Alek Nyberg

Comm 211

I found the video about the middle eastern children of varying ethnic groups to be quite fascinating.  That entire movie was a bit of an eye opener to me, for their life is pretty much completely the opposite of ours over here in America.  What struck me the most was how much these children had been influenced by the media, their parents, and the fact that they were not allowed to intermingle with each other freely.  Sure there are some aspects that exist over here in the states, such as opinions and biases being passed down from parents and the media, but over here in the states, we have the freedom to intermingle, the freedom to communicate with one another in order to shatter these biases.

The entire problematic situation over in the middle east is that there is a lack of communication.  Blockades have been put up in order to stop people of various backgrounds from communicating with one another.  In doing so, everyone involved has no appreciation or knowledge of anyone else, and this only allows biases and hatred to grow, for there is nothing there to subside those feelings.  The conflict cannot be subdued unless communication is possible.

I found it wise for the director to have just the children meet up and talk with each other, for I feel that is the safest bet when facing the people involved in this situation.  The children are still moderately innocent, they may have been faced with the biases, but they have not lived with them long enough for them to permanently become a part of them, which I feel would be the case with the adults.  The fact that the children realized that they were completely wrong about what they thought about each other proves that proper communication can solve nearly any problem.  The future of that region lies in their ability to communicate.