America-philes?
This is just another thought that popped in from a news
report i was reading. In this piece of news a guy was wondering whether
or not to reveal the fact that he is an American on overseas trip! He
believed that by telling everyone he was Canadian he was gonna have a
safer trip!
That brings me to an interesting thought. How many
people do we know who still like America? By people i mean from
different countries.And by America i mean it's policies and not the
people of America or the place itself. Invariably people from most
countries seem to have a problem with American policies and actions. To
the effect that i can safely say that apart from the Americans
themselves very few people actually like America... So when did this
happen? Were people always unhappy with American polices? did we all
always hate America the way we do now?
The answer is an obvious and
a resounding NO! There was a time when America was the big Indian
dream! it still is in many ways! There was a time when the world was an
America-phile!
We Indians understand things best when we put
things in particular contexts. Best of all is cricket. In crickets ye
days there was a period of absolute dominance by the West Indies. It
began with the likes of clive lloyd, andy roberts and michael holding,
and the great viv richards.
They dominated cricket completely for
about 10 years. There was no matching them in their deadly pace attack
or their swashbuckling batting! Likewise we have also had a period of
Australian dominance in world cricket. This I would say is slowly
coming to a grinding halt now.For the last 10 to 12 years the
austrlians have absolutely destroyed all competition and are without
doubt the champions. But there is a striking difference in these two
eras of cricket....
Back in the days when west indies were the
champs, they were amazingly popular winners. They were famous winners
and were liked and loved by all. Every team which played against them
had almost a reverence while opposing them. Every team looked up to
them and wanted to emulate their practices to gain success. However
this was and is not the case with the australians. The australians were
ruthless and aggressive just like the west indies but they often took
their tactics and methods too far. Sportsmanship gave way to ugly
gamesmanship far too many times.Their cut-throat and arrogant ways made
them unpopular winners, which they remain to this day. WHAT DO U THINK
WAS THE DIFFERENCE? Why were the aussies the way they were?
The
difference is simple, and when i tell you this you will know why i have
wasted so much time on cricket history. The simple difference was that
the Australians were a team who were afraid of losing. Their game was
driven by this fear which would lead them to go on to any means to win
the game.The West Indies were simply inspired human beings.
The
conclusion is by now in your head.The Americans have always been
inspired leaders of the world.They were popular superpowers and every
country in the world adhered to Americas word.All the countries looked
up to it and its polices...this was at least 10 yrs ago...
People
may say the change happened with Mr.Bush, others may argue it began
before but the fact is .... America is driven today by FEAR. Be it Fear
of terrorism, of lack of resources(oil etc) or of rapid climate
change... All of americas policies are influenced by their inherent
fear and insecuity. Decisions made out of fear are seldom the right
ones.Their actions, their methods of dominance and crude policies are
quite frankly hated by the world today. America once respected by the
world for their policies is now just that, an unpopular superpower.
"The
only thing we have to fear is fear it'self - nameless, unreasoning,
unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat
into advance." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt