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Why American Domestic Policy affects Us
All I can't help it. I have to write this one. I have been confronted recently by questions from many people wondering why I spend a lot of my time attempting to enlighten people around the world to what goes on in it. They wonder what my interest is, particularly in the United States. So I have decided to lay it on the line in a way that perhaps will be clear to most. It goes like this: At the moment, in order to buy oil, which unfortunately we are all addicted to, we must buy US dollars. We can either do that by selling things to them for US dollars, or by buying their currency directly from them. This means we must trade with the US whether it is within our own interests as a country, or not. This is because America has engineered it so that the Arabs won't or can't trade oil in any other currency without bringing down the US military on their heads. It costs us ('us' being non U.S. countries) billions of dollars every year because it would be cheaper for us to buy oil in the most appropriate currency (whatever was doing best on the currency market at the time). This has been going on for decades. As a result poor countries have to pay inflated oil prices, pay their people less, use money for oil that they could use in updating infrastructure and generally make life easier for their people. We are all poor countries as a result. As well as that, the U.S. uses the same amount of oil each year as the rest of us do put together. They therefore contribute to air pollution and greenhouse gasses (that the rest of the world breaths) at a greater rate than anyone else does. It refuses to take responsibility for this, and will not sign the Kyoto Agreement with the rest of us, to slow down emissions. (Incidentally, the largest hole in the ozone is not over the U.S. Its over New Zealand!) It insists on it and it allies being the only nuclear armed countries. That places the rest of us in a vulnerable position if we don't agree with its policies. It can force its economics on anyone. As Bush said, "if you are not with us you are against us!" Not only this, it is currently legislating to ensure that it owns all the patents on life from seeds to indigenous species, foisting G.E. crops on those that don't want them, insisting that aid will only flow to those countries that agree with their fundamentalist christian agenda, deposing governments that disagree with them, spying on us with ELF technology that can zoom in on anyone anywhere and generally interfering with most of our lives. Humm! There is one other thing that I find very disturbing. It is the imposition of American culture on the whole of the rest of the world. This is a procedure that ALL colonizing countries employ to break down the individuality of the indigenous people of the land. It was used by Britain throughout its empire. Since the WW11, the U.S. has employed it relentlessly. Now we all speak with an American accent, wear baseball caps and do whatever the American culture is doing this year, not because it's the best, but because it's all we are being sold! We don't have to adopt it, so lets not! Come on people. Think for ourselves! If your not American, you have a culture of your own that is going to die if you don' t participate in it! So, finally, it behooves everyone in all countries to assess the attitudes of their politicians to U.S. policy. Voting in parties that are willing to go into agreement with American economic, and militaristic hegemony only ensures the retention of this untenable situation. Until the U.S. public votes in an administration that ceases to attempt to foist its economic needs onto the bank balance of other countries, affecting our personal lives, we must keep up the pressure on them. Currently we are subsidizing the American lifestyle by billions every year. Whilst it is not the fault of the individual American, it is their unwillingness to change their image of themselves that makes this process continue. The whole world is important, not just America. We ask that they think again when they fill their gas tanks that are still many dollars cheaper than ours, realizing that sooner or later the party must come to an end and Peak Oil will ensure it eventually does. I believe that we are all connected. What is no good for us is ultimately not doing them any good either. What will save us will bring peace to North America also. I want only that we begin to care for each other in co-operation rather than competing for the scraps until the bitter end. There is a way but we need to pull together. This does not mean becoming each other. It means co-operating in respect. |