I had an Ecuadorian Spanish teacher in the 9th grade at Alliance Academy in Quito, Ecuador, class of 1971-2. She seemed friendly and accepting of Americans living and working in her country. Then one day, the Ecuadorian Navy intercepted and detained American fishing vessels off of the Pacific coast. At the time, the United States recognized Ecuador’s right to a 12 mile boundary from the coastline while Ecuador laid claim to a strip 200 miles wide. I was surprised at her defensive posture and the support she had for her country’s position in the conflict.
I mean, after all, we were there to help them out of poverty and a backward lifestyle, were we not? Like any other American kid, I knew America was the best country in the world and that our motives were good. What did a few fish matter?
My dad worked for a tiny international oil company (Cayman International). He had almost single handedly fought for and procured a concession for a small block of ground in the Oriente, (Eastern part of the country), then entered into a deal with the government to explore and exploit oil from the ground. The deal required Cayman to do seismographic studies, drill a number of wells, and if oil was found, to develop production facilities to extract the oil. The cost of the lease was nothing (at the time), but the cost of doing the exploration, drilling the wells and building production facilities would be high. If any oil was found, Ecuador would receive 25% of the oil, right off of the top, at no cost to the government. Free and clear money.
Dad approached New York banks on behalf of Cayman and received financing for the project.
There were no roads into the region, commonly known as the Putamayo basin. Trocha crews cut paths through the jungle by hand and American seismograph companies ran lines, drilled holes, packed them with explosives, set off the dynamite and recorded the sonic rebounds. An area was cleared by hand for a base camp. A runway was constructed of chonta bark strips laid side by side on the ground and lashed together. Drilling sites were selected and cleared. Helicopters and a DeHavilland Twin Otter began ferrying parts and pieces of oil rigs and supplies into the jungle. The rigs were assembled and drilling began. Exciting times for a teen-aged boy.
The first well flowed 3,500 barrels of oil a day. The second, 2,500 barrels a day. Six out of seven wildcat wells he drilled made producing wells. Exceptionally good wells. Some still produce to this day.
Cayman financed a professional soccer team””The Aucas. They weren’t so good, but were regarded as the people’s team. I took pride in this. Something else to help relieve the misery so pervasive in the country.
I saw the poverty and living conditions of people in the Oriente and knew we were going to bring a better life to these people. Better paying jobs. The money the government received for the oil would go to build schools and provide modern conveniences. Things like roads and cars and electricity and running water. Sewer systems, schools. Better food. All that good stuff I grew up with and took for granted until we moved to Ecuador.
While my dad hunted oil, I met poor native people in the jungle, tried to work alongside them (but wasn’t really allowed to””I had no idea how ingrained the class system could be at the time””even the poor were resistant to allowing those from the ruling class to do actual physical labor). I felt good thinking about all the things we were going to bring these people.
Now, all these many years later, I look at scenes from the region and wonder what went wrong. How many barrels of oil have come from that ground and how much money failed to find its way to the people that should have benefited from this activity? As Solomon Burke would sing, Honey, I don’t care where the lovin went, where did the money go?
I watch movies like Pilger’s War on Democracy and groan. Was I a fool?
If so then no more so than the poor innocent Ecuadorians that welcomed us into their country. We all were deceived by greedy bastards with ulterior motives, both in our country and theirs, saying one thing, doing another.
Many good people in the United States and abroad (among them a bunch of naieve young soldiers) continue to buy the lies of a multinational group of bloodsucking lying elitists. While the United States may be home base to many managers of the empire, their reach extends to the ends of the earth and they are not all Americans. Innocent blood, both our own and that of others, flows daily around the world for their benefit. We are told it’s for our own good.
I beg to differ.
Republicans may have been the biggest among American offenders in this mess, but until I see Democrats concern themselves with something more than just a better division of the spoils, I say all our politicians are guilty as charged. Much of the wealth we enjoy was stolen from someone else.
