One studying and learning from US

The United States of America is fond of calling itself The Home of the Brave, the Land of the Free. That’s advertising. Part of that communication campaign requires systematic and relentless vilification of other countries, other peoples. WikiLeaks is supposed to peeled away the glossy cover of the ad and revealed the ugly underside of that countries true character, especially with regard to foreign policy. Not news to those who have the ability and will to read between the lines of the dominant media streams as well as a penchant from browsing alternative sources of information.

It would not be a bad idea to mention now and then the substance that the ad covers so that we know what US ‘bravery’ and ‘freedom’ are all about. Here’s some data, not from some unknown sources with dubious political agenda but known-names such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Department of Justice and reputed newspapers in that country.

Crimes of violence

In the year 2008 1.4 million violent crimes were reported in the USA, including 17,000 murders and 9.8 million property crimes. There was a 7.5 percent increase in robberies over the five-year period ending in 2008.

There’s been an over three percent annual increase in the number of murders in cities between 50,000 and 100,000 inhabitants.

In 2007 alone 23 million crimes of violence or theft were perpetrated. The property crime rate was 146.5 per 1,000 households. In that country one murder is committed every 31 minutes, one rape every 5.8 minutes and one burglary every 14.5 seconds. Thanks to the much celebrated right of citizens to bear arms, 1.35 million high schools students were either threatened or injured with a weapon at least once on school property in the year 2007. One fifth of high schools students in Boston had witnessed a shooting in the year 2006.

Now we might be told that none of this is systemic, but when these numbers turn up regularly every year they do indicate serious flaws in the overall social, political, economic and cultural system. Here’s something more concrete on ‘systems’ in the Land of the Free.

‘Deep Packet Inspection’, a brand new surveillance technology is currently in operation and enable the recording of every visited web page, every sent email and every online search.

Statistics indicated that at least 100,000 US Internet users had been tracked and the service providers had conducted tests on as many as 10 percent of the US citizens (The Washington Post, April 4, 2008). The FBI has been engaged in illegal surveillance launched by the US Government nationwide, obtaining thousands of people’s phone records, bank accounts and other personal information by unwarranted means. Says a lot about individual freedoms and privacy guarantees!

In the Home of the Brave the powers that be are so scared that they have made eavesdropping legal, made wiretapping business-as-usual and made it possible for federal agents to take a traveller’s laptop to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time as part of border search policies! Police abuse is so rampant that it has to be taken as an integral part of that country’s national ethos.

High unemployment

The United States of America is so free that it has the highest number of prisoners in the world (2.3 million). In 2008, 7.3 million people were on probation, in jail or on parole. That’s 2.3 percent of the total population. One in nine black men between 20 and 34 years of age is in jail. The ratio of prisoner to ‘free’ is six times the world average.

The USA records the most unequal income distribution of all high-income countries over the past 30 years. Around 12.5 percent (or 37.3 million people) were living in poverty in 2007.

In the same year, it was recorded that 18 percent of children (13.3 million) were impoverished and 9.8 percent of US families were living in poverty (that’s 7.6 million families).

Around 1.6 million people experienced homelessness in a 12-month period around the same time.

Absence of proper labour rights, systemic and subtle racism in all spheres, high unemployment, shrinking pension plans, drugs, suicide, lack of affordable health and of course a prison-industrial complex that is fast becoming the backbone of the economy courtesy what can only be called slave labour do not constitute pretty colours to paint the true ‘American Picture’. Add the horrendous track record of the USA when it comes to military activities in other countries and one really wonders what’s ‘brave’ and ‘free’ about the USA.

Self-glorification

What is most important about all of the above is the fact that it is all hidden under a thick veil of lies and glitter and of course, as mentioned and the systemic and massively-funded vilification of other countries. There are some lessons for all of us.

First of all, we need to acquire the vision to see through advertisements.

The true nature of the article has to be ascertained. We need to treat with healthy suspicion both self-glorification and vilification of other peoples. We need to tell those who tell us what to do to first sort out their problems. And we need to sort out our problems whether or not someone tells us to do so. Most importantly we cannot use the clearly two-tongued vilifications uttered by outsiders as an excuse not to acknowledge our errors and refuse to address and rectify them.

The USA is the Mother of all Duplicities this world has ever known. True. That’s hardly an excuse for us to engage in duplicity either, not at the level of Government, community, household or as individuals.

The USA is a good teacher. No, not with respect to its regular and hypocritical pontifications; its reality, its example of being and doing is an excellent reflector and one we can turn inwards to discover, acknowledge and deal with error.

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