Kelly and I just had a long conversation over dinner that started with her description of classicism in Columbia. That forced me to recall the economic disparity I witnessed in Haiti and Senegal, as well as a few articles I've read about corruption in several African countries and international drug trafficing. When I was in Jacmel, Haiti, almost every night a black hummer would cruise around the streets with a party in the back seat. That never failed to upset me, because it stood in stark contrast to the glaring poverty that ravished the country. Someone explained that the owner of the vehicle was most likly involved in cocain trafficing.
Just a few days ago the local paper put out an article about the triangle drug trade that involves French "beurettes," or female of North African descent, who go to South America (probably Columbia, in fact) to collect cocain, stop in Haiti or the Dominican Republic, and then return to France to sell the product. This kind of trade is disturbing to me not because cocain is illegal, but because it involves the exploitation of vulnerable third world economies. The thing is, that kind of exploitation is occuring everywhere, and with the legal consent of much of the world.
Kelly explained that much of the trade in her country and other Latin American countries is run by companies in the United States. Columbia has more to offer than cocain, and their other exports (coffee, oil, etc.) are monopolized by North American capitalists. Apparently there is an offer in motion from a large investor hoping to purchase land from a national forest preserve in Chili. How easy will it be for a desperate economy to refuse millions of dollars, even if it means sacrificing an area of sacred land?
Rich North American's are not the only ones seeking profits in such slippery ways. Another article that shocked me, this one from Le Monde, France's national newspaper, revealed the findings from a French investigation of corruption in five different African administrations. These presidents and their families have invested obscene amounts of money in Parisian neighborhoods and hotels. The investigation uncovered multiple French bank accouts for each of the chiefs in question, as well as purchase records for multiple luxury cars. No judicial action will follow these discoveries, because Sarkozy has backed down after the Africans protested with cries of "neo-colonialism" to the corruption charges. The French are basically paralysed, since they can't step in as if they know what's best. The only hope now is that the UN will get involved.
I can't help but feel scandalized when considering all these issues simultaneously. I'm reading Camus' L'etranger, and the combination of his existentialist musings and my current bewilderment are wreaking havoc on my conscience. After four years at my private liberal arts college and six months of world travel (Haiti, US, Egypt, France, Spain, France, Germany, France, US, France), I have spent (and borrowed) a very large sum of money. You have to admire the irony of my current crisis... It was my education and travels that have allowed me to really understand the injustices that I've outlined above, and yet the money I've dispensed on myself could go far in a place like Haiti or the Congo or Columbia.
Camus says the world is absurd, so I won't try to rationalize these exploitations and the consequences evident everywhere. He also says we should enjoy what is beautiful in the world and do what we can to make it more just. I think I often appreciate beauty and experience la joie de vivre (love of life), but I'll have to post later if I figure a way to fight injustice. Right now, my head is empty and pounding, and my blood sugar is taking a nose dive.
No comments:
Post a Comment