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Like many people of my generation, I grew up with a strong
familiarity with US socio-historical trivia. My elementary years
were partly spent, and my capacity for rote learning expended and
strongly focused, on US history and government. Then and now,
newspapers were always replete with news and analytical features on
the latest concerns of the US government.
The US has consistently placed its myriad
resources, development funding, military troops, covert agents and
otherwise, on the Philippine basket. In the development sector, the
United States Agency for International Development is one of our
biggest development funders.
The US factor in our national life is best
exemplified by the reported fervor of President Gloria Arroyo in
running after Barack Obama, presumptive US president by this
November, for a dialogue. Many have speculated on what could have
occasioned such effort. With no denial or explanation by the Palace,
any assumption is valid.
Still, the US government has forcibly
overthrown, and attempted to overthrow, foreign governments
perceived as hostile to its interests, and replaced them with new
ones, actions that has become known as regime change. Governments
targeted have included democratically elected governments, thus the
target “regimes” are not necessarily authoritarian governments
or juntas, but in some cases are replaced by such dictatorships. In
other cases, dictatorships have been replaced by democracies.
Many Filipinos are haunted by the other side of
Uncle Sam. I grew up with Vietnam in mind, what with Filipino
soldiers fighting side by side with American boys conscripted into a
war on foreign soil by their own government, and doing civic action
work for the benefit of our fellow Southeast Asians who look, feel
and think so much like ourselves.
Many things come to mind as Filipinos spend
today, July 4, in various fashion. My US-based cousins always have a
family reunion on July 4. Here, many Filipinos will toast our
political tutor that reorganized not only our government and public
education and health systems, but also how we view the rest of the
world and the different forms of US intervention in the lives of
many nations.
The militant bloc, on the other hand, promised
to commemorate today the so-called RP-US Conspiracy Day with, what
else but a succession of marches to protest this “special
relations.”
Even in development work, there are many
ambiguities on how the ever-enduring US influence on our national
life is seen. Many development workers are aware that the so-called
“benevolent assimilation” program drafted for the Philippine is
historical fiction, paid for by the lives of at least a million
Filipinos who perished in battles against better-equipped American
soldiers, or who perished in concentration camps and forced hamlets
due to outright torture, starvation, pestilence and disease brought
about by their war against this mighty country and its army.
These days, the US is high on the agenda of
development workers, especially human rights defenders, alarmed by
the continued incarceration and torture of many political prisoners
in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and other US bases. They also express
concern with the US continued role in Iraq and Afghanistan, and its
campaign against the Axis of Evil that includes North Korea, fairly
close to the country.
Even the most apolitical development workers
have noted that the US is yet to ratify the Kyoto protocol, already
signed by the previous administration. Bush opposed to the treaty
and rescinded US executive approval.
In July 2002, Bush cut off all funding,
approximately $34 million, for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
allocated by Congress the previous December, claiming that the UNFPA
supported forced abortions and sterilizations in China.
Many nations, including key members of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, have not
committed their promised aid to give at least .7 percent of their
gross domestic product in order to drastically reduce poverty by the
target of 2015. The US and other nations’ contributions are
criticized for falling far short of 0.7 percent.
Yet, Bush has also done work to reduce the
HIV/AIDS epidemics in Africa, stop the spread of malaria, and
“rebuild broken nations from their genocidal pasts,” according
to the Wikipedia.
The US, however, is always looked upon as an
interventionist country, and many are pessimistic about its export
of democracy, including development funding. International relations
professor Abraham Lowenthal had assessed that US attempts to export
democracy have been “negligible, often counterproductive, and only
occasionally positive.”
John A. Tures find US intervention to have mixed
results. Of 228 cases from 1973 to 2005, 96 caused no change in the
country’s democracy. In 69 instances, the country became less
democratic after the intervention. Only in the remaining 63 did a
country become more democratic.
This July 4 is an occasion for us to reflect
critically on our “special relations” with our erstwhile
political mentor.
ngamolo@manilatimes.net
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