Undignified Mooching

Following the end of World War II, United States President Truman invented the doctrine that bears his name.

At the beginning of the contest between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, for domination of the world through their spheres of influence, it became necessary to rescue the poor countries of the world from the temptation of Bolshevism.

The content of the Truman Doctrine was clear: It was necessary to convince those countries that the guarantee of their progress was in the pursuit of liberty – that is to say, in the field dominated by the United States. Considering that poverty is fertile ground for the germination of tyranny, the U.S.’s economic power was meant to help those societies encourage the processes of prosperity.

Under the auspices of the Truman Doctrine, millions of dollars flowed to those countries for projects in agriculture, education, housing, transportation and national defense. At the same time it helped fight poverty, the United States protected its traditional sphere of influence from aggressive Soviet penetration.

Since the fundamental matter was political control, securing votes in international bodies and strengthening alliances with commercial oligarchies and land owners, the money was provided with little concern for the results, though these could soon be seen in the debt figures of each country.

And so we gradually became accustomed to financing projects and budgets with international aid and not with domestic savings, our politicians making constant trips to Washington to get money, whereas the resources generated at home were spent irrationally, if not used to feed corruption.

This went on for 40 years, during which we grew comfortable with a shameful dependency until suddenly we realized that we were no longer necessary, that the rivalry was over and with the fall of the Soviet Union and that there was a new unipolar world.

Now the aid is not as generous as before and is harder to come by, but we are still used to that dependency. Politicians are still ranked by their ability to bring in aid, and we continue to reach out our hand beseechingly. We are incapable of standing tall, getting our house in order, being proud and financing a high percentage of our budgets with our own resources through a policy of austerity and zero corruption.