Yo navego en ti...
I've been think a lot recently about interdependence. In particular, the specific form of interdependence that exists between the (less than) 5% of the world's people who happen to be US citizens, and the more than 95% who are not.
In Meeting for Worship this morning, I kept thinking of the great Peter, Paul and Mary song on this theme: Somos El Barco. (Words here.) I looked for a version of someone singing it on Youtube. This was all I could easily find: here. I think that version is mainly in Japanese. It sounds good.
(Talking of interesting nuggets of multilinguality, I was folding one of my husband's shirts yesterday when I noticed that on the label it said "Made in Pakistan / Hecho en Pakistan." Hecho en Pakistan, huh? Shouldn't Sam Huntingdon now be called on to throw another hissy fit about the growth of Hispanophonia.)
... Anyway, the interdependence of all the world's peoples is a big theme in the book I'm currently writing-- which will be on US foreign policy after Bush. The past couple of evenings I've been reading Beyond the Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust Between America and The World, by Kishore Mahbubani, previously Singapore's ambassador to Washington and the UN. It's a fascinating, very well-informed and passionately argued book in which Mahbubani, a long-time admirer of "the American idea" agonizes over how incredibly provincial, self-referential, and ignorant Americans can be about the huge effects that their (our) power has on the rest of the world.
I've been interested to note the frequency with which Mahbubani, too, refers to the important little fact that US citizens make up only 5% of the world, and should really do a lot more sustained thinking about-- and listening to-- the views of the other 95% .
(I think my first mention of this idea on JWN was here, in November 2003. But at the time and in many subsequent posts on the theme I'd rounded the US population to being closer to four percent of the world's total than five. Right now, I'm too tired to do a definitive recount. But in the interests of being logically conservative about the estimate, let's say it might be five percent.)
Helena
I have to choose my words carefully here.
I owe a debt of gratitudeto George W. Bush. Without him I would never have been able to empathise with the "No taxation without representation" movement in the 1770s.
What has happened is that by dragging us into his wars of choice and upsetting the neigbours he has stored up enormous costs for us in sorting out the mess.
For some time I have suspected that the NATO "Out of area" operations are a confidence trick to get us to send out children off to be cannon fodder in pointless wars caused by American Strategic Incompetence.
Your point about 5% and 95% is well made. We the 95% are unhappy to sit on the sidelines and watch the uninformed debates in New York and Washington upset and annoy our friends and trading partners.
I commented on the effect that stupid and ill conceived remarks by various Presidential candidates was having not only on the population of the target countries but on their Diaspora in our cities.
Upsetting Pakistan might lead not only to riots in Karachi but also in Bradford.
I read Brzezinsky's "Second Chance" recently and took his warning that if they dont find a President this time around who can sort out the missed chances of the last three that the US will go into terminal decline.
My thinking, now that I have seen the list of candidates, revolves around how the world gets redrawn in the light of the decline.
We don't have to go down with the ship, even if Somos El Barco.
It's beautiful. Something to remember. Thank you.
Helena
From today's Haaretz. This is very sensible and addresses some of the thorniest problems we have in Europe
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/902516.html
The outpouring of outrage in the comments section is of interest.