Pen-Elayne on the Web

None of Our Business

Last night we caught the tail end of an AMC documentary about Hollywood and the Muslim World. Overall it was pretty informative, but contrary to Real Arab/Real Americans' breathless reassurance that "It's highly unusual for American television programs not to present an American point of view, but this entire one-hour documentary consists solely of Arab voices. No American opinions are expressed," the American POV was more than present in the narration, as "award-winning" documentarian Charlie Stuart seemed to intone "What he/she had to say really surprised me" a few too many times to make it 100% credible. Is Stuart, credentialed out the wazoo, honestly that provincial? Goodness, this is the same person who did Into the Shadows: The CIA In Hollywood, should any affect American culture has on the rest of the world truly surprise him? That it would surprise viewers may come as no shock, of course. American culture, which these days goes hand and hand with American business, is incredibly pervasive in many Arab countries. One eloquent young man said he thinks this inescapable invasion of secular capitalism (or, more accurately, capitalism as a substitute for spiritualism) was one of the main things driving many young folks toward a more fundamentalist mindset. Chew on that: our culture - more accurately, our way of doing business, whether it's show business or the shoe business - might be creating terrorists by its very ubiquity. If you can ignore Stuart's repeated "I was amazed!"s, this docu is very worth watching. [Robin is convinced that it was no coincidence to air a docu observing that, among other things, American movies crank out piss-poor stereotypes of Arab cultures, right before a showing of Midnight Express. "Muslim stereotypes are bad - now, here's a movie about a Turkish prison!"]

Also musing about the business of America is Jeanne D'Orleans (yes, it's All Jeanne All The Time Day here at Pen-Elayne), who pretty much expresses how I feel every time I hear the phrase "American interests" (i.e., that whenever it's uttered I invariably assume the word "business" is implied between "American" and "interests").