While Obama and Congress do the dance of death over a stimulus package that has a snowball's chance in a snow storm of actually accomplishing anything...
...we watch our 401ks shrink to 301ks, 201ks, 1 1/2 01ks...
...we fear for our jobs, our health, our futures, our children's futures...
...we empathize with those who are losing their jobs, their homes, their hope...then
what can we do about the fact that carnage around the world, the likes of which we can no more comprehend than we can world peace, makes our problems seem trivial by comparison.
- Today, MSNBC reported that 10 million people in Kenya face starvation because prolonged drought (global climate change, anyone?) has again devastated their harvests. It's a little hard for the country to handle this because "of the cost of sheltering and reintegrating 600,000 people displaced by violence following December 2007 elections. More than 1,000 people were killed, and many farmers were too frightened to return home and plant crops."
- Zimbabwe, take I: Beloved and saintly President Robert "I Am The Walrus" Mugabe is correct, cholera is not raging, it's rampaging through this tract of land that no longer exists as a viable nation. Millions are on the verge of starvation, clean water supplies are only available for high government officials, and the capital's two largest hospitals shut down weeks ago because doctors and nurses hadn't been paid. And when they were, the money was worthless. The rate of inflation, as estimated by John Robertson, an independent economist in Zimbabwe, is now eight quintillion percent — that is an eight followed by 18 zeros.
- Zimbabwe, take II: Troops in Zimbabwe with no pay, no food, and no support, have taken to eating elephants. (Not to worry, the country has more elephants than they can care for.) According to the BBC, "The economy is collapsing and soldiers have recently gone on the rampage in the capital, Harare, after being unable to withdraw their salaries in cash from banks." Odd, it's the army that's keeping Mugabe in power. One can only hope they lose their taste for elephant and consider dictators...nah, that's gross. Sorry.
- As if it weren't bad enough that Mexico has become a battleground between the drug cartels, the government, and whoever else has a grievance, the government itself is so mired in red tape that virtually nothing works. Consider something as admittedly complex as getting medicine. Cecilia Velázquez's son has a immune deficiency and an infection could kill him, so he needs daily meds. No problem. "First, two government doctors have to sign off on the prescription. Next, four bureaucrats must stamp it. Last, she has to present it (in quadruplicate) to a hospital dispensary. The process takes at least four days and sometimes as many as 15." Her son often has to go for days without his medicine. And that's one of the better government systems.
- Slaughter in the Congo continues despite the well-armed and trained UN forces positioned there. Just last month, rebels murdered over 150 young men in under 24 hours...just miles from a UN post. This vindication of man's inhumanity to man was led by a commander wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. "In the past year alone, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes as the rebels, led by a renegade army general, have waged a fierce insurgency against the government and its allied militias."
- Oh yeah, the Middle East. Israel & Hamas reject the UN's anemic cease fire proposal. Israel rightly noted that there was nothing that would prevent Hamas from continuing it's missile bombardment and tunnel transportation system. Hamas has a more reasonable objection: They were "angry that it was not consulted during exhaustive diplomatic efforts at the world body."
Not to worry, though. Big Brain Thinkers have the solution, if one discounts Jimmy Carter's idiotic and naive claim that if people would just listen to him, he'd have solved this issue in 1835. Jackson Diehl of The Washington Post today opined that the Israelis should have followed a political rather than a military approach. His well-reasoned and carefully-constructed argument was contradicted by another op-ed, same paper, same day, where Charles Krauthammer argued with equal brilliance that Israel's military approach was working, if they have the guts to stick to it.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Dan(Miller)
Mark, good article. Three comments, however:
1. The Kingston Trio sang much the same song at the Hungry I fifty years ago, back in 1959; the song was written in 1953. Damn, it seems like only yesterday. To use an even older phrase, the more things change the more they remain the same.
2. As all
rightleft thinking people know, it is all the fault of the U.S. and, most recently, George Bush.3. Come 20 January, these problems will vanish.
Dan(Miller)
2 - Arch Conservative
Thanks for the perspective Mark. Sometimes we forget just how damn good the average American has it compared to so many in the world.
You forgot Haiti where some are so poor that they literally eat dirt.
3 - Zedd
Not sure what the point of the article is. Is it to say "Even though we are going through tough times, there are those who are worse off" or "Don't highlight any bad things about the U.S." or what?
What was the point?
