Who Benefits?

My friend read me an email: it was meant to be tongue-and-cheek, but still. Being highly inappropriate, I found it highly indicative of most American's perspective of world affiars, or more accurately, their perspective of America's position in the world.

After hearing the email, I was inclined to make it my life goal to irradicate cultural ignorance from America. After thinking about the possibilities this might bring about, I was soon crushed to think that this would not be a job just for me. My anger burned.

The matter came down to how the United States has given benefits all over the world. And in the email, was a list of the all the dictators that the world would still be dealing with if the good ole' US of A hadn't gotten involved. A movie clip came to mind (check out minute 5:22-37).

Noriega happened to be on the list. That was a hit just a little below the belt. Among claims that "Panamanians were happy that we got rid of Noriega for them", I had to question it. While I can't claim that I know many people who aren't happy that Noriega is gone, I will claim that I know few Panamanians that are extremely grateful for the invasion. The destruction of an invasion that could have been a simple material operation but was rather used as a testing ground for the new Stealth Fighter outshadowed the benefits of a Noriega-less Panama. And may I mention that we, the Great United States, trained Noriega, had him on our CIA payroll, and ignored all the human right violations he was commiting as long as he was feeding us info that we felt necesary? Not until he started to turn left did he start to get bad press from Washington, and the world started to hear about all the atrocities he was commiting. And Noriega is just the icing on the cake. Do any Americans know that the US helped create an entire nation, Panama, becuase it was the only option for getting rights to a canal, (I might add, not in the hopes of increasing global commerce, but rather in consolidating a center of military power that would allow the US to exhert its early nineteenth-century imperialistic power to the South Pole) since the Columbian government at the time refused giving up its sovergnty over the Panamanian Isthumus. And BAM! There was Panama, a country whose sovergnty was "given" to them by US miltary support (completely disregarding the already strong independendistic movement underway in Panama) just to be taken away in the agreement that made Panama a US Protectorate (One of the most famous Panamanian poets, Ricardo Miró, wrote his most famous work, Patria, being in Spain, exiled from his country, not wanting the worlds to see how Panama had become a US protectorate obtained by money and a canal.) I won't even get started with the sordid history the US has in Latin America outside of Panama, and the mess that our foreign relations have made. Who benefits from the mess we have made of the Western Hemisphere which we define as the Monroe Doctrine? (well, we have.)

And who is benefiting by our continual denial of the Kyoto Protocols? (Our big companies are)And who is benefiting from free trade agreements with developing countries? (Certianly not them.) And who is benefiting from our disregard of Venezuela? (the American consumer) And who is benefiting from disregarding AIDS in Africa (We wouldnt benefit from it, so that is whay we are disregarding it. Amidst presidential promises it would happen, have you honestly heard anything about it?)

So where is good ole' United States in all this? Where is the beacon of hope and light that most Americans claim is their country. I can't help but be reminded of Ruben Dario, a famous Latin American Modernist Poet, and what he said of the United States: "illuminating the road of easy conquest, Liberty raises its torch in New York." (read the whole English version here) Who benefits from the United States involvement in world affairs? I won't go all off and claim that there have been no benefits in the places our government has served, but the fact is our government has chosen only areas and regions to serve (better said: take advantage of) that it deems necessary, on its terms, and by its means.

Actually learning about history, actually knowing people who have suffered on behalf of the United States, and actually being in a place where the Stars and the Stripes dont wave on every building, I have come to see that what I thought of the United States is not what the United States is. And I am proud to be an American, but hate to be considered one when the preaching of the closed-minded reach the world, and becomes the overwhelming message the world hears from us. When that happens, I am ashamed of my country. No wonder the rest of the world is ashamed of it as well. If only we could get others to see that, then maybe cultural ignorance wouldn't stand a chance.

But I doubt that will happen. I am sure just talking about history in a true way has marked me as unpatriotic and un-American. Who benefits from that kind of thinking? Only those who don't want to think that maybe our background is less than pristine, and our actions less than perfect. Only those who aren't secure enough to live with the fact that their nation might not be a beacon to world, might not be the final authority. But then again, those are the people who are making the decisions for us.

We need some change...