New Arabic-Language Documentary Series, "On the Road in America"

[PopHistorian]

(http:/)/www.layalina.tv/

I saw a news report about this TV series, On the Road in America produced by Washington DC-based Layalina Productions, which shows a group of Arab students traveling across the US, meeting people, and discovering how nice everyone is. It purports to be bridging the gap between cultures and educating people about each other.

This sounds all lovely, even if the intention is positive (although we have evidence that other Arabic-language TV programming made in Washington is not). Regardless, I think it is CoIntelPro in effect. And as DonJHunt famously wrote, "If it's on TV, it's CoIntelPro."

IMO, this TV program (at least as covered in the news) is ignorant of (or deliberately avoids) the point. There are "nice," ordinary people everywhere -- but also everywhere is a tiny population at the top of the political and business power structures who turn populations against each other for their own, self-serving purposes. People need to look to their own local leaders and their media allies to see who it is that cynically foments hatred among ordinary people. IMO, the result of showing ordinary folks of differing cultures meeting each other a few at a time is mere distraction at best, and ignorance transmitted in the name of education at worst. I took a few minutes to write exactly this opinion to Layalina TV on their email form.

 

[Alana]

I checked out the link, and as a non Arab ,yet "alien" (that's the sign we non-Americans had to go under upon entering JFK airport on arrival), i have to say, the show is not reality based. I traveled throughout the US while living there, and indeed there were people who were really helpful and hospitable. They asked questions about our culture, and answered to our questions. We made friends and the difference in our backgrounds instead of producing uncomfortable moments, was reason to cry from laughing out loud. On the other far side, there were people who would seem extremely suspicious and give us a hard time, just because we spoke in a language they did not understand. Those people would never ask questions about where we are from, what language we spoke and we encountered them mostly in MidWest areas, though samples of same were everywhere. Now, in NYC, mostly nobody cared where you are from, as long as you don't walk slow on the pavement.

I am sure that whenever a foreigner visits a country, they will meet with a variation of greetings, because people are different and where they live and how much interaction they have had from experience with people from other cultures varies, i would think.

So as far as i understand from reading the little paragraphs alone, this documentary is "staged" in a way, and i wonder whether the reason is (apart from what you already wrote Adpod) to create the impression: Look, we Americans are nice to you Arab people, so why are those of you performing terrorist attacks on us?

The fact also that the group of students on the journey are Arabs (while the propaganda of evil Arabic terrorists runs rampant in media)and the outcome from it is the Arabs saying "they (US citizens) are nice to us", by itself promotes the idea of the clash of civilizations, the us vs them way of thinking, as i see it.