"America the greatest force for good in the world" ???

Proceed with caution: political rant follows…

This is what the next president of the United States needs to say to the American people (or something like it) : “Listen, we have a lot of problems. These problems are not going to be easy because we keep ignoring them and wishing them away. We need to redefine how we live. We live outside of our means and most seem interested in buying stuff to give them debt they can’t pay, including the government. The Federal Reserve and banks control our lives and our entire monetary system is based on debt…and debt is slavery.

We have 5% of the world’s population but we provide over 25% of its carbon emissions and almost 50% of its trash and almost 50% of its military spending. We spend more on the military than the next 14 countries, combined; while our renewable energy research, infrastructure, education, and many other areas are under-funded. Our wealth inequality is greater now than it has ever been. Our education, health care, and environmental awareness are among the lowest of developed countries. There are more deaths from heart disease per year than from all terrorist acts combined, but we have you scared about terrorism. We need to take action and I am calling among every single American to do their part. The strongest force for good in this world is not America but love and I am asking everyone if your love is enough? We are all in this together and it is time we start acting like it.”

This is my political opinion piece. Since the election is a week away, I’m putting up a short piece about my presidential choice. I voted for Obama (absentee ballot). It would be impossible to capture everything in a 2 page document. I’ll admit, this is more of a rant, a stream of consciousness than anything else.

Of course, feel free not to read this; it doesn’t have anything to do with my activities in Peru. Although, the life of a Peace Corps volunteer certainly adds to one’s perspectives – therefore, the changes within me have both a direct and indirect effect upon my decision-making.

As I mentioned, I have already voted for Obama. I was able to watch 2 of the debates and I’ve done a good amount of reading regarding this election. Since I was 18, there have been 2 elections, and I’ve voted Republican for both of them. Fiscally, I’m conservative. Socially, I’m liberal. In general, I would classify myself as a libertarian. Smaller government, less laws, more individual freedom. In my opinion, as long as you’re not hurting anyone, do what you want.

The most important topics to me this time around are: climate-change and renewable energy, education of our youth, science promotion, and since I plan to continue my travels throughout my life – our reputation abroad and peace.

Obama is by far the smartest choice on each of those topics – and I’d love to read someone’s argument to tell me otherwise. Republicans still will not admit that human carbon emissions are bad for the environment and the main cause of climate change. Our primary and secondary school education is embarrassing. The only reason our universities are still the best is from immigration (In 2006: immigrants accounted for 40% of doctorates in science/egineering and 65% in computer science). I don’t even need to discuss science. The Republican party is controlled by a hypocritical ideology that doesn’t get along with science (although, America still has a high percent of research and development, but a lot of that deals with how to kill people).

Another point about this election is McCain’s choice for VP. We saw over the last 8 year how influential a VP can be. Republicans were trying to blast Obama for his inexperience…then McCain gets Palin – who is a complete dolt on anything outside of Alaska. Yeah, she’s a confident and charismatic woman…but listen to her interviews or the debate…it’s not “gotcha journalism” as she likes to say since she did horrible – it’s the plain fact that she doesn’t know the topics she is supposed to know. She doesn’t even understand the VP job. Yeah…let’s hire her!

Watching McCain in the debates, he said, “America’s best days are ahead of us.” What makes you think that? Our country and its citizens are strapped with the more debt than history has ever known. Our amount of debt is greater than most countries GDP’s. In fact, our entire monetary system is based on debt…but according to McCain, America has a strong economic foundation. He seems more interested in trying to make us feel good when people should be anything but feeling good. For certain, Americans are generally hard workers and productive and innovative…but our monetary system is still based on debt.

The last thing I’ll write deals with Palin and something that has really been bothering me. McCain is a good guy and he would be alright as the president, I think - his senate career has plenty of highlights. But Palin is completely out of her league – which is why a lot of Republicans have asked her to step down and you see a record number of Republicans supporting Obama.

It’s not the fact that she thinks the world is 6,000 years old, or that there are rumors about her trying to ban books, or that she inappropriately used tax payer money, or that she tries to use class-warfare and inspires hate, or that she shot wolf cubs from a helicopter, or that she thinks she has foreign policy experience because she’s geographically closer to Russia than the rest of the states, or that she’s a diva. Something that got to me was what she said at a campaign rally: “We see America as the greatest force for good in the world”.

For one, she didn’t have a passport until 2005. She is almost 20 years my elder and I’ve done more traveling and probably read more books. Anyone who has actually looked into America’s foreign policy will immediately see how one-sided it is and how we use our military power to secure more profits for large corporations. How is it that someone who hasn’t traveled much and can’t name a worthy news publication that she reads can think she is right to say that America is the greatest force for good in the world when she doesn’t know the world? She doesn’t even know America. She has no idea.

In short – I’m supporting Barrack Obama. He is not perfect. But, if I’m choosing between McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden (assuming the green party or libertarian party don't have a chance) – Obama and Biden are the two I see as the better solution for the concerns I have with America and the world, and the future. Think about your concerns and those of your kids and their kids, and go from there.

