Colin messes with central america

[donsu]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2001783346_nicaragua05.html

Powell's trip to Central America hits a snag

When Secretary of State Colin Powell and his diplomatic team visited Central America this week, the goal was to strengthen ties, not to suggest their hosts were backward, insular and self-destructive.

Yet, that was the upshot of the background memo about Nicaragua that was distributed to the media by the U.S. Embassy in Managua as Powell's group spent two days in Panama, Nicaragua and Honduras.

The memo said that in Nicaragua, political parties spend so much time fighting with each other that "democracy usually takes a back row to personal political interests."

"The country crawls along as the second-poorest country in the hemisphere, after Haiti, battered by storms of nature, and of their own making, with little hope of things changing in the future," it said.

Most Nicaraguans, according to the memo, "are subsumed by the struggle to find the next plate of beans and rice, and therefore, have little time to think about the United States or world affairs in general." Meanwhile, a better off minority of Nicaraguans "prefer to dress in Ralph Lauren shirts, drive Ford SUVs, watch American movies and when going out for a meal, brag that they go to TGI Friday's."

Nicaraguan officials were not immediately available for comment, but a senior U.S. official said the analysis was not the official U.S. view. He said the memo consisted of "gross generalizations and a not very good analysis."
-snip-
---------------------------------

sounds racist to me

but then we know Colin and the gang are racists

[IrateCitizen]

1. Hmmm... interesting that Nicaragua should be singled out

At least when the Sandinistas came to power, despite all their faults, the poorest in the population were seeing a dramatic increase in their standard of living. And even in spite of the proxy terrorism inflicted on them through the "Contras", health care and literacy rates still continued to improve.

But hey, we can't allow an example of independent development like that spoil the myth we like to perpetuate about the glories of the "American way of life"! It had to be stopped, lest anybody else get similar ideas! Just like we stopped that bastard Allende!

So now, after we told Nicaragua in 1990 that we would basically starve them unless they elected our "preferred" candidate against the incumbent Sandinista-backed candidate, they buckled.

Most Nicaraguans, according to the memo, "are subsumed by the struggle to find the next plate of beans and rice, and therefore, have little time to think about the United States or world affairs in general." Meanwhile, a better off minority of Nicaraguans "prefer to dress in Ralph Lauren shirts, drive Ford SUVs, watch American movies and when going out for a meal, brag that they go to TGI Friday's."

And this is the wondrous improvement in life they get in return.... :eyes: