Innocence of Muslims and Vietnamese video stores

The recent arrest of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the alleged creator of the inflammatory film, Innocence of Muslims, reminds me of something that happened about 13 years ago. I don't remember if it received national or international coverage, but I thought it worth mentioning, as it was a big deal at my high school.

In 1999, Truong Van Tran operated Hi-Tek, a video rental store in Westminster, California. Westminster goes by the nickname "Little Saigon" because of its sizable Vietnamese population. Most were refugees fleeing from the Communists, and many were ex-ARVN. As you can imagine, the vast majority absolutely hated Ho Chi Minh. Memories of "reeducation" were fresh in that community.

The community erupted around the holiday season of Tet when Tran put up a picture of Ho Chi Minh and the Communist Vietnamese flag in his store. The number of protesters reached 10,000, with many chanting, singing patriotic songs, and waving South Vietnamese flags. I don't recall that the protests ever turned violent, but they got close a few times.

The story resonated at my high school because there was a number of Vietnamese in the student body (and one somewhat eccentric history teacher, named Mr. Dong). Perhaps differently from those in Little Saigon, many emigrated from Vietnam long after the Vietnam War. It's not obvious whether that made them more or less likely to hate the Communist regime. I know that my friend emigrated in the 1990s, and that his father, a former South Vietnamese government official, had been "reeducated". There may have been others with similar stories.

Eventually, Tran was arrested for video piracy, documented by news cameras that showed lots of bootleg videos in his store.

Similarly, Nakoula was arrested for parole violations, something unrelated to his film.

Now there are important differences. The Westminster protests in 1999 were largely localized and largely peaceful, and directly affected a relatively small group. By contrast, the protests over Innocence of Muslims is global (around 1 billion Muslims and counting) and violent.

But both provide a window into the sometimes conflicting goals of free speech and public order in America.

Some critics would argue that both cases were the result of government and interested parties finding a convenient excuse to make a problem go away. Others would argue that anyone under such high scrutiny would probably be shown to have broken some law. And, finally, it has to be acknowledged that anyone willing to do things that are so mind-numbingly stupid might be more likely to run afoul of social norms and the legal system. (Remember folks, just because you have the right to do something doesn't mean that you should, and it definitely doesn't guarantee it's smart.)

The truth is, all of these factors were probably operating. There is a gulf between our ideals, whether free speech or otherwise, and the extent to which our society reflects them.

We'll see what happens with this guy. Based on the Tran case study, Nakoula probably won't go away -- Tran protested Garden Grove's resolution to make it harder for Vietnamese government officials to pay visits.

We'll also see how this gets reported in the Muslim world, and if this does anything to stem the violent protests.

Cornell International Affairs Review Panel Discussion on Europe

I was fortunate enough to attend the Cornell International Affairs Review inaugural event. Peter Katzenstein and Hubert Zimmermann discussed their thoughts on regionalism in the 21st century - in particular, the European Union vis a vis the United States.

The two wise Germans both cautioned against overexuberance, though Hubert the Younger did show more enthusiasm and hope for a deeper, more proactive Europe than Peter the Elder. Both were very clear, insightful, and a joy to listen to.

As always, I was also struck by the tremendous charm and intelligence of the undergraduate population here. They are more than drunks on Wednesday nights, or vain trust fund babies snorting away their fortunes and heritage one line at a time. These individuals, of varying strengths and weaknesses, are the flower of youth, the idealized embodiment of why we fight. Yes, the men were handsome and the women breathtakingly beautiful. But more than that, there was a quiet optimism that I had forgotten - that here, in the presence of some of the greatest minds in the world, there would emerge, if not answers, the beginnings of the right questions.

It is this issue that I tried, and failed, to articulate in my question. Each new generation faces a challenge, brought about by competition and technology and biology, to redefine itself, frequently in opposition to its predecessors. How then, given demographic trends, would an Old Europe deal with the natural tensions involving changing of the guard, compounded with the fact that the youth would, increasingly, consist of immigrant Muslims from the Middle East and North Africa? Similarly, how would the United States redefine itself as the Hispanic population grows, and the American WASP ceases to become the face of Main Street?

Hubert responded by suggesting that the European Muslim population was much smaller than was often supposed - 20 million out of roughly 500 million total citizens, or on the order of 4 percent. This, by the way, is roughly the proportion of total US population that is of Asian descent - for this reason, and many others, I contend that he underplays the importance of this demographic shift, in conjunction with declining populations in absolute numbers of white Europeans.

