Letter No.12, March 21, 2003

Hello from the peaceful Makonde Plateau, "Deep South of Tanzania"

So, it's begun. The teachers at my school were all watching the news before classes started yesterday. Because my school has a satelite TV hook-up, I probalby found out before most of the other volunteers that President Bush had begun his attack on Iraq. I won't know anything about how that concerns us here though until I go to Masasi tomorrow and talk to Colleen, who Peace Corps can contact by phone. President Mkapa hasn't outrightly said that he doesn't support the United States and its war on Iraq though, so being, that's the only information I have. I'm pretty confident that we'll get to stay here with no worries or interruptions. What Mkapa had said though is that he is deeply saddened by the U.S. attack on Iraq and the manner in which the U.S. has approached the entire situation. He would have been in support of a peaceful outcome, as I think the majority of the world would have preferred. I couldn't agree with him more. How sad is it that a nation as rich as the United States isn't satified with already being the "richest country in the world." That it finds yet another reason to wage war on a country that has already been through so much in the last quarter century, just so that it can secure monetary benefit from Iraq's oil....

What saddens me even more is that a country that has the monetary ability to do so much good will likely end up doing so much damage, and not only in the country of Iraq, but thoughout the entire third world population. So many countries like Tanzania do not have the freedom to express their true feeling and support their relatives of a common religion and culture, for fear that foreign aid from the U.S. will be pulled, and their people willl continue to starve. Some would agrue that the U.S. has built its own fortune. Why should other countries depend on aid from the U.S. to build their's? The United States also occupies a land that does not seem to kill people. To be able to build things, to be able to grow food and cash crops with ease. To be able to cultivate life as one is able to do on the land of the U.S. which would help to solve a great number of the problems that people in many of these third world countries face. AMERICA, the richest country in the world, just wants to get richer. Most Americans don't have ANY idea as to how rich the already are.

I consider myself to be fairly enlightened about people outside the United States, having traveled some, much read, and minored in Anthropology, yet I was taken aback as to how poor some people really are, as to how little they have and yet, they manage to be relatively happy.

I think it would be safe to say that most American households have at least two vehicles, and the most popular vehicle of all of those is the SUV. Our gas prices are lower than most other 1st world countries, yet we still complain when gas prices go up.. Well guess what, those prices are about to go up again. And well they should do; Americans use more oil than any other country in the world, and we are wageing this war in one of the lands richest on oil in the world. I am sad that President Bush couldn't wait for a peaceful solution. His actions have taken away from the authority of the United Nations and will cause trouble in the future by his show of the "power of the fist," and that "money talks." He is only helping the U.S. continue to make enemies for itself in the future, as evidence by the September 11th attacks. Something else I don't understand is that Bush can really say that his problem with the goverment of Iraq had to do with Saddam's having "weapons of mass destruction." The U.S. is constantly looking the other way whenever Israel enters the picture in that same debate. What right does the U.S. have to say that it is okay for one goverment to have these weapons, and not okay for another goverment to have them? The fact that the U.S has always been ally of Israel and had problems with Iraq shouldn't have anything to do with the decisions, especially once the United Nations was brought into the picture. I'm pretty confused on that topic. Does anyone want to enlighten me?

I have a feeling that after this letter, quite a few people will want to "enlighten me". I am ready and willing to listen to all other points of view, but just wanted to express my sadness and anger at the selfishness and greed that is being portrayed by our country right now. The teachers at my school are constantly asking me questions as to "why is the U.S. doing this? Why is your country doing this? I find it difficult to answer without embarrassment. They don't understand many of the "diplomatic" reasons that the news reporters give us, and frankly I don't either. People here actually like the U.S., or at least, that which the U.S. exports. It makes it easy for me to feel comfortable here, but it also makes me sad to see how much of their heritage people are willing to leave behind in order to adopt or obtain many of the material things of the U.S. The culture of their parents is lost to a new culture born of globalization, or rather Americanization. On one level that would be fine if people achieved what they seemed to be after: a better way of life. But from what I have seen, all it seems to do is plant a desire for that which they do not have the means to achieve. Giving them the ability to obtain those means, is what I am doing through being a teacher, but right now, when I see people turning away from their religious and cultural relatives across the world so that they can continue to walk that path to their perceived "better way of life," it makes me stop and think for a moment about the U.S. real motive is in giving foreign aid to these contries in the form of the Peace Corps. Are we really here to help? Or are we just being used as a bribe? Writing this letter and continuing my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer are some of the only things I can do to express my opinions and sadness about the entire situation from where I am right now. I have found it very therapeutic in my quest to find some sense of order in all this. If I was at home right now, I don't know if I would have taken the time to have put all of the thoughts running through my head in order. The last time our country was at war, I was too young to be able to digest everything that was going on and to be able to form my own opinion.

Something else I have thought about is that for the first time I actually know people and can put faces and feelings to some of the people I hear about in the news. Unfortunately, that too is part of growing up, and learning about the world. Coming from a small town, many of my high school classmates are now in the military. I am not angry with them specifically, and understand that they are just following orders to their jobs. It is a matter of survival for people of every culture. I support the people I personally know in the military, but do not support what they are doing, or rather, have been told to do. I fear for their safety through all of this, and add them to my list of reasons for why I hope that the war in Iraq will be over VERY soon with as little damage as possible done to both sides.

I am proud to be American, and for that part I am proud to be British. I am thankful for what I have been given just because I happened to be born of these two cultures, But I am digusted and embarrassed and saddened to think that those in power think that to be born into wealth equals the right to dominate who did not have the fortune to be born into such wealth.

I AM THINKING OF YOU ALL.....WITH LOVE JESSICA.....