While oblivious Americans and Europeans live their lives, focusing on their own economic woes, debating on internal politics, who should get bonuses, healthcare, etc, Latin Americans in the Caribbean and South only wish these were their problems. After all, here in our blessed land of the U.S.A, we have running water, electricity and other basic services 24 hours a day. Though corruption exists, there are organizations that can provide us with relief from scammers and other crooked folks with more money or power. These very basic services are guaranteed by the strong framework that the founding fathers of the United States of America set when they helped form the new nation over 200 years ago.
Unfortunately, many nations around the world are not that lucky. When basic services such as the ones mentioned above, are considered a privilege, you know you’re living in a third world country. It is no secret that poverty is the cause of many ills in our society, for it can turn into hopelessness, desperation, anger, hate, violence, corruption, etc.. We’ve seen what happens, decade after decade, when poor countries ail under regimes that exploit their resources, the hope and ideals of the people, in order to come to office, and once in office, force their extended stays, enriching the henchmen in charge, strenghtening their power and remaining via intimidation, while trying to maintain the facade of democracy to the outside world. Take for example, Chavez of Venezuela and Correa of Ecuador.
Corruption reigns in countries like these, all while nations of the first world look away, or choose to do nothing. After all, it is not in “their backyard”, in their neighborhood. And it is in times of major catastrophes when the light is shed on corrupt governments, their poor management. The United States, and its corrupt administration at the time, was not exempt during the time of Katrina. Thankfully, the constitutional system here allows for political change and now we have an administration in charge that gives us hope. But imagine had an incompetent and corrupt administration remained. Imagine that magnified by a hundred. That is what happens in third world countries.
But why should we care?
After all, it does not affect us.
Truth is, it does.
While we focus on “our problems”, ignoring the rampant corruption and abuse of foreign governments in our neighborhood right here in the Americas, we’re allowing the rise of majorly and blatantly ominous and oppressive regimes, bent on destroying our way of life. I know many of you don’t take Latin America seriously. You don’t think it’s important enough. I only urge you –if you feel that way– to reconsider your position. Our enemies around the world are counting on your very attitude, because while we’re choosing not to look, they are aligning with the rogue U.S.-hating regimes rising south of our border. All these regimes have one thing in common. They start off by oppressing their people, suppressing their voices which claim loudly in defense of their democratic way of life. Once they are successful crushing the people, and intimidating them into submission, the goal is to strengthen their corrupt power and ultimately become a major threat to us.
Haiti today is a sad example of what happens when good men do nothing, time after time. As one of the poorest nations of the Western Hemisphere, Haitians have worked hard to progress, but they have been subjected to shamelessly corrupt governments. In the 1990s they had the guts to depose one of their crooked leaders. But the U.N., the U.S. and other international organizations put enough pressure on the already economically fragile nation, forcing the Haitians to return their deposed crooked leader back to power, that was the infamous president Aristide. A Democrat was at the time the president of the United States, our beloved President Clinton. As much as I am a strong supporter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, I look back at that time and realize what a foreign policy mistake that was. No doubt, even our best leaders can at times make mistakes, and Bill Clinton is one of our best. After all, they are human. I have no doubt that once Aristide went back in power, he made sure to avenge those who deposed him. But I will acknowledge, I was too young and too busy and too selfish, leading my own life to pay attention back then.
Once a corrupt leader is in charge, many things are done corruptly. Construction projects maximize the investment by asking the highest amount and providing the lowest quality materials and labor. It happens all the time. I see it too often, all over countries where corruption is rampant. Most construction projects are done poorly, with low quality materials. No one watches, or those who watch, are paid to look the other way. There is always money oiling the machinery of corruption, especially money marked as “aid” from well meaning first-world countries. So now, after a 35-second 7.0 Richter scale shake up, the majority of buildings in the capital of Haiti have crumbled like gingerbread houses. The already fragile infrastructure, due to the massive corruption that has reigned there for decades, while the world has been looking away, has fallen apart. Tonight, 24 hours later, thousands still lie under the rubble, probably took weak to continue calling for help. How many Haitians, knowing the way their country works have just given up?
When corruption is this rampant, and a major catastrophe occurs, it sheds bright lights on how badly things have been managed thus far. We saw it in the shameful reaction of the Bush administration after hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and its poor management in the aftermath. We saw the devastation when Myammar, under a corrupt military junta, was victim of a natural disaster. We see it in the poor quality or dangerous quality of many products made in China. Remember all the houses that also crumbled during the last earthquake in China? Corruption, payoff, looking away, desperation, poverty, all sooner or later take lives, especially when mother nature reminds us who is in charge of this planet.
I am not closely acquainted with Haitian politics, but it is easy to see what has gone on during the last few decades, when a nation that dwells along a continental fault line, builds the way they do. I see the destruction and I’m not sure how many of you see what I see.
I ask, who was in charge of the construction of these buildings?
Who allowed these projects to move forward?
How much sand did they mix into the cement?
