Re: Rachel "The Human Waffle" Corrie.

From: tschibasch <tschibasch_at_yahoo.com_at_hypermail.org>
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 20:00:10 -0000

Yes, you were number "666", you beast.

:-)

Allow me to respond to what you have said...

> > I think there is a similarity between Rachel Corrie and John Walker
> > Lindh: Both were young people from affluent backgrounds,
>
> Yup. Only rich kids can afford to play at being oppressed.

Absolutely! These kids (or "adults", as you pointedly called them
later in your message) came from a level of comfort and idleness, and
did not have to worry about getting a boring job like so many other
folks. They wanted to 'fix the world', and their parents probably were
proud of their enthiusiasm and gave them the money to go travel.

Let's face it: Most people, idealistic or not, do not get such
opportunities. The option for them is to join the Peace Corps, which
would not be acceptable to the Corries and Lindhs because they expect
you to WORK. ;-)

I don't want to mention any names, but I know a person who had joined
the Peace Corps and had gone to Kenya for more than 10 years. He left
the USA with the knowledge that the USA and capitalism is bad, and
that the legacy of the Western World left a terrible wound in the
'African Psyche'. He was a hard worker, and was going to help any way
he could!

He married a Kenyan woman, and now lives near LA. He has told me a lot
about his experiences. The corruption and pettiness was more than he
could bear. His anger about it is palpable. They could not even
install a pipe to get clean water to a village: After paying all the
outrageous bribes, any efforts were always upset and derailed by
neighboring villages. People were stopping other people from getting
ahead, if necessary by death and destruction. The end of it all is
that nobody is ahead.

These are hard times, Mike, but I still think that we need not be so
harsh on youthful idealism. A trip to the Third World often does
wonders to put things into perpective, by the way. I have always
recommended that more people travel...

When I was younger after graduating UCLA I went on my own to the USSR.
The Soviet Tourist Agency had package deals, and visitors like myself
had friendly tourist guides (in Iraq, they are called "minders", I
think). I was easily able to give these folks the slip and I went out
on my own, using their extensive subway system. An obvious foreigner,
I met people and was invited back to their homes. (This was completely
safe! Sadly, I also accepted similar invitations in North Africa, and
am lucky now to still be alive...) I saw the standard of living in the
USSR: It was comparable to a USA family on welfare. Maybe even not as
good as. At that time, there was also no freedom of speech like we
have here, though by then Gorbachev was already working on it.

Later after leaving the USSR I ended up in Britain and visited
relatives. Some of them are quite left wing... correction, ALL of them
are left wing! They wanted my impressions of the USSR, and I told
them. No, no, they disagreed. They insisted that the standard of
living in the USSR was high. High? Compared to what? Pakistan, maybe.
They also concluded that I had not seen the 'Real USSR', or something
like that. All of these opinions from people who had never been more
than 100 miles in any direction! Never even been to France.

Anyway, my point is that these folks had their idealism, their
opinions, but lacked any resources to travel and see the world. So,
they are more likely to be stuck that way.


John
Received on 2003-03-28 12:00:13