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How They See Us
I was talking over the meaning of life with my twenty-year-old niece during her holiday visit. Since I am both ancient and not one of her parents, in her world-view, I am automatically endowed with wisdom for which I have no other qualifications. She is at a difficult time in her life when she is trying to figure out how much she owes to herself, and how much she owes to her parents and the world at large.
Striking the balance between needs and wants, responsibilities and freedom, family and community is an evolving and lifelong process for each of us. We talked about the concept of context in the decision making process at length. How you make choices can and should be responsive to the context of the situation.
The context of any situation is based on some things you can’t control, such as time and available resources. It is also based on some things you do control, such as values and ethics.
Later that afternoon, we heard about the tsunami disaster. Still later, we learned that President Bush had decided a fair representation the context of our country’s responsibility to the world should be a whopping $15 million in disaster relief. A few days later, Bush upped the ante to $35 million, after being shamed by the much larger donations of other countries. (And the additional $20 million is not so much aid, as it is an "extended line of credit", according to Deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli. Finally on Friday, Bush raised the ante to $350 million.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a piece on the upcoming inauguration and the estimated price tag of $40 million.
Let's put this into context. $15 million dollars is an appropriate amount of money to spend on a multinational tragedy that killed 140,000 people, at least 30,000 of whom were children, injured hundreds of thousands, destroyed the infrastructure of thousands of miles of coastal communities, seriously impacted the economy of at least six other countries and has left millions of people homeless. $40 million dollars is an appropriate amount of money to spend on one all-day, all–night orgy of self-congratulations.
When I compared the money to be spent on the inauguration with the money being spent on disaster relief to my niece as an example of context, she got it. At twenty years old, she understands that this is the context by which the world views our values. This is how we are being judged.
This is why we can’t wait three or four years to start organizing for change. The rest of the world's more than 6 billion people already hate or fear us enough already.
What do you think about our government's response to this disaster? One of the encouraging signs for the New Year is how rapidly people all over the world used the Internet to start donating the money to help. (There's a list of organizations you can support here on the blog.) Let us know if there's anything special happening in your community where people have taken the initiative to help, rather than waiting for Bush's too little, too late response.
While the sand slipped through the opening
And their hands reached for the golden ring
With their hearts they turned to each other's heart for refuge
In the troubled years that came before the deluge.
-- Jackson Browne
Over 100,000 people died in the stroke of a wave and its hard to imagine even the concept of "nation" and "superpower" because of it.
No one is a nation these days. We're a planet. And on this planet, a she, humans occupy only a very thin skin of what she offers.
There's the rumor out there that there's been oil exploration in the Indian Ocean, using a powerful driven air pump on the ocean floor. Is that true? Are we somehow responsible for yet ANOTHER human disaster because of our need for oil?
Our country takes so much of the world's resources, and the disaster's cost to the planet is more vast than $350 million dollars the US plans to spend. Its more than just this disaster, its the mounting up of planetary debt we're creating by our wastefulness and greed. How much more are we going to blindly careen this huge gas-and energy guzzling country before we spin our world COMPLETELY off its axis?
"When I compared the money to be spent on the inauguration with the money being spent on disaster relief to my niece as an example of context, she got it. At twenty years old, she understands that this is the context by which the world views our values. This is how we are being judged."
A great example, and yes, I agree, this is the context by which the world views our values. Is it any wonder that the Muslim world (except those benefitting personally from our greed) rejects these "Christian" values?
Bumper sticker in Calgary, Alberta:
Inform Yourself; Reject American "values"
Posted by: Amy at January 1, 2005 02:31 PM
Amy:
I find that bumper sticker disappointing! Remember 60 million people did not support Bush and possibly even more when you consider the fraud, intimidation, and suppression!
I would prefer it if it read, "Reject BUSH'S "values"
I heard that in response to criticism, the U.S. Government is providing $350 million in aid to tsunami victims instead of just $35 million. Would it have been nice if this sort of generosity had been expressed last week, instead of after the UN lambasts us for being stingy? Yes. Our nation should have an unequivocable position on preserving human rights to life free of poverty and disease- in South East Asia, the Middle East, everywhere in this too-small marble we call Earth.
