|
Voices From the Middle East:
Ala Owaineh
"Our generation is pretty disillusioned."
Listen
to this Commentary!
By Ala Owaineh
Hello everyone. I’m Ala’a Owaineh, and I’m
talking to you from Bethlehem, Palestine. Since the war in Iraq started, nothing
has changed. I can’t do anything — I haven’t been to Jerusalem
for a year and a half. I can’t find work. You know, things were bad to
begin with, before the war. I really don’t know what people in the Arab
world wanted, but there’s this sense of defeat, this sense of people not
knowing if they’re really worth anything. There’s this sort of inferiority
complex that people have about their identity, their cultural identity, nowadays.
When I look at people from my dad’s generation, people who grew up on
ideas of pan-Arab nationality and studied history in school and really bought
it…I guess, you know, our generation is pretty disillusioned. What’s
happening in Iraq, I mean, it’s really dangerous. I mean, I hope I’m
wrong. But as a reaction to this, you probably will have thousands of bin Ladens
sprouting everywhere. If you sum up the results of the war, I don’t think
any good would come out from it. You know, maybe George Bush would win anther
term in office. But the bottom line is, there would be more hatred in the world,
and less understanding.
Read more from the series
|
|
