Posted on 07/08/2004 5:26:42 AM PDT by a_Turk
Washington -- Indonesian student Dedi Setiadi admits his opinion of the United States has not always been positive.
"In the beginning, I was critical of the U.S. and its policies toward different countries," he said.
In an interview with the Washington File, Dedi said his views changed after a year of living with a Mexican-American family in the United States. "This country is very diverse. I didn't see prejudice," Dedi observed.
He appreciated learning about his host family's culture and sharing with them aspects of Indonesian culture. When he returns home, Dedi plans to help other Indonesian students learn about the United States.
Dedi came to the United States through the State Department's Youth Exchange Program (YES), which brings secondary school students from countries with significant Muslim populations to the United States for an academic year. The students attend an American high school and live in the home of an American family. The program is overseen by the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).
"These students will take a better understanding of American society back to their communities and correct misperceptions about the United States," Robert Persiko, chief of ECA's Youth Programs Division, said.
"It's different than anything I've seen on TV," Sarah, a Muslim student from Turkey, said of the program. "I thought everyone was for the war (in Iraq) and that they didn't like Muslims because of terrorism. I found people who didn't really care. I mean a lot of people didn't even ask what religion I was. They really wanted to know me as me."
Sarah spoke enthusiastically about her experiences living with a host family in North Carolina, and recounted how she and her friends shared common experiences of growing up, even though they lived in different countries.
"Americans respect others' beliefs," said Titis Andari, another student from Indonesia who stayed with a family in San Jose, California. "They saw me as a person and were interested in my faith as a Muslim. I was not only able to learn about American culture but also to share with my friends and host family about Islam."
She discussed the difference between the views of individual Americans and the policies of the U.S. government, saying: "Before I came, I believed all Americans loved war. But during my stay here, I saw how some Americans supported the war in Iraq, and some did not; and how American society allowed many differences of opinion."
Students in the YES program live with American host families from diverse backgrounds, attend school, and participate in activities to learn about American society and values, acquire leadership skills, and inform Americans about their countries and cultures.
The group that included Dedi, Sarah and Titis was the second to participate in the YES project and included 70 students from Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt and Turkey. They were scattered across 20 American states.
At the conclusion of their stay, the students were invited to Washington to meet with ECA officials and attend events at the U.S. Congress, the Holocaust Museum, the National Museum of American History and the Indonesian Embassy.
Patricia Harrison, assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, has said the YES program is vital to expanding communication between the people of the United States and partner countries in the interest of promoting mutual understanding and respect.
Another student interviewed by the Washington File, Jaziel Lon of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, talked about his experience with a host family in the small town of Garden City, Kansas.
"Everyone wanted to learn about where I was from and (about) Malaysian culture," he said. "One of best things about America was its sense of equality to people with handicaps," he said, noting that he himself is partially blind. He said that he wanted to bring greater awareness to his community about people with disabilities.
The YES program is the first U.S. government-sponsored high school exchange program for students from Nigeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Jordan, West Bank/Gaza, Egypt, Kuwait, Malaysia, Syria, Yemen, Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia. In the program's first year, 160 students participated. The State Department plans to increase the number to 480 students next year and to include students from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, India, Morocco, Oman, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the Arab community in Israel.
ping..
This YES program sponsored by the US State Department smells like a boondoggle, and US taxpayers (federal, state and local) are being taken for a ride to pay for this nonsense!
This couldn't possibly be true, all I ever hear is how terrible we are. The left reminds me of it all the time.
One down, about half a billion to go...
Gotta start somewhere, but I hope we're checking these students VERY thoroughly.
I was actually really encouraged by this article, then I saw where it came from. Now wonder, they left out all the seething resentment because Abdullah was picked on in some highschool.
Maybe the state dept found a few good schools where the students were treated as equals but around here they would be beat up for lunch money, sold drugs on shcool property, and belittled for their cultural differences (and I must add, at MOST public schools)
I don't see this as a positive, but as a sign of a dying culture.
Why?
Even though it's a press release from the U.S. State Dept., it still raises some very interesting points.
There is a very well-known program in the state university system of California, which tries to accomplish similar goals by bringing over diverse groupings of foreign exchange students, and housing them in the same dormitory for a semester.
Even though it is a very mixed bag in some respects, e.g. Khalad Sheik Muhammad, "Chemical Sally" and the progenitor of modern day radical Islam as we know it, Sayid Qutb, had all received postgraduate education at American Universities or colleges before returning to their native countries, I think that these sorts of programs have an overall beneficial impact to America's foreign relations with other parts of the globe.