Yes there are worse places... surprised? New revelation? Newsworthy?
Not sure what Jimmy Carter has to do with the article other than to make a reference to someone from the "left".
Please elaborate. The point is???? Did I miss something?
4 - Joanne Huspek
Interesting thoughts, especially since I read this after seeing my most recent 401K statement, now worth less than one half what it was worth this time last year. The only way for me personally to stay positive is to remember that there are many who are worse off.
5 - Mark Schannon
Zedd, the point is simply that, paraphrasing, I think, "all that is required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
We do nothing. When your children (if you have them, I don't) ask you what you did to alleviate these barbaric world conditions, what will you tell them? That you were busy stockpiling against a depression.
I'm actively looking for ways to get engaged. It'll be small and ultimately meaningless I suppose, but, since I'm on a cliche train, "the death of any one person diminishes me."
My generation asked our fathers, "what did you do in the war daddy?" (WWII)
O.k?
Dan--I was barely around then, but one of the bizarre consequences of the Cold War is that it kept tribal rivalries from erupting into wanton slaughter. I do think conditions today are worse. And we don't have a clue how to address them...except wait for January 20th.
In Jameson Veritas
6 - Cindy D
Mark,
I loved this article.
Remember everyone, there are people worse off than you. Feel better. Watch TV. Be happy.
7 - Ruvy
Zedd, the point of Mark's article is that you Americans lived in a little bubble of prosperity that the world does not share - and while he didn't say as much, your economic policies help keep lots of folks eating nothing but dirt - like the folks in Haiti do. Your bubble of prosperity has burst and you still do not seem to get the point.
The other point is one that Mark didn't address - it would be hard for him to.
America is a big dog - and when it takes a shit, it stinks something awful all around the world. But dogs do not smell their own.
I didn't comprehend that until I became an ex-pat and starting getting whiffs of the shit America has dropped all over the planet. I guess being in that little bursting dog-bubble of what used to be prosperity blinds you to those realities, Zedd.
8 - Clavos
your economic policies help keep lots of folks eating nothing but dirt - like the folks in Haiti do.
Our economic policies have little to nothing to do with the plight of the Haitians.
I have been visiting Haiti since the late 50s, when Papa Doc Duvalier was
presidentdictator.Haiti's disastrous economy is entirely due to the incredibly bad leadership it has had for the last fifty years. Virtually every Haitian "leader" since the 50s has failed to enact any significant remedies to the island nation's troubles, and in fact, most have been thieves who have stolen what few financial resources Haiti has acquired during that time.
The country is destitute. It cannot even grow crops to any great degree, although it once had significant arable acreage, because the starving, desperate citizens have stripped the land of all the trees, using the wood for fuel, and erosion has literally sterilized the soil.
Haiti shares its island, Hispaniola, with the Dominican Republic. The contrast between the two countries could not be more stark. Even though the Dom Rep cannot be considered by any measure to be affluent in the sense of First World countries, it is infinitely better off than its neighbor, with a thriving tourist industry and a relatively rich agricultural sector, as well as a busy manufacturing industry, especially in textiles.
Haiti, unless a miracle occurs and a "savior" steps out of the shadows to take charge, will not improve in the foreseeable future.
Living in Haiti, for the vast majority of its people, is literally hell on earth.
9 - Mark Schannon
Cindy, glad you liked article but message isn't go watch TV but go DO something...anything...but I think you got that.
Ruvy, you're letting your negative feelings towards your former home show. I was just as critical of the EU, Russia, and China. (I can't believe I'm going to say something nice about the Busher, but his HIV/AIDs programs in Africa have been spectacular.)
China won't allow anyone to act on Somalia because they sell them so many weapons. Russia & China prevent the world from finding any way to address the maniacal Iranians because they do so much business there.
It's human nature. Studies have shown that people--all people--react more strongly to one lost child than millions dying of malaria. I'd go back and find it, but I'm too lazy--my old article, "Three Steps From the Caves."
We're all savages, some of us coated with a thin veneer of civilization that can be torn off at the slightest provocation.
The U.S. stinks the most because we're the biggest, but the odor from Russia, China, and the EU are growing stronger all the time.
The problem is just the U.S. To focus on that is to miss entirely the point of my article.
In Jameson Veritas
10 - Ruvy
Mark,
Ruvy, you're letting your negative feelings towards your former home show.
