Time To BUILD Bridges

Good morning! I don’t know why, but on this rainy, Monday morning, I feel the need to share something with you, my dear friends. Something that has been brewing in my mind for several years and I couldn’t make sense of it. I think now I’ve finally figured it out.

Well, growing up, I went to a number of international schools, meaning, schools where children of expats went, mostly kids of diplomats and the oil business. I was one of the oil business kids.

They were all excellent schools, and I have nothing but good, fond memories of all of them. I loved my teachers, admired, respected and trusted them. As it should be. I had a damned good education.

The schools I went to were all either British schools or American schools. I feel the American schools had more of an impact on me than the British schools; I don’t know why. Perhaps because I grew up with the American flag, the Star Spangled Banner.

The American schools I went to were the Stavanger American School (SAMS, Norway), which at the time was one of the largest, if not THE largest American school in Europe; the American International School (AIS, in Vienna, Austria), and the Bergen American School (BAS, Norway). I attended each one of these schools for two years. So I guess you could say, I got 6 years of American schooling. So part of me is American… I like to think the good parts! The parts where you just roll up your sleeves and get the damned job done, regardless of heirarchy. The part where you know time is money. The part where you work hard then party hard. The part where you’re open-minded and eager to learn new shit. The part where you strive for excellence and the absolute best result attainable. The part where nothing but the best is good enough. My American teachers always told me, “You can do better than that, Salwa”. The part where you’re unconventional, loud, boistrous, and happy. The part where you brag about your achievements and everyone applauds you. And the part where you say, “shit” a lot.

The only part that always annoyed me was the part where we had to think that America was the best thing ever and the best country in the world. That never stuck with me. In fact, when I was at SAMS, at the tender age of 9 or 10, I kicked up quite a storm in one of the history classes because all we were learning was American history. There’s only so much American Civil War stories a young, non-American girl can take! I wanted to learn about Chinese history, African history, about the whole world, not just America. So in one of those history classes, I actually exploded in anger and asked the teacher why couldn’t we learn more about the history of other countries, especially since many pupils at the school were not American. That very next week, the school had new history books for all of us and we learned more history about other countries. Seriously, I kid you not!! That’s the American way — change is good, get it done, and get it done yesterday! Go, go, go!!!
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Being at American schools at the time of The Cold War, also meant that we were taught to fear the imminent Russian invasion. I could never understand this, but I did fear it. In fact, I feared it so much, I often wished those damned Russkis would just invade Europe and get it over and done with! Waiting in certainty for the war was horrendous. I know my fellow students in Europe felt the same, but I think we at American schools in Europe felt it even more. I never hated the Russians, I was just very annoyed with them that they kept putting off their invasion. These American schools were VERY international, there was a kid there from every country, but never any Russian (Soviet) kids. Which is understandable, but a shame because I would have liked to ask them when the hell they were planning on invading and nuking us!

Eventually, time went by, and in my mid-20s the Soviet Union collapsed. The Russkis never invaded, never nuked us. Sting sang a song about how he hoped the Russians love their children too. That made a lot of sense to me.

So what’s been bothering me all these years, is my love-hate relationship with America. And when I say ‘America’, I mean the United States of America. I’ve always hated American foreign policy, even as a young child. As I grew older, I hated it more and more. And that always annoyed me because I knew and loved lots of American, good folk, who were wonderful and loads of fun to be with. Americans are kind, caring, generous and honest. With them, what you see is what you get. Not so with their foreign policy, however. That’s the part that is not kind, not caring, not generous and certainly not honest. That part, is not at all American. In fact, it’s very “un-American”, as the Americans themselves like to say about this ‘n that.
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And yet, here we are, at the end of 2022. The USA is a nation of good, smart, kind, caring, giving folk, with a shitty, shitty foreign policy. How is that still possible? And why is that possible? Americans do not deserve that! They deserve better, they really, really do.

So now I’ve finally figured it out. I’ve finally figured out that not only do I have a love-hate relationship with America, but also, that that’s okay. I don’t have to only love it or only hate it. I can do both… and I do do both! My heart bleeds for the shitty politicians Americans have. And all I can think these days, with their shitty politicians constantly telling us that the Russians are going to invade and nuke us, is, “Come on America, you can do better than that!”

Namasté