|
NEWS
| October 13, 2004
International Affairs
Video conference puts minds in touch
A campus group talks with students
in Pakistan about U.S. foreign policy.
 |
| Courtesy of the Americans for Informed
Democracy |
| A moderator in Pakistan listens to
discussion during the video conference titled American
Powers and Global Security on Tuesday. |
|
By Princess
McDowell
The Shorthorn Staff
Members from a nonpartisan student organization talked to students
who were about 8,000 miles away about American involvement in foreign
affairs.
The Americans for Informed Democracy held a video conference with
students from the Lahore School of Management in Pakistan on Tuesday.
The conference, titled American Powers and Global Security, allowed
participants at UTA and Pakistan to discuss their views about the
United States’ foreign policy. The organization chose to have
the conference close to the upcoming presidential elections.
The discussion turned informal after many students left to go to
classes 30 minutes into the conference.
The Pakistani students said the United States should take care of
problems within its borders before venturing outside.
“[The U.S. Government] cannot be the world police without
starting inside the country first,” one Pakistani student
said. “[The government] cannot claim to be a democracy when
[it] entered Iraq without the total consent of the American people.”
The students present were to act as the only representatives of
the American government and address this issue to the best of their
ability.
“I support the government’s decision to take military
action against imminent threats, but we need to do so with other
organizations like NATO and our allies,” said Robert Gonzales,
political science senior and Americans for Informed Democracy vice
president.
Another discussion topic was the United States’ role as a
superpower and how far that power should extend.
“The U.S. is promoting a ‘might is right’ way
to deal with issues,” the Pakistani moderator said. “It
is crucial that the U.S. work together with other countries in the
United Nations rather than forcing their views on one another.”
The university students wanted to clarify that they were not directly
involved in the decision-making process.
“Only a select few in the government made the decision to
enter Iraq,” one participant said.
Both groups agreed that the United States’ attempt to spread
democracy does not always work because not every country wants a
democratic government.
After the 10-hour time gap between Arlington and Pakistan caused
a delay in the start of the conference, the remaining students discussed
the impact the media has on how we analyze our facts.
“We don’t know all the facts,” Gonzales said.
“And they don’t either.”
The video conference was made possible through a coalition of nonprofit
organizations that was able to connect young leaders around the
world to talk about global issues.
“I noticed that there was not an organization on campus working
to create a platform to express their political opinions on global
issues,” said Umer Raffat Khan, Americans for Informed Democracy
president. “There were a set of 12 schools in the U.S., including
University of Texas at Austin, Northwestern University, and a state
school in Wisconsin, looking to have a conference like this and
we basically worked with Lahore to set a feasible time frame to
make it happen.”
The conference allowed UTA students the opportunity to hear firsthand
what other people feel about the United States.
“I think we all understood that the United States is not very
liked in the world,” Gonzales said. “But we have to
understand that they had their own views, and we have ours.”
He was pleased with the overall success of the conference.
“It was a good experiment,” he said. “The Pakistani
students were very open-minded and willing to talk and open up.”
|
|
