{"id":139375,"date":"2019-08-05T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T11:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=139375"},"modified":"2019-08-03T10:36:58","modified_gmt":"2019-08-03T09:36:58","slug":"meanwhile-around-the-world-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/08\/meanwhile-around-the-world-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Meanwhile, Around the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

O n l y\u00a0\u00a0 i n\u00a0\u00a0 A m e r i c a!<\/em><\/p>\n

The black guy in Louisiana exclaimed, as we helped ourselves to a rather good meal from his buffet, eating to our heart’s delight.<\/p>\n

However, we have had equally good meals elsewhere, even better–certainly more sophisticated, refined, not so sweet, not so salty.<\/p>\n

But, for US $5?\u00a0 Maybe not.<\/p>\n

Accessible to most people in such a big population?\u00a0 Maybe not.<\/p>\n

What did that black guy know about meals around the world?<\/p>\n

Probably not much.\u00a0 But his “only in America” truth was of a deeper kind, transcending all the prejudice, discrimination, killing even lynching, he and his kind had been exposed to.<\/p>\n

The knowledge was rooted in his US guts.<\/p>\n

I write this in L’Alf\u00e0s<\/em>–the Valencian spelling–Alfaz in Castellan (not “Spanish,\u201d which is like calling German “Swiss”).<\/p>\n

And I used to feel that the z part in the x-y-z triple ending the alphabet bestowed dignity on this little place that became our home.<\/p>\n

Maybe.\u00a0 But even more so “L'”, apostrophe; and “`”, accent grave.\u00a0\u00a0 Let alone the two combined.<\/p>\n

Enough of that, we return to US, the state, the United States in<\/em> America (the continent), not of<\/em> America (there are 34 other states).<\/p>\n

WASP, “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant” wells up from the past, echoed by president Trump, who adds M for male.\u00a0 WASPM.\u00a0 Male Wasp.<\/p>\n

Wasps sting.\u00a0 And they have been stinging, indeed, and still do.<\/p>\n

And yet, watch, what do we see right now in the US, for our eyes?<\/p>\n

The focus of the whole country, and hence of much of the world, is now on some DMCMRW–“Dark Multi-cultural Multi-religious” women–strong, eloquent; speaking truth to power.\u00a0 They have been suffering, they have been fighting; like the black Louisiana man and his people.<\/p>\n

It will still take some time, but they will all make it.<\/p>\n

The United States in America is a rolling agenda.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dark comes up, women come up, dark women come up–and that is more than the sum of the two.\u00a0 What is next in line, now coming up?<\/p>\n

Cripples come up, handicapped, and are given equipment that gives them dignity and participation.<\/p>\n

Older people come up.\u00a0 The retirement age is there as option, but increasingly old people working into retirement age–participating socially, not withdrawing into “hobbies”–is considered normal.<\/p>\n

Younger people come up.\u00a0 The maturity age is there, defined by the right to vote, but it is decreasing–25, 20, 18, 17–?<\/p>\n

Strong is a country that puts to good use higher proportions of its citizens; weak the country that limits it to, for instance, WASPM. And thus it is that president, Donald J. Trump, weakens his country.\u00a0 Good idea to get rid of him before he weakens the country further.<\/p>\n

The United States is a multi-escalator country<\/em>.\u00a0 There are ways of getting up, into the sunshine; more ways are being opened up, and not only for the WASPMs.\u00a0 They are still high up, but now increasingly surrounded by people with those initials negated, the DMCMRWs.<\/p>\n

It certainly was not always like that.\u00a0 In the U.S. I came to in 1957, the persons portrayed on the first page of the leading papers were unmistakably WASPM.\u00a0 And in that the US was not alone.<\/p>\n

So, what is next in line, coming up?<\/p>\n

Dark and female, using the escalators, may get the upper hand.\u00a0\u00a0 White and male may withdraw into some kind of ghettos of own making, possibly built around “hobbies” more than around work and position. But color parity, gender parity and color-gender parity will press on.<\/p>\n