Me? Negative feelings towards America? You must be thinking of another Ruvy - some other bald headed guy writing from the Samarian mountains!
Seriously, what you're seeing is a perspective that is not reasonable to expect you to have. For all of your criticisms of America and the world, they are all from within that bursting bubble of American exceptionalism.
That is why it is so hard for Americans to smell the shit that America leaves throughout the world. A dog can't smell his own - he only knows to bury it (or is that a non-dominant cat?). Anyway, I think you get my point.
11 - Cindy D
Mark,
Some responses indicate your article is already making people feel better.
Maybe it will lead to everyone finishing everything on their plate tonight.
12 - Jordan Richardson
This article reminds me of a Randy Newman song in which the singer makes the point that the Bush Administration isn't all that bad because, hell, they aren't Nazis.
13 - Baronius
"your economic policies help keep lots of folks eating nothing but dirt"
Nonsense, Ruvy. Al those third-world sneaker factories may be ugly, but they provide income for a lot of people. The meager savings of US immigrants sustain their families back home. US military power and trade deals keep create a (precarious) equilibrium for the world. Our private charities and public international aid provide plenty of assistance. And if you don't like our impact when we're doing well, you won't believe the impact of our rough patches.
14 - Cindy D
Much like sweatshops, I think eating dirt has gotten a bad rap. It's probably very filling and contains iron and other nutrients.
15 - Clavos
It's probably very filling and contains iron and other nutrients.
Especially if it's in a cemetery...
16 - Cindy D
Death or mistreatment. Is that all their is?
17 - Mark Schannon
Ruvy, sorry, you're right, I was thinking of that other Ruvy. Oh well, what can you expect from a balding guy writing from the mountains of Northern Virginia?
But I continue to disagree that one cannot accurately assess US influence--good and bad--from within the bubble. Or...one cannot accurately assess it from anywhere.
One's biases, prejudices, beliefs, desires...etc. all distort how we take in and process information. I'm anything but a moral relativist but I am very much an experiential relativist.
And I've never seen a dog bury its own shit...roll in it, sure, but bury it? Gads, that stuff is good cover--at least that's what some dogs think.
Cindy, I'm glad people are feeling better. That is, after all, my mission in life, FOFL.
In Jameson Veritas
18 - Cindy D
Mark!
nooooo...
how can they be motivated to do anything if they feel better?
19 - Cindy D
and i didn't mean you article did it. i thought your article was motivating enough. i just think that...well, why don't people do anything any other time?
look what they're doing with it. they're saying. "oh yeah, there are hungry people. i should appreciate what i have more."
not a bad thing. but it ends there. if it ends there. nothing happens. people can feel better, go back to being happy, start watching TV (it's just a metaphor for entertainment). just my musings.
so what's different about you? why are you motivated? (it's a real question, not psychoanalysis) i want to know how to motivate as well. maybe if i ask what motivates someone else, it could be a start.
20 - Zedd
Mark,
I guess what I am concerned about is that feeling good is not always the best thing. If embarrassment, distress, fear, or uncertainty causes you to see the error of your ways and re-evaluate the way you do things, then its not so bad.
Americans don't have the problem of self loathing. We are the popular jocks of the world. Americans KNOW their greatness all too well. Some think we inflate (in a sort of embarrassingly delusional way), our excellence. Perhaps this encounter with reality because of the current economic situation is good for us and maybe we need to feel not so hot. Maybe we need to self evaluate in order to actually become the people that we THINK we are.
And yes I agree, we have become complacent but we will not get whipped into shape by saying "but we are better than everyone else".
Perhaps I missed how you drove the point that you were attempting to make but it just seems as if you were deflecting and too quick to run from the pain that would heal us. Much like all addicts, the rationalization is what keeps one stuck. We are stuck on the feel good/instant gratification. Telling us that we are better than everyone doesn't quite help us get over ourselves, buckle down, and defer the feel goods (a la relying on credit cards, buying the bigger faster and shinier do dad... etc) and behave like responsible citizens. Like those past generations that you mentioned.
Maybe you were saying, "quit whinning". But what came out, from reading the comments that followed, was "it aint so bad we are still pretty great".
21 - Mark Schannon
Zedd, gadfry daniels, I have been terrible in communicating if that's what you've taken away from my article & comments. In no way did I intend to suggest that we should be feeling good about being Americans while the world disintegrates. (My comment to Cindy about making people feel good as my mission was sarcasm, but perhaps not sarcastic enough.)
