NPR's Kate Seelye reports on "Hi" magazine. Hi is a new Arabic language magazine, published by the State Department and marketed in the Arab world, with the aim of shaping a more positive view of the United States in the Middle East. The State Department is spending more than $4 million on the project, but as you might expect, Arab consumers (or at least the ones that Kate Seelye was looking for) are not fully impressed.
In a working class neighborhood of Beirut, several college students perused the magazine outside a local snack shop. Twenty-year-old Hassan Moustafa said the content seemed rather familiar and not terribly challenging. "I would be more interested if the magazine talked about why Americans support Israel or why they did what they did in Iraq."Good point. The State Department doesn't have to spend $4 million to do this. All they need to do is to translate Lileks [scroll down and look for "Israel"] into Arabic.
Moustafa says it's clear to him that Americans know nothing about Arabs. He says what's really needed is not another magazine marketing American culture to Arabs, but rather a publication which informs Americans about the Arab world.Another good point. Fortunately, such a resource already exists. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 18, 2003 05:13 PM
Which part of Arab culture am I suposed to study? The part that flies planes into office building? The part that slices up women's genitalia? Maybe Arabs need to figure out what their culture truly is, and then get back to me.
Why we support Israel? Gee, what a head-scrather.
"Moustafa says it's clear to him that Americans know nothing about Arabs. He says what's really needed is not another magazine marketing American culture to Arabs, but rather a publication which informs Americans about the Arab world. Another good point."
- No. We already know about Arabs. Their culture, religion, economies, education, politics, etc, are bankrupt. They are ruled by tyranny and their populous cannot overcome. Why? Because in so much of the Arab "street", education consists in memorization of their 8th century religious text(s). Because, in order to divert discent, the ruling class has - and continues to - convince the Arab "street" that their failures are nobody's fault, but the Israeli's and Americans. There can be no meeting of the minds or understanding of cultures. It reminds me of the old saying: "You can't have a battle of wits with an unarmed man."
GregB and Rachel
The statements that you guys posted shows the ignorance of some americans when it comes to the arab world. You probably both have belittling views about other parts of world also. Everything we learn in america about other people in world is never really from their point of view, it's mostly from our point of view. So what harm could it do if an arab made a magazine for us to show us their culture in a positive way. You could either read it or trash it. You know or maybe you dont know that not all arabs "slice genitalia" and not all arabs memorize "8th century religious texts". You have to really be uneducated like those arabs that hate america to make the statements that you made.