Cultural parity, pluralism, has long been a US hallmark, with so many enclaves for the atypical that it becomes typical.\u00a0 The same will happen to color, gender and color-gender; they will meet, as humans.<\/p>\n

Animals may be the next in line; many are already “coming up”.<\/p>\n

A too positive US picture?\u00a0 As mentioned, there is no denial of prejudice, discrimination, suffering.\u00a0 But the point is that in the US fighting helps, works, succeeds.\u00a0 Look at the faces now on US media.<\/p>\n

With a huge exception: the indigenous.\u00a0 It was their country till it was conquered and colonized from the outside by that super-arrogant nation, the British.\u00a0 Or English rather, less so the Scots, the Welsh.<\/p>\n

US: a country of immigrants<\/em>.\u00a0 Yes, but does that not apply to all countries except on the east coast Africa, where it all started?<\/p>\n

But not with such enormous numbers of such different peoples within such a short time span.\u00a0 The ships making that long Atlantic voyage were sailing in a line within viewing distance of each other.<\/p>\n

Mutual tolerance was not an option, but a deed of necessity; more or less practiced.\u00a0 When “more” a diverse, symbiotic US emerged; when “less” a poor and narrow-minded US.\u00a0 They are both there today; the former more in the North, the latter more in the South.<\/p>\n

The US became the envy, and a model for the world.\u00a0 “Like in America, so also here”.\u00a0\u00a0 And thus it was that the culture of a very young country became a, maybe even the<\/em>, world culture, encompassing, defining, all aspects of the ways of life and living.<\/p>\n

Will this last forever?\u00a0 Of course not! Nothing lasts forever. That multi-escalator country, all the time bringing new groups into power positions, will change.\u00a0 Right now it labors under a heavy crust of ultra-conservative Republicans.<\/p>\n

Some US citizens travel the world searching for “the old US” may find the US culture at its best outside the US, as the US Way of Life<\/em>; liberated from the concerns and the violence of making the US also prevail militarily, economically and politically over all others.<\/p>\n

About the US future?<\/em>\u00a0 As a state: down, down, down whether militarily, economically or politically; as the world\u2019s culture and way of life–if there ever was and is one: up, up, up.\u00a0 And both very fast right now.<\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Johan Galtung, a professor of peace studies, dr hc mult, is founder of <\/em>TRANSCEND International<\/a> and rector of <\/em>TRANSCEND Peace University<\/a>. <\/em>He was awarded among others the 1987 Right Livelihood Award, known as the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize.<\/em> Galtung\u00a0has mediated in\u00a0over 150 conflicts in more than 150 countries, and written more than 170 books on peace and related issues<\/em>, 96 as the sole author. More than 40 have been translated to other languages, including <\/em>50 Years-100 Peace and Conflict Perspectives<\/a> published by <\/em>TRANSCEND University Press<\/a>. His book, <\/em>Transcend and Transform<\/a>, was translated to 25 languages<\/em>. He has published more than 1700 articles\u00a0and book\u00a0chapters and over 500 Editorials for <\/em>TRANSCEND Media Service<\/a>. More information about Prof. Galtung<\/a> and all of his publications<\/a> can be found at transcend.org\/galtung<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

* My thanks to Satoshi Ashikaga for asking me to write this editorial.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States in America is a rolling agenda. Dark comes up, women come up, dark women come up–and that is more than the sum of the two. Some US citizens travel the world searching for “the old US” may find the US culture at its best outside the US, as the US Way of Life; liberated from the concerns and the violence of making the US also prevail militarily, economically and politically over all others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[867,290,331,354,267,1126,260,1050,109,287,103,70,172,75],"class_list":["post-139375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","tag-anglo-america","tag-culture","tag-development","tag-economics","tag-geopolitics","tag-hegemony","tag-history","tag-imperialism","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-racism","tag-usa","tag-west","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}