Letter From America
I’m in a hotel room not far from Los Angeles Airport today having a breather between the flight from London yesterday and the long flight down to Sydney tonight, surrounded by roadside diners, shopping malls, gun-toting policemen, the San Diego freeway, very large men in Bermuda shorts, and levels of pollution for which LA is infamous, on what promises to be a very hot summer’s day. And all this paraphernalia according to the books I read is part of America’s rich postmodern cultural tapestry.
My first major task of the day was wrestling with the seven sections of the LA Times newspaper. Despite having spent a considerable amount of time over the years in this stimulating country, I’ve never learnt how to read an American newspaper. My paper at home has in-depth and sometimes learned articles which start at the beginning and finish at the end – and I’ve grown accustomed to reading in this way. Here it’s different with the front-page headlining seven stories, an index indicating the gist of seven further stories in inside pages, with synopses of three related stories which are also somewhere inside. There is scarcely a complete stand-alone story to be found. I launch into a news item from Iraq and after three paragraphs am told to turn to page eight for the remainder. Some stories take on the characteristics of a serial to be found on three different pages, and occasionally in different sections of the paper. It’s all very confusing. Should I follow my Iraq story on pages one and eight, and then return to the front page to commence a new story? Or should I read the entire front page, committing to memory as many continuation markers as possible, and then turn and read pages in sequence, picking up on the various narratives wherever I can? That would be decidedly postmodern. Deciding what to do takes up most of breakfast time as I wonder what it is about the American mind that has caused it to introduce such a fragmented style of reading and comprehension.
As one might expect, there is an American ‘take’ on each news item, which in many cases would constitute the opposite of what I imagine to be my UK paper’s interpretation. The first story, ‘A Clan Scourged by Death’ comes from Iraq and begins in a lyrical way: ‘It seems these violent days need more prayers than hours can hold, but the old man prays anyway, raising his hands and closing his eyes, whispering verse as the tribal boys watch from the dusty courtyard. They know what Mohammed Mousa Tahir prays about. They have heard the low moan of his voice, like wind through a field.’ This could be the opening paragraph of a novel. Then unfolds a tragic tale, now unfortunately ubiquitous in Iraq, about the old man’s son being shot dead in his car by US troops. Several days later comes news of the old man’s six nephews and cousins being slain and mutilated by attackers unknown. UK papers like the Guardian or the Independent would probably have said that civilian casualties at US troops hands, and the anarchic social and political conditions that the US inspired doctrine of regime change has created, is all bad news for the USA. But for the LA Times, which is at pains to point out that the old man’s account is based upon unconfirmed reports, this is good news for America because the old man says that if American troops were to come to his house ‘I will tell them “Peace be upon you”. I only want the Americans to help this society and stop the war’.
The story which I was really looking for however, was so brief that it was found in its entirety on page four – the international observance of Myanmar’s pro-democracy advocate and Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s sixtieth birthday. Having won a legitimate election contest in 1990, she was imprisoned by the ruling military regime for ten years, and ever since her release has been held under house arrest. Several UK Sunday papers featured Desmond Tutu’s call for the world to bring the same pressures to bear on the corrupt regime in Myanmar, as it brought to bear upon apartheid and which contributed to the remarkable changes forged in that country. President Bush joined others in sending this extraordinary woman his best wishes for her sixtieth birthday. Sounding the freedom trumpet loudly, as he is wont to do in these situations, the President said, apparently ignorant of the country’s change of name, ‘Her strength, courage and personal sacrifice in standing up for the oppressed people of Burma have inspired those who stand for freedom’. If ever a case could be made for the doctrine of regime-change in order to allow democracy to take root, this must be it. But President Bush remains uncharacteristically low key, one might even say pacifist, when it comes to discussing Myanmar. And that makes me immediately suspicious. Might his reticence to act have something to do with the USA’s global strategy in respect to Asia? Many of us in the southern hemisphere recall the way in which the USA left support for ‘regime change’ in East Timor to the Australians because of, as we later discovered, keen US interest in developing the fledging oil industry there.
