0 4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 OPINION + + 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 JORDAN SCHRADER Editor in Chief JASON Z. PESICK Editorial Page Editor Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. NOTABLE QUOTABLE 'We cannot, on the basis of TV images, no matter how disturbing and disconcerting they are, arrive at a judgment about an incident." - Florian Westphal, a spokesman for the International Committee for the Red Cross, referring to the recently released videotape of a U.S. Marine apparently shooting and killing a wounded Iraqi in a mosque, as reported yesterday by the Associated Press. l AA SAM BUTLER _ :T Sp,'s:~ x 4 , My culture is mine own SRAVYA CHIRUMAMILLA WEAVING TH HANDIIASKET hile visit- ing family in India two years ago, I often got into discussions about Indi- an politics and human rights issues. During one such heated debate with my cousins about the ubiquitous caste sys- tem, the conversation took an unexpected turn. In an attempt to show my misgivings, my cousin said, "Well, you're Indian too. You are part of this." To which I exasperatedly retorted, "No, I am not. I am an American." When a slight lull fell over the dinner table, my grandmother, who until then had shown little interest in the conversation, raised her frail head and commented, "For them, you will never be an American." Where do I fit in? My family had moved to America when I was young, and for a few years, I found comfort in those who had just arrived from the motherland. We found common ground in Americans' inces- sant mispronunciation of our names and the desire to change our names in order to ease adaptation into American society (I remain grateful that my parents opted against this drastic change, especially because so much of my family's history is intrinsic in our name.). But currently, there aren't even derogatory terms to describe my identity - I am not an "American-Born Confused Desi" because I am not American born, nor am I "Fresh Off the Boat" any longer since I came ashore more than a dozen years ago. When I came to this country, I was sur- prised to learn that the Indian identity included components that I had never been introduced to while living in India: Bhangra, garba raas and Bollywood are all parts of a completely foreign culture to someone from the South Indian city I grew up in because we had kuchipudi, koolaatam and a vibrant Telugu movie industry. This manufactured Indian- American identity is relevant to a few people but is fed to all of us as though we are part of an unified culture. And nowhere is this mis- leading identity more prevalent than in the Indian American Student Association's annu- al cultural show. For the past four years, these cultural shows have offered little in terms of the diversity of the country: Few dances represent the varied cultures, most songs are chosen from Bollywood films and even cos- tumes lack authenticity. This is not to say, however, that fragmen- tation into smaller groups is the answer, though that is the cause for forming a dozen South Asian organizations on campus, each with its own decree for inception: Punjabi culture is expressed in the Punjabi Student Organization, garba raas is explored through the Raas Core and ABCDs, and FOBs stay apart from one another with their corre- sponding cliques in IASA and the Indian Students Association. While organizing a large Telugu conference, few of the youth organizers knew of or wanted to include speakers or prevalent figures from the com- munity, instead opting to create a meat mar- ket for marriage-ready singles with cruises, fashion shows and speed dating. Indian cul- ture had been boiled down to choreographed dances and hookups with similarly colored peoples and made me want to renounce it for a more American identity mostly because I had failed to recognize that my cultural identity is determined not by a behemoth, cookie-cutter program that is mass pro- duced for Hill Auditorium or COBO Hall. It is not an easy task to discover one's character in a country that is set on acclima- tion to a certain norm, and I regret that all too often I have taken out my angst against my parents. Over the past few years, I have grown to appreciate that I am a product of my forefathers and cherish that very little of my culture has to do with dance and song. It is of little consequence that I recognize the virtues of arranged marriage and have trouble saying certain words with a "w" or "v" because I similarly question authority and embrace challenges. My identity is not determined by the language I speak but by the awareness I gain from understanding it. I find my identity in the nuances of citizen- ship in a boundary-free global community. I inherit the passion with which my pater- nal grandfather followed his dreams and the strength with which my maternal grand- mother raised the most capable and success- ful women I know. I no longer worry about understanding my culture because it is clear to me where I can find my identity: in the history and heritage of my family. Chirumamilla can be reached at schiruma@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Terrorism is not a legitimate means of resistance TO THE DAILY: I am writing in response to Tarek Dika's letter (Unified Palestinian leadership criti- cal to Mideast peace, 11/15/2004). I find Dika's opinion to be quite disturbing as an Israeli citizen and a human being. "If you want to end terrorism, you must end the occupation" is Dika's main argument. Furthermore, Dika's refers to terror as a legitimate means of resistance. What Dika is suggesting is that Palestinians should continue to target innocent people by blowing up buses, coffee shops or