Consuming Youth in America

He is hungry. And angry, unhappy that he is fat. And thinking about that container of ice cream in the freezer. He worries about his image at school, and wonders about his will power. Samr (Rocky) Tayeh recorded a long and moving reflection about his obesity and the difficulty he has had coping with family and friends. It played on November 2, and other occasions on WNYC radio. Sometimes hearing such personal confessions you realize how much we all have in common. Whether it is food, or some other issue, we all have insecurities and weaknesses.
Samr is a 15 year old New Yorker participating in Radio Rookies 2003 workshop at Council of Pakistan Organizations (COPO) on Coney Island Avenue. In addition to legal advice, preparation for citizenship tests, and job training COPO has hosted students for this 12-to-15-week in which they research, record, edit and refine their own radio pieces. "Rookies" is the brainchild of WNYC reporter Marianne McCune, a former documentary and educational filmmaker who has also traveled to Pakistan to interview deported Pakistani immigrants. (see www.wnyc.org and click the "Radio Rookies).
We see and hear how community radio can give a voice to an adolescent from our own midst. Participation empowers. Also participating, Rizwan Aslam profiles a homeless man in his neighborhood who is being cared for by area merchants; Munir Karim questions reality through conversations with an imam, an astronomer, a philosopher and a psychiatrist. Muslim and non-Muslim youth. We all share such questions.

And we all sometimes wonder, “Why do they hate me?” But speaking of an entity obsessed with public and self image, tortured by insecurity and by this same question, Uncle Sam says “hi”. Hi??? Well “hi” with some nice packaging. “Hi” is a 4 million dollar venture developed by the State Department and media consultants to "build bridges of communication" between Arabs and the United States.

Described by its editors as a non-political, lifestyle magazine targeting young Arab men and women, Hi magazine seeks to win Muslim and Arab hearts and minds. As an experiment in “building civil society” this project may possibly do some good. But it is a strange American mix of idealism and Madison Avenue image-consulting. It is quite a contrast to community radio of “Radio Rookies.” And to the sincerity of Karim and young Samr.

Like so many other American magazines, this glossy magazine worships celebrity and trends, and according to Middle East Reports (www.merip.org/mero/interventions), “asks younger Arabs to dream of affluent American lifestyles -- and to shut off other brain functions.”

During the Cold War the CIA funded a number of fairly good intellectual magazines to help counter the appeal of communism. Publishing since summer, Hi magazine apparently represents an “MTV-version” of this propaganda war. And there is more of this to come-- just this week, the House of Representatives agreed to fund the creation of a 24-hour radio and television news network aimed at promoting American values in the Middle East. But one wonders if these values still include intellectual fairness and honesty in communication.

According to Middle East Reports, this magazine strips musicians like Cheb Khaled and activist poets of their political content, certainly of anything pro-Palestinian, even misrepresenting New York’s own Suheir Hammad's work; “Hi attempts to present Hammad as just another pop Arab artist who is gaining popularity in the US. The charged racial context of her Arab-American poetry is literally whitewashed by scribes under the supervision of the State Department.”

The magazine editors claim that selling “American” culture— in a happy, secular media version— is, “a new phenomenon in the Arab world…. a lifestyle magazine that doesn't touch on the political." While this claim is debatable—there are many western influenced magazines, TV shows, movies-- obviously this is a very political approach in itself. (see www.himag.com).

Yet at a time when the US should be engaging in honest dialogue about ideas it instead substitutes the media equivalent of bread and circuses. "The problem with young Arabs is not how they perceive U.S. culture or the American way of life," says Professor Mohammed Nawawy, quoted in an Islam On line article. "They're watching American movies and wearing American jeans and lining up to get visas to come to the United States. The problem is how they perceive United States foreign policy, and that can only be changed by actions on the ground in Iraq and Israel," he added. May Muslim youth find their Truth without compulsion; even if it is an imperfect, personal truth to start. We can do much better without the brainwashing of “Joe” Camel or of “Sam” bin Laden. May Allah guide us all to his freedom from Iftar to Suhur, from Maghreb to the sweet peace of Fajr.