Open your eyes. Look at what your government is doing and then find the courage to say no. Not in my name!
No more lies. No more killing. No more torture. No more deceptive economic practices. Even if we must do without some of the luxuries we have come to expect as citizens of the United States.
Shut down the military bases and bring the troops home. Not just in Iraq but around the rest of the world as well. Stop interfering with politics of other sovereign nations. And stop lying to us.
We may not be able to stop evil around the world, but we can and must do what we can to stop it at home.
“Republicans may have been the biggest among American offenders in this mess, but until I see Democrats concern themselves with something more than just a better division of the spoils, I say all our politicians are guilty as charged. Much of the wealth we enjoy was stolen from someone else.”
http://mauberly.blogspot.com/
EOM
that your personal experience coincides with a lot of independent evidence, that the United States is presently a (if not the) major supporter of economic exploitation of the powerless.
I wonder, though, whether “saying no” will accomplish anything. A well-organized campaign to shut down and withdraw American military bases around the world — now that would be a different thing. The question is, how to change things for the better.
Even with a well-organized campaign of many years, we have yet to close the School of the Americas, whose main purpose is to teach torture tactics to puppet governments complicit with our exploitation of the powerless. Probably a large majority of the electorate would agree with that proposal, to close a torture-training base; yet, the exploitative interests of the, as you say, greedy bastards with ulterior motives have persuaded Congress to keep it open.
They say nothing is so powerful as an idea whose time has come. The idea that peace and justice should be extended to all has been powerless for so long, that I worry the world will end (perhaps in nuclear war, perhaps in global warming) while you and I sit here saying “no” to no effect.
when’s the last time the gov’t did anything for the common American that didn’t line someone else’s pocket? have they ever?
ending slavery benefitted nothern idustrial interests
FDR’s New Deal benefitted those holding the paper on the then massive debt
LBJ’s New Society benefitted a slew of land developers here in Chicago that I know of and it surely never hurt agribusiness to supply the gov’t w/ overproduced cheese. and it basically enslaved a couple generations to the teat of gov’t.
which brings us to Welfare Reform, which basically privatized the gov’t portion of the New Society.
How about the home mortgage deduction? would anyone in their right mind spend 3X the stated cost of a home over 30 years if they couldn’t write off the interest? who’s really benefitting here?
so here’s the deal, find a way to make money off of fixing Bush’s calamities and buy yourself a couple politicians, then they can enact legislation that sends more money your way to fix more of the problems. ….and eventually you too will become the problem.
Imperialism? never in the world can you fix it from here. Maybe send a check to Chavez?
resonates w/ me. the meme of “taking power” No one is ever gonna hand it to you in the name of justice and fairness. Except when it’s in their interest.
on disgusting levels of corruption here.
I did inhale.
and it’ll be evident why they don’t want to shut off the spigot of foreign exploitation.
I had no idea you were that connected. Careful what you say, they have historized people for far less.
Unless you live in an open primary state, it just ensures that the winner will have been selected by the party powers. In a 2 party (geographical winner-take-all) system, the action is in the primaries.
Read this.
…negotiating a deal (as FDR and LBJ did), and selling people down the drain.
“ending slavery benefitted nothern idustrial interests“. They weren’t in economic competition – they were in policy competition, and that had to do with tariffs, not labor. Abolitionists (who were absolutists) were little more than a fringe movement until the South attacked. By and large, industry (nearly all of which was northern) was interested in stability.
The only problem with inheriting money from your parents is if you hasten the process.
“when’s the last time the gov’t did anything for the common American that didn’t line someone else’s pocket?”
Mutual self interest. That’s how things work. I have little problem with with somebody lining their pockets if they are truly doing something worthwhile in the process.
Of course, the devil is in the details, as they say. But put another way, you can’t spend money to solve a problem without that money benefitting someone.
http://mauberly.blogspot.com/
I should have said preserving the Union benefitted northern industrial interests, moreso than slaves.