David+B’s+Final+AmEx+2013+Speech



Let's Get Global= 13 years ago, my family moved to Tajikistan. Yes, it is a country. No, I don't speak Chinese. People usually ask me questions like, "Do they have hoses there? Did you live in a hut? Did you ride a donkey to school?" Well yes actually. If you aren't in America, there is no such thing as a hose, everyone lives in a hut, and everyone rides donkeys everywhere; seems about right.

A little background on that: I was born in Ventura, lived on 49 Shamrock until when I was 3 years old, I moved with my family to a tiny, little, mountainous, land-locked country in Central Asia. It’s just west of China (which I usually am reluctant to mention, as people automatically assume that I speak Chinese and that everyone there is the typical “Asian” person-neither are true), and it’s north of Afghanistan (which doesn’t mean everyone there is a terrorist). That was my home; it wasn’t a trip I went on, that’s where I’m from. I can’t really answer questions like “what was it like there?” or “did you like it?” What is it like in America? What does that even mean? Anyways, my dad taught doctors there, who had been over-specialized by the Soviet Union, how to be good ole general family physicians. About 6 years ago, we came back to Ventura so my brother and I could go to high school. I, as you may have guessed, have a slightly different perspective on a lot of things than those who haven’t had this kind of experience. And that’s not your fault. I’m not blaming you for not having the same experience as me. I’m just talking about something I would like to see. There are a select few people on this planet who really understand. I hate being cliché but I’m going to do it a few times today, nobody gets me. I think it would benefit America, as it has benefitted me, if people had “international” experiences, experiences that you can’t get in Ventura, or even in Oxnard.

In my experience, Americans have a kind of joking indifference in their tone when talking or hearing about other countries. It seems like the general population of the United States thinks that you automatically blow up if you step onto the soil of any Middle Eastern country. Well, that's not true. I have found that every time I step out of a plane in the Middle East, or Southeast Asia, or Central Asia, I don't blow up. Strangely, after living in Central Asia for 8 years and flying on dozens of "terrorist-filled" planes, I’m still alive. Not every woman with a burqa covering every inch of skin belongs to a radical Muslim family that works for Al Qaeda. Not every word in some semi-foreign sounding language means "Death to America! God is greater!" I've gotten questions before (when people find out I know some of the Tajik language) asking, "How do you say C? How do you say 4?"

It seems to me that the average American citizen is under the impression that if you don't live in America, you spend all your time rioting, big time drug-lording, and manufacturing atomic weapons. Honestly though, do you know anything about Columbia besides that there's a lot of drug activity there? Or how about anything about Iran other than that there was a hostage crisis there in the late 70s? Or about Pakistan other than that it's where Osama Bin Laden was found? Well I don't either.

There is so much great stuff in the world. I have never been in a place as hospitable as Tajikistan. Everyone leaves their doors open and invites you into their house for tea even if you have never seen them before in your life. The creativity and ingenuity of these people is astounding. There is so much we can learn from their values. The whole society is people oriented, not task oriented, not always getting things done, getting rich, working all the time. Someone would stop on the way to work, no matter the time, to talk to a neighbor. These people take care of each other; they look out for their community. These people seem to have the vital fundamentals which the all-powerful United States has forgotten or ignored. Sure, I’ve had my share of rocks thrown at me, and guns pointed at me, and being assaulted with a knife by some kids who wanted my bike. But, those are lessons learned as well. Misunderstandings between people, between cultures, caused by the ignorance of those involved, can be lessened and solved by shared experience, and expanded knowledge. Find out what the people are really like.

So what I want to see in the America I live in, or what I want to see in America even if I don't live in it, is this: I want people to know more about what is out there in the world, what other countries and cultures are really like, how similar the old guy with the huge beard and the turban is to your grandpa, how much more to planet earth there is than the US of A. 6.6 percent of the this planet is America; I want to see you discover the other 93.4 percent for yourself. To be abundantly cliché and boring and generally just lame, I want to see more global awareness.

=Sources:= The brain of David Birdwell General knowledge Wolfram Alpha for land area of US vs World