| | Dhaka, Cairo, much of Africa, and even, the hill behind Montego Bay looking up at a resort restaurant, just the other side of the road from beachfront condos in St. Croix, ...
...in much of the world, heart wrenching scenes just like this would be referred to as "a day ending in 'y'"
The rare exceptions are the rare exceptions, plus America, a handful of other places. Mostly the West, but not just the West. Rims, enclaves, isolated pockets. We in America are largely clueless as to what life is like in most of the world. Through remote media, we see life on these 'must be other planets', and vice versa.
There are local political structures wherever life is like that, and those political structures have an obvious incentive to point elsewhere and lay blame, and those local political structures are succeeding in selling their PR campaign. "The West/Modernity/Capitalism did this to you." In fact, they are aided by petty local politics even in the West, where the Left chimes in with its "Yes, the West/Modernity/Capitalism did this to you," hoping to ride revolution by proxy like a tiger to 'change.' We barely have ever seen capitalism in this country. Too much capitalism, or not enough? Push comes to shove, is it 'capitalism' at work when there are cozy deals between the local guns of state and the local warlords, or is this meat eating fascist totalitarianism at its finest?
Rhodes: "Colonialism is philanthropy, plus 5%" How is that possible without Her Majesty's guns of state in the mix, and what the Hell does that have to do with 'capitalism?' Best not let the kids know what 'capitalism' is. Better to let it be painted as 'when someone gets a favor from the directors of the guns of state , guts a country, builds a factory and charges for exploiting someone elses natural resources, that is capitalism.' Aka, the current nonsense offered up as mere instruction in our schools.
David Reiff's "A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis" is an interesting read on what purpose the UN and even NGOs serve in the modern West. (Summary: Fig leaves, not olive branches: the official instruments of doing everything possible short of actually doing anything about the odd pathetic snapshot that manages to make its way from days ending in 'y' to distrurb the West's Cappucino sipping. "It's a shame, but we're doing everything possible that can reasonably be done. The NGOs and UN are on the scene, showing that we care, handing out blankets and bandaids to rapist and rape victims alike, no judgement involved." Meanwhile, the human beings on the ground being directly educated about the Paradox of Violence are looking up at the skies, praying to see the bottoms of boots falling under parachutes that never come, except to cover surrender/retreats.)
Also recommended insight into our torturous, irrational psyche: "Dallaire: Shake Hands With the Devil."
The massacre ended in Rwanda only when the rebels won the war, by force. The UN in NY instructed heros like Dallaire to watch. Kofi gets the Nobe Peace Prize, Dallaire gets a lifelong rendezvous with the bottle trying to forget being deserted by the West when he was already deployed as the West's representative of justice from over the horizon. The injustice of his desertion by the UN in NY and what he was forced to witness is incomprehensible. Google "Mbaye Diagne"
PBS' transcript of 'Ghosts of Rwanda' has interesting conjecture by IRC officials about the the role of neutral observers in the face of situations like above picture, and worse.
Is it in our selfish best interests to cross the street to subdue a thug having his way with a perfect stranger, or do we avert our eyes and hope/pray he doesn't cross the street _again_ and see us?
We are about to find out the efficacy of the latter strategy, and the cost of not fully comprehending why it is not in our self interests to surrender the world to the visions of throat slitters and head choppers and car bombers. What we claim to be unable/unwilling to confront in Baghdad, we will no more be able/willing to confront in Baltimore when they cross that street again.
I guess we can be Europe, too...for 15 minutes, anyway.
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