Putting the Bush administration to one side, there are many positive things to say about America. One is constantly struck here in California by America’s enormous contribution to science and technology, and particularly to computer technology. I find that even my modest two-star hotel room is wireless enabled, so that with my new laptop which came similarly equipped, I can now post this message halfway across the world without a cable in sight. Well, I can if I remember my screen name and password. Oops!
My first major task of the day was wrestling with the seven sections of the LA Times newspaper. Despite having spent a considerable amount of time over the years in this stimulating country, I’ve never learnt how to read an American newspaper. My paper at home has in-depth and sometimes learned articles which start at the beginning and finish at the end – and I’ve grown accustomed to reading in this way. Here it’s different with the front-page headlining seven stories, an index indicating the gist of seven further stories in inside pages, with synopses of three related stories which are also somewhere inside. There is scarcely a complete stand-alone story to be found. I launch into a news item from Iraq and after three paragraphs am told to turn to page eight for the remainder. Some stories take on the characteristics of a serial to be found on three different pages, and occasionally in different sections of the paper. It’s all very confusing. Should I follow my Iraq story on pages one and eight, and then return to the front page to commence a new story? Or should I read the entire front page, committing to memory as many continuation markers as possible, and then turn and read pages in sequence, picking up on the various narratives wherever I can? That would be decidedly postmodern. Deciding what to do takes up most of breakfast time as I wonder what it is about the American mind that has caused it to introduce such a fragmented style of reading and comprehension.
As one might expect, there is an American ‘take’ on each news item, which in many cases would constitute the opposite of what I imagine to be my UK paper’s interpretation. The first story, ‘A Clan Scourged by Death’ comes from Iraq and begins in a lyrical way: ‘It seems these violent days need more prayers than hours can hold, but the old man prays anyway, raising his hands and closing his eyes, whispering verse as the tribal boys watch from the dusty courtyard. They know what Mohammed Mousa Tahir prays about. They have heard the low moan of his voice, like wind through a field.’ This could be the opening paragraph of a novel. Then unfolds a tragic tale, now unfortunately ubiquitous in Iraq, about the old man’s son being shot dead in his car by US troops. Several days later comes news of the old man’s six nephews and cousins being slain and mutilated by attackers unknown. UK papers like the Guardian or the Independent would probably have said that civilian casualties at US troops hands, and the anarchic social and political conditions that the US inspired doctrine of regime change has created, is all bad news for the USA. But for the LA Times, which is at pains to point out that the old man’s account is based upon unconfirmed reports, this is good news for America because the old man says that if American troops were to come to his house ‘I will tell them “Peace be upon you”. I only want the Americans to help this society and stop the war’.
The story which I was really looking for however, was so brief that it was found in its entirety on page four – the international observance of Myanmar’s pro-democracy advocate and Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s sixtieth birthday. Having won a legitimate election contest in 1990, she was imprisoned by the ruling military regime for ten years, and ever since her release has been held under house arrest. Several UK Sunday papers featured Desmond Tutu’s call for the world to bring the same pressures to bear on the corrupt regime in Myanmar, as it brought to bear upon apartheid and which contributed to the remarkable changes forged in that country. President Bush joined others in sending this extraordinary woman his best wishes for her sixtieth birthday. Sounding the freedom trumpet loudly, as he is wont to do in these situations, the President said, apparently ignorant of the country’s change of name, ‘Her strength, courage and personal sacrifice in standing up for the oppressed people of Burma have inspired those who stand for freedom’. If ever a case could be made for the doctrine of regime-change in order to allow democracy to take root, this must be it. But President Bush remains uncharacteristically low key, one might even say pacifist, when it comes to discussing Myanmar. And that makes me immediately suspicious. Might his reticence to act have something to do with the USA’s global strategy in respect to Asia? Many of us in the southern hemisphere recall the way in which the USA left support for ‘regime change’ in East Timor to the Australians because of, as we later discovered, keen US interest in developing the fledging oil industry there.
Putting the Bush administration to one side, there are many positive things to say about America. One is constantly struck here in California by America’s enormous contribution to science and technology, and particularly to computer technology. I find that even my modest two-star hotel room is wireless enabled, so that with my new laptop which came similarly equipped, I can now post this message halfway across the world without a cable in sight. Well, I can if I remember my screen name and password. Oops!
posted by MichaelElliott @ 8:50 PM
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