Have we asked ourselves what a coincidence that the United States embassy building survived the earthquake? Do you think it is because the Americans are lucky? We all know the answer. I bet the Americans were in charge of that construction, aware that they were building over a fault line and invested and spent well in the construction of a sturdier building, which is something the ongoing corruption of these third world nations don’t allow.
So many of these hundreds of thousands of deaths did not have to happen.
Too many have looked the other way for too long. These buildings were poorly built, no doubt, by corrupt companies, under corrupt regimes that were allowed to flourish and approved by the international community. Why are these corrupt governments allowed to thrive? Too many good people have looked the other way for too long. So, now the world has to come to aid in a catastrophe that perhaps didn’t have to be of such proportions.
Millions of dollars will be poured into Haiti. Now the world is looking, not only the good men, but also the bad ones, who without a doubt, will take advantage of this situation to make themselves look good while ignoring the basic needs of their citizens at home. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Christina Kirchner of Argentina, and the Castros have already sent in their assistance, I’m sure, in people, equipment, supplies, all while back home, their citizens lack the basic services such as running water, electricity, safety, freedom of expression. Don’t be fooled. These countries are also drowning in corruption. They are another Haiti waiting to happen. Their people at home are also living a slow motion catastrophe, all while these so called leaders, choose to throw sorely needed money outside of their boundaries to make themselves look powerful and affluent, to gain political power, all while the rest of the world lets them get away with it.
In the case of Honduras, what has been done, is worse than doing nothing. It’s called erroneous interference. They thought Honduras, being the second poorest nation of the Western Hemisphere, right behind Haiti, was another Haiti. When the smart Hondurans saw the dangerous alliance developing throughout Latin America was going to include them, they rose and said no. They deposed their corrupt president and stood strong in the face of international condemnation, including that of the US and yes, the new Clinton in charge of foreign affairs. Honduras did not crumble under international pressure. They did not put their corrupt president back in power. I am sure there is corruption, some level of corruption in Honduras, like in every other country. What’s different here is that good men chose to do something and even at the point of endangering their lives and those of their loved ones, they stood against the wave of global dissapproval, of threats, of economic pressure, of bad press, and are still swimming strongly against the current.
The Honduras ordeal is not over yet. For even though good men inside Honduras chose to do something and defend the true democracy of their country, come wind or high water, the suppposedly good men in the international community are doing something, but to hurt Honduras. They want to repeat the Clinton mistake with Haiti back in the nineties. This time they are yielding to dictates of anti-U.S. regimes right here in our neighborhood, regimes that have become powerful enough to exert some level of influence in the region, rogue and dangerous regimes such as that of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
Venezuelan citizens are tortured under the Chavez regime, living in fear, without basic services, standing abuses and putting up with the lies of their military aristocracy, led by the Chavez cartel. I always wonder, when will the good men in Venezuela do something? How much more will they take before they say enough? I’m beginning to see the citizens in Ecuador and Argentina, standing up to do something against their abusive and corrupt regimes, knowing well their lives could be endangered. The whole world has seen what the Iranian Green Movement is doing, despite the failure of foreign governments –like the U.S., Russia, the U.K., China–, Human Rights organizations and those like the U.N., to look and do something, instead they look the other way and do absolutely nothing. Yet, the courageous Green Movement keeps at it and will keep at it, knowing they’re giving up their lives to gain their freedom, all while the world watches, and those who can, do nothing to help them.
If we look at Cuba, North Korea, and other nations living for decades under oppressive regimes, I wonder, what happened? Where are the good men? Why are they not doing anything? When did people give up? The world has been looking away for too long, good men have been doing nothing for too long in these nations. Today the results of this global neglect are highlighted in Haiti. The world runs to their aid. Millions of dollars are already being poured. I wonder, will these investments fall in the right hands, finally, or will they be mismanaged, again, by corrupt leaders, who will pocket the maximum, while putting in the minimum effort and material into rebuilding. Once the Haiti catastrophe falls back into the background, and the country tries to return to some degree of normalcy, will it be allowed to fall into its corrupt ways? Will we look away again? Will we focus back again into our own little worlds? Will we not learn the lesson and perhaps look at what else is going on?
If we keep ignoring what is so blatantly happening, right here in our own neighborhood, in our own continent, if we keep looking away or doing nothing about it, let’s hope we don’t experience a rude awakening, for I feel what is happening in our neighborhood, the issue of Haiti, the struggle to defend true democracy in Honduras, the rise of Correa’s anti-U.S. dictatorhip in Ecuador, the corruption of Christina Kirchner in Argentina, the FARC in Colombia, the military oppression and drug cartel out of Venezuela, the drug wars in Mexico, each a piece of a big picture, one we’re refusing to see. And let’s hope we don’t get to connect the dots like Monday morning quarterbacks, when it’s too late to do something.
I encourage you dear reader, to pick a neighboring country per month, per week, and read up on it. Start with one of the countries mentioned here, with something as easy as Wikipedia and learn about it, its history, its political situation. You’re going to see pieces of the puzzle come together. In the end, you’ll see that we, and our way of life, are under threat, if we choose to keep looking the other way, or worse, continuing to do nothing. For we cannot continue our great way of life at home while ignoring what’s happening in our neighborhood.
