February 5, 2009
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Walk With an Iraqi
You may remember last summer, Lora, Frank and I went to see the “This American Life” show that was being broadcast to theaters nationwide, live from New York, with host Ira Glass. For those of you who don’t know, This American Life is a radio show on NPR and a TV show on Showtime. If you’ve never listened, I strongly encourage you to download the free podcasts.
One of the stories they showed that night struck a particular chord with me. It featured an Iraqi student named Haider Hamza who was living in America on a Fulbright scholarship and decided to travel around the Southern United States to give red state Americans a chance to “Talk to an Iraqi” from a homemade wooden booth. Just take a look at this fascinating two part video clip. It is beautiful in its eloquence and more than a little disturbing at times. This should be mandatory viewing for every man, woman and child in America. I’ve seen it countless times, and it gets more profound with each viewing:
After Part I, click the right arrow for Part II
After I wrote about it that night, Haider, the subject of the movie found my blog, and we became friends on Facebook. This week he was in town working with ABC news and he was nice enough to ask if we could get together. I felt honored that he took time out of his busy schedule to meet with me, especially since he’s invited to Jennifer Aniston’s 40th birthday party this weekend! (We don’t exactly travel in the same circles!) He was staying at the hotel across the street from my house. We met and decided to walk down to The Abbey which I told him was a 15 minute walk. Since I walk pretty darn fast, he made me slow down, and an hour later we reached our destination!
It was wonderful meeting him in person and talking with him about his experiences in this country and his (still) deep ties to Iraq where his family lives. His is a story that needs to be shared. I’m grateful for the opportunity to play a small part in it.
Carey & Haider
Haider @ The Abbey
Comments (41)
Wow. To actually meet and talk to him face to face! I envy you, man. I wish I could meet him in person myself.
That is fantastic Carey! Knowing you, I am more interested in reading about your conversations and discussions with him.
congrats to you for having such a wonderful friend. youre right everyone should watch his videos. i wish i could force everyone i know on xanga to do it, but i can’t so i did the next best thing, i recommended.
thanks for sharing.
Interesting videos – you get to see so many different perspectives.
I was not able to view or listen to the video properly…there was static and it was breaking up a lot. so I have saved it and shall view it when I get home.
Wow, that sounds totally awesome! I’ll definitely check out the podcasts when I have the time.
Interesting video….so many different perspectives! The set up (booth) in his video reminds me of a similar scene in Peanuts (The Doctor in in).
Have not been to The Abbey for quite a while! I miss their blueberry pie!
@reckless_eagle - Thanks for the rec! You’re the best.
@Dezinerdreams - I’ll chat with you on Gtalk Vivek.
@curtainsopen - That’s really nice of you. Thanks!
@ElusiveWords - The one question I had for him was about the little girl, Ashley. He said she moved him to tears. It was very profound!
@ZSA_MD - Thanks. I wonder why there was static. Was it happening on other YouTube videos or just this one?
@arEms - Thanks. I think you’ll really enjoy them. I actually don’t mind driving when I’m listening to This American Life.
@curry69curry - Ooooh, I didn’t even know The Abbey had blueberry pie. Let’s go Gary!
thanks for this great post – i especially enjoyed the vid. the war in iraq and the possibility of expanding it are the chief reason that Obama got my vote – let’s hope it will end before too many more innocent people on both sides are killed. peace, Al
Oh, I remember that This American Life show. My sister and I were going to catch it at the theatre, but alas, we couldn’t make it in time.
I’m glad to hear that you were though, and I’m even happier to hear that you met up with such an interesting and amazing individual.
As always… you sure do know how to live life to the fullest. cheers!
it’s lucky for you to have met him in person =D
i wonder if you’re gonna chat wit obama next time LOL =P
love
Very cool. I wonder what he does as an Iraqi male; is he a student? A professional? His current task is gutsy!
WOW you actually got to WALK and TALK to him. I applaud you and everyone that’s talked to him, hopefully if we keep this up, all racial barriers will be knocked down :)
@pukemeister - Afghanistan is going to be the real problem now. It’s going to be tough going for a while
@MaximMan - You live a pretty full life too my friend! Thanks!!
@Briani - Well, I haven’t talked to Obama yet, but I peed where he peed!! http://www.xanga.com/CareyGLY/640350233/president-carey-anthony/
@Simon - Thanks. Do I know you?
@liminalone - He’s not a student anymore. He produces now for ABC news. Thanks!
@Loltothepower - Thanks Jin. I wish everyone thought and felt like you.
@CareyGLY - me thinks you’re right – we’ll prolly be sick of Obama 4 years from now too
Hey that was a very simple yet educational video. It’s funny the kind of questions some of them asked, but I guess you would have curiousity about customs anywhere you haven’t traveled to.
Whenever I travel out of US I felt that US have filter a lot of the news about other countries.
I give my salute to Haider for his braveness to stand out and tell the story from the other side of the fence. He did a very good job.
@figachewy - I love your “glass half full” approach. It’s quite refreshing. I’m a bit more jaded, having traveled around the world and seen how Americans behave in other countries. Thanks for a fresh perspective, and thanks for stopping by!
