National Pride

As Patriot Day draws nearer, I thought I would turn my attention to national pride.  But instead of focusing on America or the events of 9/11/01, I wanted to briefly discuss pride nonAmericans have in their nations.  I am reminded of an article I read — perhaps on Al Jazeera English — where an Egyptian woman discussed how even though she did not agree with her government on most things and wishes for a change in what she considers a corrupt regime, still she found herself cheering her government somehow when other nations spoke against it.  Kind of reminds me of the attitude we have at times. You know, where you can have a problem with your sister and fight with her and even say a few choice words about her, but the minute an outsider says something about her:  whoa!  She’d better watch her mouth in your presence!

Makes me wonder about the ordinary people living in nations that are “demonized” by Western media and politicians.  Or the reverse as well. How do Westerners feel when their countries are badmouthed or threatened by other nations?

Does living in a “terrorist state” or “the axis of evil” make you feel as if the West considers all who live in Iran or Afghanistan or North Korea or Sudan as evil terrorists?  Does it make you want to rise up against your government in order to wipe out the evil that the Western politicians have identified? Or do those descriptions make you angry enough that you feel defensive for your country …. even if you really don’t “believe in it”?

Countries often impose sanctions upon “disobedient” nations in order to get the leaders to obey the will of The Powerful.  I believe The Powerful have high hopes that the ordinary people will get so tired of being denied useful items that they will rise up and throw out their corrupt governments.  Iraq was under heavy sanctions for years yet that never happened.  Are there examples where sanctions have worked out as planned?  We say we don’t want to hurt the ordinary people, but that’s exactly what happens.  Do you think Saddam Hussein and his boys suffered along with the ordinary Iraqis?

Just something on my mind lately especially when I learned recently that a friend was denied downloading a web browser simply because he lived in Syria. Here is an ordinary, peaceful, kindhearted human being unable to download Google Chrome because he was unable to check that “I certify that I do not live in Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea or Syria.”

Give me a break!   Thoughts?