With this particular response to my enquiry of concern, I decided to not discuss publicly this matter until today. If the people involved on the ground at MCC and in other volunteer agencies did not desire to raise a fuss about THE AGENCY episode's repeated showing around the globe, why should I raise a fuss?
[Admittedly, I had already written a few of my U.S. congressmen and senators from my home state of Kansas about my concern for the good name and safety of MCCers, but I never received a reply from them either.]
LITERATURE AND MEDIA
I heard on the Voice of America Radio today from a young American, who like me, has spent extensive time in the Middle East, i.e. living and traveling in numerous countries there during this first decade of the 21st Century. This particular American being interviewed on VOA had taken time to improve his colloquial Arabic and did most of his research out of Jordan.
Through his tales, he confirmed my own belief that most citizens around the world can really tell the difference between "a nation" and "people of a nation" much better than most Americans apparently do.
As that radio interview on Press-Conference USA (VOA Radio) continued, this young American stated that as long as our own government isn't achieving real peace in the Middle East in a reasonable amount of time soon, it was up to people-to-people efforts to make the bigger difference in how Americans are viewed abroad.
Currently, there are too few Americans volunteering and working shoulder-to-shoulder in the Middle East solving long-term development problems.
Part of this is due to the result of our own government's short-sighted policies over the decades in supporting the status-quo and supporting economic and social elite who have left a large number of the region's peoples under-trained and in poverty --as well as left out of major decision making circles. The tragic events of 9-11 were the tip of the iceberg of a groundswell of resentment at USA foreign, economic and indirect social policies dating back over a century.
Admittedly, an even greater part of the problem in the region has had to do with the under-education and lack of good governance in these same regions. This has led to joblessness and powerlessness among the various tribes and peoples of the semi-continent.
This under-education and lack of training, however, provide opportunities for doctors, nurses, teachers, and all kinds of technical persons to come and serve here.
MEDIA AND ALL OF US
On the other hand, we need to recognize that American media, film, popular culture, and literature also make a difference, too. Even if the great majority of the non-Americans who see such exploitive TV productions, like THE AGENCY, do not unfairly link volunteer organizations to the troublesome history (and present) of the CIA, such a TV series surely makes some potential volunteers in the USA think twice about volunteering in the Middle East--as fear of terrorism and its backlash leads to increased pressure upon their loved ones' viewing and responding to the fears awoken by such a program.
Other USA and Canadian TV programs, like the series "24", create a situation in North America where people who might otherwise volunteer to serve in the Middle East might believe that they would be stigmatized as a CIA operatives just by showing up. That is, they would potentially start-off on the wrong-foot in their journey abroad by being overly cautious as they begin to anticipate not being welcomed (due to the same concerns I raised after I viewed the images on that MCC episode of THE AGENCY).
On the other hand, it is sometimes appropriate for some Americans in some instances to travel under the guise of being Canadian amongst some unknown groups in the Middle East. (By "unknown", I mean groups or circles of peoples whom the traveler doesn't know and feels might not like Americans.) At least, this is what the American interviewed on the VOA news program indicated.
However, such a Canadian cover is seldom-if ever-necessary when working and traveling abroad. I have never used one myself.
Naturally, such concerns about being stigmatized by either the American government or media/film/literature often proves warrant-less. This is because, as I mentioned above, most Middle Easterners (and other peoples around the globe) don't confuse individual Americans for the American nation's policies or for its abusive cultural manipulation as forged by TV reruns.
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