A Secluded world

"America could vanish in a mushroom cloud and I'd still be sitting there watching Saddam on television as the chorus sang,'The people love you, oh Saddam, and you love the people.'"(112) People who live in Iraq are in total isolation from the rest of the world. Saddam has made his country secluded from the outside world. All the telephones are tapped and on the television is only positive information on Iraq and Saddam. Trying to reach other countries is impossible even for a reporter like Horwitz. But why does Saddam do this to his country? This is really plain and simple; if the people of Iraq have never witnessed or seen how any other countries are ruled then they believe the way Saddam is ruling is the way other rulers are ruling their countries. Saddam makes his people naive to a better way of living. If some people realize this is the way people shouldn't be living and speak out, they will be prisoned and most likely killed. The Iraqis have no sense of freedom of speech, they must speak positively about Saddam no matter what they truely believe. But here in present times, Saddam has been killed and American troops are now in Iraq. Will this change anything? The people have been brainwashed for such a long time that dictatorship is the only way a country can be ruled so it won't be easy to form a democratic form of government in Iraq. Although there culture has been with a dictator with absolute power, Iraq should change into a democratic form of government to help them become more Westernized. This would be for the best of the country for it would no longer be secluded. -ak

Big Brother: God or Tyrant

In Baghdad, everything is watched over by Saddam Hussein. Putting aside current events, Hussein was a loved figure in the eyes of many. There were posters and signs with his image everywhere. He was also featured on merchandise. To somebody with no knowledge of Hussein, he appeared like a great person. However, there were a few people willing to talk about negative feelings toward Hussein. “Saddam Hussein, he is the worst dictator ever in the history of man.” (page 111) This is the current feeling of many people in America, but I wondered why more people didn’t feel this way towards him in Baghdad (remember, this book takes place around 1991). He tapped phones and restricted almost everything, yet he was popular. I think that his popularity, though some may be genuine, is deeply rooted in the fear he instills on the people of Baghdad. Why wouldn’t people like him when others who hated him were killed? -mg

“Too much education and too little to do.”

This quote is found on page 102 of Baghdad without a Map. Yousri, a Nubian, uses this sentence to explain why he lives the way he does. Despite having qualifications that could get him a job as a businessman or professional in America, he works the graveyard shift at a hotel and lives in an apartment with his parents. He isn’t the only one stuck in this predicament. While Tony and Yousri are eating at a restaurant in a hotel, they spot a waiter with “Dr.” written on his name tag. I’m sure that there are also countless more people that would fit into this category.
The idea of somebody with the potential to be a doctor or a businessman being limited to such mediocre jobs is simply astounding. Those who go through the work of being educated are just getting by while people who smuggle and steal do much, much better. All of the education people acquire is being tossed away, and nobody can do anything to help. Personally speaking, if I knew that being a learned individual wouldn’t get me far in life, I wouldn’t care about education. I believe that this is the mindset of many people in the Middle East and the reason for the state of affairs going on today. -mg

Wanted: A Sense of Community

Besides how to respect women, another thing that the United States could learn from Arabian countries and cities, such as Cairo, is how to have a sense of community. Cairo, Egypt is a enormous city, however it still has a sense of community and family. "Still, like so much of Cairo, Shubra retained a village air... It was also that someone at every corner recognized Sayed as he tore past on his motorbike" (73). There is something nice about living in a place where everyone knows your name. At The Governor's Academy, it is like a small village; everyone knows everyone else, and we all seem to care for one another. On a typical day, one can see people shouting greetings to each other and inquiring about the health of a family member. Once we leave GA though, it all changes. Unless you move to a tiny town in the midwest, that sense of community no longer exists. Even in Boston, which has suburbs, like Cairo does, one will never step out of their apartment and recognize everyone they see. Maybe we should learn from Cairo, and try to foster a sense of community in our cities and streets. Take a chance and introduce yourself to your neighbors, so that there can be a feeling of friendship, even in the big city. gr

Iranian Oil

"Iran might mine the oil chokepoint, Turn off the tap on the Free World's Energy Lifeline" (pg69). As Tony Horwitz states, oil drilling is a major part of the Middle Eastearn economy. As we saw in the movie, different groups have targeted forms of government strictly around who is in charge of the drilling profit. Due to this nature, the people of these lands cannot agree on an efficient government since only a small group of people will be satisfied with it at a time. As we have seen, the Middle East has gone through many changes ever sine the “humiliation” they have endured since the end of World War I, as their Ottoman Empire collapsed. Since then they have gone through a series of leaders, that have tried to change every aspect life as they knew it. Some of this was done by westernization. This term means that these leaders would rebuild their government and life stile around ours, such as taking religion out of the government. That one act created an uproar, which had over throne many rulers through rioting and other forms of a revolution

ASM

Al Qaeda Video Attack On U.S. (In Afghanistan)

I thought that the article was very interesting. Although threatening, I am not worried that America-the-Beautiful will prevail. The Al-Qaeda is very immature with these threats. All though they underestimate the U.S. military’s skill, might, and will to get the job done, I think many Americans underestimate the fearlessness of Al-Qaeda. I truly believe ‘none of this’ would have happened had Bill Clinton failed to capture or kill Bin Laden on the several chances he had. Although the article is not about the Taliban, things add up to groups such as the Al-Qaeda bashing everything from the U.S. especially our current president. Although people argue that war in the Middle East is fueled by ‘gung-ho’ Bush and his troops, I argue that it is fueled by extremist groups that have nothing but blind hatred for things they do not know about (The Taliban, and currently the Al-Qaeda). Any responses would be great.
A.M.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,252358,00.html

Hostility and Weapons in the Middle East

After reading the first chapters of Bagdad Without a Map I have come to realize the hostility and fierceness of every person in all aspects of life living in the Middle East. In the movie Road to 9/11, we saw many examples of the adults’ community acting out with violence and crime. Now through the writing of Tony Horowitz we see that not only is the adult community like this, but also the children are being taught this. Every man in Yemen carries at least a sword, and most even more weaponry. These ways from the eyes of an American can be seen as that the community of Yemen is very warlike and dangerous but, the reason that they carry these weapons is fear of invasion says Horowitz. Driving through on the roads of Yemen, you are able to see the hostility and fear of all the people in the country. Another point that surprised me is the criminals in all of these countries. I got the feeling that the police officer that pulled him over was in fact not a police officer. He negotiated his price for driving without a license and also would not go to the police station. He clearly was not a police officer not having a badge and was just a criminal looking to rip off an American. All of these events that occurred in these first few chapters shocked and opened my eyes to other countries of the Middle East beside the ones that we know so much about, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. It opened my eyes to that it is not only Iraq and Afghanistan that are like this but most countries in the Middle East have the same views of the world and of the western world.

TH