It's election time again in the US. By now, I have already watched and read a lot of news, debates, analyses, and documentaries about this hotly contested election between the incumbent President Barack Obama (Democrat) and the challenger Mitt Romney (Republican). So what do I think and feel about this 2012 election in particular and the US in general as a student of political history and based on the adage "the personal is political" (that my personal experience shapes my understanding of politics)? I can say that I have a personal love-hate relationship with America.
I love the US primarily because it is home to many of my family who have been American citizens for a generation or two now. The salaries they have earned through hard work have been translated into a kind of welfare for me and my families in the Philippines. In many developing countries like the Philippines, the most responsible for welfare provision is the family (especially, those families who have kins working abroad)—not the state/government like in Nordic and Western Europe, nor private insurance companies as in the US. Instead of the government or a private insurance company, my American citizen-worker family members look after our welfare in the Philippines, inter alia, to send us to schools/universities (education), to help us when a family member is sick (health care), and to give us additional financial support especially for our elderly and needy relatives (pensions and social security).
But I hate the US for its elitist politics and imperialist history of greed for wealth and power of the country's vested interests. I hate it also for the social system it promotes which does not observe the natural balance between life and work, which commodifies nature and human life itself, and which reduces human relations into mere money relations.
Given current realities, I can only make a wish: Good luck, US! Good luck, world! The choice is limited to Romney-Ryan (Republicans) frank in their money, corporate, and military interests and Obama-Biden (Democrats) involved in a rather smooth doublespeak. Two parties under one system. Both candidates are created and supported by particular factions of the power elite. Both are servants of the establishment. Both have to be representatives of the dangerous system which the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower has already warned us of on the very same day of my birth, January 17, in 1961: the military-industrial complex!
While I'd be curious to hear what Obama and Romney have to say about the military-industrial complex (i.e., the entrenched network of vested interests in business, military, and politics, and I'd like to add, religion) if asked about it in a televised debate, I'm also mindfully aware that these two men are eloquent politicians who are very good public speakers. So what for? The Democrats and Republicans may sound to be somewhat different, but they are fundamentally the same in the common objective of preserving, domestically and globally, what they perceive to as "America's national interest"—the material and ideological interests of the capitalist system and the US military-industrial complex.
Perhaps I can only sing with Norah Jones to express my sentiments toward the US and its recent elections: "I love the things that you've given me; I cherish you my dear country; But sometimes I don't understand; The way we play....".
"My Dear Country"
'Twas Halloween, and the ghosts were out
And everywhere they'd go, they shout
And though I covered my eyes, I knew
They'd go away
But fear's the only thing I saw
And three days later 'twas clear to all
That nothing is as scary as election day
But the day after is darker
And darker and darker it goes
Who knows, maybe the plans will change
Who knows, maybe he's not deranged
The news men know what they know, but they
Know even less than what they say
And I don't know who I can trust
For they come what may
'Cause we believed in our candidate
But even more it's the one we hate
I needed someone I could shake
On election day
But the day after is darker
And deeper and deeper we go
Who knows, maybe it's all a dream
Who knows if I'll wake up and scream
I love the things that you've given me
I cherish you, my dear country
But sometimes I don't understand
The way we play
I love the things that you've given me
And most of all that I am free
To have a song that I can sing
On election day
Videos on the Military-Industrial Complex and Obama-Romney Debate:
3 comments:
I love your blog! keep writing!
Grazie Vincenzo! I consider this a de-stressing activity. You should get back to blogging, too! ;)
Hi Bonn,
I found your blog interesting as well as a bit provoking!
You conflate the noble tradition of immigrant traditions of supporting family in the old country with the institutions and the political culture of the United States. I find this to be a gross error. The USA is the product of European "civilization" as Fanon puts it in "Les Damnés de la Terre". This is a country that was built on the genocide of the native population, slavery and slave trade. Not the democratic myth US politicians never stop spreading around. The US war machine was used to subjugate the South American continent, not to speak of the role played by the United States in the Philippines.
Love for your hard working relatives who came to the States and remained faithful to family ties and supported those left behind., yes! But their actions and feelings had not much to do with American institutions and mentality.
Perhaps I am a bit harsh and have misunderstood something in the blog at this early hour of the morning. If this is the case, I apologize! As a matter of fact, I did enjoy the part of your hatred for the United States.
Have a nice weekend, Bonn.
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