How did I get back to the U.S.S.R ?.

In my Middle Eastern Comparative Politics class we were assigned to do a group project and presentation for 20% of our grade in small groups of 4-6. Apart from the teacher's inability to organize things or provide adequate information, I finally landed in a group that seemed perfect. We had been instructed that all groups must have Egyptian and American students in it, and I was lucky to get two wonderful, nice, and extremely motivated Egyptian girls, Nora and Soraya, and Ford, a 3rd year at Tufts from Charleston, SC (I swear I become more Southern every day- I was so excited about our shared "southerness" even though he's studying up north) .

The major issue facing every group was deciding on a topic. The broad categories were things like Gaza, Iraq, post-colonial Egypt, etc. Not very instructive for finding something that can properly be analyzed in 5 pages and a 15 minute presentation. My group was going to do something on the Egyptian elections and the teacher assistant suggested that we look at Tunisia, who had recently had their first multi-party election in Oct. 2004 and faced similar circumstances, like having the same leader since the 1980s, a mostly secular government, and so forth. When the four of us met today, we faced many more problems than I had expected. I was amused after the meeting because beforehand I was talking to Soraya, and learning about her years spent in London, time in the US, German high-school education, and thinking that we would probably work really well together on the project because our education seemed pretty compatible, apart from the fact that she had a much more European focus.

I should preface this next part by saying that I still feel good about our group and think we'll all work out our differences, but what I think I learned about all four of us in our meeting was much more about how we had been taught to research than about anything that separated us culturally, for these girls had had very westernized education and lived all over the place. Ford and I immediately latched on to the Tunisia-Egypt paper because we thought they had enough in common on a surface level that we could get really analytical with a particular aspect of the electoral process, such as political participation or opposition party access or transparency, etc. The girls hated the topic and were suggesting things like "Does Democracy work in the Middle East" or "Is there a possibility for a Middle Eastern Union" or "US inolvement in Egypt." All of which would be very fascinating, but we had some difficulties talking about the aspects of a five page paper that make this extremely difficult. They both said they knew all about Egypt and were fine with it, and one of the girls has a lot of knowledge about Iran, so she wanted to do that, but that Tunisia was a complete stranger to them.

I really don't mean to demean their suggestions or imply that Ford and I knew what we should do and they didn't, because their excitement and desire to do something really important and thoroughly was really obvious, while Ford and I were unfortunately clearly less passionate. Their knowledge of the Middle East will definately be essential for our paper and presentation and I know we'll be much better off because of it. (Their idealism when talking about the Egyptian elections and movement toward democracy was refreshing compared to the cynicism Ford and I shared about what it meant). I think what was really fundamentally different about our approaches was that both Ford and I were looking for what could be analyzed well in a 5 page paper, thinking more about the logistics than about interest, and they were focusing first on big ideas that excite them. I guess I'm about to contradict the point I thought I would originally make, because the more I think about this the more I think that I could have the exact same differences in groups in America ( group projects are in general frustrating) and think nothing of it, but now that I'm here I start to wonder about things like educational psychology and the methodology for how we were taught, and whether or not the other groups will face similar problems or if other differences will appear. Leave it to me to be more interested in the sociology behind the group projects than the actual project itself! I think I'm going to be asking people questions about this.

It was also interesting to note how both of the girls were really interested in studying the US's affect on the elections or other aspects, while I felt a little "ihh" on the subject. Oh we self-centered Americans- we just take for granted that we have tremendous affects on other countries without really being concerned about it. I remember talking to my friend Anna about her experience in Mexico this summer and her sharing that the Mexicans (at least the ones she was working with on the border) were so concerned with all of America's policies because they had such an enormous effect. As Egypt is at least the #2 (maybe now #1) recipient of U.S. foreign aid, they clearly also feel pretty immediately the strength of American policy. I guess we are one of the few countries of the world that can largely ignore how other nations exert influence over us and what that means about our sovereignty or future, etc. The Cold War and growing interest in China come the closest, I suppose, to us really noticing and evaluating what each move by the other will mean for us. Any thoughts? Anyone studying foreign educational methodology or globalization or national identity want to chime in? : ) I know I have lots of readers who were around during the Cold War, this baby didn't even know that the wall was falling when it fell. Maybe some of you could share about the thoughts and attitudes you had or observed regarding the influence of the Soviet Union.


Well, that was a sprawling entry, wasn't it? Feel free to comment- I really would like there to be more interaction and discussion- I often feel like I'm just as bad at sharing or explaining how Americans view the Middle East as how Middle Easterners view America because I haven't been around for so many of the events that have really shaped American attitudes.

Just because I've gotten all philosophical I have to ask one more question, just to put it out there. I would like to know, after having read The Autobiography of Malcom X (incredible book, by the way, particularly inspiring for the ability for the heart and mind to change ) how the movement known as Nation of Islam helped shape contemporary American opinion of global Islam. I should do some more research on this.

That was so long! Sorry!