Ego/Ethno-Centrism In America

Someone like Sean Hannity would wet himself that I am anti-American for what I am about to publish. I think Americans are very ego/ethno-centric and have no clue what is going on in the rest of the world. Nor do they care. Many would say, "Why should I care?" The answer seems obvious.

While I was in Baghdad I had opportunity to work in very close proximity to, in total, about 70 Iraqis. The Army had hired them to do repairs on the palace complex we were living in and operating out of. The conditions those guys had to deal with, even at that time in late 2003 (it has gotten much worse since then), were horrendous. They had to risk getting shot up as they stood at the gate of the complex waiting to get in for cavorting with the American infidels, they risked being kidnapped, murdered, etc. Just watch the news and you'll know what they were putting up with from day to day. They were all pretty good guys and I became good friends with some of them. Some were crooked and thieves (Ali Babba, as they said) but for the most part they were just family men trying to make a living for their families. They were mostly laborers to clean up bomb rubble but we hired some for their skills such as carpentry, plumbing, and electrical. We paid the laborers $3/day and the skilled workers $5/day. They were happy for the income, and if I believe what they told me, it was a very good income compared to what they had been accustomed to. One guy told me he made that much in a month under Saddam, doing the very same work.

Here is an email I sent to my family while I was in Baghdad:

"Mon, 8 Sep 2003 06:17:28 -0700 (PDT) Last week was a good one for language. I learned a lot and I'm finally able to get some elementary thoughts across. I think M. (our 2 year old) speaks better English than I speak Arabic. One of my guys, Thamr, told me last week that his dad was driving his car and four armed men came up while he was stopped and carjacked him. They shot him twice in the leg and robbed him of his car. The people here live in fear for their lives because there is no law, nor order. The same guy, Thamr, told me that he wants to marry a girl he has known since childhood. He is 22 and she is 20. He told me that she has to be 23 years old before she can wed and he has to pay her dad $300 to do it. That's difficult for him because he is supporting his parents and 4 brothers with his $3/day wage. Perhaps within the 3 years he can come up with the money.

"Another guy, Salaam, told me that he had worked on Saddam's palace, the same one where we live. He was doing some marble work. Saddam came through one day to inspect the work. All the workers at the palace had been told not to look up at him. Salaam inadvertently looked up as Saddam was walking through and caught Saddam's eye. Saddam called him over, pulled out a pistol, and shot him in the head...for looking at him. He was in a coma for several months. He showed me the bullet hole...actually he let me feel it because hair had grown over. It was weird to put my finger into a bullet hole in a man's scull.

"It is so saddening to see the conditions and poverty that these people live in. The anarchy they have to experience. They are, for the most part, such good people. Today a Major got angry with me because I wasn't being their overseer. Some of the army types here are so uptight about this stuff. They figure the hajis have to be driven like slaves. They just can't see them as people. Some Americans are so racist. There's a lot of arrogance in people's hearts over here.

"Well, I guess this email has gone on long enough. I am again scheduled to go to Qatar to help on a doc-ex project. I'm praying I'll be able to stay. Thanks for all your support and prayers."

I struggle to have hope in human nature. It seems that as soon as a person is given a little authority, or as he may so suppose, he'll immediately begin to abuse that authority. It seems so clear to me that people will become depraved and inhuman the moment they perceive they can get away with it. One can easily see it in our civic leaders, occasionally our police officers, military personnel, people who, when given a little authority over others, immediately begin to debase themselves by abusing and maltreating those over whom they have authority.

At the same time I have reason to hope because obviously the majority of people are decent well intentioned people. Most police officers are good people, a good many in the military (although I frequently disagree with their morals) are decent hearted folks. My struggle is with the direction it seems a few powerful people are taking this country. As I mentioned in my email, that Major was so concerned that I (the first line of inferior beings) was being too nice to the hajis (the second line of inferior beings). What was so wrong with giving those guys a break who worked in horrendous heat every day, 7 am to 5 pm doing hard manual labor so that joker didn't have to, for a pittance of $3-$5/day. This Major Joker couldn't figure that out. I always wonder what various people would do with power if they had it. I'm often skeptical in this regard.

As a side note, I was listening yesterday to NPR and there was a short news program about slums in poor countries, specifically not the United States. The conditions described were terrible and unimaginable. I remember one line that said, "a stream of sewage comes from the rich part of town. It flows into the slum and never flows out." People live in shacks of cardboard and tin, plastic bags, pretty much anything they can get a hold of. The specific slum being discussed was in Kenya and the speaker said it didn't have an official population because it wasn't even an official place, but it was estimated that the population was about that of San Francisco.

The reason I mention this is that the people said they were happy there, and there was a sense of community. People treated each other with dignity and respect and they looked out for one another. Perhaps that may have been an exception rather than the rule but the principle is certainly there. How can people be humane to one another while living in such destitute circumstances while people in the United States who have everything they could ever desire be so ruthless and inhumane? Clearly wealth doesn't make people good, nor does poverty make people bad. Clearly ethnic, national and racial lines don't define the quality of a person's character.