Some of the most eloquent, thoughtful and vocal proponents of freedom in the "developing" world, e.g. Saeddin Ibrahim, the current president of the Republic of Georgia, et. al., are imbued with the values they learned and/or communicated during time spent on American campuses.
If it weren't for the outreach of America to these people, and others, like Ajami, Makiya, etc., our country's academic life would be very stultifying and doctrinaire, which would diminish all of us, as citizens and participants in our representative republic.
We definitely need to look into expanding these sorts of civic institutions, which could serve as the building blocks of democracy in lands ruled over by despotic regimes, which would not ordinarily be open to intellectual discourse.
More often than not, these students end up getting very 'Americanized' in a way their parents do not like *LOL* Also, there's a man by the name of Hank Hanegraaf who sponsored a muslim student for a year and he ended up converting to christianity.
If anything, at least these muslims can see that when Americans disagree, they don't blow each other up.
The actual program, I believe it's at Stanford, but I'm not positive, was featured on a PBS special a few years ago.
It was something that was initiated at the best of a wealthy philanthropist, who believed in the open exchange of ideas across linguistic/cultural/national boundaries.
Personally, I believe that the only good thing about the BBC is its "Talk Balk" segments.
I've always been amazed at how people who live under the most repressive conditions are able to voice their opinions because they have access to wireless technology.
It's very encouraging to think that there are at least some people in a place as remote as Malawi who happen to agree with your opinion on any given subject.
Many nations sponsor such programs. Japan sponsored my sister in a homestay which she loved.
Good... and the cartoons are great but tv is a bit lame. She said Japan is a sex paradide for Western boys but that's another thread. The technology coming out of Japan probably puts US twenty years behind.
The purpose of life is to know, love and serve God in this life, and to be happy forever with Him in the next. Therefore, our salvation, and the salvation of our neighbor, should be of paramount importance to us. Indifference to the religion of others represents indifference to their salvation, and is an evil. (That we should coerce others into belief does not necessarily follow from this truth, however).
Revelation 3:16So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to vomit you out of my mouth.
Sometimes I ask people about their religion of choice. I know some muslims and most are muslims because of reasons other than the God of the Quaran. I think people don't ask about religion because religion is a private thing (but they can grill someone about other things like lifestyle,race,etc.). Why religion is so different is a mystery to me.
Though, we're fast approaching Japanese quality xxx-rated material.
I suppose that's good for perverts.
I don't know about the rest of us though.
My sister studied the correlation of violence and hentai. She'd probably agree that the cartoons are pretty sick.
What is she planning on doing now that she's got her baccalaureate?
She's a group leader at a travel camp. I think she will go to Vietnam to teach english afterwards. Japan is way too expensive to live in. Vietnam is desperately trying to woo tourists and also learn english. I don't see her living in this country five years from now.
The idea of traveling abroad appeals to me in the abstract.
However, when I actually encounter tourists from other countries, and quickly discover that they're just as stupid-if not more so-than the people who I've grown up with, that feeling begins to dissipate.
If I was ever going to travel anywhere, it would probably be to one of those steep Himalayan mountain ranges.
Not that I'd be idiotic enough to actually attempt to climb one of them.
I just happen to think those Sherpa guides are really neat.
More garbage from the State Department trying to justify its kumbaya programs.
Mohammad Atta and his friends spent lots of time in the West. Palestinians are being arrested in Chicago on terrorism-related charges. American universities are becoming vicious hotbeds of anti-American, anti-semitic expression and physical attacks against those who disagree.
Yes, there is an effect from bringing unreconstructed America-haters into close contact with impressionable Americans. It's the same effect that you get when cyanide comes into contact with the human digestive system.
Take this promotional ad with a VERY big bag of salt.
It is more than likely that, IF these students are real and IF they try to educate their peers in their home countries about the REAL US, it is the students who will receive the education - at the risk of being beheaded - by their "peaceful" Muslim peers.
I found people who didn't really care. I mean a lot of people didn't even ask what religion I was.Not at all. It's the sign of a healthy culture, one that judges people not on their race or religion, but their character and ability.I don't see this as a positive, but as a sign of a dying culture.
Actually, this story isn't news. When I was in college in the early to mid 1980s, the students from the middle east almost always became more "Americanized" the longer they were here, with correspondingly more positive attitudes toward this nation. Indeed, of all the Asian-origin groups, they were the most likely to assimilate.
-Eric
Nope -- as Heinlein explained, it is the presence of rudeness (not the absence of the gross rudeness you champion) that indicates cultural rot.
Great Ghu -- as far around the bend as you've gone on other threads, I honestly never expected you to assert with a straight face that common courtesy was "evil".
