Both Oars In America, Act II

Oct 23, 2009

If we were in our 500s, the term America would mean something wholly different to us. It would conjure up thoughts of the entire New World—not just one large country within it. It may be time to return to this broader, hemispheric perspective. Weakened by this latest economic crash, we may need to consider strengthening our partnerships in our own neighborhood to ensure the great American experiment continues. Otherwise, we may end up sold to the Chinese like a dilapidated theme park with Chavistas to run the rides.
How is it that our region broke into such divided parts in the first place? Unequal success is more to blame than language and culture barriers. British colonies had stronger governmental structures in place than the colonies of France, Spain and Portugal. Even though the Thirteen Colonies were younger than many South American and Caribbean colonies, they had better developed local governments at the time they won their independence. Subsequently, our government has operated continuously from day one, never experiencing a complete meltdown. Unfortunately, the reverse has been the norm in the region. The uneven starts and experiments with alternatives to democracy were the first factors to divide the hemisphere.

The United States had the additional advantage of being an early participant in the industrial boom. This created a second source for producing national wealth, in addition to agriculture. U.S. industry attracted investment and immigrants from all over the world. This allowed the U.S. to grow faster than other new nations in the region which relied more on agriculture. This singular success catapulted the U.S. forward into the world.

The U.S. has rarely looked back more than momentarily to see what could be done to help fellow new republics in the region flourish. Most importantly, little was done to make sure that the rule of law, so important to our own success, took hold in neighboring countries. The most populous and largest economy in the hemisphere, we chose world leadership over being a good neighbor. Today, we are paying the price for our myopic approach.

The U.S. continues to view itself as the lone guardian of the region rather than a partner in it. Even the recent economic success and political progress of Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Canada has not inspired much rethinking of this antiquated paradigm. We continue like a big brother shouting orders at younger siblings without taking time to notice how much more mature and strong they have become. We have yet to recognize how important to our mutual success the emerging nations in this hemisphere could be if only we recognized their strengths more openly and appreciatively.

Our neglect has allowed competition to invade the region. Just like nature does not like a vacuum, politics and economics will not sit idle when there are political ground and market share to gain. While we have been distracted by problems in the Middle East, the Far East, namely China, has been making its way into the hemisphere. As I have mentioned in previous articles, the Chinese government has even set up shop in Haiti. China has been working hard to gain a foothold in Brazil as well.

We need to keep in mind that China as a government continues to show little interest in the culture and political practices of the West beyond a fascination for Jack Daniels and Marlboro cigarettes. This is a country that does not allow the free practice of religion and convinces enough parents to discard female fetuses to noticeably distort the gender ratio by over 15 percent. [Reports suggest there are as many as 32 million more males in China than would be expected proportionally, due to selective abortions.] We cannot forget that overshadowing the pageantry of the Olympics was the cloud of limitations on both the local and foreign press as well as internet access. Tiananmen Square was only 20 years ago.

The Chinese must prove that their interest in developing countries goes beyond self-interest.  The record suggests that China is after two things in underdeveloped countries: cheap labor to replace its perennially more demanding domestic labor force and natural resources to feed its growing appetite for raw materials. Every indication is that they are looking for these same things in our hemisphere.

Along with the Chinese, we are our own worst enemy in terms of hemispheric progress. We have let the discussion with our Western Hemisphere partners be dominated far too much by concern over undocumented immigration. We should be investing in a stronger union, not stronger borders. Clearly, we are more likely to survive open borders than we are closed minds. It is time for big brother to start a new dialogue with his adult siblings or forgo the mutual benefits of America.