Our visiting short term gringo neighbors here in central Mexico will fiesta today in celebrating the birth of the very young upstart of their nation just to the north, which they seem to hold in respected esteem. My wife and I must be considered as being of them for we were issued a colorful patriotic decorated invitation to the gathering.

In a way, my neighbors may be right (political entendre intended). Though my years of life now span a third of their nation's 230 year blood and pillage stained history, there is no denying that US birth and subsequent early residence account for a quarter of those of the nation they commemorate today. I cannot similarly calculate the fraction of our close to 20 years expatriation to Mexico in terms of its longevity. That is because it is impossible to finger the coming to nationhood for one where European conquest tended toward marriage to rather than slaughter of most of its original inhabitants. We will not attend the neighbors' festivities but instead, mark here my and many's others views of that which they celebrate.

A few years ago, Guadalajara fútbol fans chanted "OSAMA, OSAMA" during a match with the US after one of its players disrespected Mexico, its team, and fans by blatently urinating on the field of play. The story was carried in indignant news from the north but without mention of the instigating event.

One of my neighbors was so offended she hung American flags outside her house. I followed suit and hung something on ours too, an impressionistic rendering of that flag. It brought no mention to my face from passing gringos but many V and thumbs up signals from Mexican's. That picture was the very first post on this Forum last October. It seems appropriate today to offer it again as my comment on the birthday party at hand. Some words in line with thoughts underlying generation of that graphic are better presented by one more talented in such realm than I. It was found and stolen from a chat room acquaintance and appears on the August 31, 2005 archive of her impotentire blog.

Letter to an American Know-All

Dear Sir,

I had an opportunity of going through your website and all its articles. It so happened that somebody in one of the chat rooms happened to paste this link on the mains and I decided to glance through it. Without beating around the Bush (wish I could literally do that!!!) I’d like to thank you for your articles which were indeed very well written (as I’m sure many have told you) albeit, unconventionally written.

I seize this opportunity to put across my point of view. Naturally you’d like to know who I am. Well my name is Sucheta and I am a 3rd year law student, studying in Calcutta (that’s in India in case you don’t know and do not ask me where India is …George Bush raised this query at the time he assumed office-this isn’t a rumour, by the way! ). I’d like to put the view of most third world nations across, which happen to be cowed down by the sheer money and muscle power of the U.S. At this point, you may in all probability delete my mail because listening to what the people of starving nations think or feel is naturally of no significance. I mean if they’re poor, and starving… they probably deserve to kick the bucket and make space for others (applying American logic).

American arrogance has been reflected time and again in its foreign policy. It would be interesting to note that the U.S., like Frankenstein, has this habit of creating monsters which rebel against their creator. Take Saddam for instance. He was well supplied with arms and ammunition and placed in a position of power in order to keep Iran in its place. But Saddam had ambitions of his own and since he refused to toe Uncle Sam’s line, he was deftly removed, thousands of innocents massacred and a nation pulverized… all for its brimming deposits of liquid gold. After all, surely the U.S. has permanent sovereignty over the natural resources of all the nations of the world. Saddam should have meekly handed over those accursed oilfields to the Big Boss. The funniest thing is that the U.S. still expects the world to digest its fabrications about those weapons of mysterious disappearance.

The U.S., of course, is the world’s self-appointed moral guardian. It will tell us what leaders we ought to elect, what ought to be our system of governance, what products we ought to use (including rubber goods, I suppose) and who deserves to live, who deserves to perish. Take Afghanistan for instance. The Taliban was set up in order to oust the Soviet Russia from Afghanistan but yet again, Frankenstein’s monster turned against its creator and had to be done to death ( how many innocent children were bombed to smithereens of course does not matter…they were Asians after all and their lives of scant value).

The United States has set new standards in hypocrisy. It attempted to keep out goods manufactured by the “lesser” nations by going high on rhetoric…ostensibly talking about the fact that child labour had been used and as such the States’ heart was crying out for those pitiable creatures ( the fact that U.S. sanctions drive millions of children to their deathbeds is another insignificant detail). Yet the United States, along with Somalia, are the only nations which refused to ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. We, the “lesser” nations are, of course, not surprised. I mean the U.S. can never be accused of consistency in anything apart from perpetrating terror.

The Kyoto Protocol controversy is yet another example which exposed the States’ contemptuous attitude towards international will and international obligations. The U.S. chooses to use the United Nations as an instrument to spread its reign of terror and when it falters in its designs, the U.N. is naturally termed “redundant”.

The United States, in its fight against “terror” chooses to overlook the terrorism perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinians and by Pakistan upon the Kashmiris, the reason being that they happen to be allies of the U.S. in their bid to colonise the world. America will teach the world what being “civilized” is, it will decide our foreign policy for us, it will hand us weapons to fight one another ( the arms lobbies’ interests are definitely paramount…lives don’t count) and then preach love and peace! The U.S. representatives showed their true colours at the Cancun meet where their anger at the solidarity expressed by the third world led them to abandon their veiled warnings in order to proceed with open (and vulgar) threats. This is The Great United States of America for you…long live the Americans, the rest of the world can go hang!

Irrespective of who wins the elections, whether Kerry or Bush, to the rest of the world, it would make no difference because the tyrant will live on… the tyrant called The United States. The rest of the world cowers in fear.

Yes, life is of no value…unless it’s an American life. The rest of the people are mere lumps of flesh and bone…destined to survive…never to live.

Thank you America!!!

Sucheta.