Nonetheless, one cannot ignore the fact that some Americans have been unfairly kidnapped and attacked by peoples who have become twisted by poverty and/or circumstance. I, for example, still mourn the horrible execution and death of the young Mr. Berg in neighboring Iraq three years ago. Berg had traveled in the Middle East to help Iraqis to build their country-i.e. he had nothing but benevolent intentions.
Therefore, one certainly needs to be careful if one comes to volunteer, to work, or to participate in people-to-people exchanges in the Middle East.
However, you should be even more ready to be embraced upon arrival by Middle Easterners--as long as you show great willingness in getting-to-know those peoples you should be coming prepared to encounter and to work with in the first place.
INTENTIONAL SEPERATIONS OF PEOPLES
Far too many Americans, for example, in Egypt where I visited twice this past year, go there to work and simply live most of their lives in compounds or in semi-closed communities--and really don't get to know much about what all the peoples around them are thinking and feeling.
I have seen a similar lack of local knowledge at and around American military facilities and in too many ex-pat communities in most other corners of the globe.
Too little contact is made also in the country of Kuwait where I now live. This wasn't always the case. Hospitality in the region was once legendary.
In a land once known far-and-wide for its hospitality, the growth in the numbers of foreigners here has sadly led to a decline in person-to-person exchanges. This is partially due to the fact that many rich Kuwaitis had their hospitality abused by the growing number of foreign workers (now numbering 2 to 1 against the local population). On the other hand, a culture of wasta (which means favoritism through connections) and striving towards elitism, also leads Kuwaitis to separate themselves from vast numbers of foreigners.
On the other hand, tens of thousands of American soldiers are also cordoned off from the local peoples of Kuwait at the U.S. military encampments set far out in the desert-far away from where most of the more cosmopolitan Kuwaiti's interacts.
In short, the majority of the 10s of 1000s of U.S. military personnel stationed in Kuwait each year are not permitted regularly and freely to interact with the local population at all in any homely or natural setting. This is particularly sad because Kuwait is likely the most pro-USA country in the region.
This intentional isolation is ostensibly carried out in Kuwait is because there are two million other foreigners here-some of whom may not be so happy to receive US troops.
This sort of fear is certainly perpetrated by some of the realities on the ground. These realities include the fact that Americans know so little about the countries that they are sent to as soldiers that they can't readily tell different peoples-for example, between Kuwaitis, Egyptians, Saudi, Yemeni, Iranians, and Iraqis.
Moreover, news TV from some neighboring countries and the influence of indirect USA-media propaganda from reruns of TV series, like THE AGENCY, and the showing of movies, like THE SEIGE, lead to sudden rises or peaks in anti-American sentiment among the non-Kuwaitis.
Finally, to some small degree, there is an elitist desire in Kuwait not to allow Americans to get too intimately involved with other locals and local groups in forging a more progressive and equitable country and multicultural people in this 21st century.
Despite the three rationales noted above for separating 1000s of Americans from local contact with Kuwaitis, I think Americans can do (and are welcome to do) more to reach out and get to know the country they are stationed in-along with the great variety of peoples who live here.
Moreover, recently, one Kuwaiti friend of mine who once studied and graduated from at my alma mater in Kansas told me directly, "We need more Kansas in Kuwait. Just as you need more Kuwait in Kansas."
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