{"id":9726,"date":"2011-07-30T11:29:38","date_gmt":"2011-07-30T07:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=9726"},"modified":"2013-03-08T12:10:00","modified_gmt":"2013-03-08T08:10:00","slug":"the-united-states-a-nice-place-to-visit-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-society\/middle-east-crime\/the-united-states-a-nice-place-to-visit-but\/","title":{"rendered":"The United States: A Nice Place to Visit, But\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In the\u00a0Middle East when people find out that I am an American (and being African American always requires additional proof), they usually have this \u2018streets paved with gold\u2019 impression of what the United States is like. Even the ones who have been there invariably declare proudly they have assessed Americans as a good, honest people (the ones in the \u2018good neighborhoods\u2019 at least) and it is the government (i.e. the president) that is responsible for all the terrible things America is doing in the world.<\/p>\n

I always assumed these opinions were a bit naive because the people I \u00a0typically have these conversations with come from lands controlled by dictators, monarchies and stale, aging revolutionaries– where the bulk of the population has very little to do with the government.\u00a0 In their \u2018one man, one vote\u2019 countries, if there was anything nefarious going on, the people could claim to be blissfully blameless.<\/p>\n

It seems it never occurs to them in their idolization of Tom Cruise, Rambo, and white girls everywhere is that\u00a0 Americans (at least in principle), are in control of their government and what it does is an extension of who they are.<\/p>\n

At this point, this is usually where the conversation ends\u2014sometimes abruptly.<\/p>\n

Guys from India and such places in the Far East generally have the worst time with me popping their soap bubble of hope of a paradise on earth; often convinced by relatives (Victorian colonialism seems so seamlessly interwoven into their cultural DNA) now living their dream in America is all they have heard and more.<\/p>\n

Falling slightly short of calling me an outright liar, they would insist that their cousin or friend knows what he is talking about and I (as a non-white person)–did not (Young Africans in their sophomoric zeal tend to be more adamant than most when taking this position).<\/p>\n

These contentious folk are even surprised when I tell them that black people are still second class citizens and they would be treated as such when they come to the\u00a0US as\u00a0people of non-European ancestry. Bengalis and Indians (from India) would be mistaken for Mexicans or Puerto Ricans and not white boys with tans (despite the straight hair), because frankly, brown is the \u2018new\u2019 black.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what about Martin Luther King and Malcolm X?\u201d they would often argue.\u201d Didn\u2019t they change things? Didn\u2019t all that stuff stop with them?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, their sacrifice showed people something…and sent everyone a message for generations to come too,\u201d I would say, \u201cDo you know what happened to them?\u201d<\/p>\n

This usually gets the \u2018what?\u2019 look; then, I drop the other shoe\u2014\u201cthey died of lead poisoning. It often happens when you say too much about the wrong people\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Obama is president,\u201d they proclaim.<\/p>\n

Lamenting for having gone down that road, I changed my approach. I ask how many murders they thought occurred in Saudi Arabia last year. Most people don\u2019t know the answer to this question.<\/p>\n

When they guess, it is a figure around a hundred. Pretty good for a population of 27 million rabid fundamentalist certified with a US travel advisory warning.<\/p>\n

When I left America, (I would tell them) <\/em>in the city I use to live, it was second or third in line for the murder capital at 412.\u00a0 I then refer them to the Associated Press headline,<\/p>\n

Many US Cities Have Had Murder Rates Higher Than Iraq’s 2006 ‘Violent Death’ Rate<\/strong><\/p>\n

I point out that NYC, the favorite place for everyone to visit was the murder capital at 2,400 murders in 1990\u2014but I tell them not to worry.\u00a0 It was down to a mere 510 in 2010. \u00a0The current figure for Saudi is about 53 (that\u2019s individual people: manslaughter rate\u2014I suppose this means the deaths were unintentional).<\/p>\n

