Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Friday, June 01, 2012

While you were being titillated . . .


. . . by the endless, wall-to-wall yet largely content-free coverage of the shocking, shocking fact that some secret service agents and military security guards like to party while they are on assignment abroad, there was in fact a summit of the Americas happening in Cartagena. The corporate media didn't bother to cover that, presumably because there was no sex involved.

Fortunately, we have Alma Guillermoprieto to reveal the secret of what happened at the summit. It seems there was an uprising by the leaders of just about all the Latin American countries against the war on drugs. This policy, launched by Richard Nixon (who was fond of wars on this and that) has pretty much been serially destroying the nations of this hemisphere. It also has done absolutely nothing to control drug abuse in the U.S. or anywhere else, although it has filled our prisons with Black and Latino men (even though white men are more likely to use illegal drugs.) It is unquestionably a colossal, horrific, atrocious failure.

However, we aren't allowed to talk about that stupid fact. Obama obviously couldn't do anything in an election year but tell them to fuggedaboudit. We're going to keep on fighting this war to the last Mexican and Honduran. Because, because, well, because it's DRUGS, that's why.

I urge you to read Guillermoprieto's piece, and then let's all get together and think of a better way.

1 comment:

roger said...

good article.