simply more media attempting to shape the way I think.

It is also difficult because no matter what media you take in; either reading a book or article or journal, or simply watching a news cast or video, you are being fed information that the creator wants to infiltrate into your brain and convince you that it is what is truth. It makes it difficult to understand problems and ideas that are located so far away from your own culture. It is very difficult for an American to view these materials as primary sources because of the countless filters that appear in media. The videos and articles, and books work as secondary sources for each individual to pull out what they believe to be true, never really knowing if what it consists of is whats correct, or truthful.

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land: US Media and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The Situation:

This film was extremely informative, but very one sided at the same time. Certain parts of the film opened my eyes to certain aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. I was aware that Israel was currently in territory which they had occupied since the 1960s, and I was also aware of the fact that the United Nations Security Council was pleading for a cease fire years ago. What I was unaware of until today in class was the way that Israelis have been plowing down houses and recreating communities to be occupied by Jews. The only thing that was flowing through my head that could be perceived as comparable to these events, and they were also mentioned by a fellow classmate, was the occupation of the Nazis upon the Jews in Poland. Israel is basically attempting to create communities illegally on Palestinian soil and call it there own. This would be like the United States infiltrating Mexico and creating communities for American right beyond the border of the United States and Mexico. I feel that not only is this a violation of countless policies of the United Nations, including the Geneva Convention, but also a human rights problem and war crime. Palestinians are being left with no homes, money, and their belongings, if their lucky, left on the streets.

The USA Media:

It is disgusting how twisted our media is, but not shocking. Considering the fact that Israel has always been a close ally with the United States, it is not shocking that the United States government would support Israel and attempt to cover up what they would perceive as unacceptable news to the public. The conflict is very multifaceted and complicated to the point where research could be done, on both sides, for probably years, and an individual would still be unable to retrieve every fact about the conflict. It hurts me that when we turn on our television, the information that we receive has already been so filtered that it might as well be as credible as reality television. I don't think that the media in the United States will ever be able to be 100% truth because of relations with other nations, and also information and secrets within the government that the public will never be made aware of. As much as I would love to see peace in the Middle East, and some sort of solution surface for the people who are being injured and murdered daily, I honestly don't believe it happening for a long period of time.

Propaganda in Films:

I was appalled by the realism that was conveyed in Reel Bad Arabs. I brought up in class and must reiterate how shocked I was to see Aladdin, the Disney cartoon, brought up in this film. That was one of my favorite films growing up as a child and I think subconsciously I recognized Arabs as "bad people" because of the films portrayal, but it was done in such a clever manner that I never realized how derogatory it was. The lyrics of the song would also simply roll off my tongue, while never realizing what I was saying. The lyrics about cutting throats, I learned, were edited out of the score of music, but there are many children, including myself, who grew up singing these songs while watching the film and not realizing what we were conveying and how racist that was. It definitely proves how propaganda can be used on any age person, and how easily it can be slipped into the minds of young children. Disney is one of the top producers of children's films and they should most definitely not be producing films with such derogatory material for children to learn such negative thoughts about people from other cultures.