wake-up call

A few days ago, the Herald related the results of a survey of US residents. According to the poll, 82% of Latinos in the US felt that discrimination had prevented them from succeeding, compared to 62% of blacks. Interesting, I thought, but what was even more interesting was that 59% of whites said they, too, had been held back by prejudice. Hmm. Anyway, another interesting detail of this poll was that Latinos who had been living in the US longer, and who spoke English, were more likely to say that they had recently experienced discrimination than were newer arrivals. Counter-intuitive, no? The study’s authors suggested this was because longer-term residents were better able to distinguish prejudice.

To me, this explanation sounds like it could be right. When I arrived in Argentina, I was surprised by how much my blond hair made me stand out, but people seemed not to harbor too many ill feelings toward the US, or towards me as a US citizen. My landlord professed great affection for both the US and for Bill Clinton. I felt welcomed and loved. But lately, I’m starting to see the other side. My taxi driver yesterday, for example, opined about Osama Bin Laden: “I don’t know if he’s really so bad. You can’t just read the New York Times.” He suggested I read Le Monde.

I have no problem with people detesting US foreign policy, US movies, US fast-food enterprises, and the uneducated blather of some US tourists. But I’m having trouble accepting that people could support the terrorist attacks on New York.

Last week I had dinner with a friend who told me she was in the lobby of the university on September 11 when the TV showed the second plane crashing into the World Trade Center — and the place erupted in cheers. I told her that, in the US, we were told that only a few crazy Arabs in the Middle East openly applauded the attacks. She set me straight. She then told me that Argentine children are taught in school that the US planned the attack on Pearl Harbor. I had to think about this one for a second before remembering that there is a theory that FDR knew about the Japanese approach to Pearl Harbor and chose not to alert the forces stationed there, since he needed a dramatic event to build support for going to war. An interesting idea, but unlikely, I said. She said, no, how could the US not have known about the upcoming attack? She said it’s not just Argentina that believes this, but that it’s taught in schools throughout the rest of the world. Going on, she told me that the US faked our 1969 moon landing, and that the Russians really got there first. Then they did an impressive job of faking the moon rocks, I said. To show that people in the US have similarly crazy ideas, I told her about encountering national park visitors who think the UN secretly controls the federal government. I don�t think she believed me, though.

When you think about how one nation can celebrate, say, a nuclear bomb being dropped on another nation, I guess it’s not too hard to believe that normal, caring people could celebrate the destruction of the World Trade Center. Perhaps because I�m coming from New York, though, I’m having trouble letting go of the myth that 99.99% of the world gasped in horror when the World Trade Center fell down. “I couldn’t believe it,” said yesterday’s taxi driver — in the same way somebody from the US might speak about the Lakers losing the NBA championships. Hearing these things makes me feel like I’ve been dropped behind enemy lines during a war.

I’m reading an interesting book by Michael Mandelbaum, called The Ideas that Conquered the World - i.e. free trade, democracy, and peace. He begins the book talking about the World Trade Center attack: “In the past,” he writes, “a blow to the international system’s strongest power would have been welcomed by its rivals. In the wake of September 11, however, every significant government in the world declared its support for the United States.” The governments voiced support, maybe, but were their declarations shams concealing contrary popular emotions? And, if so, has the US model really “conquered the world"?

I know I shouldn’t be surprised people are this angry. Every day, people throughout much of the world suffer because of US policies that lead to poverty and oppression. In Argentina, the mess the economy is in (leaving half the nation below poverty line) has a fair bit to do with shoddy (or malicious) IMF management, and the relationship between US and IMF policy escapes few:

The cartoon (courtesy yesterday’s Pagina/12) reads as follows: Child: “How horrible! I dreamed that, if we don’t reach an agreement with the IMF, Santa won’t come.” Father: “Son, the IMF doesn’t exist. It’s the US.”

***

Note: (since I can’t put links in comments):ok - well, some quick internet research reveals that Dr. McMillin is not alone. Unbeknownst to me, a 2001 book Day of Deceit musters substantial evidence that FDR knew of the attack in advance, since we had broken the Japanese code and intercepted several radio communications about the attack. Dewey , running against Roosevelt in 1944, planned to use this evidence to unseat him, but was persuaded not to because it would have revealed to the Japanese that we had broken their code. Here are two sites that offer different opinions on the subject , as well as FDR’s rousing speech.

previously there was Mystery of the Blasting Bidet...
afterwards you have 3-day weekend

comments

• navigate
• « previous item
• next item »
• present
• past
• weblog
• chronicles
• images
• content
• herald timeline
• subway bg
• etcetera
• about
• colophon
• cambiar idioma