Peter suggested that the key issue is what system would be better equipped to embrace the change and use what he calls the "positive cultural capital" of immigrants to advance in the 21st century. He argued that European identity, while secular, is culturally rooted in Christianity. The discussions concerning the expansion of Europe, and what would happen to Yugoslavia after Tito focused on Croatia being Catholic, but Serbia being Orthodox and therefore "outside" of Europe. By contrast, he felt that the United States has been, and will continue to be, more comfortable with multiculturalism than Europe, and therefore will be able to capitalize on the demographic shift more readily.

Ceteris paribus, my ultra-simple, assumption-ridden equation for economic power is output = population x productivity. American population grows because of immigration. That, our less comprehensive social safety net, lower taxes, higher productivity gains, and other socioeconomic/cultural features (real and constructed) help explain the difference in growth trajectories between the EU and US.

The CIAR Executive Vice-President made allusions to The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama's memoir. Peter Katzenstein also suggested that Obama represented the face of America's future. I have not yet endorsed a candidate for the presidency, but do have some thoughts to share on the expectations associated with the 2008 election.

Hope is indeed audacious. For hope, as it is often branded by pretenders to the throne, is fundamentally a willingness to break with the past, to tell the older generations that their ways were at best good enough for their time, or, more typically, that they had brought ruin and destruction. It is to say to the old, "You are guilty of political and economic Alzheimer's, which struck too early for you to be wise, and too late for you to be harmless."

It is also incredibly seductive to we young, relatively powerless students who have always chafed with impatience under authority and tradition. (I highly recommend Stanley Milgram's classic text, Obedience to Authority, to anyone seeking to understand the fragility of our lauded civilization, and the recipes for both obedience and revolt. History tells us that we need not substitute one pied piper for another who plays melodies more harmonious. (This is not being quite fair to the candidates, but bear with me.) Rather, the inconvenient truth of what it is to be an adult, women and men in every sense of the word, is that we must give away some of the toys of youth, and realize that no government ever known on Earth can absolve us of our individual responsibility as human beings to do well and do good.

"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me." (1 Cor 13:11)

Europe struggles to define itself. America struggles with our identity and place in the world. The struggles are, in practice, led by the educated, the powerful, and the charismatic, with not much input from anyone else. I think it's fair to say that a careful analysis of both sides of the Atlantic reveal plenty of the oft-muttered "democratic deficit".

But at its best, the struggles represent the struggle of individuals in each nation/region. We define ourselves through our art, our commerce, our votes, our travel. But all of these are surface - the substance is the struggle with rough-hewn stone to build our character and multifaceted identity.

Peter made an important comment that Barack Obama represented in some ways the face of America's future. I believe he was referring specifically to the fact that he is African-American, but let me extend the thought a bit further.

On October 3, 2007, Barack Obama was hitting the stump in Iowa. As he was fielding questions on policy and the economy, one question was asked that was particularly unusual. An audience member asked, "What would you say is the most painful and character-building experience of your life that puts you in a position to make important decisions of life and death and the well being of our country?”

As reported by the NYTimes, he paused for a couple seconds, then said: "It's a terrific question."

His answer, as reported by the NYTimes:


“I would say the fact that I grew up without a father in the home. What that meant was that I had to learn very early on to figure out what was important and what wasn’t, and exercise my own judgment and in some ways to raise myself.

My mother was wonderful and was a foundation of love for me, but as a young man growing up, I didn’t have a lot of role models and I made a lot of mistakes, but I learned to figure out that there are certain values that were important to me that I had to be true to.

Nobody was going to force me to be honest. Nobody was going to force me to work hard. Nobody was going to force me to have drive and ambition. Nobody was going to force me to have empathy for other people. But if I really thought those values were important, I had to live them out.

That’s why it’s so important for me now, both as a United States senator and as a president candidate, but also as a father and a husband to wake up every morning and ask myself, am I living up to those values that I say are important? Because if I’m not, then I shouldn’t be president.”


Europe will not build itself. Nor will America. Nor will China emerge democratic and free without individual action, individual responsibility, and individual character. It matters not that we had no father to guide us. We have living examples in Barack Obama and, less visibly, Harry Reid, of men who recognized the value and necessity for us to transcend what we are given - in this case, the fathers we have - , and become stronger, more just, more wise, though the world tells us to go home, give up, and embrace a somnambulant stupor that is a half-life.

