![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I've been watching "The New Americans" on PBS the past 2 nights (3rd and final part is tomorrow). Interesting program--it follows 5 sets of new immigrants before and after their arrival in the USA, and you get to see how their ideas of America and its people change. It's funny: they were interviewing an Ogoni refugee at his tent in a camp in Benin, talking about him going to Chicago, and he knew about the Bulls and the NBA. It can be hard for an American, immersed in the culture and its realities, to think about how people--even ones in a refugee camp in west Africa--know about and perceive it.
One segment has been hard for me to watch in a way, because it's about a Palestinian bride from the West Bank. It can be really hard to detach yourself from the politics, even though the filmmakers (different producers handled the different segments) have been very cautious--it's such a volatile issue; anything that even touches on it has to be handled with kid gloves. Of course there's some talk of the family's background, but the producers have minimized any chance for it to be viewed as a vehicle for presenting a viewpoint on the conflict. For example, yes, you see Naima going through a checkpoint on her way to al-Quds university, but it's not presented as "the evil Israelis stopping the Palestinians from moving". (It helped that this portion of filming was done in '98/'99, when things were relatively quiet. There were still checkpoints into Jerusalem then, because Hamas hadn't gone totally quiet, but it was nothing like now.) There was one thing I did notice. Naima's mother was talking about her first son, who'd died in the intifada. It was in Arabic, and subtitled in English. The subtitles said something about the Israelis, but I distinctly caught the word "yahud" in the Arabic--I recognized it because Jew is "yehudi" in Hebrew. I wonder if PBS deliberately mistranslated it. Of course, since I don't speak Arabic and can't translate the whole phrase, it could just be a coincidence.
The politics were much more in evidence during the Nigerian segment, partly because it's much less politically charged to criticize Nigeria (especially under Abacha), but also because one of the refugees they focused on was Ken Saro-Wiwa's sister Barine. (Although at the beginning, Shell got a little too much criticism for its actions in the Delta. Shell's disregard for the environment [or, for that matter, most oil company conduct in the Niger Delta] was horrendous, but the primary failure was that of the Nigerian government to deal fairly with oil wealth or the needs of Nigeria's ethnic groups, and then use violent and repressive tactics to enable a small clique to profit from the oil industry at the expense of ordinary Nigerians. The government let Shell [and others] in, let them take the oil, and demanded only that they share the money with the federal government. There weren't even any environmental regulations for Shell to violate.)
The other 2 segments so far have been Dominican ballplayers coming to the US (I can't even imagine the culture shock, coming from Santo Domingo to Great Falls, Montana, and living with American hosts named Ole and Marie who don't speak Spanish) and a Mexican trying to bring his wife and 6 kids to Kansas where he works in a meatpacking plant. The fifth, which will be introduced tomorrow, is an Indian computer programmer coming from Bangalore to Silicon Valley.
It's interesting watching how people adapt to America and its way of life--Barine's daughters trying to fit in with the American kids at school, for example. Or Naima, who wanted to leave the West Bank because it was so conservative, adjusting to her Palestinian-American husband (he speaks with a Chicago accent, plays basketball, and doesn't worry about eating in public during Ramadan) and becoming homesick.
I'll miss PBS :( (Yes, you've got the BBC, but they fight for ratings these days :) )
One segment has been hard for me to watch in a way, because it's about a Palestinian bride from the West Bank. It can be really hard to detach yourself from the politics, even though the filmmakers (different producers handled the different segments) have been very cautious--it's such a volatile issue; anything that even touches on it has to be handled with kid gloves. Of course there's some talk of the family's background, but the producers have minimized any chance for it to be viewed as a vehicle for presenting a viewpoint on the conflict. For example, yes, you see Naima going through a checkpoint on her way to al-Quds university, but it's not presented as "the evil Israelis stopping the Palestinians from moving". (It helped that this portion of filming was done in '98/'99, when things were relatively quiet. There were still checkpoints into Jerusalem then, because Hamas hadn't gone totally quiet, but it was nothing like now.) There was one thing I did notice. Naima's mother was talking about her first son, who'd died in the intifada. It was in Arabic, and subtitled in English. The subtitles said something about the Israelis, but I distinctly caught the word "yahud" in the Arabic--I recognized it because Jew is "yehudi" in Hebrew. I wonder if PBS deliberately mistranslated it. Of course, since I don't speak Arabic and can't translate the whole phrase, it could just be a coincidence.
The politics were much more in evidence during the Nigerian segment, partly because it's much less politically charged to criticize Nigeria (especially under Abacha), but also because one of the refugees they focused on was Ken Saro-Wiwa's sister Barine. (Although at the beginning, Shell got a little too much criticism for its actions in the Delta. Shell's disregard for the environment [or, for that matter, most oil company conduct in the Niger Delta] was horrendous, but the primary failure was that of the Nigerian government to deal fairly with oil wealth or the needs of Nigeria's ethnic groups, and then use violent and repressive tactics to enable a small clique to profit from the oil industry at the expense of ordinary Nigerians. The government let Shell [and others] in, let them take the oil, and demanded only that they share the money with the federal government. There weren't even any environmental regulations for Shell to violate.)
The other 2 segments so far have been Dominican ballplayers coming to the US (I can't even imagine the culture shock, coming from Santo Domingo to Great Falls, Montana, and living with American hosts named Ole and Marie who don't speak Spanish) and a Mexican trying to bring his wife and 6 kids to Kansas where he works in a meatpacking plant. The fifth, which will be introduced tomorrow, is an Indian computer programmer coming from Bangalore to Silicon Valley.
It's interesting watching how people adapt to America and its way of life--Barine's daughters trying to fit in with the American kids at school, for example. Or Naima, who wanted to leave the West Bank because it was so conservative, adjusting to her Palestinian-American husband (he speaks with a Chicago accent, plays basketball, and doesn't worry about eating in public during Ramadan) and becoming homesick.
I'll miss PBS :( (Yes, you've got the BBC, but they fight for ratings these days :) )