With love,
jake

Protests in Tarica

The mayor of my town has never really given me much time…even though I’m here and I’m free. Given, he is a busy guy with lots of construction going on around his district. The district has about 5,000 people, the town of Tarica (where I live), has about 1,000. The remaining 4,000 are dispersed between other small towns, one of equal size as Tarica, the rest live in really small towns further out in the mountains and consist primarily of farmers. (pic: municipality in Tarica, yes, that's a guy with a tear gas gun...)

Well, for the past 3 months, there have been suspicions that the mayor is stealing money that they receive from the mines (there is a Canadian gold mine community in Tarica). Right now, it’s estimated that he’s stolen about 2 million soles (=$700,000). There are talks about him getting arrested soon, but the rumor mill out here is just as bad as in the States…if not worse. There is little doubt about him stealing money…but who knows if anything is actually going to happen to him since he can pay off others. (pic: the protesters with security watching)

This previous Monday there was a protest from one of the towns and last month there was a protest from the local school. Last year, the mayor promised to do a number of things for this town, from building onto the school and providing computers as well as getting running water for all (water from a tap is not an assumption here). Meanwhile, all the projects from the town he is from are completed. He says there just isn't enough money to get them done...

The irony of the situation is that hardly anyone in Tarica has money to pay taxes. The people protesting for improvements don’t pay taxes but yet they expect government improvements. So…here we have the mayor stealing money the town receives from the mine….while those poor people are demanding improvements they have not collectively paid for…all fighting for money that was never really theirs to begin with. (Pic: group of women and beyond on the platform the mayor and his entourage).

Meanwhile, I’ll continue teaching English classes in a tiny room because the mayor won’t help us out with a communal building. I’ll continue to not spend time working on tourism for the municipality…which is something I could easily help out with. I’ve offered…but now I wouldn’t want to help because I do not want to be associated with the mayor.

Love,

Jake

(pics: the clothing of the women is beautiful...during the protest, the women made sure to wear their best and cleanest and most colorful outfits)

Columbus Day...seriously?

One of the most blatant examples of the sometimes inaccurate, usually incomplete and always one-sided history that we are taught as kids deals with Columbus. We are about to celebrate Columbus Day…seriously? We have a holiday for one of vilest men in history responsible for genocide. Why don’t we just combine this holiday, like President’s Day, with other’s in his company…like Cortes, Pizarro, Hitler, Stalin, and others and toast to those who have killed an immense amount of people. Columbus actually led a successful genocide (the complete killing of an entire population – not that the others didn’t give it a good try.

Growing up, I was taught that Columbus was a bold and daring man. He founded America! Despite all the odds, he was an adventurous man that set off with three small ships to charter the unknown. He was turned down for funding by his countrymen…but believed in his dream so much he wouldn’t quit and finally had Spain finance his journey as he sailed to the end of the world, into the unknown. We are taught that he was a hero and we have him to thank for this wonderful nation, America.

Upon arriving to the New Land – what is now Cuba and Hispaniola, he was greeted by the inhabitants that swam out to greet his ship, the Arawaks. The Arawaks lived as a shared resources population. They didn’t idolize possessions, they lived in communal huts, and women were treated as equals. As the Arawaks gave gifts to Columbus, he immediately took some captive, set up a fort with one of the ships, then told the other 2 to sail back to alert Spain that he had found a vast land full of gold and slaves. With all haste, Spain sent 17 ships and around 1,500 men to search for gold and mail slaves to Spain. Either the Arawaks could stay and be slaves to the gold mining where the women would be raped incessantly and the men murdered without thought all the while being starved and introduced to smallpox…or they could be shipped to Spain to live as slaves in a strange land. Many killed their babies to save them from the Spaniards.

One of the problems though with the island Hispaniola (now Haiti and the DR), is there really isn’t much gold to be found. Columbus had to make up for this by shipping more slaves back to Spain. He also pushed the Arawaks to seek gold out day and night. They had a system, those who brought gold back received medallions to wear around their neck and if you were found without one, you were killed. The native’s life meant so little that Spaniards would test out the sharpness of their swords on them…just for fun. Columbus arrived in 1492…by the 1600’s, not a single person with Arawak blood remained (between 300,000 to 400,000 are estimated to have been living there upon arrival, according to modern accounts).

So, Columbus wasn’t able to murder as many people as Hitler or Pizarro…but he was able to wipe a population off the globe. Yes – let’s celebrate Columbus! Let’s celebrate all those people who have murdered and raped people all the while claiming to be good moral people. Let’s celebrate the hypocrisy of our lives, our continual denial of real history, make infinite allowances for how our ancestors treated people, and continue to revere them.

Perhaps, as some Americans have the day off, they can take the day to ponder the atrocities and pointless bloodshed of Columbus and the men that came before and after him. Let’s think about the 400 treaties the American government broke with the Indians as we pushed them off their land and claimed them to be savages and liars. Let’s think about manifest destiny and how ‘god’ ordained our greed. Let’s think about all the pointless deaths we took in the Philippines, Korea, and Vietnam (and all the other countries). Let’s think about all the innocent farmers and children and mothers and fathers that we are killing now as we try to hunt for insurgents in Afghanistan (if you're unaware, we’ve killed more innocent people than insurgents). Let’s keep idolizing those who kill while announcing peacemakers as unpatriotic.

“Heaven is not beyond the clouds, it’s just beyond the fear. No heaven is not beyond the clouds, it’s for us to find right here.”

Love,
Jake