The Shame of American World Politics

The Shame of American Politics

In the news today, another article appeared about the turmoil in Kenya. I lived next door to the slum called Kibera where much of the rioting is taking place. While we were in Kenya from 1985-88 we saw a relatively peaceful country, minding its own business and the most prosperous of the central African countries as well as the most stable. It had come out of colonialism under the leadership of Jomo Kenyatta. When Kenyatta retired, he determined that the next leader should not belong to any of the major tribes, but rather from a minor tribe—the Kalenjin. Moi would prove to be an effective ruler. However, he also followed the pattern of many of the African leaders; he was corrupt and amassed a personal fortune of nearly $100,000,000.

When we asked Kenyans what they thought of such corruption because they knew all about it, they answered in an unusual fashion. They did not resent Moi having all that money. What they would like is a piece of the pie as well. Moi's behavior was classic for African tribal leadership. The Kenyans understood the system and were glad to live with it. The country was stable. Kenya enjoyed a large contingency of tourists and people were satisfied with life as it was.

So what happened? The U. S. government put pressure on Kenya to hold multi-party elections. If Kenya refused to hold multi-party elections then the U. S. government would reduce aid payments, which were important to the economy. However, the Kenyans were not ready for this form of democracy. When tribal conflict took place, the loser usually died. As the country prepared for multi-party elections civil war broke out. Thousands were killed in the conflict because this was the way the Kenyans saw competing parties in the country. The civil war led to reduced tourism and more unemployment and social problems. The mistake the U. S. government made was the lack of knowledge of how Kenyan society and politics operated.

Our government is notorious for being unable to understand the nations with which it deals. An illustration is our ill-fated intervention into Somalia. The big mistake made was allowing the warlords to live. As long as the warlords were alive, they would continue to stir up strife. It sounds horrid to go in and deliberately kill rulers, but in this case, it was necessary. Instead, the warlords were allowed to live and the result was a disastrous and humiliating defeat on the troops of the United States. Failure to understand the mind of the Somalians brought about disaster.

The present situation in Iraq is another illustration of our consistent failure to understand other cultures. Where were the Middle East scholars when the plans were being made to upset Saddam Hussein? Anyone who understood the Muslim world would be able to tell you that when you removed one party from power that had been supported by the previous government, then the oppressed group, usually the majority, would take its revenge. We have Iraqis killing Iraqis for religious reasons. The religious reasons are deep-seated and reach back for centuries. Did we think that the glamour of American democracy would overshadow these religious differences? Only a fool would say yes. Nevertheless, the U. S. government said, "Yes." The transition we envision will take twenty or more years, not just one, or five. I seriously doubt that this was the plan of our government.

These illustrations could be multiplied repeatedly. Our egos tell us that American democracy is the answer to the world's troubles. We call this ethnocentrism—"We are the best people on earth." We will never be successful in the world of politics until we recognize that there are other cultures alongside ours.