Thursday, March 09, 2006
Dubai ports letter to dad
You know dad I live in UAE near Dubai....well, I have to tell you, the deal would have been fine. I am finding out that in America you only get facts as the media wants you to get them. We don't get all of the story when they tell it. We do, however, get all the bad stuff. Sensationalized.
It's hard to be over here and know how things are from this perspective, and be an American who learned about Arab people through the media. I came over here with some preconceived ideas about the people but realized that not all Arab people are like what I believed them to be. They are a lot like us.
It's like saying that all Christians are like that Rudolph guy who killed Dr's because they performed abortions in the name of Christ and his beliefs of what the bible was telling him, or Tim McVay who blew up the Morrow building.....we have our own extremist, fewer have done those types of things, but we have them. Same here.
I have not seen anyone wearing fatigues carrying an oozie over here. They are regular people, who do not believe in Jesus and are as convinced that he was only a prophet as we are that he was the Messiah.... There are even Jewish people who have different ideas about Jesus and his place in the world. Not all Jews are non believers in Christ.
Muslims have people who want to kill non believers. And anyone who offends their religion, but not all of them. You only hear about the ones who do. Believe me there are many other Muslims who don't do these things. They pray for peace amongst all people too. They want their families safe from terrorists.
I think the port situation woke Americans up to the fact that we do not know all there is to know about our country and who is running it. It was another country all together who was running the management of the ports all along, it could have been anyone, but because it was now an Arab owned company that everyone got scared that bombs would be on the first barge coming into the ports.
Our government controls the security, they are the ones that have been checking the shipments all along and with all the new security checks in place and the heightened awareness of possible threats, they are ultimately the ones responsible for taking measures to protect Americans.
I don't know how the ports are run over here, and I am also wondering if an American company wanted to run the ports here, would there be the same backlash from the national people here....just like home, and, yes, I'm sure they would be just as concerned.
Who is paying attention to the hiring? Are we any safer from an Al Quida member gaining employment at a British run port? A German port? An Arab run port? I am sure there are "Arab" looking men working at all of them. Is that the way they are checked? By the way they look? That's the questions I would like answered.
Being over here has opened my world views. I have so much left to learn here, and when I am done here, I hope to have an opportunity to live in another region to learn all of the things that I was never exposed to by the media. There is so much more to life than the sound bites and the thirty seconds of 'updates' that we know about. Those are only glimpses of the world over here.
Come on over and let me show you around the food is great and the shopping is amazing and the people are friendly, well not all of them and they don't drive as good as we do....lol!
Geez, I feel like I just gave a sermon. I don't mean to, but, I want all of my family to know that there is more to Arab people than what we are taught. I think I'll post this on the blog I made.
I love you dad, kiss mom for me and tell her I am safe.
Love,
Mee-shelle
It's hard to be over here and know how things are from this perspective, and be an American who learned about Arab people through the media. I came over here with some preconceived ideas about the people but realized that not all Arab people are like what I believed them to be. They are a lot like us.
It's like saying that all Christians are like that Rudolph guy who killed Dr's because they performed abortions in the name of Christ and his beliefs of what the bible was telling him, or Tim McVay who blew up the Morrow building.....we have our own extremist, fewer have done those types of things, but we have them. Same here.
I have not seen anyone wearing fatigues carrying an oozie over here. They are regular people, who do not believe in Jesus and are as convinced that he was only a prophet as we are that he was the Messiah.... There are even Jewish people who have different ideas about Jesus and his place in the world. Not all Jews are non believers in Christ.
Muslims have people who want to kill non believers. And anyone who offends their religion, but not all of them. You only hear about the ones who do. Believe me there are many other Muslims who don't do these things. They pray for peace amongst all people too. They want their families safe from terrorists.
I think the port situation woke Americans up to the fact that we do not know all there is to know about our country and who is running it. It was another country all together who was running the management of the ports all along, it could have been anyone, but because it was now an Arab owned company that everyone got scared that bombs would be on the first barge coming into the ports.
Our government controls the security, they are the ones that have been checking the shipments all along and with all the new security checks in place and the heightened awareness of possible threats, they are ultimately the ones responsible for taking measures to protect Americans.
I don't know how the ports are run over here, and I am also wondering if an American company wanted to run the ports here, would there be the same backlash from the national people here....just like home, and, yes, I'm sure they would be just as concerned.
Who is paying attention to the hiring? Are we any safer from an Al Quida member gaining employment at a British run port? A German port? An Arab run port? I am sure there are "Arab" looking men working at all of them. Is that the way they are checked? By the way they look? That's the questions I would like answered.
Being over here has opened my world views. I have so much left to learn here, and when I am done here, I hope to have an opportunity to live in another region to learn all of the things that I was never exposed to by the media. There is so much more to life than the sound bites and the thirty seconds of 'updates' that we know about. Those are only glimpses of the world over here.
Come on over and let me show you around the food is great and the shopping is amazing and the people are friendly, well not all of them and they don't drive as good as we do....lol!
Geez, I feel like I just gave a sermon. I don't mean to, but, I want all of my family to know that there is more to Arab people than what we are taught. I think I'll post this on the blog I made.
I love you dad, kiss mom for me and tell her I am safe.
Love,
Mee-shelle
