The Impressions of Someone Returning from America

Last week I spent a few days in the political capital of the world, Washington D.C. Two days before that I spent a few days in the world’s financial and economic capital, New York City, in order to participate as a spokesperson in a conference about the impact and dimensions of the change in the Arab world and its effect on the Gulf Cooperation Council — and so here is another article. The two capitals represent soft power, that is to say, economic, financial and cultural power, as well as solid military power in its varying dimensions. Between my visits to both the political and the economic and financial capitals, I also visited some cities adjacent to New York in the state of New Jersey and certain suburbs of Washington D.C., located in the states of Virginia and Maryland. During this visit, various comments and impressions occurred to me, which I will share with you here.

Regardless of anything else, the United States remains a symbol of an open state — despite a decade having passed since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and all that goes along with that, including the difficulties and complexities many people face in getting an entry visa for the United States. Despite this, America remains second in the world, behind France, in terms of the numbers of tourists and visitors it attracts from all over the world. Sixty million visitors and tourists visited the U.S. last year and spent over $48 billion.

Despite America being one of the few countries to have been rocked by terrorism — the Sept. 11 attacks — the American people have remained open and far from the complexities of a closed police state. It is true that America has been through a period of economic shrinking and has transformed into a country that has suffered from the effects of Sept. 11 for many years, violating her own constitution, and has swapped openness and freedom for a period of disturbing extremism and narrow-mindedness. However, the way I have seen the reality of the situation as an eye witness on my many visits is that America is no longer a prisoner of the effects of Sept. 11.

America has regained her role as a higher education destination: It is still the most attractive country for foreign students due to the long histories of its universities. For the 3.5 million foreign students who study in universities outside their own country, America ranks highest, welcoming up to 700,000 foreign students, with a particularly steady increase in the numbers of students from China and Arab countries. These students spend $20 billion annually.

There is no longer the extremism or the endless questions that were once the dominant feature at American airports upon arrival. Nor is there the perception of everyone with Arab names or features as someone who stirs up fear and worries amid the immigration and passport staff. Instead there are just some passing questions, after which you head off with your bag to join the Americans going from the international flights hallway to the domestic flights hallway and you take a subway train from the international airport to the domestic airport.

On a cold October morning, everyone is oblivious and running, as is the American habit, to catch their planes at the airport or their trains at the stations. Everyone is rushing and racing to catch something, or leaning, waiting for their transportation to arrive. Here in this country there is an important concept of mass transportation, the culture of which has not yet developed in our Gulf cities!

During my travels and on the sidelines of the conference in Washington, I spoke to ordinary Americans in airports and in metro stations, as well as with American academics and Arab-Americans. In most of their eyes, Obama seems to be in a difficult position. Before my journey to America, I had read about a frustrating statistic concerning the rate of unemployment, the astronomical public debt figures, the budget deficit and the feelings of 75 percent of Americans that their country was heading in the wrong direction and was nearer to bankruptcy than to prosperity. I wanted to see this for myself, and indeed, I had barely asked all my questions about this to ordinary working Americans, unemployed Americans, cultured people or academics, before I realized that what I had read was true. Certainly, the economic situation and unemployment are the dominant worry in the minds of Americans. The security fears also remain that al-Qaida or another terrorist organization could launch an attack on American soil. But the greatest worry and the top priority was the hope of getting a job among people who had been let go, and the fear of losing their job among those who were still working. Worries about the economy and about people are the main concern. I certainly realized the size and depth of the dilemma in which the Obama administration finds itself.

The withdrawal from Iraq is not important to ordinary Americans despite the welcome it has received, and most Americans do not know the truth about the Israel-Palestine conflict. Nor do they know about the Palestinian state for which Abu Mazen is requesting permanent membership from the United Nations. They barely know anything about the acceptance of Palestine as a member of UNESCO and America’s sanctions against that organization to cut off financial support to it. These are all luxuries that ordinary Americans, busy with their own worries and problems, don’t care about.

In any case, America seemed much like I found her the first time I visited as a student thirty years ago. The Americans are, in essence, a nice, simple, open people. They help you and guide you to your destination if you ask them. Indeed, one person even showed me to the metro station in Washington, rode with me and phoned the hotel I was staying in from his mobile phone to tell them to send a car to take me from the metro station back to the hotel! When we parted, I thanked him and we exchanged business cards. He turned out to be a former activist in Obama’s campaign who had been appointed among the 2,000 people in his administration. He also informed me that he was the speechwriter for one of the senior members of Obama’s administration. I asked myself as I was putting the card away, “Could this happen in any Arab country or in any foreign country but America?”

Americans are also a people who live for occasions and who eagerly await one event after another. On the last day of my visit, one of the Kuwaiti diplomats invited me to dinner in one of the fine restaurants in the capital, Washington, D.C. The restaurant was shrouded by a terrifying décor of spiders webs, and the receptionist, waitress and other employees were wearing scary clothing and masks for the occasion eagerly awaited by Americans every year that reminds them of their childhood days: Halloween! A month after this occasion, America celebrates Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas and New Year’s. One economist told me that, due to these occasions, during the last two months of every year, one third of Americans’ annual expenditures are spent on shopping. The volume of these expenditures is an important indicator of the economic situation and of the president’s chances of being re-elected. On this occasion, this affects the Obama’s future.

America is a country you never get tired of visiting and American intellectuals and average people are people with whom you never tire of engaging in discussion. Also, [one never tires of] visiting its universities, museums, markets, malls and tourist attractions, taking advantage of the exciting innovation, marketing and services Americans offer themselves and others who come to visit, returning with memories which are renewed again and again.

Happy Holidays!