This President has no trouble deciding to launch an unjustified war that will cost hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars and kill and maim tens of thousands of people, including our own troops. But when confronted with massive human suffering and need on a global scale, a paltry $15 million is the most he's willing to contribute until bad P.R. forces him, grudgingly, to up the ante.
I don't guess they're playing "Proud to be an American" much on the radio these days . . .
Sparrow, I agree.
The trouble is, as Casey pointed out, most people in the rest of the world are without the information to make that distinction. And like Ralph Nader, many see little distinction between the Democrats and the Republicans. (People from outside the US who hang out on American liberal blogs are a tiny minority.) We Americans are being judged by the behaviour of Bush and our American corporations, whether we like it or not. Since other corporations in other countries (even Sweden) have tried to adopt some "American tactics" such as using south-east Asian child labor and sweat shop labor, and getting around environmental protections, this greed disease is seen as spreading outward from America.
A lot of Canadians are disgusted by the invasion of Iraq, but in many ways they have come to expect that kind of "world domination behaviour" from the US. But the environmental protection rollbacks that Bush has instituted have had a direct impact on Canadians, particularly the changes in protections of the Great Lakes. As my Canadian friends keep telling me, there is no economy, no corporation, no trade, no America, without the environment.
They see the greed of corporations as short-sighted, and like most of the world, many Canadians associate that greed with Americans themselves. Now Americans want to buy "clean water" from Canada, and although we don't hear much about it here, it's a big topic of discussion in Canada. Canadians are overwhelmingly saying "NO!" for several reasons, not the least of which is that it would allow Americans to continue to erode environmental protections in their own country, and instead take what they need from somewhere else.
I realize that there are many Americans that don't fit the stereotype; unfortunately, there are not enough of us to topple this regime and get back to taking care of all of us, instead of lining the pocketbooks of a few.
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041229/NEWS01/412290368/1056/news01
Chesey donates 10000 to the Bush inaugeration...Hmmm...this democrat should have wasted his money on disaster relief instead. Since he likes to throw away money, why throw it to a billionaire like Bush who can pay for his own inaugeration.
Poignant article about the devastation of the tsunami:
Town's Children Just Swept Out To Sea
By DOUG SAUNDERS, Globe and Mail
Saturday, January 1, 2005
"It was a tranquil Sunday morning, and the bustling town of Mullaittivu seemed to be populated entirely with children. The men were out fishing, the women were working or tending to their houses, and the streets and yards echoed with youthful voices.
Shortly before 9 o'clock, another noise filled the air.
"I was with a group of my friends, playing outside, when someone said, 'What's that noise?' " 13-year-old Nogadinap Priya recalled. "It sounded like thunder, and we went to look. There was this black thing above us, high in the air."
In a town built by refugees -- people who had spent years building a sunny life beyond their troubled past -- the sounds of screams were about to return."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050101/TSLANKA01/TPFront/TopStories
At the risk of sounding like I'm defending Bush, I think it's important to clarify that Jan Egland (sp?) was not talking just about the US when he suggested that the developed world was stingy. He was talking about ALL the industrialized countries which donate under 1 percent of their GNI in international aid. The US is not the only country that has dramatically reduced aid - Canada also has (part of balancing the budget nearly a decade ago) and so have most other countries.
Also, I don't think anyone knew the true extent of the devastation of the tsunami at the outset - many countries keep increasing their aid pledges as more information becomes available.
The BushCo administration is stingy....
The American people, as a whole, (according to mainstream media "news") a couple of nights ago said it appears our private donations to various charities to help the tsunami victims will top the money the BushCo administration was offering at $35 mil. It wouldn't suprise me if private donations also top the $350 mil. mark the BushCo administration is now offering (but I suspect they are now including in that the costs of sending military personnel and equipment to that region - and I still haven't figured out why the recon planes were sent.... the ships that can make drinking water I understand....).