I noted twice: what are you (meaning all people, including Americans, since most of the folks who read this are Americans) going to tell your children about how we did so little while so many suffered?
...feeling good is not always the best thing. If embarrassment, distress, fear, or uncertainty causes you to see the error of your ways and re-evaluate the way you do things, then its not so bad. I couldn't agree more.
I didn't intend to say we're better...just bigger. What I won't accept is that all the world's problems can be laid at our doorstep. Human beings are, as I've said, fundamentally savages and while we can tame those savage impulses, we should never pretend they're not there.
And I don't really care how people feel--I care about what they do, and we, the world, is not doing enough to end the carnage. Americans are not pretty great--although there's a strange cultural and spiritual impulse to doing great things in the U.S.--we're very big and we influence the world in good and bad ways.
I tend to be most flip about those things that affect me most deeply, which may account for my not be as clear as I intended.
Go back and read comment #5, which was addressed to you. I don't know how to make it any clearer. All that is required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Good people around the world are doing nothing. Americans are not excused. Evil is winning.
I hope that clarifies things.
Cindy,
I've always been motivated. I think I owe a lot of it to my parents and their ethics; certainly, being Jewish (agnostic, but a Jew nonetheless) has been a powerful influence on my belief that we have a responsibility to others.
My bride taught me many years ago that if one focuses on fixing the world, one fixes nothing. Rather, focus on the people you can help, the small things you can do.
One problem, and this requires a long article, not a comment, is that the more people become frightened or threatened, the more they focus on those most close to them.
Also, psychologists and neurologists have shown that human beings care more about one lost child than millions dying of malaria.
I don't know how to motivate anyone else to accept responsibility for things happening thousands of miles away. I wish I did. People hear words and distort them into what they want/need to hear.
I'm afraid I can't help you & I'm blathering on. I'm also in a lousy mood, so I probably shouldn't have even attempted to respond.
Bah...
My name is Pozzo. Is that not enough for you? One day I came. One day I was gone. Is that not enough for you? (Waiting For Godot--from memory, so maybe not entirely accurate.)
My whole live has been lived in words and now I have retired to satire and parody. Perhaps, were I stronger, I'd leave those easy realms. Maybe, someday, I will be stronger.
Is that not enough for you?
22 - Cindy D
Mark,
Okay. Where do your parents live? lol I guess I'll have to start sending people there.
23 - Cindy D
(somehow i suspected it wouldn't be an easy answer)
24 - John Spivey
Mark,
It's good to hold all of the questions in mind like a koan, but I don't think the answer is fixed and obvious. Britain stayed between the Muslims and Hindus for centuries, yet when they left India the animosity was still there, only larger. Why do human's hold onto their bitterness and vengeance despite all this terrible evidence that as a survival tactic it doesn't work. I know a guy who flew of to help in Darfur, which is a good thing in the short run maybe, but the bitterness and vengeance continues unabated as a mindset around the world. I think it's because we humans think that this is who we are and what we are fated to be--fundamentally sinful and violent beings living in a pointless existence. The real question is how do we change the mindset, change the view of the meaning of life. On a personal basis I have to find out what it really means at a very deep level to be a real human being, to find that life is neither a sin nor a probabilistic mistake What does it mean to be real without the blinding excess of bitterness, anger, and vengeance, without the blinding excess of judgment and condemnation? How can I move beyond the fear and futility I feel in the face of all these events and find meaning, find a firm place from which to take a real stance in life? When I can do that for myself, then I'll know what to do for the suffering world. My answer is my own, your answer is yours. What does your presence teach the world?
John
25 - Zedd
Mark,
Ah, I get it.
Agreed.
I am teaching my kids about being responsible, kind and accountable. I expose them to what the world is like for most of the planet's inhabitants. I try to teach them compassion through our active involvement in volunteer work. I had them budget their allowance from early on. I push education. I refuse to replace gadgets for them every year, upgrading each time. I've tried to teach them about marketing strategies and that the item on the commercial is designed to make some guy rich not to make their lives better. We work on conserving energy. I really want them to get it and to be powerful women inside while enjoying beautiful things (art, music, things of the spirit, make up and FASHION)- We are girls and love cuteness.
What would you suggest that we do to empower the next generation to be good people? I want to give them the best. I want to expose them to as much of what will be wisdom for them when the begin and live their lives as adults.