I stood in the lobby of the Salvadoran Embassy and tried to hold in the rage and frustration building inside me… the lawyer explained, “I’m sorry, there is nothing I can do to help, the case is closed… The only thing your friend can do is wait and see if one of these new Immigration Bills can help her situation.”
My friend is staring down at her feet. I know her well enough to know that she’s trying not to let the lawyer see her tears.
I know the man wants to help, but there is nothing he can do. What’s fair, what’s just, what’s merciful, none of that matters…
I look around the building. The carpet is dirty and stained. The front desk is falling apart. The computers are at least 10 years old. There is no receptionist to be found. It’s just us and the lawyer. Anybody can walk in. There is no security. Not even a sign-in sheet.
I’ve spent time in the German Embassy, The Egyptian Embassy, and the Belgian Embassy- they didn’t look like this.
When you walk into one of those Embassies you can feel the importance of the building and the people in it. You can see the money. They can help… You can see the hope in the faces of the people waiting in the lobby.
None of that is present at the Salvadoran Embassy… It’s not that they don’t care, they just don‘t have any power or money.
It’s a poor country that was made even poorer by a devastating Civil War… The War has been over for a more than a decade, but in a way it will never end.
What was a fragile economy to begin with was completely shattered to the point that it may never recover.
My mind starts to drift off to the plight of El Salvador.
Roughly 25% of the people were forced to flee to the US to escape either becoming a direct casualty of the war (stray bullets, kidnappings, executions, mass graves), or an indirect casualty (starvation, no medical treatment).
Of the 9.5 million people that remain, 40% live below the poverty line and much of the population is under-employed… 20% cannot read.
The average household income is roughly $415 per month, but that’s a little misleading because (like every other Central American country) the upper class is making plenty of money and that bumps up the average… So really the average person makes much less than that. For example my sister-in-law is a teacher with a Master’s Degree and she only earns $150 per month… Like most of the people in the country, she wouldn’t be able to make ends meet if it wasn’t for the money sent home by family working in the US.
El Salvador’s story is by no means unique in the region… It’s no coincidence that at the same time Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras all had their own Civil Wars.
And of course all these wars were financed by the United States Government. The Reagan administration didn’t even deny it. In fact they tried to scare their citizens into believing it was necessary.
Reagan even said that, “The Sandinistas are a two day march from Harlingen, Texas," implying that Nicaragua might try to invade the US… And while that’s laughable now, at the time a lot of people took him seriously.
What this country, and in particular the Reagan Administration did amounted to acts of Terrorism by every definition.
The terror they brought to Nicaragua was so blatant and repulsive that the International Court of Justice had to step in.
They found that "by training, arming, equipping, financing and supplying the Contra forces or otherwise encouraging, supporting and aiding military and paramilitary activities in and against Nicaragua," the US had committed “…acts contrary to general principles of humanitarian law.”
Terroism
The US’s laughable defense for why they were murdering civilians in Nicaragua was that they were “acting in collective self-defense of El Salvador”… Only El Salvador wasn’t asking to be defended- they weren’t at war with Nicaragua, they were at war with themselves… a war that was of course also being funded by the US.
The evidence of what the US did is indisputable and overwhelming. They destroyed an entire region… It was a war on Democracy. It was a war against the impoverished. It was an attack on people that could not defend themselves.
Many of the same people who were in power under Reagan are now back in power with Bush… I suppose what they’re doing should come as no surprise. They want to re-victimize the people who were only fleeing war and poverty… they want to make criminals of people who are only asking for basic human rights.
The lawyer looks into my eyes, he can see my frustration. I can see his as well. He was hoping to have good news for my friend, all he could offer her was a handshake…
We left the Embassy and began walking back to the car. Along the way we passed a building with an American Flag draped out the window. I stopped to look at it. The Stars and Stripes… I was brought up to believe that the flag stood for something noble… The words echoed through my head: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”
I looked at my friend, tears were streaming down her face… I looked back at the flag…
“Odio mi país…”
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Farting in the Shower is a ramblingand ecclectic mix of short stories, embarrasing confessions, pictures, and fast food reviews.
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9 comments:
This is a strong post and tells the story of the unfairness of the world we live in.
It is basically luck of the draw where you are born.
It is difficult to understand why somebody with good qualifications and doing a responsible job should get peanuts in one country and an person in a similar position elsewhere is rewarded well.
I don't normally comment on politics but when goverments manipulate people in this way it is wrong.
The war mongers whether they are powerfull goverments wanting more power or religious fanatics are a disgrace on society. It is always the innocents that suffer.
Very powerful post, Joel. Now pair me reading this along to Rage blaring from my computer. Is it just me or does it seem like recently this is what is on everyones mind. The injustices we have to face on a daily basis. I should not say "we". We have a choice to deal with violence, poverty, inequality, or even racism. We have the choice to just stay in our own little world. Walk around blind like it is not happening. Some people don't have that choice. They have to deal with it up close and personal. I hate politics.
i hear you loud and clear dcn!!
This nation has truly lost it's way. We are run by a small, rich minority that wants to preserve their way of life at the expense of the ideals that this country was founded upon. We wage wars in other nations so that the military industrial complex has money pouring in, but we don't want to see the results of it all.
I swear, I really could move to Europe and never look back.
Sadly, letters don't seem to do much, but you can copy and paste this
such a great powerful post Joel. It made me cry. . thank you for posting this.
how incredibly sad and frustrating.
it's one thing for the US to want to "move past" its prior sins (like slavery), but it's something else when we're talking about financing a civil war that happened only twenty years ago. not wanting to take responsibility for the consequences of those actions, that war.
i don't know what kind of assistance your friend needs, but she's lucky to have you to help her in whatever way that you can. it's probably not what a powerful embassy could offer her, but sometimes just having someone care about you, and care FOR you somehow, can also be powerful.
White rose boy- I very much pay attention to politics but I don't usually like to use my blog as a forum to discuss them... to me, there are so many other blogs that do a much better job of it, that I typically don't even bother- but sometimes, like right now, I just have to post something.
Santiago- I once read something Noam Chomsky said describing the diference in politcal activism that he's noticed in his travels- he said here in the US where the people have the means to make a change, but the people are apathetic or pessamistic... but if you go somewhere on the frontlines, like the slums of Brasil- the people have a plan and they're taking steps, and they're trying to make a change... I feel so guilty about sometimes retreating to my own little world and shutting it all out.
luna-tika- that basically sums it up.
Sonrisa- I knew you would... your recent post on the subject really got the ball rolling for me to summarize my thoughts.
Cincy- It's very tempting
Oso- thanks for the link- I'm going to make that blog one of my daily visits.
Cad- thanks... your clarinet post made me tear up so now we're even.
hector- it bothers me as well that world judges us on the actions of our more conservative zealots, but the fact remains that those are the people who run our country right now... I just don't understand how all these conservities have such low approval ratings yet they keep winning re-election after re-election. It's so frustrating.
jennifer- it's always alarming to me how quick this country is to accuse other countries of funding terrorism and make all kinds of demands... yet time and time again they refuse to hold themselves acountable for their own actions... be it war crimes in another hempisphere like Japan, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam- or crimes committed against their own neighbors like Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba and Columbia.
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