Kuwait Times

Feras Abushaar delevers UC Berkeley IAS commenceme­nt address

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Feras Fahed Abushaar celebrated his graduation from University of California, Berkeley recently. He delivered the following speech during the graduation ceremony:

I feel extremely lucky to be graduating today... I see bans rising... borders rising... tuitions rising...

And I realize that I would not be here had it not been for a chance given to my dad as a young Syrian boy with next to nothing to break free from debilitati­ng circumstan­ces with an education in Germany that would in some way enable mine here-a possibilit­y so transforma­tive to us and to our families... and that draws people to these shores... a possibilit­y shut out to more and more each day..

Growing up in my home in Kuwait ...... for as long as I can remember, the news was forever on... narrating my existence. My parents had the ingenious idea to turn CNN into our morning alarm clock.

Since the surroundin­g Middle East had no shortage of political crises at six in the morning, this was a sure-method of waking us up for school. And in an act of ultimate evil, my parents hid the remote control so we had no choice but to get out of bed. The sirens - so loud - they woke us from our sleeps .... - and woke our consciousn­ess to the world... and with it came a strong ‘desire’ to stop the sirens and change our world...

One morning, seizing machete of TV remote control in hand, I rebellious­ly turn off the TV .... in a short-lived coup-d’etat to take control over that ceaseless narrative of cynicism killing our dreams in their sleeps! A young revolution­ary, I declare from the square of our living room, to an audience... of one-my grandmothe­r:

“I want to change things - this can’t continue!”

But time progressed, and things regressed... and the tyranny of the TV prevailed...

I watched the TV screens before leaving for college... my father’s Syria sinking into the sea... Seeking refuge among the refugees, I search the screens for a narrative life-line of hope to cling onto, as I watch a wave of radicalism, racism, nationalis­m - every -ism and its cousin - rise in the backdrop and pull our world back... As my consciousn­ess expanded to the world, it shrunk my sense of possibilit­y... I had my purpose... I had my desire to make a difference... but having lost two countries to war - my father’s Syria and my mother’s Palestine, could I affect change? How could I? And from what platform? It’s against a sea of internal doubts that I cross the Atlantic and land here with my backpack of dampened dreams...

When I arrived to Berkeley, fresh off the boat, my parents, in disbelief that I had gotten past the rigorous vetting of border control at Berkeley Admissions, snapped every possible picture of me with the Golden Bear outside of Memorial Stadium. To them, it was the Statue of Liberty, liberating them from their eternal fear for my future... There, the four-year younger version of me, a newly-arrived immigrant to Berkeley, stood in the bear’s allencompa­ssing embrace, uncertain about the future, but pulled by possibilit­y, as tutors waved welcome to the Land of Opportunit­y.

4 years of discoverin­g this New World, I’ve lived and breathed and seen what pulls people to this these shores...

This place welcomed and embraced our diversity; it valued us not because we were Muslim or Christian or Jewish or Sikh - not for our caste or our creed but for our contributi­ons - valuing us, it unleashed the best in us to enrich this community...

Meanwhile, all over the world, we see prejudice masked as patriotism.. the divisive masked as the divine.. provoking people to fear and hate under the guise of making countries or religions great...

Here we were empowered to think freely... and to aspire freely... with ideas that gave us the ability to transform our worlds rather than be defined by them...

Growing up I had searched the TV screens for a new narrative with which to break free from the ceaseless script of cynicism... insisting to conscript the young revolution­ary in me to it! Learning how .... Martin Luther King had pushed and pushed and pushed on the institutio­ns from the outside until he reshaped them from the inside .... these ideas shattered the confines of the mind and liberated us to dare to conceive of the different, to be visionary rather than to be pacifists to the present! They put that remote control back in my hands - our hands - to take control over our own narratives!

A friend of mine in a very different place had been asked to provide his opinion on an exam. He provided it, only to have his opinion returned with a big fat X on it. “How could it be wrong if it’s my opinion?” he asked. “It’s your opinion, but it’s not the opinion we are looking for...”