As far as undersea oil exploration - yes, in one of my e-newsletters a couple of days ago one of the articles mentioned it, only I can't remember the exact location off the top of my head - it was in that region, however. (So was a missile test that failed - again. That's more money wasted by past and current administrations for Star Wars missile technology; especially in light of the fact that it's guerilla warfare on the ground that's currently defeating our troops on the ground....) They are raping Mother Earth for oil any place on the planet the BushCo oil cronies can find it so they can have a monopoly on controlling the flow of oil in the future - reserves have peaked and it's downhill from here for available oil reserves world-wide. I anticipate oil corporations will continue their pursuit of finding oil and reap the profits for generations to come. Alternative energy is mandatory for our future if only to take profits away from the oil companies.
Spending $40 million on shrubbie's 'coronation' is just plainly obscene, even without taking into consideration the disaster of the tsunami. It would be better if the corporations and people who are paying for that orgy for favors would contribute their money towards our national debt, rather than the 'coronation' parties. They are the ones partly responsible for getting the s.o.b. elected in the first place, so they are partly responsible for the increasing debt BushCo has gotten this country into.
The American people as a whole are not stingy and have always turned out to help. I figure if I go without buying books for a couple of months it isn't going to kill me. I have thousands of books, even a couple I haven't read yet, a few I've been intending to re-read from some 20-30 years ago, and there's always the library or reading things online....
I like the concept of the people who will be protesting the 'inauguration' by turning their backs on shrubbie when he passes by. Absolutely non-violent, but it gets the point across. I refused to watch the ball in Times Square last night because I found out Colin Powell was going to hit the switch to start the ball dropping. I will also symbolically 'turn my back' on the whole obscene display on Jan. 20 by simply not turning on my TV that day, or watching any news about it. I can't be there in person to shun (turn my back on) the man behind the obscene lavishness, but I can refuse to watch them, and I can refuse to spend any money on goods and services provided by the people and corporations that support BushCo.... I will continue to to just exactly that for the next four years. It's my non-violent protest of the man and his administration that represents the faces of evil in this nation, and the illegal, unjust, immoral, unethical activities they espouse and promote around the world.
As Andree has said, the rest of the world doesn't give a damn about BushCo. Our media spouts nothing but propaganda from the White House, so it looks like he's more important than he really is to the rest of the world. Just the fact that the European nations are negotiating with Turkey for inclusion into the EU, and Russia and China coordinating military exercises implies to me that the rest of the world is shunning the United States because of shrubbie and his administration. Because we have no more media nowadays who give fair and balanced news, the half of this country who voted for BushCo haven't a clue that we are no longer important on the world stage.... The only thing standing between us and sure fascist disaster are the other nations who can stop BushCo.... and the non-violent and legal protests by the citizens of this country willing to stand up to them....
Casey, brilliant observations. $40 million for Bush's coronation versus an initial proposal of $15 million for exactly the kind of suffering people that Christ would have expressed nothing but immediate compassion for.
If Jesus is really Bush's favorite philosopher, Bush must have received far worse grades in philosophy than any sane man or woman would give him for his performance as President.
Clinton felt people's pain, Bush prefers to inflict pain.
Reading the thoughtful comments on this blog is a good and heartening way to start the New Year. . . and a welcome antidote to the cacophony elsewhere.
What a tragedy to have such an emotionally, ethically and intellectually deficient pygmy in the White House in times like these. Bush's behavior in the past week has been an international embarrassment.
There is that old saying that leaders arise in times of need--maybe,but, in a democracy at least, people have to be awake and courageous enough to ELECT them. Please, may it happen soon.
I would prefer it if it read, "Reject BUSH'S "values"
Posted by: sparrow at January 1, 2005 03:03 PM
You are right Sparrow 50% worked their hearts out to defeat bush and we were defeated by fraud and lies big time
Kangaroo Brisbane Australia
I realize that there are many Americans that don't fit the stereotype; unfortunately, there are not enough of us to topple this regime and get back to taking care of all of us, instead of lining the pocketbooks of a few.
