Perspective

I haven't been feeling well, so I didn't prepare a post for today. I did have this one that I wrote back in November, 2012, and never posted. It's a little dated, but still relevant; maybe. It does pertain to a topic that I intended to cover today but from a different angle. Anyway...

PERSPECTIVE

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about perspective. It’s amazing that moving just a millimeter in any direction can change what you see, and how you see it. In the past few days the blogosphere has been filled with a rehash of the political debate over last week’s US presidential election. Even the writing community (which covers most of my followers and most of those whom I openly follow) has dipped a toe into the steaming stew of woulda, shoulda, coulda. If I had two brain cells keeping company in my pretty little head, I would simply shut it, but not this ‘dumb blonde’. Oh no, I got an opinion too.

Before you head out to the barn for your pitchfork and torch I’m gonna tell you exactly who I voted for. NO ONE. No, I’m not one of those disillusioned citizens who wonder ‘what’s the use’. Look back up there at that picture heading up my blog. I really do live there. My passport says I’m an citizen of the United States of America, but because the last five years of ‘economic downturn’ in the US took everything I owned or thought I owned (even a few of those things money isn’t supposed to be able to buy) I’m now a disenfranchised citizen of the U.S. of A. I live in an American territory, the USVI (ah the price you pay for paradise). Unlike many ex-patriots I no longer own property in the US with a valid address that allows me to vote (ha, ha, ha – apparently this year the price of an airplane ticket would have been enough – but that’s another story altogether). OK, enough back story.

Back to PERSPECTIVE. Living outside the US, but retaining my citizenship to it, I have a little different perspective than most of the bloggers that I read. There is a lot of ‘shock and awe’ out there over the outcome of the recent presidential election. One blog I follow basically asked the question; “Is the two party system dead? In actuality, this blogger asked if one of the parties was dead or at least dying. The comments were astounding. I almost jumped in, but thought better of it because, I don’t like to argue. Many of the blogs that I follow expressed shock at the outcome of said election. They were convinced that a change would be inevitable considering the state of things in the States. While I will admit, I personally didn’t see a whole lot of ‘awe’, that could simply be confirmation of the old adage ‘birds of a feather…’

During the course of the past year, I told three different groups of friends that I was pretty sure Barry (in case you’re wondering, that moniker was good enough for his granny, it’s good enough for me) would be reelected to be the figure head of the U.S. of A. All three different, and I might add very divers, collections of my friends, basically gave the ‘dumb blonde’ a proverbial pat on the head and resounding, ‘I don’t think so’, but nobody asked me why I came to such a conclusion. After my prediction proved to be correct, some even adopted a ‘shoot the messenger’ attitude.

Well, right here, right now, I’m gonna tell you, that is any of you who are still with me, my perspective on why the U.S. of A. will either suffer through or proudly march on into (depending on your personal perspective) another four years with the same guy leading the band. My perspective isn’t based on polls of whomever, it isn’t based on the number of or affectation of registered voters and it isn’t based on conditions economic or otherwise in the U.S. My perspective is a Global one, based on what is happening all over the earth. Here’s where you will have to do some homework, but I’ll give you a few hints. Check out the President of Russia, how he got there, and particularly how he holds onto his power, and for how long. Check out the economic conditions in Europe and what the European Union is doing about it. While you’re at it check out the European Union, who and what exactly it is. Next think about China, these guys hold the future of the U.S. by its purse strings – literally. Then take a look at the Arab States. What’s going on there? Consider that the official League of Arab Nations doesn’t even include Iran, Pakistan, or Afghanistan. Don’t forget Africa – ‘the Dark Continent’, often discounted and forgotten; ‘nobody really cares about Africa’. Well maybe they should. Finally, what’s going on in South and Central America? Do you worry about you neighbors to the south in Mexico, or is it just another discounted country, that really can’t get its act together.

Where I live the newspaper is filled with news from all over the world. Our radio stations air global news from the BBC as well as ABC, NCB, MSNBC and all the other alphabet soup agencies from the U.S. In the Caribbean we might be U.S. citizens but we do hold a more global perspective. Especially, at a time like this we are not sliced, sectioned, and seduced, by nothing more than what church the candidates attend and which side of his head he might part his hair on. It has been and remains my personal opinion that when you step outside the little bubble that is the U.S. of A. it’s obvious that Barry is the man for the job of leading a once great nation into the bondage that waits in the twenty-first century.

On one of the aforementioned blogs someone brought up ‘We Are the World’ a song that was recorded in 1985 as a benefit for the children of Africa. It was recorded by a multitude of artists, who a lot of you won’t even know or remember. They were all told to ‘check their egos at the door’, when they came together to make this piece of music. Good advice. I would suggest that maybe America, as in the United States of, needs to check it’s ego at the door and start looking around globally and see exactly where it stands. Many citizens might think it’s time to shut the door, keep the foreigners out and lock themselves inside. While that might seem attractive, it’s far too late for that type of action to be effective. It is time to stop deluding yourself into thinking that the U.S. of A. still calls all the shots for everything that happens both within its borders and without. It just might be time to take a peek behind the curtain and see just exactly who is calling the shots that are beginning to be heard around the world.

Now don’t get too excited. While I do welcome all and any comments, keep in mind that I said earlier I don’t like to argue (not to worry, a lot of those people that I follow don’t come around here anymore). After all this is just the opinion of one dumb blonde, who doesn’t know where the commas go. Calm down, go have a cheeseburger, I probably dreamt it all.

BTW the children in Africa are still starving; enslaved and being murders in numbers I don’t even want to think about. The musical selection was rerecorded in 2010 as a benefit for Haiti. BTW the people of Haiti are still living in tent cities where rape, murder and extortion run rampant. Not to worry the cruise ships still stop at Labadie (a port on the northern coast of Haiti that is lush with beautiful beaches, very unlike much of the rest of the country). Yeah, we are the world alright. Remember people make changes not governments.