Thanks to a friend's recommendation, I recently came across a fantastic article in The Economist about the strengths of America. Many who know me know that I am passionate about the issues I care about, and since I have been in Egypt, that has included breaking stereotypes and negative opinions of the US. Yes I know, when did Sharlina become so Republican/nationalistic? Indeed, as most ex-pats abroad can attest to, especially as a woman, you feel your identity is always on while you are abroad. As a secular Muslim-American woman living in a not-so-secular Muslim-majority country like Egypt, I have come to realize the many perks associated with being born and raised in the United States. This article touches upon some of it:
A quote to leave with as you read and ponder more about what this article discusses:
- "America is a land that offers 'the chance to be whatever you want to be'." - I find repeating this exact same line to non-Americans around me
- "No matter where an immigrant hails from, he can find a cluster of his ethnic kin somewhere in America...You can find welcoming clusters of ethnic minorities in other rich countries, but not nearly as many.
"Speaking in Dallas, she praises the intellectual freedom in America. In the Netherlands, she says, think-tanks are typically subsidised by the government and tied to a political party. This makes them timid, she believes. If an idea sounds too controversial, they shy away from it...She admits that before visiting America she had a negative view of the country. Listening to her Dutch friends, she assumed that Americans were fat, loutish, naive and sexually repressed. “' then I came here and found it was all false.'"As America grows every year, with the estimate of 500 million by 2050, I am not surprised to find out that a quarter of America’s engineering and technology firms founded between 1995 and 2005 had an immigrant founder and that a quarter of international patent applications filed from America were the work of foreign nationals. Children of immigrants are no less amazing: Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is the stepson of a man who fled Cuba at the age of 15 and arrived without even a high-school diploma.
A quote to leave with as you read and ponder more about what this article discusses:
"It is also a mistake to rate Americans as less tolerant because they are nationalistic. Americans may have an annoyingly high opinion of their country, but theirs is an inclusive nationalism. Most believe that anyone can become American. Almost nobody in Japan thinks that anyone can become Japanese, yet Japan is rated more “tolerant” than America. This is absurd."
It's hard to say *anyone* can become an American. We limit visa numbers for some countries, and are talking of building a wall with Mexico. In some countries, only the very wealthy have access to America.
ReplyDeleteI've read some of Hirsi-Ali's work, and saw the film that got van Gogh killed. It would've never been shown in the US.
I know plenty of places where she would instantly be, um, unwelcomed and treated radically different. Upon finding out my mother had a Turkish boy who was being raised Muslim in her school, the first thing I thought to tell her was to not let that get out.
If I recall, you're an East-coaster. They're far more tolerant than in the middle.