America is Third World… Just Like Us!
Published in Al Youm 7
(Egypt) on 15 August 2009
by Mohamed Hamdy (link to original)
For many years the American Dream was issued to the entire world as the ideal model for everything in life. It truly fit most of our dreams and made us hope for some of what the Americans lived. But with each day, signs are appearing that confirm for us that the American Dream is a product of the media, far removed from reality, akin to advertisements that market a reality only expressed in movies and newspapers.
In September 2001, when al-Qaeda attacked the United States on its own soil, we witnessed the American administration and all the American governing institution's confusion, much like we are confused when dealing with a terrorist attack. This said to some of us that the incident was big, unexpected, vast, unprepared for and bewildering to America’s leadership and people…and we were right.
But when Michael Jackson died, we also discovered that the official treatment and the media treatment of his death closely resembled the way we treated the death of singer Laila Ghofran’s daughter, or that of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim. In both cases, we chased the rumors going around so much that they sometimes dominated over the truth. Who among us knew for certain what really happened? Suspicions persist in regards to the forensic investigation and the issue hasn’t been clearly put to rest for the skeptics.
In America, even now, people don’t know where Michael Jackson is buried or what came out in the autopsy report. The newspapers and websites publish new reports everyday. Accusations against his doctors and many others persist. Some say he committed suicide, while others say that he was killed. And even now, the American media continues to occupy itself with the Michael Jackson case even though he is dead and gone!
A few years ago I read “Bush at War,” a book by prominent American journalist Bob Woodward. In it, he looks at what took place within the American administration after the events of September 11th and how the decision was made to go to war against Afghanistan. When you read the U.S. National Security Council’s official report on the decision to go to war, as related by Bob Woodward in his book, you discover that you are facing a group of amateurs who, in many cases, have less information than journalists have on Afghanistan.
The only difference between us and America in this regard is that they still believe in the manufacturing of new ideas that they then attempt to apply on the ground. American research centers sell these ideas to various departments of government, be they Republican or Democrat, and from there they hurry to unleash them on the world--as with the War on Terror, the War of Ideas, Soft Diplomacy, the Clash of Civilizations, the End of Days and so forth. Then we seize them afterward and parrot them back.
America is nothing more than a third-world country, civilized in some ways, but controlled by the media, which moves the Americans at will. This disease has spread to us recently, for it has become the media itself that shapes public opinion. But we are still very far away from the manufacturing of ideas and the invention of their application that the Americans practice. In the best of circumstances we prefer to move with independence. Anything after blind tradition is a very short distance indeed!
In September 2001, when al-Qaeda attacked the United States on its own soil, we witnessed the American administration and all the American governing institution's confusion, much like we are confused when dealing with a terrorist attack. This said to some of us that the incident was big, unexpected, vast, unprepared for and bewildering to America’s leadership and people…and we were right.
But when Michael Jackson died, we also discovered that the official treatment and the media treatment of his death closely resembled the way we treated the death of singer Laila Ghofran’s daughter, or that of Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim. In both cases, we chased the rumors going around so much that they sometimes dominated over the truth. Who among us knew for certain what really happened? Suspicions persist in regards to the forensic investigation and the issue hasn’t been clearly put to rest for the skeptics.
In America, even now, people don’t know where Michael Jackson is buried or what came out in the autopsy report. The newspapers and websites publish new reports everyday. Accusations against his doctors and many others persist. Some say he committed suicide, while others say that he was killed. And even now, the American media continues to occupy itself with the Michael Jackson case even though he is dead and gone!
A few years ago I read “Bush at War,” a book by prominent American journalist Bob Woodward. In it, he looks at what took place within the American administration after the events of September 11th and how the decision was made to go to war against Afghanistan. When you read the U.S. National Security Council’s official report on the decision to go to war, as related by Bob Woodward in his book, you discover that you are facing a group of amateurs who, in many cases, have less information than journalists have on Afghanistan.
The only difference between us and America in this regard is that they still believe in the manufacturing of new ideas that they then attempt to apply on the ground. American research centers sell these ideas to various departments of government, be they Republican or Democrat, and from there they hurry to unleash them on the world--as with the War on Terror, the War of Ideas, Soft Diplomacy, the Clash of Civilizations, the End of Days and so forth. Then we seize them afterward and parrot them back.
America is nothing more than a third-world country, civilized in some ways, but controlled by the media, which moves the Americans at will. This disease has spread to us recently, for it has become the media itself that shapes public opinion. But we are still very far away from the manufacturing of ideas and the invention of their application that the Americans practice. In the best of circumstances we prefer to move with independence. Anything after blind tradition is a very short distance indeed!