Americans

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Friday, January 19, 2007

This happened to me one week ago, but it is an appropriate Friday-at-noon rant.

My first day here, my fellow Clinton Scholars and I went down to the City Center Mall to buy some basic supplies. Afterwards, we returned to the street corner to await the shuttle. This area is right in front of a beautiful mosque, and they were calling the faithful to prayer as we arrived. Now when I say we were right in front of the mosque, I mean we were literally right in front of the courtyard, "blocking" the way to Mecca, if you will. So of course, the entire congregation could see us.

That's why I was horrified to see that several of our number began throwing a football back and forth, encroaching ever futher upon the mosque. Then several of the girls--one in particular for whom I have no respect--began telling all these goofy stories about getting drunk and sleeping around on previous study abroads, and how the top two things they wanted to do here was get suntans, and get drunk. They wouldn't change the subject (or stop throwing the football) either, even when I pointed out that they were being disrepectful and inconsiderate. It was like every bad stereotype of American culture that many people from this region have.

I mean, we were right in front of the mosque! Some of these folks were probably genuinely devout and would have been offended had they overheard us--I know I was! It was embarrassing! For the first time ever, I was truly ashamed to be in the presence of my fellow peer citizens. And you know, every time a group of Americans acts this way, then, when I tell people I'm from the USA, they have some preconceived notion of the way I am. Thanks a lot, guys.

Ah well. The good news is, I know there's an editorial cartoon in this somewhere!

It happened here!