As I stopped at a supermarket to buy juices for the New Years celebrations, I shook my head and thought, "When will these Armed Forces radio personalities learn that not only will some Americans not enjoy the pointless jabber and culturally insensitive tone, but certainly Kuwaitis, Iraqis, Indians, Pakistanis and others who are sympathetic to American causes around the globe listening to Armed Forces Radio in Kuwait are going to (1) be more than a bit offended and (2) find the insensitive airing of American laundry to be sadly typically representative of the West?"
In short, a very unintended message is spun here in the Middle East.
Recently, one columnist in the last FRIDAY TIMES--my favorite and Kuwait's most wide-ranging, liberal, and in depth newspaper-one columnist, Ahmad Al-Khaled had written an article denouncing the usage of songs by 50 Cent being played in the City's Malls when his children are out with him.
Al-Khaled stated, "In fact, if the government censors were to read some of the lyrics contained in the many songs played so freely in local malls [and if I was to have] written [the text] here on the pages of this publication, the editor of this paper and myself would be in a good deal of legal trouble, (i.e. behind bars)."
I, Kevin Stoda, haven't lived in the U.S. for about fives years, but Al-Khalid has. He went on to write in his editorial, "In many years of living in the US, I never heard songs with filthy lyrics in public places like malls. It just wasn't done. Even in the USA, where free speech reigns supreme, there are limits."
While I doubt that music in American malls in 2008 are as clean as Mr. Al-Khaled claims, I do get the gist of what he is stating. He is saying there is a time and place for every type of music and every type of speech. On the other hand, there are times and places where certain words and music are not appropriate.
Are radio station airwaves any different than the internet, whereby the Australian government is considering implementing some sort of internet censorship to reduce children accessing porn?
After midnight that New Years 2008, I traveled back to Fahaheel City, and during my 30-minut drive decided to lurk again a bit to Armed Forces Radio.
There was a rock concert being aired between public service and GI educational announcements. I believe the music was possibly heavy metal-but may have been an older rock band, like REO Speedwagon of the 1970s..
The recording (or monologue) of the singer-guitarist speaking to the audience that New years morn went like this:
"Is there a Bad Mother F--- here?"
"Where is that Cun...?
"What about those tit--- she's got?
I thought of the Bedouins and other local Arabs who spend their holidays and weekends camping in the desert. These are the young men who might be listening to this American Radio station's demonstration of how to share its own culture and its own free-for-all attitudes about free speech OUTLOUD (on a radio station self-identified as U.S. Armed Forces Radio).
I shuddered, "What are the young people here in the Middle East learning or interpreting of the American laisse faire attitude towards talk and jabbering on air?"
These are easily influenced young men who one day may turn from doing what teenagers out in rural Kansas do, i.e. sit outside at night drinking and smoking under the expansive open sky in some secluded countryside. Next year, they might be influenced by others in or outside their peer- or family group to recant the errors of there ways and become conservative, righteous indignant towards the West. (These Arabs will base their ideas of the West on the music and experiences they shared with their cohorts during those long desert camping trips in the night.)
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