Posted by: Amy at January 1, 2005 03:49 PM
How right you are Amy most of the world actually the whole world did not see what went on this election cycle, except all the bloggers who were interested enough to find out.
I know most Aussies feel the same way, talking to them, and it is up to me to tell the ones I know what you all have had to contend with, and how you feel about what is happening to your democracy, and your country.
Kangaroo Brisbane Australia
NonnyO and Amy,
People of the world make a very strong distinction between Bush and America.
Dubya's erratic behaviour, (I cannot say analysis, the word doesn't apply to him) and decisions first raised fear. Not anymore. He's just the guy we laugh at or ignore, but do still despise. Wait he comes to Europe pretty soon and you will see the reactions.
We still oppose the man, his policies and the neocons surronding him. There are more people than you might think who really worry for the future of America, but they are just like you, they are waiting for a voice to raise and oppose the system.
Don't forget as well that even if they support the Democrats, they are unable to communicate with you because of the language. The world is blue and it strongly backed Kerry, except for Russia and Iran. What a pair of buddies for George : only totalitarian regimes.
Generally speaking he has to face a "global" opposition, threatening doesn't work anymore and he cannot sell neither his political nor religious crap abroad.
He is at the head of some millions devouts, no more, except that he got in full control of your country. Papers overseas have already started writing about how hard this second term should be : the man failed, he's broke, his lies should turn against him , he lost any international stature....
Stay the problem of propaganda through the media. How long will it last if things go deteriorating? That's where you have to play a role again together with local actions. That's how the neocons crept they way: getting hold of the local media and going grass rooting. It worked, for hell, but it worked...
In the meantime we keep watching, we really do.
Rosiann,
I see that we have been posting at the same time, but it seems that my fellow citizens and Europeans in general seem much more connected to politics than the Aussies.
Talking politics is almost a hobby in France. You cannot escape it, and we have a joke about it "In every Frenchman slumbers a politician", wether he is a butcher, a taxi driver, a CEO, a saleswoman... They all have an opinion and like to made it known!
That's why they sometimes make big mistakes too : they have too many opinions...
This could be a very good thing.....it is causing some of the "christians" to take a second look at what they put on the throne. And they are objecting and threatening and grasping for the
power they thought they were getting in The Deal.
They were lied to and helped sentence this country and world to horrors only evil men commit. They should be mad to think that they were used, and played.
I agree, there has been glee over perceived power among the religious right since Nov. 2nd. Some of them won't touch wine (Heaven forbid, oh my!) but are drunk on power. I personally have written letters confronting some top "christian" leaders about that glee and drunkeness and boasting. I tried to educate them with some hard facts and contrasts. I was met with defensiveness at first, but as it comes time to pay the piper, also comes the dawn.
I know some who hard headedly pushed Bush that are disillusioned right now.
It will be interesting to see if Bush and his puppetmasters yield to the threats. We are about to see exactly how much power the religious right actually has.
Take this opportunity to be a voice! Sitting passively around being angry at them does Nothing. I suggest that everyone write Dobson and Robertson, and recruit people to do the same.
Write!!! Call!!! Email!!! Sound the alarm!!! Scathing attacks will not open their eyes, but stressing your own "moral values" will. Give illustrated examples of real moral values vs. the truth of what this administration is ACTUALLY DOING. Tell them about your own values they can relate to. Tell them the many ways the Democratic party is the fabric of the flag. (Thanks Indy.) Don't argue with them and point out their faults! Help take the scales off their eyes! Don't focus on differences, show them similarities of purpose, ideals, and protective dreams of freedom and true security.
Do you see how effective Rove has really been in dividing this country? Unity begins with common ideals and values. As long as the left has issue with the religious right and resents
it's power, the more power they will probably be given! It has been a very effective tool so far in dividing and conquering.
As long as the left and right are divided over a couple of issues, the more power this regime has. While this country is arguing over abortion, America is being hijacked.
