"I'm Muslim, this is why I wear the scarf."
"I'm different from other Iraqi kids. I love hardcore metal. And I think the life sucks."
"We learn about you through movies. Don't you think movies are a good depiction of your life?"
"If the sanctions were lifted, I would study in NYC or L.A. But I can't now, it's just to expensive."
"I wasn't here during the Gulf War, but all Iraqis felt something, we are all family and we have all lost family. Now Bush's son is doing it again. You want more dead children? Don't you get enough from Palestine?"
"Why can't we just live? Forget about war? Why didn't Bush accept the talks?"
"We are ready to fight American troops; we have the right to defend ourselves."
"We want our countries to be friends."
"Iraqi people don't hate everyone."
"I prefer to stay home and worry about my parents, even though my father wants me to travel."
"You must help us, we are the young people of the future!"
"We are trying to forget about what is happening now. You never know when you're going to die, maybe this'll be our last smile. We are Muslims; we believe in Fate, and you cannot predict Fate. If it your time then you are done."
"We get The Simpsons, but no one here likes it too much. Most like Tom and Jerry better."
"What do you know about the Backstreet Boys? I love them."
"Yes, Eminem is known here. But what do you know about Arabic music?"
"I hope we will live in Peace forever, if we all cooperate with each other by God's will. The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. We'd like to invite you all over here and have you pay us a visit."

Bridge to Baghdad : A Youth Dialogue
Saturday, March 1, 2003
11:30am to 2:00pm.
The DCTV Cyberstudio

"In a time of escalating international tension, the voice of younger generations has been given little role in media coverage and public dialogue. Yet, today's youths have as much at stake as anyone in current events; maybe more so, as they will inherit the consequences (good and bad) of our leaders' decisions.

Now, a coalition of media groups and youth advocates around the world are working to give younger voices the opportunity to speak up.

Bridge to Baghdad -- a special program from the Downtown Community Television Center and NextNext Entertainment, gave American and Iraqi youths the opportunity to discuss their lives, their cultures and their politics, via a live, satellite conversation.
This dialogue featured American panelists in their teens and twenties: native-born and immigrant; Muslim, Jewish, Christian; students and servicemen; hawks and doves. The Americans were joined by young Iraqis speaking from Baghdad, and a live audience of students in NYC.

The program used technology that transcends time zones, travel restrictions and national borders to bring international youth into the public dialogue. This discussion will turn into a program for television and the Internet.
The satellite link connected 2 community centers -- DCTV's Cyberstudio in lower Manhattan, and Iraq's first community arts center in Baghdad.

DCTV is a community media arts center with the mission of democratizing the media and an emphasis on giving the younger generation tools to connect with and educate one another. Its Director, Jon Alpert, is an Emmy award-winning journalist who has made his way to Baghdad for this program. NextNext Entertainment is launching its new program, Chat the Planet, which will create dialogues like this one among youth around the world. Its President, Laurie Meadoff, is known for establishing the CityKids Foundation to empower youth voice."

Above text courtesy of http://www.dctvny.org and provided for background information.

7 Iraqi students are seated in front of a television screen at the Orfali Community Arts Center in Baghdad. It is Saturday evening, March 1, 2003, and those students are waiting to connect with 6 American students in NYC, all seated in the studio that belongs to the Downtown Community Television Center on Lafayette Street. The audience on both sides is made up of men and women young and old, probably ranging from 15 to 50.

As the audience waits for the satellite to connect both parts of the world, we anticipate the subject matter. Will they let us ask questions about Saddam? Will they be honest? What will they want to ask us? Will there be tension?

Nothing really hits home, though, until the students appear on the screen with bemused glances and wide smiles, making me think that they're probably wondering the same thing as we are. Will anything come of this?

The Downtown Community Television Center, aka DCTV, was founded in 1972 in an effort to help "teach people, particularly members of low-income and minority communities, to produce insightful and artistic television." Not only is this an admirable cause, it's an effective one. The chances of most people, student or not, getting an opportunity to speak and listen to students across the world in a time of strife, of war, is relatively slim, and it's unfortunate.

As a brief introduction to the panel, the NYC studio showed us video clips made by the students with whom the panel would be speaking, and the subject matter was, at times, humorous, but through it all, a reality check. With these clips, we were able to see how the students live on a regular basis, their homes, their schools, their neighborhoods. In 48 hours any one of these scenes could be a pile of concrete and rising dust.

Because of the 7-second time lag through the satellite, there were awkward silences at moments, as well as speakers who unintentionally overrode each other. NYC hosts Vanessa Rae and Gotham Chopra (son of Deepak) directed the conversation, at times a bit too much, but they helped ease tensions, and, for the most part, allowed the panel members to ask direct and informative questions.

The Orfali Community Arts Center is the first of its kind (non-profit, as well) in Baghdad. Young people "hang out" there, playing guitar, working on projects and relaxing. The first clip even shows us a group of young men strumming and singing along to "Knockin' on Heaven's Door."

