Understanding the Global Community - Liberalism/Neoliberalism

School Ties (1992)

School Ties is movie that seeks to address the anti-Semitism prevalent among the upper classes of American society, as seen in the exclusive learning institutions. This anti-Semitism is displayed through the story of a young Jewish man who is awarded a scholarship to a prestigious school that is essentially WASP dominated. This scholarship is awarded to him not because he would have otherwise been allowed into the school, but because of the fact that he is extremely good at football. His being allowed into the school is for him to be used as a quarterback to ensure that the school wins the competition. The administration of the school, despite the fact that it is as anti-Semitic as most of the students who attend it decide to allow the young man, David, into the football team on condition that he does not reveal his religion to anyone. This movie is the story of how David struggles with his conscience in order to attain recognition from his colleagues as well as acceptance. By hiding his religion, he manages to attain everything he wishes for because his fellow teammates not only accept him, but his prowess in the field enables him to attain stardom. His popularity is enables him to mingle freely with those students who come from more privileged backgrounds from his, and despite the initial jealousy towards him, Charlie Dillon, who had been put aside in favor of David, comes to become his friend. At this moment, David has reached the apex of his popularity and acceptance within this institution.

Things, however, begin to go wrong for David when he comes to discover that the school’s administration is just as bigoted as the rest of the students in the institution. When he misses an important Jewish festival for the sake of a match, he is found by the principal praying privately and the remarks the latter makes are certainly not flattering. In addition, David becomes attracted to and starts seeing Charlie’s girlfriend behind his back, and the jealousy which the latter feels leads him to seek David’s destruction. When he finds out, by chance, from a member of staff that David is Jewish; all hell breaks loose as Charlie spreads the word among the other students. David suddenly falls from grace, as he comes from being one of the most popular people in the school to being the most discriminated against. Even his own roommate ends up avoiding him. His girlfriend, who had only been a part of his life just because he was popular also, leaves him and in the end, he is left in a lonely place, with no one around to support him. All the discrimination that he faces is not because he is any different from his fellow students, but because of his religious beliefs, because he is a Jew. This discrimination sends a powerful message to the American society, that anti-Semitism is not the way of the American society. The anti-Semitism that is prevalent should be avoided because Jews are not beasts but human beings who have feelings and emotions. Their religious beliefs should not be a reason for the harsh treatment which they receive.

Charlie, always the underachiever who tries to uphold his family’s reputation in the school, decides to cheat in an exam and drops the piece of paper he was using on the floor. The teacher notices this paper and asks whoever dropped it to confess otherwise, the entire class would be failed. David and Rip are the only ones who know that Charlie is the culprit but they choose to keep quiet. Charlie takes advantage of this, and probably because of his hostility towards David, denounces him. Despite the fact that he is obviously innocent, his being a Jew condemns him because everyone prefers to believe that one of them would never cheat in an exam. Rip, however, takes the initiative and tells the principal the truth, therefore saving David from expulsion. It is at the principal’s office that David comes to the realization that no matter what he does in the school, he will never get the acceptance and recognition of any of the people within it. he realizes that since he is being used to advance the school’s football team,, he should also use the school to advance himself in life. The final part of the movie is based on the empowerment which David attains when he stops to care what other people think about him, and instead, he comes to put his own personal interests first.

Control Room (2004)

Control Room is a documentary whose main intention is to clear the name of the Al Jazeera reporting of the Iraq war, since in the United States, members of the Bush administration referred to this channel as the mouthpiece of terrorist organizations, most especially, Al Qaeda. This documentary seeks to show that this belief is not true and that it is merely propaganda to discredit its image. When one watches this documentary, one would not fault the way Al Jazeera covered the news during the Iraq war because it is revealed that the coverage was balanced and to the point. Al Jazeera showed the true picture of the war and not what the American government wished for its people to see; the realities of the war. In fact, if one carefully considers the information which this channel broadcast during this war, there would be a realization that the American public would not have supported such a war had they seen what it did not, only to the Arabs of Iraq, but also to the American men and women who went to fight in the war. Control Room is an eye opener towards some of the events which took place in Iraq and how these events were covered by the Al Jazeera network. It reveals that, despite the statements made against it by the Bush administration, none of the statements made were true and were, in fact, an attempt to cover up the truth about the war from the American public. This documentary is an attempt to show the news about the Iraq war, not from the perspective of the media of the west, but that of the region in which the war occurred.

The first scenes of this documentary seem to reinforce the belief that it is a network whose sole purpose is the spread of anti-American propaganda. The people who are seen working behind the scenes are all dressed in traditional Arab headgear, and when the American president issues an ultimatum to the Iraqi president, it is seen that those observing in the room jeer at the former. While, for many, this would reinforce the stereotype that has come to plague the Al Jazeera network, the truth is that the scene was inserted in the documentary to show that this network is not as different from those in the west as many would think. The documentary reveals that the statements by President Bush and his secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, that Al Jazeera was the mouthpiece of Osama bin Laden and that it was the centre of anti-American propaganda in the United States are completely unfounded. In fact, it is revealed that the exact opposite is the truth; that Al Jazeera is a network which is dedicated to presenting balanced news about the Middle East to the entire world. It is not mired down by state or political interests but in the interest of providing quality news. This documentary takes the audience behind the scenes, and reveals the people who are behind the collection of the news that is presented at Al Jazeera. While this network is much disliked and thought of in a negative light by some people, it has one of the largest viewer bases in the world, competing with such channels as BBC and CNN. During the Iraq war, this network was among the one with the most presence in the country, and it lost several journalists who were caught in American bombing while doing their jobs on the ground. In an attempt to achieve objectivity in its coverage of the war, it showed images of American servicemen and Iraqis who had been killed in the war, as well as the destruction which accompanied the deaths. Such images were rarely if at all, shown by the media of the West which reveals that Al Jazeera was more objective than they were. Such situations came to be seen as this network working against the interests of America, something which the documentary reveals to be untrue.

The documentary is shot at the Al Jazeera headquarters in Doha, Qatar, and it is here that the image of this network as a producer of anti-American propaganda is burnished. Instead, what is revealed is an image of people who work hard just like in other networks to bring the news from the field and present it to the public. What is shown is that it is not a network of propaganda as some have put it, but one which functions regularly. In fact, the documentary shows that the biases against the network do not stem from the network’s actions, but from the various administrations in the west, particularly the United States. The documentary does not just reveal information from one side, but it works towards showing what people from the other side think. Among those who are interviewed is Josh Rushing who is a media liaison for the American military and has a strong belief in the correctness of America’s mission in Iraq. There is also one Hassan Ibrahim, a journalist who works for the BBC and whose only mission in his work is to find out the truth. Both of these people reveal their true feelings concerning America’s mission in Iraq and the role of the media in its coverage. The stance taken by these men on various matters can be a surprise to many who watch the documentary as they show just how difficult it is to achieve objectivity in the coverage of any news story. There is also the revelation from some of those interviewed that they have a strong commitment to democracy and that they, in fact, immensely admire the constitution of the United States. This would surprise many in the wet because of the fact that most of the countries of the Middle East, in which Al Jazeera is based, are autocracies or absolute monarchies. This crumbles the common western stereotype that Al Jazeera is for the sole purpose of inflaming the Middle Eastern public against the American government and people. Instead, the image of a news network that is dedicated to the objective presentation of news to the world is revealed. The documentary serves as a redeemer for the tarnished image of Al Jazeera and presents it as a network deserving of merit for the work that it does.