Friday, December 30, 2005
This Is Just Classic
For some reason, I find this story extremely funny. I really do wish I had the balls that this kid has.
Here’s a summation from what just might be my story of the week-
I have this strange fear of traveling in places I’ve never been before- I think it’s a fear of getting lost and of the unknown. This kid however…..
Update: Since this story has broken, the media is now comparing him to “Ferris Bueller.” Suddenly this kid annoys me. Ferris did FAR greater things in one day that this guy, or any of us will do in ten lifetimes.
Here’s a summation from what just might be my story of the week-
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A 16-year-old from Florida who traveled to Iraq on his own without telling his parents was put on a flight home Friday, the U.S. Embassy said, while warning Americans of the dangers of undertaking similar journeys. Farris Hassan, of Fort Lauderdale, had been under the care of the U.S. Embassy after being on his own in Iraq for several days.
A military officer accompanying him, who did not identify himself, said it was his task to get Hassan "safe and sound to the United States."
Hassan, a junior at Pine Crest School, a prep academy of about 700 students in Fort Lauderdale, recently studied immersion journalism — a writer who lives the life of his subject in order to better understand it.
The teenager, whose parents were born in Iraq but have lived in the United States for about 35 years, says he wanted to travel to Baghdad to better understand what Iraqis are living through.
"I thought I'd go the extra mile for that, or rather, a few thousand miles," he told AP in an interview earlier this week.
Skipping a week of school, he left the country on Dec. 11, telling only two high school friends of his plans. His travels took him to Kuwait and Lebanon before he arrived in Iraq on Christmas Day. He left without telling his family and sent an e-mail after his departure, Atiya said.
The teen traveled to Kuwait, where a taxi dropped him in the desert at the Iraq border, but he could not cross there because of tightened security ahead of the Iraqi parliamentary elections on Dec. 15. He went to Beirut, Lebanon, to stay with family friends, and flew from there to Baghdad.
After his second night in Baghdad, he contacted the AP and said he had come to do research and humanitarian work. The AP called the U.S. Embassy, which sent U.S. soldiers to pick him up.
State Department officials then notified his parents.
I have this strange fear of traveling in places I’ve never been before- I think it’s a fear of getting lost and of the unknown. This kid however…..
Update: Since this story has broken, the media is now comparing him to “Ferris Bueller.” Suddenly this kid annoys me. Ferris did FAR greater things in one day that this guy, or any of us will do in ten lifetimes.
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The naysayers may want to consider a different point of view:
Do a little Googling. The whole world is talking about this kid, and people from Switzerland to France to French Canadia seem to have a general consensus: if more young people decided the human condition is worth more than their money, ealth, or safety, the world would be a very different place. Or, as many people have agreed, "the kid has serious stones, man."
I find it interesting that some people are so dissapointed in his choice of how to spend his money. Would they rather he attend to the path expected of him, buying junk and living a shallow life, unaware of and uncaring of others, as so many young American are inclined?
As for what some others appear to consider a trite false attempt to convey compassion, the trite attempt could have been made from his couch. To make it from the streets of Bagdhad implies his devotion to his ideal.
I'm not saying it was bright, but it was brave, and an example to the materialistic humans in this world that the truth is impossible to decipher from a distance.
He's a young man now - he's old enough to take his life and future into his own hands. People his age have been killing other people in wars for centuries - what would happen if more of them fought for peace?
Interesting: when soldiers die for war, they are brave, when a young boy is willing to die for peace, he's stupid. That says a lot about human nature. Maybey people like Farris can change that in the future.
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Do a little Googling. The whole world is talking about this kid, and people from Switzerland to France to French Canadia seem to have a general consensus: if more young people decided the human condition is worth more than their money, ealth, or safety, the world would be a very different place. Or, as many people have agreed, "the kid has serious stones, man."
I find it interesting that some people are so dissapointed in his choice of how to spend his money. Would they rather he attend to the path expected of him, buying junk and living a shallow life, unaware of and uncaring of others, as so many young American are inclined?
As for what some others appear to consider a trite false attempt to convey compassion, the trite attempt could have been made from his couch. To make it from the streets of Bagdhad implies his devotion to his ideal.
I'm not saying it was bright, but it was brave, and an example to the materialistic humans in this world that the truth is impossible to decipher from a distance.
He's a young man now - he's old enough to take his life and future into his own hands. People his age have been killing other people in wars for centuries - what would happen if more of them fought for peace?
Interesting: when soldiers die for war, they are brave, when a young boy is willing to die for peace, he's stupid. That says a lot about human nature. Maybey people like Farris can change that in the future.
# posted by 
: 7:36 PM
: 7:36 PM << Home
