Radical Avenue

News flash, April 1, 2008:
Very few Americans had even heard of this tiny Persian Gulf country before that fateful day in October 2000. That’s when suicide bombers rammed a boat loaded with explosives into the USS Cole and blasted a gaping hole in the side of the ship.

You could say that the US kept assistance to the Yemenis on ice for a few years after the Cole incident. But lately more and more Washington insiders have come to recognize how strategically important this tiny nation is to the War on Terror. Over the past few months our government has quietly initiated an ambitious new program which seeks to partner Yemeni citrus growers with young entrepreneurs.

Yemeni citizens have seen it all before. One farmer near the town of Meringue had this to say: “This barren land can be unforgiving, so help from the US sounds like cool refreshment on a hot summer day. But the Americans launched a similar initiative long ago. They came in and treated us like little children, as though we didn’t understand the basics of a commercial enterprise. Then they put the squeeze on us whenever we failed to meet their expectations. I think I speak for everyone when I say the whole thing left me with a sour taste in my mouth.”

Special Ambassador Armstrong Meyer spoke optimistically about the plan. “Look, anybody can put up a stand on the sidewalk and sell to the people passing by. This program will allow Yemeni citizens to save money for school and learn business skills at the same time.”

Yemen Aid

We like to think that our government answers to all Americans, but many US citizens have no representation in Congress. Americans living in US territories don’t elect anyone to the Senate or to the House of Representatives. Is it any surprise that the standard of living is lower in the territories than it is in the fifty states? Territorial residents have no one bringing home the bacon.

Residents of the following territories receive second class treatment in this country: Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa. We should hear the voices of these citizens in our representative government, just like everyone else’s.

After World War II, the US Navy acquired 72% of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. The Navy relocated most of the Vieques inhabitants elsewhere and proceeded to target the island in live bombing exercises for the next fifty years. If Puerto Ricans had served on the Senate Armed Services committee during these five decades, a string of defense secretaries would have been pressured to find new targets, as they since have. Instead the Puerto Rican people have had to rely on representatives from other states to champion their cause.
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