Ahmed Shihab-Eldin

Transcription

AHMED SHIHAB-ELDIN: So you've asked me to tell you five things I like or some things I hate. This will be the fun part. I hate racism, but that's like a concept but I've noticed that subtle racism is particularly something I hate and that happens a lot. I've actually noticed in Europe there is more kind of overt racism. If you're gonna be racist, like, don't beat around the bush and kind of be like drop hints. I feel like in the States when I've encountered racism it tends to be somewhat subdued and I..I..I mean who loves racism? Not many people, but ironically, even though I hate racism like everyone should, I am slightly obsessed with the term "that's racist". So it's a little game I play. Let's say someone gives you..you ask for coffee or anything trivial, whatever, you know, coffee or they're giving you the bag or opening a door for you. You just turn to them and really kind of sincerely say, "that's racist". And you look shocked and kind of concerned and like hurt and you can only do it when they're not being racist, but what it accomplishes, I think, is it forces people to do this kind of double take where they're like, "Am I being racist?" and it literally works on everyone. I mean I've done it on like world leaders who come in for interviews. That's what I love about racism I guess is, you know, getting people to ruminate and talk about it because I feel like it doesn't happen enough in this country and like yes we have a black president but people are still talking about the birth certificate so I think racism is still very alive in this country. I love Twitter. They didn't pay me to say this. At the end of the day, I'm a very social person. I'm kind of a social animal and I'm addicted to social media as well. And Twitter to me is a challenge because I, as you may have noticed, have a tendency to ramble and so to be concise and say something meaningful in 140 characters is quite the exercise for me in discipline. And more importantly on a serious note, I have developed some amazing friendships that a lot of people call "fake friends" but they're my real friends because I've actually visited some of them and gotten to meet people and develop relationships. I think it's very intriguing because how is it that I can feel so close to someone who I've never met and then all of a sudden I'm in Helsinki and I meet them and it's amazing. So I love Twitter. So even though Twitter is my real love affair, my endless love, I have an affair that's not so endless, like a little fling, with Storify. They are basically an aggregation and curation tool. So think Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, any social media element you can very easily through Storify aggregate and curate to tell your own story. So you might be noticing a trend whether you're a journalist or whether you're, you know, just a person who's obsessed with, I dunno, Iggy Pop, or something random you can go and scour the world and put it all together and share it with your friends and maybe even with a news organization and so again, it's that whole, easy access to information and shareability that gets me going. Something I've always loved and something that not many people know, unless you're Arab, is this beautiful legendary singer named Fairuz. Growing up, my mom used to play her. It's a nostalgia that it generates but also her voice is pretty angelic. Music today tends to be not so…even though it's very produced it's not so, I dunno, enchanting. I mean her voice is angelic, the music, the composition, also the story because you know she grew up in Lebanon during the civil war and as someone who as seen war be a constant in my life, I dunno, I find it very enchanting. So I hate bellbottoms. And I, I mean, perhaps I don't feel that strongly about it, but the truth is…like if you were to ever force me to wear bellbottoms I would be very upset. And there's multiple reasons. One, I think stylistically, I dunno if it's the shape of my legs or just in general, I think it just…looking that heavy or that wide that low down is just I don't think flattering on anybody, but more importantly that cut in the rain is extremely problematic because, you know, if you're walking it starts to drain up and then by the time you get to where you've been you know you have these weird streaks and I know it's like just a little pet peeve thing but bellbotttoms and me…not so much. I'm Ahmed Shihab-Eldin and you are watching THNKR.