just kill innocent children until the Israeli govern- ment decides to give in to his demands. I do not know what Dika's moral standards are, but as a former Israeli soldier, the last thing I want is another human being killed, no matter his nationality. Both Israelis and Palestinians have suffered a great deal, and no innocent bystander should die because of any political dispute. This might be shocking to Dika, but the Israeli people do not want their soldiers to be inside Gaza or Ramalla. In fact, our prime minister is leading a one-sided with- drawal from the Gaza Strip and numerous settlements in the West Bank. The reason this withdrawal is one sided is because the former Palestinian leadership had similar views as Dika. As an Israeli who would like to ride a bus without looking over his shoulder, I could only hope the next Palestinian leadership would choose communication and negotia- tions to solve its political problems instead of guns and suicide bombers. As long as Palestinians such as Dika continue to sup- port terror, Israel has no choice but to con- tinue fighting terrorism. I can only pray that my neighboring Palestinians do not share Dika's views. Peace between nations cannot be based on terrorism and intimida- tion; it can only be based on negotiations and political sacrifice. Or Shotan LSA freshman The letter writer is the chair of the Israeli Student Organization. a coherent vision and strategy" to oppose2 Israeli control of the West Bank and7 Gaza. This is to suggest that Arafat had not caused enough harm already. Arafat's legacy rests with his irreversible damage tot the Middle East peace process, somethingI noble for which Dika and Students Alliedt for Freedom and Equality appear to have; low regard.c At Camp David during the summer of 2000, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak< made a generous offer to Yasser Arafat int which he proposed putting 97 percent of< the disputed territories under control of theE Palestinian Authority. Because Arafat was committed to the destruction of the Jew-1 ish state instead of coexistence, he turnedI town Barak's generous offer and called on Palestinian youths to launch attacks against Israel. Because of this, Israel has had to put its youths in danger by sending them into Palestinian towns to stop ter- ror attacks that have claimed the lives oft over 1,000 innocent Israelis. These vic- tims were people doing things such as eat-t ing at restaurants, socializing in bars and riding on buses. Their murderers targeted them regardless of age and gender. The perpetrators carried out their murderous acts because they had been indoctrinated from an early age to hate Jews and to reject1 the existence of the state of Israel. If Dika doesn't believe that this is terror, then thereI is something significantly wrong with him and his organization, assuming that there wasn't already. Dika absurdly asserts that terrorism is a result of Israeli occupation. Israel launches1 operations against terrorists because they pose a threat that shows no sign of cessa- tion. In addition, it is absurd to allege that a progressive democratic state such as Israel would just maliciously oppress an inno- cent civilian population. And people for- get about all of the terror attacks that are thankfully thwarted. Yet in Dika's view, it is probably a shame that these attempts bore no fruit and destroyed more Israeli lives. Israel needs to defend itself, and unfortunately many Palestinians who have nothing to do with terrorist activity end up suffering because of this. It is an absolute shame that SAFE openly advocates ter- rorist attacks that kill innocents and ruin A. Schramm (Terrorism, not Israel, is the roadblock to Mideast peace, 11/16/04), I would, as a reasonable member of the Uni- versity, the Muslim community, the Pales- tinian community and the Arab community, like to agree that terrorism is the roadblock to peace in Palestine. However, unlike Sch- ramm, I do not define "terrorism" as an occupied people fighting for freedom. The resistance against Apartheid in South Afri- ca wasn't "terrorism" nor was the resistance to the British occupation in India. I do not condone the death of innocent civilians on either side, which is what terrorism truly is. In agreement with Schramm, I say that terrorism must end. This means that the wall being built around and in the West Bank, the inhumane conditions in the Gaza Strip, the construction of the Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, the mass destruction of Palestinian homes and land, the massa- cre of innocent Palestinians, in addition to the suicide bombings, must end. It is not, by any means, fair to say that an entire popula- tion living under occupation and in constant fear should become completely passive and allow for the genocide of their people before "peace" can be achieved. I would also like to draw attention to the fact that there is resistance to the occupa- tion on both sides of the wall. Nonviolent resistance movements have been started by both Palestinians and Israelis, protesting the occupation, such as Women in Black and the International Solidarity Movement. The question I would like to pose to the commu- nity now is "Why is it that we feed into the belief that 'terrorism' is the act of an olive- skinned man with black hair and brown eyes who happens to pray five times a day and not that of an oppressive government?" I agree with Tarek Dika in saying that the Palestin- ians must resist the occupation (Unified Pal- estinian leadership critical to Mideast peace, 11/15/2004), because it is this terrorism that is the roadblock to peace. Rama A. Sahi LSA junior Advertising insert, people who read it stupid TO THE DAILY: