It’s impossible to deny that Pax’s blog “Where Is Raed?” is bursting at the seams with conflicts and crises, both stated and implied. The most obvious crisis would probably be the Iraqi War, seeing as Pax’s second post goes like, “There are three things you can do whenever you like in Iraq: get seriously ill, get arrested, get [executed].”
However, I have to say that the conflict that stood out most to me was the cultural identity crisis that Pax was facing and dealing with throughout the entire life of his blog. (I thought about this, and I think the reason for this is because I grew up all over the world, and cultural identity crises are definitely not new to me, so maybe I’m more sensitive to noticing that?) From the second post that I referred to above, we see that he knows how to speak two languages (at least): English and Arabic. Arabic is the main language of Iraq, but Pax chooses to write his blog in English. He actually addresses this and his identity crisis in my favorite blog post of his, which he writes on December 21, 2002. This is right after he deletes his blog, much to Raed’s anger, and tries to justify his actions by saying that it would be safer for an Iraqi blogger to blog in Arabic and praise his country. At the same time, he also ponders, “most ‘western’ readers wouldn’t get it because it would be so out of their cultural sphere.” By saying this, Pax recognizes that his world and his intended audience’s world are, for lack of a better phrase, worlds apart. He doesn’t state this explicitly, but I think that “Where Is Raed?” serves as a cultural bridge during this time period; he frames events specific to Iraq in a way that Westerners would understand.
The most prominent and heart-tugging thing in this post though, is the internal conflict and turmoil he is going through in what he feels and does versus what his country expects him to feel and do. Pax is upset with himself because he says he is anti-American, but he keeps referencing American pop culture, calling himself the “embodiment of cultural betrayal.” This concept isn’t one that speaks to a particular cultural audience; I think this is a concept that is universally grasped: the conflict between personal ideals and societal expectations. Obviously, not all of us are in as dangerous of a situation as Pax is in, but surely some of us have felt this “cultural betrayal” before? I know I have. As a South Korean, I feel that I am expected to hate North Korean, but I really just feel compassion towards the people who are being oppressed and often manipulated by their government.
At the end of his rant, as I call it, Pax doesn’t really resolve the conflicts inside him, which is quite understandable. Cultural identity crises aren’t things you solve overnight. I’m interested in exploring the rest of his blog posts to see how this crisis develops in him, and whether or not the external conflict of the war impacts his inner turmoil. By the end of his post, he concludes that it’s not even that he has conflict within him, it is that he is this cultural conflict. “I am all the arguments we used to have about us being attachments to western culture rolled into one,” Pax states. How many of us have felt a cultural identity crisis as strong as that?
I really like how you focused on the cultural identity of Pax and see it as a crisis that he is struggling to cope with. I think that the issue of cultural identity or just identity crisis in general is something that everyone at some point in their lives have to deal with. At times it doesn’t even have to be between the East and West cultures because I feel that even between the borderlines of Canada and the United States there is tension going on. The tension isn’t very obvious but it’s there and with the media (tv shows, music, fashion, etc.) being so Americanized it is hard not become influenced entirely and forget that in the end I am a Canadian and not an American.
This was a very interesting look into Pax and his “cultural identity crisis”, you noted earlier that with your life experiences of being raised in different parts of the world, do you feel as though you have hesitations with which culture you embrace? Reading into your blog, it seems as though this internal conflict of Pax’s is due in part of where he grew up, having both eastern and western influence on his identity and how it happened during that time there was a war made his cultural conflict more apparent. Do you think that had the war did not occur then, or he grew up with the same background but during a time when there was no American invasion, that would alter his perspective on his dual identity? Furthermore, because you can relate and identify yourself as being a part of several communities of different countries, (I’m assuming non of those countries are war-ridden) do you feel any internal cultural conflicts? And to what extent?
Great post Allison! I really enjoyed reading it, along with the follow up post.
Hey Lynsee!
I definitely have my moments of cultural identity crises and hesitation in which culture I embrace. Growing up as a Korean-Canadian in America and China made me feel more American and Chinese, but moving back here for university reminds me that even though I have a Canadian passport, I really don’t know all that much about being a Canadian citizen. I’m hesitant to embrace this Canadian citizenship of mine, because I’m afraid I’ll start to lose some of my other cultural identity parts.
I think that regardless of there being a war or not, if Pax had grown up in Iraq post-mid 1990’s, then he would still experience some kind of dual identity crisis. I think it was the mid-1990’s that “Westernization” really started happening, and there was an invasion, for lack of better words, of American pop culture in Iraq’s media, like music, movies, and magazines. If he had grown up prior to the mid-1990’s, I don’t think he would have experienced it as much.
I mentioned my internal cultural conflicts above, and it’s actually something I think about almost everyday. There are little things I experience living here in North America that give me culture shock, and I’m forced to recognize that I don’t fully belong here, but I’m learning as I go along. Thanks for the questions and comment, Lynsee!