>>What can we do to demand that the media report more responsibly and work
harder to actually educate the nation about a balanced slate of things that
matter? (This is not a rhetorical question.)<<
Given that almost since its inception the media has too-frequently been used
by powerful individuals and powerful corporations to further their own ends,
why should you expect it/them to be interested in 'education' and 'balance'
now? (This is not a flippant answer).
>>Instead of being defensive about why other people in the world may dislike
or despise the U.S., let's seek to understand their position. I am not at all
advocating validation of the notion that we "deserved" it; I am suggesting
that there may be
legitimate reasons why people (who are not extremists, radicals or terrorists)
hold disdain for our country<<.
Exactly. And to suggest this does not mean that you agree with the criticism.
>>Most hold disdain for us precisely because of our involvement in their
country or other countries<<.
Yes. Exactly.
>>Or maybe they (other countries) have disdain because they don't like our
capitalistic system. If that is the case, that is their problem and not
something we have to beat
ourselves up about. They are free to have their own system.<<
But don't you see that there can be no success (capitalist economical or
otherwise) without losers? Nike couldn't pay Michael Jordan (or whoever)
enormous sums of money if the people who make the sportswear weren't
criminally underpaid? One of the major sports equipment companies in the world
pays (or used to pay when I did the research) a blind, 11 year-old Punjabi
girl named Sonia less money than it takes to buy a litre of milk. Per day, not
per hour. She gets this for sewing the soccer balls which are sold under the
name of famous footballers (soccer). (I am thinking of Eric Cantona, but the
same thing applies to other sportsmen and sportswomen too).
The plantation owners got rich precisely because the slaves were not free.
Farmers in Texas and California would not be able to make a profit if they
employed legal workers. These things are related. They are not coincidence.
There is no choice here. These exploited workers are / were not 'free to have
their own system' any more than many countries, including Afghanistan, are
free to choose.
It is not just 'their problem'. Poverty is a global problem, i.e. everybody's
problem and we should all (not only the USA) beat ourselves up about it.
Mike.
NP Steve Reich 'music for 18 musicians' (while reading the Guardian...)
