Here's an oped I wrote about Farris Hassan, the 16 year old who went to Iraq. I broke some rules and simultaneously submitted it to multiple newspapers, so perhaps Murphy's Law will dictate that two of them will want it. Something tells me I probably won't have to worry about papers fighting over this though....
Oh, also I may or may not have mentioned that an essay I wrote about my romantic failings was recently produced by a theater company in New York City. I'm told it was pretty well received. I'm not going to post the essay on my blog, but if you're interested e-mail me and I'll send it to you. Anyway, here's my oped:
_____
As someone who traveled to Baghdad during the winter break of my junior year of college, I was extremely interested to hear about 16-year-old Farris Hassan's trip to Iraq. I was there for five weeks in January and February of 2004, a time when foreigners could explore the streets of Baghdad, take taxis, and live outside the Green Zone. About two-weeks after I left the first group of people got kidnapped.
After having spent fifteen months in the Middle East I've been able to put my Iraq experience in context. Reading the letter that Farris wrote before his departure reminded me of the difficulty in being a foreign youth in a conflict zone.
He wrote, "I want to experience during my Christmas the same hardships ordinary Iraqis experience everyday, so that I may better empathize with their distress." Perhaps Farris had his heart in the right place. However, his belief that he could essentially "feel pain" in foreign lands is a common fallacy shared by many international peace activists.
Most of these types gravitate towards Palestine; unlike Iraq it's a safe hotspot. There are internationally sponsored organizations that fund people to visit the West Bank to "bear witness." The problem with traveling somewhere to witness suffering and violence is that if you don't see it, you've failed. So many "witnesses" find suffering and violence where it doesn't really exist.
After working in Bethlehem for two and a half months, one such witness returned home to Europe. She complained about the fireworks during New Years Eve because they reminded her of gunshots and explosions, none of which she actually heard living in Bethlehem. If you've witnessed real violence, you're supposed to have flashbacks.
Most activists, like Farris, don't speak Arabic when they arrive in the Middle East. Usually the only locals who speak English learned speaking to activists and know how to tell activists what they want to hear. I have a Palestinian friend who got shot in the leg by another Palestinian. While recovering, he met a French activist, didn't mention which side shot him and used his occupation hardship story to seduce her. When activists allow themselves to be literally or figuratively seduced by these stories they'll never make real friends or hear the truth.
My roommate got a call from a Palestinian friend who works as an EMT. He was planning to buy a digital camera, so they talked about cameras for the first ten minutes. Then the EMT causally mentioned he'd been at a checkpoint when two suicide bombers detonated themselves. He tried to help an Israeli soldier who'd had his leg blown off, but a group of soldiers got confused and beat him. After telling the story he asked a few more questions about cameras and the conversation was over.
Outsiders will never comprehend or experience suffering in a place like Iraq or Palestine. Even if Farris Hassan had relinquished his American citizenship, got naturalized as an Iraqi citizen, rented a flat in the Karrada district of Baghdad, and risked getting bombed by the resistance to wait in line with Iraqis desperate for work that would be his choice. Iraqis and Palestinians don't choose to live in dangerous places.
About eight months ago I e-mailed an Iraqi I befriended in 2004 to tell him I might be coming back to work in Baghdad as a journalist. I thought he'd be excited to hear the news. Instead he got angry and pleaded with me not to come. Everybody in Iraq wanted to leave, so it was stupid for me to come if I didn't have to, he said.
It doesn't help people in Iraq or Palestine if you leave a life of comfort, luxury and privilege to go "suffer" with them. Suffering isn't a choice. If you make it one, in some odd way you enjoy suffering, so what you experience won't be suffering.
All over the world people die in terrible ways and live under oppressive conditions, but it's beyond the average human's capacity to care about every atrocity that happens in the world. As Voltaire said in Candide, "In those towns which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace and where the arts flourish, men suffer more from envy, cares, and anxiety than a besieged town suffers from the scourges of war." Everybody finds a way to make their troubles paramount.
If in the process of feeling pain Farris had become the victim of an atrocity, most people probably won't have cared for too long. He would have been exactly what he is now, a bizarre footnote in the news from Iraq.
In the last decade over four million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and even that's something of a footnote in the news. How many people have the energy left to care about someone like Farris Hassan?