Rise above it and embrace similarities. When people are attacked, they will be defensive and hold all the more to their position. I really believe this strategy of division has been studied out and planned in stealth.
Doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that anyone who is spending billions invading a country and building a huge underground oil pipeline, (heard this from a person who knows firsthand and shall remain anonymous),
yet is cheap when it comes to alleviating true human suffering in the face of a monumental disaster doesn't share many human "moral values".
Of any nation or religion.
I think we are in deep, folks.
RISE ABOVE IT. If we stop and quit now, we ARE failures!
Andrew and Fe have done a very nice job on the podcast 1/1/05. Just a few thoughts on the role of the internet in disseminating information: Web sites, blogs, and e-mails can spread information (and misinformation) quickly and bring to light hidden stories. However, no site has as much visibility and ability to reach large numbers of people as the TV, radio, and print media, mostly owned by large corporations. Most sites are read by small numbers of people with similar views, a shortcoming partially shared with mainstream media. Mainstream Berkeley opinions may be considered heresy in Alabama or even Missouri, and they can be quoted out of context to feed conservative diatribes (not that the left isn’t sometimes guilty of the same). There is so much information on the web that we all use personal or corporate filters to limit what we read—mostly just not bothering to go to sites. I hate to say this, but the sites most read are those that are entertaining or provide useful information, such as weather, news, and commerce. There is a real danger of sites being erased or filtered out by programs—China can filter out many web sites, and we all want to filter out spam. Sites can be manipulated and sabotaged by others. At this point, an objective free press is still our best bet for getting useful information to the majority of people. Still, your blog is a good start. Good luck, and have a happy new year.
Casey,
I couldn't agree with you more. As our beloved Senator Kerry said - "This is the biggest say one thing do another administration in the history of the United State."
When it comes to Christian values - Bush reflects anything but. His administration is all about what is best for a small group of very wealthy and very powerful individuals and companies - not doing what is for the greater good. It is not in Bush's philosophical and very unchristian framework to help widows and orphans and those less fortunate as Christ "commanded" us to do. The thing that makes me most nauseous is the realization that if the area struck by the tsunami had oil as a natural resource - Bush's reaction would be altogether different.
And the icing on the top for me is the disgusting political move by Bush/Rove - to send Jebbie to the stricken areas...because he is familiar with the impact of natural disasters. Again - we all see through this charade. Jeb's trip is not about the devastation in Thailand or Sri Lanka, or the thousands of families with lost loved ones. This is about positioning Jeb for the 2008 race.
Pretty shameful, isn't it?
This is no longer the generous, forward-looking United States that funded the Marshall Plan and made today's prosperous Europe possible. Our similar gestures made places elsewhere, like Japan and South Korea, prosper.
But today's United States is no longer the forward-looking generous nation it once was. All that matters is the bottom line of neocons and their puppet companies. Perhaps we will belatedly jump in for the relief efforts in SE Asia's tsunami areas, but only to rebuild the sweatshops so that we can make more money off of their backs.
Those Canadians and Europeans with anti-American sentiments are exactly right on, I hate to say but it's true. Bush did win by a 3% margin in the popular vote, and we all deserve the scorn of the rest of the world for failing to block the sham election results and for buying into the whole moral values crap. There is MORE to moral values than banning abortions and gay marriages. If helping out those in need, like these Southeast Asians, is not moral, then I don't know what is. Even the Marshall Plan and other postwar WWII US help recipients are more likely to hate us than to hold us in gratitude these days.
I've said it again and again, but out of danger and shame I will no longer identify as an American when traveling overseas. I'll even fly on non-US airlines to drive the point, especially since all major US airlines, including my former favorite United, are Republican donors and big accomplices in this whole thing.
And the icing on the top for me is the disgusting political move by Bush/Rove - to send Jebbie to the stricken areas...because he is familiar with the impact of natural disasters.
If Bush was looking to send a brother familiar with the topography of Thailand and a history of providing economic stimulus to the region, shouldn't he have sent Neil?