Progress, and civilization itself, depends upon the desire and ability to do better. For this effort, we rightly look toward Peter and Hubert for guidance. For the hands that will build this new world, we must look to our own, and our peers in every walk of life.

On the eve of Valentine's Day, I can say that no woman ever broke my heart as badly as America has. But hearts will mend, through many stitches, softer words, and time.

Better get started.

Death of Hrant Dink

I have created this blog to discuss and refine my conceptions of the world, to "see the world as it is" as astronomer/international policy expert Chris Chyba once pleaded at a Cornell colloquium.

This may be an odd first post for my blog, but I think the death of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is a worthy one. A brief bio appears on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrant_Dink) and armeniapedia (http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Hrant_Dink). There is also a facebook group discussing Mr. Dink's death (http://cornell.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2228814238&ref=nf).

I am neither Armenian nor Turkish. I am simply a man who by circumstance and education came to learn about Europe and appreciate the vision that took a continent asunder and built something more peaceful and humane.

I have been studying speeches for Toastmasters. In recognition of Martin Luther King's birthday, I read his sermon "I've Been To The Mountaintop", given the night before he was assassinated. In it he says that if the Almighty gave him the opportunity to live at any time, he would choose to live in his present, a few years past the midpoint of the 20th century.

"Now that's a strange statement to make because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick, trouble is in the land, confusion all around. That's a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars."

Even astronomers seek the end of night and greet dawn with passion.

The next day, Robert Kennedy was on his way to a political rally in Indianapolis when he heard about MLK's assassination. He ignored the warnings of his staffers and continued to the rally. When he looked out at the crowd of mostly poor urban African-Americans, he realized that they did not yet know that King was dead. He broke the news to them in halting, pained, impromptu remarks: (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/rfkonmlkdeath.html; the linked page plays a piece of "Mad World" performed by Sacre for the Donnie Darko soundtrack.
). At one point he quotes Aeschylus, a Greek poet, by saying,

Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until, in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.

I doubt Robert was thinking about the relevance of Aeschylus to this particular audience. I think that he forgot politics for a brief moment and betrayed his privileged upbringing. Yet he also revealed to that crowd his grief, his anguish, for a man with whom his relationship evolved from mutual distrust to deep friendship and shared vision.

This speech inevitably leads to an examination of the eulogy for Robert F. Kennedy, read by his brother Ted, but largely in his own words. The phrase from his speech to South African students on the Day of Affirmation is inscribed as his epitaph: "Every time a man strikes out against injustice, he brings forth a tiny ripple of hope..."

Hrant Dink was such a man. My knowledge of him started this evening, but in the coming days, through conversations and readings, I will come to know a man who studied science, then studied literature to find his calling, his voice, his mission in newsprint and nonviolent resistance to the burial of past unmourned, or rights promised, but unrealized.

In the coming days I may learn of his personal failing, of errors in judgment, of a lack of objectivity (though by all accounts it was his balanced editorials and deep desire for reconciliation, not retribution or reparation, for nations and peoples.

In the coming days analysts will explore the impact of his death on the prospects of the accession of Turkey to the European Union. Politicians within the European Parliament may well use this to further their own domestic agendas by using his death to reinforce reasons - reasonable and outlandish - why Turkey should not join Europe. In the coming days some will compare his assassination to that of Rafik Hariri, and pontificate on whether the event will similarly lead to the promise of democratic reforms and a peaceful revolution within Turkey, and to the extent that such a revolution would realize ultimate success.

I have neither the professional competence nor the appetite to speculate on the political and economic consequences of the death of one man. I will content myself with listening to more learned individuals, here and around the world, who grapple with greater grief and torment that I may share, much diluted, but can never fully understand.

I hope that the Turkish state, in recognition of his service to the people - if not the country - will permit Dink to be interred on Turkish soil, not to lay claim to him as the ruling elite's own, but instead to recognize that he belongs to the people, that out of his death - and especially his life - should come symbol and substance of contemplation and reform. It is one of many blessings of America that there is no law against insulting "Americanness" - our jails, I fear, are crowded enough. Those of us who love the freedom of the newsprint, who have had our hands dirtied by its filmy ink, who have defended the freedom of the press, even if only in the context of a high school paper, can perhaps appreciate this man and his heart, if not his politics.

My prayers to his family, to the Turkish and Armenian nations and peoples, and to others around the world who are touched by his death or life.