The
French helped in the American struggle for Independence Dear Editor,
Mr. Aaron Seenarine (see SN 4/17), a Guyanese Ameri-can, whose defence of
childish actions from Republicans in Washington (re: changing “French fries”
to “Freedom fries” etc.), demonstrates how popular American ideology today,
built on a faulty reading of American history, and irrational patriotism, leaves
an entire world at the peril of a group of right-wing, military-minded cabal of
men in Washington.
First, the common history Americans are taught is self-serving. The US joined
the war directly in 1941, two long years after it started- while people were
dying, Ameri-cans drank Coca Cola and listened to blues at home.
When it did join, it did so from a position of strength. Mr. Seenarine must
remember that it was the French who helped fight the English for American
independence.
Today, in opposing US government policy, it is not France but the US that is
shocked because the US is so accustomed to having its way. When the most
democratic nation is also the most threatened, it is important for drastic
measures to be taken. While France (and China, Russia, Germany etc.) has failed
to stop a war that has started, it has severely but vitally disrupted the Bush
philosophy of “either you’re with us or against us,” and opened the floor
for opposition to a bullheaded US regime. I don’t people think really
understand how brutal a blow this has been for the US. France must be applauded.
As for friendship, there is nothing amiable about US foreign policy, which is
best symbolized by a dollar bill encircled by a noose. The US good neighbours
(Canada and Mexico) know this well because both nations are being sued by US big
business-for taking actions to safeguard local business interests at the expense
of American’s profits (courtesy of the ignoble NAFTA). For his support, Mr.
Tony Blair will not succeed to get Americans to reduce their level of greenhouse
gas emission. For its help to capture Bin Laden and posse, Pakistan got two
packages; one from IMF and the other marked “anti-Americanism” with a timer
inside-tick, tick, tick.
Anyone who suggests (as Mr. Seenarine) that the US has stabilized “the human
race from extinction” is at best, half cracked. In a nutshell, the US was
responsible for 18 regime changes in the 20th century, each of them contributing
significantly to the sordid state the world is in today. And while he speaks of
3,000 deaths from September 11, let us speak of the 5,000 “collateral
damage” in Afghanistan (and more soon in Iraq).
Post-911 life in the US was structured on glorifying America (i.e.,
patriotism)-and so, it is no surprise to hear a Guyanese American defending his
political representatives; for him, this makes him patriotic. He is invoking a
climate influenced by decades of US media and movie propaganda, which has
created the idea of America the saviour and America the holy ground, e.g. ever
so often there is some TV show about the prowess of American WWII generals
(e.g., McArthur, Patton), but never about a Marshal Zhukov (USSR), who did more
than Patton and McArthur together. 911 brought on a nationalistic pampering
that, arguably, did more harm than the Talibans. Now, on CNN we have a
ridiculously titled programme called “American Morning.” What is an
“American” morning? This dramatizes the hijacking of ancient, universal
concepts like “freedom” (e.g., “freedom” fries is the equivalent to
“American” fries) and “justice” as if these are inventions of Uncle Sam
and the US is the only place liberty is to be found. America was more
shell-shocked about the idea of being violated on 911 than the actual violation
itself. It was never about 3,000 lives, but about the idea that superpower
America was successfully attacked and beaten-with box cutters besides! Thus, it
was understandable to hear one Southerner exclaim as she witnessed the attack on
TV; “How dare they! Don’t they know we’re Americans!”
So, my advice to Mr. See-narine and other Guyanese migrants in America is to
read the fine lines and study the issues a bit, before being dragged into the
defence of rat-race thinking, simply because you were given a blue passport or a
green card. Migrants like Guyanese Americans do not owe
the Americans anything; they owe us everything for the mess they helped to
create in Guyana. Sometimes they ought to be reminded of this, especially since
their History Channel or school teachers will not tell them, and because
Americans think the world owes them gratitude. We owe them nothing but our
opinion. Yours faithfully, Rakesh Rampertab