While many of us were probably anticipating discussion about the impending war, it was enlightening to be exposed to other relevant information. Education, for instance, is free in Iraq, but replete with limitations to which students in the States have no adherence. The vocation is arranged according to students' marks; and, according to these students, studying anything other than that is nearly impossible. "We have more chances to attend school because it is free, but you have more facilities and options," says one female student.

When asked about how they were educated in American history, Suha, a young woman, pointed out that they had books and other resources for information, but, for the most part, they felt the most accurate representation of American life could be found in the movies. "Don't you think that the movies are a good depiction of your lives?" she asks.

Suha is a young woman who wears a head scarf, part of the traditional garb for Muslim women in Iraq and other predominantly Muslim areas, but it is not forced upon her. She does it out of her own volition, "it is ok with me, I'm used to it and I like it." It's important to recognize that not every Muslim woman is forced to wear variations on the head-to-toe covering, but there certain families and communities that hold their female counterparts to this expectation worldwide. (In fact, in Turkey the headscarf was abolished by Ataturk, leader of the New Republic, because he felt that the head covering for women, as well as the fez for men, were part of a backwards approach to a progressive society. This was in the beginning of the 20th century. Now, however, many women are rebelling against this "progressive" tactic and have resorted to wearing the scarves again for various reasons, only to be shut out of schools and jobs. But that's another story, one that cannot begin to be explained within this article…)

When asked where the students see themselves in 10 years, one of the male students replied "Here in Iraq, because now I'm educated and it is time to serve my country. I have skills and I should settle down here." This sort of response is indicative of what occurs within many Muslim communities, the tight knit, familial feeling that all members of a community are meant to help and support one another. Additionally, it's remarkable to hear a response like that from a young man in his twenties, considering that in the States the twenties are considered a time of liberation after rebellion, when all young men and women go out on their own and leave family behind, so to speak, until they themselves are ready to settle down.

After the initial pleasantries and pop culture questions ("Do you like Britney Spears? "We get The Simpsons, but no one here likes it too much. Most like Tom and Jerry better." "What do you know about the Backstreet Boys? I love them." "Yes, Eminem is known here. But what do you know about Arabic music?"), the discussion began to get a bit more heated.

When asked if people in Iraq were allowed to demonstrate against what they felt to be wrong or harmful to their livelhood, one student replied "Yes, of course! We did it with the Zionists in Palestine," and then proceeded to thank US for demonstrating against the impending war. While I suspect that perhaps the students abroad may not have been at full liberty to disclose their innermost thoughts about Iraqi politics and Saddam, I have to wonder sometimes, how much do they really know about what he has done and how he has repressed them? I write this as an inqisitive writer, not a feminist American who has lived in the lap of luxury and expects all others to see my point of view. But many people in this country, especially youth, are convinced that Iraqi citizens are verbally repressed and mentally unaware of much that's gone on. The question is, who are we to question their ability to demonstrate and their need to be vocal? Do we really know for sure that they are unaware of what happens around them? How do they really feel about their president, and will they ever be able to speak with honesty, if they don't already?

When pressed further, Suha, at this point very vocal, stated that "the Iraqis are very evolutionary. If they don't like their ruler, they will get rid of him." Did she mean "revolutionary," perhaps? "We feel he represents us and supports us." Many a groan and whisper erupted in the NYC audience after that comment, and there was a great deal of frustration on the part of all individuals in the NYC panel – how could any of us express our desire to know and learn about what they want to improve in their country if they are such staunch supporters of someone like Saddam? Again, it reminds us that we are not at full liberty to make judgements; not now, not ever. This is a culture that is not ours, not familiar to us. And while we have the freedom to demonstrate in ways that many other cultures and countries do not, there is more to fight for than being able to scream in the face of disobedience; there are people elsewhere who may need or want our help, and we cannot assume that wearing the American flag is going to make the difference. Helping an oppressed people is done by attempting to understand and assimilate to the very cultures in which we want to operate. We abide by their rules and learn to work with them. It's not necessarily the other way around.

Eric, a NYC panelist, started a series of questioning that added to the intensity of the moment, near the end of the discussion.

"Many Iraqi defectors are here and are supporting Bush's decision to get rid of Saddam. Why do you think that is?"

"Because they are not Iraqis! There is no one in the world who is a human being who would tell someone to bomb their own country."

Faced with hostility and anxiety, Eric continued. "I think Saddam has the chance to get rid of his weapons of mass destruction, and he hasn't, so he should be deposed, by invasion if necessary."

"Why should we change the government? Would you like it if I came over to your country and got rid of Bush?"

Special thanks to Justin Krebs of DCTV, for inviting me to attend.

For more information on the panel and when it will be aired, please check out http://www.dctvny.org

2003 1-42 Online