Of course, if you look up the current statistics in the U.S. , it seems that in the worst economy since the great depression (when, at that time, people were killing themselves as well as others after their dreams evaporated with the stock market crash), the murder rate was down all over. I find it odd that the 2.8 million people the banks added to the already catastrophic homeless problem through\u00a0 foreclosures wasn\u2019t fussed about over in the media that much.<\/p>\n

I suppose maybe the good people of America practice more restraint today than they did in the past. Perhaps they have solved some problems and didn\u2019t tell us (the good are usually modest). Maybe with 28 million unemployed in the US (about the population of Saudi Arabia), everyone just realized how silly and fruitless it was to kill another destitute person over a few cans of cat food and an empty refrigerator box and decided to wait it out peacefully under the freeway until their generous government \u2018bailed\u2019 them out.<\/p>\n

One of things that also \u2018wows\u2019 those hell bent on living in the US of A is all the child abductions and their posts on each half gallon of milk. I often wonder how they keep up.\u00a0 All elementary, middle and secondary schools have metal detectors (exactly like at the airport) because if children aren\u2019t killed in drive bys, abducted for their organs or\/and the sexual entertainment of pedophiles everywhere; there is usually a killing spree at some school to keep the numbers up.<\/p>\n

In my attempt to dissuade the \u2018would be\u2019\u00a0 Muslim traveler from going to the US, I sometimes talk about all the quality time I spent with my family when I lived in America because my children couldn\u2019t even play in our front yard for fear of such things. Every night we could hear gun shots under the rhythm of police and ambulance sirens over the perennial barking of pit bulls (creators of the \u2018poop\u2019 and fly problem; since their \u2018gangster\u2019 owners believe a little civic scooping is below their \u2018bling, bling\u2019 social standing).<\/p>\n

You would think between all the Wikileaks revelations about all the \u2018in your face\u2019 and back door skullduggery the US has been\u00a0doing to the detriment to Muslims; detailed relentlessly on every media outlet in the Arab world, this would dull the luster of the American dream and keep people from wanting to go.<\/p>\n

For a while, there were less people expressing to me an interest to go; then, I met Abdul from Jeddah.<\/p>\n

Up to that time, I thought people just didn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Once hearing I was indeed from the US, he cheerfully related that he had been to New York when younger and as others before him, attested to the purity and goodness of Americans he had met there.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I got lost once and ended up in Brooklyn and got scared because of all the niggars there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNiggars, huh?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah, sorry (and quickly went on as if it were an understandable slip of the tongue). Anyway, I caught a cab to long Island. It cost me $60 (when he was there about twenty years ago, it was a lot of money) because it was such a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLong Island is where all the Jews live,\u201d I told him. A lot of Muslims live in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I didn\u2019t know that,\u201d he said and then added \u201cI think I\u2019ll go back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou ever heard of the Patriot Act?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c The \u2018what\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNever mind,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

At moments like that a bumper sticker I had on my car in the states comes to mind:<\/p>\n

“If you think Education is expensive, try ignorance.”<\/p>\n

A sanitized version of this was published at <\/em>www.saudilife.net<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Crime_in_New_York_City<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Crime_in_Saudi_Arabia<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2010\/03\/26\/nypd-stats-city-murder-ra_n_513590.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nationmaster.com\/country\/sa-saudi-arabia<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/travel.state.gov\/travel\/cis_pa_tw\/tw\/tw_932.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.informationclearinghouse.info\/article4305.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nlchp.org\/<\/a> http:\/\/www.secondharvest.org\/whoshungry\/current_stats.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.urban.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nccp.org\/<\/a>\u00a0 http:\/\/www.census.gov\/<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.cbpp.org\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.parents.com\/kids\/safety\/stranger-safety\/child-abduction-facts\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ABU MUHAMMED: Guys from India and such places in the Far East generally have the worst time with me popping their soap bubble of hope of the United States as being a paradise on earth…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":340,"featured_media":9756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,135],"tags":[423,3620,8005,1314,366,10111,8001,191,16825,1171,121,1808,18275,4057,2168,18302],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/340"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9726"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26373,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9726\/revisions\/26373"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}