I'm a junior in the School of Communication, so naturally I love television. But since all the trashy soap operas in Berlin are incomprehensible, I flip on the international news and am thus reduced to a sorry state of utter confusion.
The past two weeks, seemingly unremarkable in the wake of Mother Nature flipping out hardcore on the U.S., have me quaking in my Converse. International media helps soothe my aching nerves as our president, while in South America, has this befuddled expression like, "Wait - these are Americans?!" Maybe I take comfort in BBC World's abundance of British accents - especially since, for the first time in a while, my vested interest is in a string of events outside of the U.S.
The rioting in Paris is perhaps the most fascinating and relevant international news issue today. All I can do is just sit here and hope that the U.S. is adequately portraying this street-side strife that stems from social stratification and startlingly similar conditions to the U.S. These suburban citizens are angry in part because their government has chosen to ignore the glaring issue of poverty and, as I see it, are utilizing the only means they see available to them to communicate that frustration.
I don't condone this use of violence, but this is one rare moment where I actually understand. "Mon dieu, the Renault Clios are burning!" cry those who are unaffected. Those cars are ugly anyway.
The rioting is allegedly en route to Berlin due to the local high Turkish population in friction over employment, education and language. Meanwhile, I've heard a great deal of romanticizing lately regarding these socio-economic riots as some kind of "New French Revolution," a la the student uprisings against Charles de Gaulle in the spring of 1968. Similar student revolutions were staged in West Berlin (and the U.S. and Mexico, but in a different climate) at the same time and it generally seemed like this was a grand time to be a young, bourgeois radical in capitalist Europe. Still, the revolutions of 1968 were remarkably different than these riots. Applying romanticized ideals to a situation that is in fact not the same at all seems undeniably na?ve.
Watching the news, as reporters try to hide their American accents, the coverage waivers between angered reproach of dangerous hoodlums and some feelings of indignation towards a misguided French government. The U.S. State Department recently issued some sort of memorandum to any American citizens in France, basically warning them to avoid evildoers, lest we become all riled up ourselves. Between the double takes on television and imprudent advice from the homeland, I am actually reminded more of the terminology used in post-hurricane Louisiana.
If that doesn't send home the message that the social conditions in France and Germany are no better or worse than the U.S., I wonder what will. The violent response to erroneous social policies seems like the consequence of a long and difficult struggle between an embittered population and a dangerously blind government - and I only wonder when the very same response is due for the U.S. The vice president's approval rate is what, 19 percent? That basically puts him in the same ranks as pedophiles, right?
In the wake of a truly nasty revelation of our social, political and racial underbelly, in addition to the same problems being violently confronted abroad, it is our failure not to preemptively provide discourse on urban planning, the environment and lifting people out of poverty. If there is one thing that I have learned from my exposure to international media, it is that.
I realize that this is my second consecutive column with a serious Debbie Downer complex. But I swear I don't sit here and ponder the ill of the world and feel sorry for being an American. I actually sort of miss the place, especially free refills and Target. But I suppose another life lesson has been this newfound perspective that we're all humans here, experiencing vulnerability, frustration and elation on rather similar levels. Ever since I first noticed that I was more captivated by exploding Peugots in Paris than I was with the redundant realization that the Bush administration is nothing but foul play, I finally feel like I'm seeing this messy planet through a global lens.