In the end I went to conflict zones to learn how little I meant to the world as an individual, but how much people mean to each other. Don't waste time trying to feel other people's suffering, just be their friend and make them feel like they matter to your world.
Oh, also I may or may not have mentioned that an essay I wrote about my romantic failings was recently produced by a theater company in New York City. I'm told it was pretty well received. I'm not going to post the essay on my blog, but if you're interested e-mail me and I'll send it to you. Anyway, here's my oped:
_____
As someone who traveled to Baghdad during the winter break of my junior year of college, I was extremely interested to hear about 16-year-old Farris Hassan's trip to Iraq. I was there for five weeks in January and February of 2004, a time when foreigners could explore the streets of Baghdad, take taxis, and live outside the Green Zone. About two-weeks after I left the first group of people got kidnapped.
After having spent fifteen months in the Middle East I've been able to put my Iraq experience in context. Reading the letter that Farris wrote before his departure reminded me of the difficulty in being a foreign youth in a conflict zone.
He wrote, "I want to experience during my Christmas the same hardships ordinary Iraqis experience everyday, so that I may better empathize with their distress." Perhaps Farris had his heart in the right place. However, his belief that he could essentially "feel pain" in foreign lands is a common fallacy shared by many international peace activists.
Most of these types gravitate towards Palestine; unlike Iraq it's a safe hotspot. There are internationally sponsored organizations that fund people to visit the West Bank to "bear witness." The problem with traveling somewhere to witness suffering and violence is that if you don't see it, you've failed. So many "witnesses" find suffering and violence where it doesn't really exist.
After working in Bethlehem for two and a half months, one such witness returned home to Europe. She complained about the fireworks during New Years Eve because they reminded her of gunshots and explosions, none of which she actually heard living in Bethlehem. If you've witnessed real violence, you're supposed to have flashbacks.
Most activists, like Farris, don't speak Arabic when they arrive in the Middle East. Usually the only locals who speak English learned speaking to activists and know how to tell activists what they want to hear. I have a Palestinian friend who got shot in the leg by another Palestinian. While recovering, he met a French activist, didn't mention which side shot him and used his occupation hardship story to seduce her. When activists allow themselves to be literally or figuratively seduced by these stories they'll never make real friends or hear the truth.
My roommate got a call from a Palestinian friend who works as an EMT. He was planning to buy a digital camera, so they talked about cameras for the first ten minutes. Then the EMT causally mentioned he'd been at a checkpoint when two suicide bombers detonated themselves. He tried to help an Israeli soldier who'd had his leg blown off, but a group of soldiers got confused and beat him. After telling the story he asked a few more questions about cameras and the conversation was over.
Outsiders will never comprehend or experience suffering in a place like Iraq or Palestine. Even if Farris Hassan had relinquished his American citizenship, got naturalized as an Iraqi citizen, rented a flat in the Karrada district of Baghdad, and risked getting bombed by the resistance to wait in line with Iraqis desperate for work that would be his choice. Iraqis and Palestinians don't choose to live in dangerous places.
About eight months ago I e-mailed an Iraqi I befriended in 2004 to tell him I might be coming back to work in Baghdad as a journalist. I thought he'd be excited to hear the news. Instead he got angry and pleaded with me not to come. Everybody in Iraq wanted to leave, so it was stupid for me to come if I didn't have to, he said.
It doesn't help people in Iraq or Palestine if you leave a life of comfort, luxury and privilege to go "suffer" with them. Suffering isn't a choice. If you make it one, in some odd way you enjoy suffering, so what you experience won't be suffering.
All over the world people die in terrible ways and live under oppressive conditions, but it's beyond the average human's capacity to care about every atrocity that happens in the world. As Voltaire said in Candide, "In those towns which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace and where the arts flourish, men suffer more from envy, cares, and anxiety than a besieged town suffers from the scourges of war." Everybody finds a way to make their troubles paramount.
If in the process of feeling pain Farris had become the victim of an atrocity, most people probably won't have cared for too long. He would have been exactly what he is now, a bizarre footnote in the news from Iraq.
In the last decade over four million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and even that's something of a footnote in the news. How many people have the energy left to care about someone like Farris Hassan?
In the end I went to conflict zones to learn how little I meant to the world as an individual, but how much people mean to each other. Don't waste time trying to feel other people's suffering, just be their friend and make them feel like they matter to your world.
posted by Tom | 10:55 AM
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