@vsan79 - Yep, the U.S. is pretty darn ethnocentric. That’s why I wish everyone could watch this! Thanks
Thank you so much for sharing this. What a fiasco this war has turned out to be. Did this war really protect us from terrorists? Sometimes I feel so ashamed for things our government does, yet I’d rather be here than anywhere else.
@fratmom - I echo your thoughts. Thanks!
That little girl in the second half of the video… I wanted to hug her. Incredibly smart for her age.
I couldn’t believe some of the responses from the Americans that served in the war, though.
Definitely a rec. I’m going to download those free podcasts, too.
Thanks, Carey!
WOW. This is really thought provoking. Everyone who wants to know truth of what’s happening in Iraq should watch this. Our media hypes and hypes a non reality of a “new” Iraq simply to garner support for an unjustified, illegal war!
Huge props for posting this. Can you believe it took one little 11 yr old girl who shows more heart and more understanding about this war than most of the adults around her to apologize to him??? GAH! great video!! You deserve my first 1000 eprops mini.
@omgitsmackie - Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
@ShamelesslyRed - Wow, I’m honored. Thank you so much. Hopefully, through the power of the blogosphere, people’s eyes will be opened to these atrocities. Thanks for stopping by.
This video saddens me, actually. The only intelligent American I felt akin to is an eleven year old little girl named Tori.
The war is a tragedy….Thanks for sharing it.
@getitwhenyoucan - I agree. Tori really made an impact on my friend. I’m glad she’s the next generation!
What did he say his father did before the invasion?
Wow, this is definitely not the picture of Iraq you get from the media. It’s no wonder how so many people in the video has the views they did. They keep telling us, it’s for their own good, it’s for our freedom. I think the only thing endangering our freedom is our own government, and considering our failure, why should we be the ones to “save” them?
@tjordanm - I don’t remember. I’ll have to ask him. Something in the government I think.
@Kim@revelife - Hopefully, with the new administration, the truth will finally get out! Thanks!
@CareyGLY - His family had a really nice house.
I believe his work is biased, however.
@tjordanm - I can’t really comment on that without knowing what you mean.
@CareyGLY - Well, based on only the two clips I watched, I feel this particular work had a bias. Mr Hamza’s presentation wasn’t objective.
@tjordanm - I respectfully disagree. He was as objective as an Iraqi living in America could be (in my opinion). I thought he showed great personal restraint when talking with truly ignorant people. He also showed empathy when he mused “Who am I to invade these people’s wonderful lives in this beautiful country and tell them they should care about the plight of my people” [sic]. He gets it. Sadly, most of the people he talked to, didn’t get it. (Besides an innocent little girl!). In talking with him personally, I can tell you that I came away with the feeling that his motives were honorable and pure. He didn’t have an agenda so to speak. He had been living in New York City for a while and was honestly curious as to who in America actually suppoted such an unjust war. His friends told him that in order to discover that, he would have to travel to red state America and talk to the people there. So that’s what he did.
@CareyGLY - But he chose who would be included in the video–he likely chose the most memorable and the ones that summed his perception of “red state opinion” about the war. The people Mr Hamza chose to include represent a lower-bound of intellect and knowledge among those who might have supported the war–I say this because their opinions lacked substance to a degree that there could only be better ones. Maybe Hamza wasn’t looking for them, and if they came along, he simply omitted them because they didn’t fit a perception Hamza’s potential audience would be willing to accept.
The little girl is amazing–though had been fed information. 11 year olds, in my experience, haven’t the cognitive ability to apologize for a war and understand the significance and depth.
@tjordanm - Thanks for your reply. I will definitely bring up some of your comments with Haider the next time I see him. Because this was part of a television show on Showtime, I suspect you’re right that the piece could have been edited to imply one opinion over another. As someone who has traveled to all 50 states myself (and all continents), I know that there are liberals and conservatives everywhere. Regarding the little girl, I specifically asked him if she had been coached, and he swore to me that she had not been fed any information. That’s all I can really say about that, but I did have the same question, and that was one of the first things I asked Haider when we met.
@CareyGLY - I wouldn’t think he would have been aware of any coaching–it’s just that children will pick information up from the environment they are in. If they have parents or whoever to influence them politically. (I was an example of that.)
I was in a position to learn a lot of people’s opinions and have traveled every state south and east of here (I’m in South Dakota–a red state [for the record, I didn't support the war haha.]) While there are people who seem to think that 9/11 and Iraq are directly or indirectly connected, I’ve met more supporters of the war who didn’t believe that (but might have believed other things, false or not, as being grounds for war with Iraq.) Yet Hamza’s presentation puts those people up front. Perhaps it was Showtime producers who edited the presentation to appease their audience–and even selected Hamza specifically because they knew they could extract that angle. Newspapers are notorious for doing that to journalists (and why I won’t say that Hamza himself is a biased journalist–just this particular work comes off that way.)
@tjordanm - Too bad you don’t live in LA. You could come out with us the next time we get together. I’m sure it would be a great discussion! Thanks for reading!
@CareyGLY - That is too bad, I would have enjoyed that. Have a nice day!
@tjordanm - Well he lives in NYC, so if you’re ever there, you should look him up!
WOW!! Thank you. Just THANK YOU!
I love the girl ‘Tori’ by the way <3
Very GREAT post!
@suicidalspirit - Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the props!! I’m glad you enjoyed the post.