Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Deep Breaths

I have been meaning to write a post about our lovely trip home to the U.S. for our R & R and our stops in Istanbul and Sri Lanka, but those posts have been trumped by some horrible, terrible, sad events playing out in Egypt and Cairo.

I also quit my job, which is a whole 'nother story all together.  I'll hopefully come back to that at some point in the future.

Right now my heart is breaking in so many ways for the tragedies that have unfolded yesterday against fellow diplomatic families like ours.

I did not know or ever meet J. Christopher Stevens or the other Americans that have yet to be named as victims in the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Bengazi, nor the ones that are suffering in Cairo.  I can tell you this much, though.  When something like this happens, it makes you really think about what your family is doing, and that it could happen to any of us in the Foreign Service.  They are people just like us.

I am going to cut to the chase here.  First and foremost I do not condone, understand, nor make any excuses for the violence inflicted on the people at the U.S. Embassies.  That being said....I cannot believe (or maybe I can and that is even more sad) that a person would produce a film that does more than antagonize a fanatical movement in such a way that he puts us in more harm's way.  Sam Bacile, the director/writer/whatever of the film that was supposedly the reason behind these protests has gone into hiding.  Must be nice, jerkface.  Here you have men and women (and their families) doing such hard work trying to build relationships and restore trust and diplomatic ties in countries where it is so badly needed and you get to go into hiding. 

He has even been quoted as saying from his hiding place that the U.S. Embassies need better security.  That may be true, but what are you doing about it mister?  Are you testing it by putting out this film?  What a favor you have done for us.  Yes, freedom of speech...I am a huge proponent of that.  But someone acting so ignorantly and getting 5 million dollars in funding to create the film is beyond me. 

5 million dollars could do a lot to bring people together and teach them about each other's religions and tolerance, if not acceptance.  I do not in any way want to be associated with the fanatical Christian movement or Zionist movement that was responsible for the film that has been mentioned, nor do I think of the Muslims I meet and hang out with every day to have views similar to fanatical Muslims.  Bangladesh is about 90% Muslim and 9% Hindu and the rest are "others" according to this source.

While the sacrifices we/our spouses/families make are tremendous and seem to be dangerous at times, I am even more confident that our family is in the right place at the right time.  Right now my husband is on a field visit for three days (and I am home making sure kids are happy, healthy, seeing friends, and doing homework) assessing whether or not microfinancing for farmers would be good for them.  He is doing the work and I stand beside him and want nothing to do with the dude sitting in hiding in his bunker in California somewhere.  Good luck to you Sam Becile....you will need it.