I love America.
I love the First Amendment.
I love the democratic process.
I didn't know how much I loved these things till I saw what they're not.
Now I've seen the Army take over a government.
I've seen what a press that isn't free looks like.*
I've seen roadblocks and guys with big guns on the road where a Nobel Laureate isn't allowed to come out of her house. Ever.
I've played a concert at which some of the most honored and important guests were absent because they'd been "arrested."
I've seen a decayed and weed-grown university that was closed because the government could think of no other way to stop the students from protesting. (Other than mowing them down in the street like they did 18 years ago, of course.)
I've seen the message "Access Denied" when trying to get to my email because "subversive" websites like Yahoo! are banned.
*The previous comment was about Thailand, of course, but the rest are about the trip I just got back from. Email me if you'd like to hear more, or if you'd like to know why I'm being so circumspect. (If anyone's reading this who doesn't already have my email address, which I doubt, leave a comment and let me know.) I probably don't need to be quite this obtuse, but I'd rather err on this side than the other.
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2 comments:
I so enjoy the blogs of people who write about despotic countries, even with the ellipses. I know it is difficult to know what you can write or can't write. Thank you for expressing yourself.
Thanks. I've been turning this trip over in my mind, trying to decide what, if anything, more I want to say on this blog. I got some pretty good advice about what to say/what not to say (apparently if I want to get another visa in, which I do, I've got to avoid using certain googlable keywords...not that my blog exactly comes up first on any google searches, but you can't be too careful, I guess) from someone who lives there, but it's still difficult to know how much detail to go into. The government is trying to get tourists to visit this country, but both their own Nobel Laureate and Tony Blair have called for a tourism boycott. The people I met there, though, were so incredibly happy that I was there. Granted, I wasn't exactly the average tourist, but still, the people I met wanted to show me how things are. And I think that going there, and just seeing, can only be good. It's hard for a person who grew up in the U.S. even to imagine what this place is like. It's not that I think everything about the United States is wonderful--far from it. We've got our problems too, and all you have to do is watch the news to see some of them, but I really think that Americans (or maybe it's just me) tend to take things like the First Amendment for granted.
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