I don't see the difference, either -- none of these subjects should be gratuitously introduced into polite conversation.
Who's Heinlein, and why should I care what he thinks?
Hey Osama, I'm not thrilled by our Congress's track record either, both domestically and abroad, but that doeesn't mean that mass murder won't bring massive reprisals.
Sometimes I wonder how differently I might feel if the two planes that hit The Towers had hit the Capitol and White House instead. After some bad days, like the day when CFR shredded the First Amendment, I think I might only get as angry as I do at the 6-o'clock news (rather than the burning rage that I will harbor for life).
I'd like to think that, but from what I've observed, young people (and most people in our society) absolutely don't care about their religion or the religion of others. They are absolutely indifferent to salvation and religion.
It's easy to tolerate others' beliefs when you don't care about their beliefs.
This represents an extremely dangerous societal condition because a culture that has lost its sense of purpose is fundamentally unstable, and can go in any direction. "The road to damnation is wide."
Really, this is even lamer than your previous evasions of the issue at hand (which is saying something).
What makes an "absolute" absence of religiou prejudice somehow disturbing? (No, you don't get to evade the question by throwing in examples involving human sacrifice or some other immoral act sanctioned by Religion X. The original comment of the subthread stipulated that "character" is a proper basis for judgment.)
That's a fair point. I rarely bring up religion directly because people's backs tend to go up, and the net effect can be counterproductive.
But if I was introduced to a Muslim transfer student, and had the opportunity to talk to him at length, I would surely bring up his religion, particularly because the religion is so militant and dangerous.
[picking jaw up from floor]
You may not be aware of this, but you come across as rude.
Repeating what I said earlier:
The purpose of life is to know, love and serve God in this life, and to be happy forever with Him in the next. Therefore, our salvation, and the salvation of our neighbor, should be of paramount importance to us. Indifference to the religion of others represents indifference to their salvation, and is an evil. (That we should coerce others into belief does not necessarily follow from this truth, however).A society that has lost its sense of purpose is inherently unstable. Heaven is our ultimate goal. If we don't choose Heaven, well...Revelation 3:16So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to vomit you out of my mouth.
Matthew 7:13"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
Someone who deplores the common courtesy of not pestering perfect strangers with questions about their religion finds that I "come across as rude".
[ BILL COSBY ] Riiiiggggght. [ /BILL COSBY ]
In my youth, the question would've been, Who's Aquinas? :)
His sci-fi kicked some major ass!
I'm proud of what I heard the other night, in the health club, Presidential Politics came up and I could not help but from overhearing.
The white man, should I say (?) , was from a Union and was pro-Democrat.
To keep it short, who was for Bush? A Somalian; and that country of Somalia with many immigrants here in the Twin Cities seem to be largely Moslem if not all of them.
I just wonder about their general mindset.
I've had no problems with a number of Moslems on a personal basis; but the news makes me grimace.
A few blips in the news, have had Somalians tied to Terrorist. I was out at the Minneapolis St. Paul airport one night and where the Taxi Drivers are who are mostly Somalians, the taxis were all being checked and searched on their way in to their parking lot at the airport.
Same here. All I knew was that he probably spent his time arguing about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. The enemies of truth are good at what they do.
Learning the media is lying about America is not "nonsense". I think this is a great program.
You can only dislike this program if you are a liberal and don't want the rest of the world to know how GOOD AMERICA IS.
Yep. KSM went to North Carolina A & T in Greensboro. I believe another freeper went there at about the same time.
The most famous graduate of University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, a small state university, was Sayyid Qutb, the intellectual godfather of radical Islam.
Qutb's magnam opus, "Milestones", was in fact, written after he attended school in the United States. In fact, his description of the licentiousness of a Christian youth mixer is one of the most disturbing, yet unintentionally hilarious portions of Qutb's work.
You're very intelligent for one in a long production-line of man/monkey hybrids .
Good work!
Sorry about that.
Sometimes I just can't resist.
These screen names are just too tempting a target.
(Contemplative, philosophical, facial expression.)
Oh, now you've gone and done it. Mock me, will you? IT'S ON LIKE DONKEY KONG, BEE-YOTCH!
Thanks. I spent a summer at CSU in Fort Collins. I knew some recent UNC grads from a Bible study. Never told them about Qutb. Not exactly a credit to his alma mater.
Then again, my alma mater produced Alan Dershowitz, Harvey Pitt and Barbara Boxer, so I can't even begin to throw stones.
He also-to the best of my recollection-did a stint in the special forces during his brief time living in the United States.
Now he's back in Somalia, either causing trouble, or helping us to fight Islamic terrorism, depending on whose opinion you find most reliable and trustworthy.
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