I, myself, was actually looking forward to the protests quite a bit. It made me happy to think that the Guatemalans can now protest without fear, and I was excited to see them excercising their freedom of speech. "You go Guatemala," I imagined myself saying. "That's how we do it in the US!"
But when the day came, and I actually watched one of the protests on TV, I saw them buring an efigy of Uncle Sam and I was taken aback by the ferocity of the crowd. Such raw anger as they yelled at the efigy. It saddened me to watch Uncle Sam crumple and fall over. When his head hit the ground kids ran up to kick it.
I was stunned. I was sad. I was angry. Part of me wanted to be defiant and patriotic. That's MY country. But it's kinda hard to get too defensive when my President openly admits to torturing people. So, in the end I had to swallow my pride on this one.
5 comments:
Awesome business idea: George Bush piñatas! Anyway, I like to think that part of your being there is making people change their view on what Americans are all about -- to put it in terms of cliché, like a cultural ambassador.
This must be your book jacket photo. Reason enough to start writing the book.
I don't speak Spanish, but I assume "hueco" means "will likely go down in history as one of the greatest humanitarians Guatemala -- nay, the world -- has ever seen."
It is really funny to me that so many anti-American Protests are occcuring against GW right now wherever he goes to visit. When I was in Bulgaria the US and Britian bombed Kosovo and there were some small anti-american protests but when Clinton came to Bulgaria shortly afterward(the first time a US President had visited Bulgaria) there was a huge gathering to hear him and the Bulgarian President speak and so many happy Bulgarians waving US and Bulgarian Flags and barely any protesters. I suspect it would be a different story if Bush were to visit Bulgaria now. Several Bulgarian Soldiers have died while serving in Iraq and from what my friends say Bulgarians are not happy with Bush or the war or theier Governments support of the US.
Hueco seems to mean vacuous, hollow and empty. That seems descriptive all right. But I'm surprised it isn't more evil in intent. Tia-ee
Post a Comment