Exporting the American dream

Today I want to try something new. We're going to play "The Shoes Game." Don't know the rules? Don't worry. They're simple and go like this: Look around and find someone else's shoes. Next, put them on.\nDo they fit? Probably not. Can anyone tell me why? Yes, you in the back ... That's right, everyone has a different shoe size. We wear the shoes we buy because they fit; they don't fit because we bought them. \nIt's a lesson that Karen Hughes is learning firsthand as PR representative for "Bush Co.'s Middle East offices." The Undersecretary of State (for public diplomacy) took an all-expense-paid tour of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt last week, and wouldn't you know it, wasn't even greeted as a liberator! How's that for job satisfaction? \nNo one expected that Hughes' job of spreading the "Gospel of America" in the Muslim world would be easy, but most people assumed she would go in for culture training before she landed in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia, last week. The gathering of some 500 women at a Saudi university brought to the foreground a serious issue that could derail the whole Mideast campaign: What happens if the Muslim world doesn't want to change?\nAs far back as the settlers in the New World through the Cold War and up until today, this country has assumed that, given the chance, everyone would rather live like an American. Can we put aside this "land of opportunity" nonsense for a bit and come to the realization that America might not be all Hughes is making it out to be? Staggering murder rates, dropping literacy levels, environmental exploitation and pervasive inequality are just a few of the reasons why we should've left nation building to the Canadians.\nThe hand-picked audience of Saudi women, made up almost entirely of the wealthy and educated, were by far the most vocal group Hughes met on her trip. "There is more male chauvinism in my profession in Europe and America than in my country," Dr. Siddiqa Kamal, a gynecologist who manages her own hospital, told The New York Times. In the same Sept. 27 article, Kamal added, "I don't want to drive a car. I worked hard for my medical degree. Why do I need a driver's license?"\nAs I write this, the five-day forecast for Jeddah teeters on triple digits, and yet Saudi women continue to wear traditional black, head-to-toe covering, (called an abaya) because modest dress is dictated by religious culture as opposed to the common American sentiment that Saudi women are overtly oppressed. In fact, "it's convenient and it can be very fashionable," Nour al-Sabbagh, a 21-year-old student, told the Times. If the traditional conservatives in America can respect Jews donning a yarmulke, then surely they can understand that not everyone wants to wear Jordan jerseys and sand-blasted Abercrombie jeans.\nWhy is it we feel the need to export the American dream outside of America? I'm all about democracy, hot dogs and baseball but we need to realize that not everyone likes grandma's apple pie. \nYou may now put your shoes back on.