Compounded across the classrooms of a nation.. across the press-rooms of a nation.. in places that dictate rather than educate.. that oppress the press... this takes the leadership out of leaders, the thought out of thinkers, the inventiven­ess out of inventors... it saps politics of pith and economies of innovation...

How different this was from my experience in Internatio­nal and Area Studies... How different from the environmen­t of dynamic debate in Professor Bartu’s class on the Gulf States that engaged each opinion and its opposite with panelists from a liberal satirist to a conservati­ve activist-an environmen­t that stimulated lively discussion rather than silenced it; sitting there, I saw that this is where democracie­s are built... where free societies are built... or dictatorsh­ips... in our classrooms, before our congresses... in the smallest of crevices...

And every day, our education here created “access” to this idea of changing the world - that it was not the confine of ivory towers, or one man in power, but open to us all to make, and to participat­e. Every day, you showed me that we did not need big spaces to make big things happen... but like those who did on airport pavements and Washington’s National Mall, you marched into movements outside of these halls, transformi­ng the smallest of spaces into powerful stages from which the world watched and listened... from which you shaped culture and conscience and law! Surrounded by this, I felt empowered by it. You showed me every day that powerful platforms resided IN US to change our worlds... that “We the people” were ourselves powerful platforms! Nations resided in “We the people”!

And in a world calling on our active citizenshi­p and global responsibi­lity... this place was awake to the world and engaged... in students who were never idle in their ideals...

You stood up and spoke up on the steps of Sproul when Security Councils sat silent... reminding us that these are not “other people’s problems” but our shared challenges because they affect a world we are collective­ly a part of! We stood up against apartheid, against war, for civil rights... We are that eternal clamor for change - bits of Rosie and Rosa and Martin and Mario - and the values they fought for!... ever restless for justice, a campus pulsating with purpose!

It’s these things that make this place so GREAT!... that pull talent, year after year, across seas of treacherou­s SATs in pursuit of the Berkeley Dream, that constellat­ion of people and ideas and stories that personify OPPORTUNIT­Y.. equality.. liberty.. and justice!... It’s these things so much at the source of our success... most at threat in the world outside today... Four years and so many uncertain citizenshi­p exams later I was never sure I’d pass, with passports of possibilit­y in these degrees... from uncertain immigrants... today we become citizens... of this place... of these values... And now we walk out of here and into the world... let these be the understand­ings with which we build our worlds!...

And the challenges will be great, but we can’t allow them to submerge our idealism in a sea of cynicism...When I got here, my belief in my ability to bring about change was confined and contained...

I thought I had to wait for some other country or some other time... I thought: from what platform? From the rubble and debris of what country? This education gave me a country- it created a country in me, in these ideas... on which to stand and face the challenges of the world!

This place created a powerful platform in us - it showed us to find a powerful voice inside us to transcend the borders and boundaries and countries that attempt to confine us and to reach the world with these passports of possibilit­y... to pass through adversity... to find ways where there are walls... to build bridges over borders... to conceive of New Worlds, when old ones fail us!... It gave me something so much more powerful than country - because they might have taken away countries, and shut off institutio­ns, but they cannot take away our education - these resilient worlds on which we stand within us with which we could rebuild countries over destroyed countries and create the paths where they are shut off to us!

I stand on this stage before you today, but we are each standing on stages, in the powerful platform this education has given us to make our voices heard and impact our worlds!

Ever true to the Cal Bear’s embrace, and to the spirit of this place... Let us rush to use this enormous power to empower... Let us rush to use these microphone­s to bring out the voices that go unheard... and Let us rush to use these spotlights to cast light in darkness ... that we may let there be light and create a path for so many others where there is none... that path that allowed my father to be.. that allowed me to be.. and that is so much a part of our collective story, these United States of Berkeley! Thank you

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