SOCIAL IMPRESSIONS

While reading my Twitter feed, I noticed repeated mentions of Keith Olbermann’s commentary about President Bush. As any Twitterer worth her salt would do, I rushed to see what the fuss was all about. To my delight, I watched the best verbal thrashing to date. Countdown’s host, Olbermann, passionately pointed out all of Bush’s flaws as a leader. In a recent Politico interview, Bush noted that electing a Democrat for president was a horrendous idea and would be equivalent to “another attack on the United States.” I believe that the most memorable part of the commentary was Bush’s admittance of giving up golf to revere and empathize with the families of the fallen soldiers.

Yesterday was the first day this week that I got the chance to watch some television. While channel surfing, I settled on “30 Rock.” The first thing I noticed was the green NBC logo in the bottom left corner. As the show progressed, the environment-friendly theme became more evident. Al Gore had a cameo role where he spoke about going green, and David Schwimmer acted as the eco-maniac “Greenzo” who tried to educate kids about conserving energy. Apparently, “30 Rock” was only one of the many shows offered on NBC Universal’s network that featured environmentally-themed content.

I decided to engage my colleagues in a dialogue regarding NBC’s effort to build awareness about adopting an eco-friendly lifestyle. First, I asked if they had noticed that this was NBC’s “Green Week.” Some casually noticed that the Peacock was a different color, and that their favorite shows contained some green-related content. However, these subtlties didn’t really garner their full attention. Strike one: NBC’s promotional efforts were lacking. The level of awareness about “Green Week” was limited, at least in my circle of thirty people.

Other questions I asked my collegues were about the impact of NBC’s “Green Week” on their current lifestyles. Did Al Gore’s guest appearance on “30 Rock” and “The Biggest Loser” contestant competing in the dark force people to examine the current environmental crisis? Were they motivated to recycle, conserve energy or make other eco-friendly decisions? The response was a resounding no. They felt that the shows poked fun and trivialized the environmental issue. Strike two: NBC appears to be capitalizing on the latest trend in America of being environmentally conscious. Their efforts don’t seem to be genuine but a ploy to boost ratings.

Just like me, my colleagues are cynics. They wonder why NBC jumped on this bandwagon now and only limited their efforts to one week. If they are genuinely concerned about the environment, wouldn’t they continue to push this initiative year-long? Is this more for their advertisers who want to promote their eco-friendly products than it is to educate the public? Although NBC had two strikes, they aren’t out yet. My colleagues lambasted NBC for their seemingly self-serving efforts, but the effort prompted a heavy online discussion about being green. Even if viewers didn’t notice the changed logo or the green-heavy advertising and show content before, they evidently know all about it now…

I received an email from a good friend with the title, “Not again.” When I opened it, a link was attached with an article about a 14 year old who went on a shooting spree today at SuccessTech Academy in Cleveland. This rampage left two teachers and three students wounded. According to CNN’s affiliate, WKYC-TV, the reason for the student’s violent behavior was his anger towards a recent suspension.

Obviously, this is not the first time such hostility has occurred in high schools. For many students, school is like a second home — a place parents send them for education and a safe environment. Sadly, they are never entirely protected. And this incident makes it clear that it doesn’t matter what kind of school it is or where it’s located. Violence can crop up anywhere.

Every time I hear about children arming themselves to kill their imagined adversaries, it makes me incredibly sad. The later generations have increasingly become so desensitized to violence. Some have pointed the blame at parents for minimal supervision of their kids’ multi-media consumption. Would parental control stop children from acting out their aggression against fellow classmates?

Ever since the Janet Jackson episode (AKA Nipplegate) during the halftime performance at the 2004 Super Bowl, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has imposed more fines and stricter rules on indecency. What about violence? Blood and gore has become standard in primetime television. Kids today are steeped in video games, movies and music that make it sound cool and macho to kill. They win points on video games when they blow someone’s head off. According to the American Psychology Association (APC), violent music lyrics have a definite impact on children and can cause them to have thoughts and feelings that are aggressive in nature. Teens are consuming this regularly so the lines of right and wrong are increasingly becoming blurred.

Blaming parents and the media are pretty old tactics, however, and both ideas can be problematic. It is impossible for parents to keep tabs on their children 24/7. They can’t be blamed if their kid snaps and shoots five people if the trigger was anything other than their direct upbringing. Regarding media content, there are those who want everything on television above a PG rating to be banned. Although it is easy to blame the media for the desensitization towards violence, it is hard to directly correlate media and school shootings. Child exposure to extreme violence in whatever form is wide-spread, but only a few actually engage in it. Are these school shootings due to media violence or lack of parental attention? Or do these kids have a predisposition to becoming inexplicably violent?

Technorati Tags: High school shooting, SuccessTech Academy, Violence in schools

On Saturday, my boyfriend and I went out with some friends to a local Hooka lounge located on Grand Ave. Upon my arrival, I was introduced to an Arab-American poet, writer and educator, Ibtisam Barakat. I had been following her career for quite a while and respect her work immensely. She travels the world discussing the Arab-Israeli issue and has been a major advocate for the under-privileged. Needless to say, I was uber-excited when she joined us for some tea with sage.

Arabs have suffered from perpetual stereotyping and yet minimal effort has been invested in disseminating these images. It is important to invest effort in helping filter out the “we-they” dichotomy. This will allow the West to feel comfortable enough to politically align themselves with the Arabs and embrace them in their culture.

Arabs should offer positive alternatives by having spokespeople, like Barakat, who highlight the great attributes of Arabs and dissuade the homogenization of the Arab populace. Thus far, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been seen as the representatives of the entire Arab region. In order to debunk that, Arabs need to join together in order to promote some of the great leaders and thinkers in their community. Arabs have produced some of the most renowned Nobel Prize winners in Literature (Nagib Mahfooz), Peace (Anwar Al Sadat, Shirin Ebadi), Chemistry (Abdel Zewali) and Physics (Abdus Salam).

There are some organizations that have resorted to violence to defend their country. But the true path to international empathy and assistance is that of verbalizing our knowledge and experiences, and engaging in peaceful discussions with the world about our struggles. Barakat has definitely invested a great portion of her time in educating the world about the Palestinians’ struggle. She regularly appears on NPR, gives lectures at various universities worldwide, and authored a book, “Tasting the sky: A Palestinian Childhood” and is currently working on her second. Although many Arabs don’t have the time or the resources to spend on publicly explaining the Palestinian side of the story, all they need to do is to have conversations with those who aren’t intimately aware, or talk to others because it creates the opportunity to teach and to learn.

Technorati Tags: Ibtisam Barakat, Arab-Israeli Conflict, NPR, Arab Stereotypes, politics