Homepage of Peter Debik M.A., Berlin, Germany

Peter Debik M.A.

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It are two pets' lives

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Meeting at the flag poll

Meeting at the flag poll:

A spider in my home can scare me, but when the same spider sits in a barn, I have no fear to touch and pet it. Once I touched it in the barn, it is also accepted in my home.

Different cultures work similar for me. A friend of mine is Iranian, and one of my best German friends is married to him. I grew up with Arabic kindergarten friends and later even once had a colleague from Gaza (Palestinian Territories). I contributed to a tribute concert in Berlin (Germany) with the beneficiary being a hospital in Aleppo (Syria) by designing the advertisements and program brochure. I have also visited Israel, went to a British-German grade school in a politically divided city, had Turkish friends from kindergarten through high school (I remember my first visit at the home of my kindergarten friend Dilek - the daughter of a traditional Turkish family: we didn't sit on chairs but on cushions piled on the floor next to a table that was raised to only 10 inches above ground. It was strange and my first personal impression of really different culture. Dilek was soon to be moved back to Turkey for to be raised with her grandparents in a strict Muslim tradition).

My father had lived in Switzerland for some while, was once married to a Thai for years and had even built a house in Nakhon Sawan (Thailand), colleagues came from Serbia, Korea, and Australia and were Jews, Christians, and Muslims. I once dated a woman and former colleague from Georgia (the country, not the state). Also, I am connected with a friend in Canada who used to be married to a German who for a year went to Romania with her to teach at a school for diplomat's kids. I also have business partners in Guangdong (China), Bangalore (India), and Krasnoyarsk (Siberia, Russia). A good friend of mine has lived in Peru a long time, and yet another one has married a Catalan woman and raised his kids in Gerona (Spain). And last but not least I was lucky to be in Berlin when the Iron Curtain fell and a political system crashed.

For 8 1/2 years I had lived with a woman who was born in Moscow, has a Russian mom and speaks fluent Russian, was raised in East Germany, has studied a year in Great Britain and used to work and live in Finland for half a year. My intercultural ties are not special, others have travelled more, seen more, connected better, speak more languages, and they have been to places I'll likely never see. The point however is, that I am not a narrow-minded "western-culture-only" person.

Why would someone with a multi-cultural past and ties like these support - what some say - illegitimate U.S. military actions in foreign countries?

I got into arguments over U.S. policies with my partner all the time that at one time had almost brought us to the point where we broke up, but I still am a steadfast supporter anyway. My professor and me shared the opinion that violence cannot be successfully answered with violence. There is also no question, that heavy failures like the Abu Ghraib prison maltreatments of prisoners are tragic and inacceptable U.S. actions. No apologies to the Iraqi people can ever make up for this failure. I also understand what grows aggression and hate against western cultures in mainly Islamist countries. Just watch a few Jerry Springer shows (this is one of more thinkable examples, nothing personal against Jerry Springer) and know some basics about Islam = no wonder that a religious Muslim must believe, the western culture is all decadent. A bad personal economic situation of people in many countries sets an additional cornerstone of hate against foreign ideals. Extremists only need to wait on examples to fortify their perspective - and unfortunately western cultures deliver quickly. Every single day. I also think that it is wrong for western people who have never read a book on Islam to spurn it and lump Muslims together or even mock them. Believe it or not, in its core values, Islam is a peaceful religion. By the way, I am Christian.

On the other hand, it is wrong to let people who won't stop to oppress others prevail. It is inacceptable that the rights of women differ from the rights of men. It is also inacceptable that people get harassed and killed for their believes. It is wrong to let terrorists kill anyone anywhere anytime for anything, as if they stood exempt from law and mankind.

U.S. policies do not oppose Islam, they oppose terrorism. Won't you also vouch for freedom and democracy? Then why would you oppose policies that are designed to bring peace, freedom, and democracy to people who have suffered war, oppression, and dictatorship since they were born? Why would you confuse perpetrators with victims?

While in our western culture an Islamic extremist could openly state his opinion on Times Square and nothing serious would ever happen to him for that, try to publicly read the U.S. constitutional values, which are in no way extreme, on a market place in Basra (Iraq) and see what happens. You'll likely be dedicated your own personal assassination for it. While our western culture openly accepts different views and opinions, you can easily get killed for only asking - not doing - asking the wrong people in other countries to let you do what they'd be allowed to do in our countries. I even had to carefully consider whether to put this discussion up on my homepage, because I am at risk to become a target myself, although I am not even a threat to anyone and have had Muslim friends, clients and colleagues through all my life. But again, Islam is not the problem. The problem is terrorism.

U.S. policies are not a threat against, but a valuable contribution to the development of our world. They are aimed at a world of peace, equality, and unity. They are not destabilizing our world, they are stabilizing it. They are not aimed at growing apart, but at growing together. They are not aimed at oppression, but at freedom. I show my support, because I am proud of my American friends that they - as one of only a handful of nations - take the courage to avouch their values. Watch this commercial, this says it all:

Just another Anheuser-Busch commercial?

If you think that all Americans are focused on and interested in their own nation only (very many Germans I have met do, although they should know better by a look at their own history), this should get you thinking: Did you know that the former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright used to be called Marie Jana Korbelová, was born in Prague (Czech Republic) and raised in Belgrade (Serbia)?