Tonight at dinner I was told by a student from South Africa that America is to blame for the majority of the problems in the world, and that we deserved to be bombed during Pearl Harbor because we had been "choking" Japan economically.
Yeah, I was offended. But I wanted to understand why he feels this way, so I did a little research.
From our discussion I gathered that he was particularly upset about things like this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4678592.stm
http://lite.alertnet.org/db/blogs/58388/2010/00/29-185031-1.htm
Reading this, it's pretty clear that hunger is a terrible issue plaguing Africa. I also think it's clear that there are a number of factors to take into consideration when determining the cause of the hunger, and the obstacles they face in trying to overcome the food shortage. Intergovernmental conflict, corruption, land locked states, multi-national actors, and countries like the US have all either contributed to this problem or not done enough to improve the situation.
Tonight I encountered someone from that area of the world. I think he had a very normal emotional reaction-point fingers, place blame, etc.. I just don't think it's that simple.
We do give aid. Compared to the rest of the world, we give an awful lot of aid. HOWEVER, percentage wise we are not giving enough. We don't allot nearly as much in our federal budget as other Western countries. Much of our aid comes with a price. We are willing to give to states who can benefit us in some sort of way. We aren't altruistic.
That being said, I don't think we should be blamed for that. We have the capabilities to do good things around the world, and we do, but we must have an agenda that puts our interests first. That's what sovereign states do. Ultimately, that's how we survive. We give, but we also take. Banks don't loan money for free, so why should we? At the end of the day, we aren't a NGO, we're a state...and just like any other state, we're fallible. The biggest priority is ourselves! It's not being selfish, because one of the main underlying functions of state is the protection of its people!
Anyways, I understand where people are coming from when they get angry at the US, but I don't think we could really do much to make it better. I'm a realist. I think anti-American sentiments will continue until we are no longer this powerful, and then it'll move on to the next super power.
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