[list_indonesia] Re: [ppiindia] Fwd: America No. 1?
- From: Nugroho Dewanto <ndewanto@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ppiindia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 16:02:33 +0700
** Mailing-List Indonesia Nasional Milis PPI-India www.ppi-india.da.ru **
jadi benar judul album terbaru grup musik greenday:
american idiot! hehehe...
At 08:41 PM 3/29/05 -0800, you wrote:
>America No. 1?
>by Michael Ventura, Austin Chronicle
>
>02/03/05 "ICH" - No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national
>character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our
>broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the
>brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would
>be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will
>be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An
>empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2
>billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the
>delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1. Well...this is the country you
>really live in:
>
>The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times,
>Dec. 12, 2004).
>
>The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical
>literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
>
>Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen
>percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week,
>Jan. 7, 2005).
>
>"The International Adult Literacy Survey...found that Americans with
>less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of
>the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book The
>European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing
>the American Dream, p.78).
>
>Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that American
>businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12,
>2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!
>
>"The European Union leads the U.S. in...the number of science and
>engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D)
>expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).
>
>"Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest
>producer of scientific literature" (The European Dream, p.70).
>
>Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science Foundation.
>The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT, Dec.
>21, 2004).
>
>Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last
>year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time
>in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year
>Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians
>51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're not
>the place to be anymore.
>
>The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in
>terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was]...37th." In the
>fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United
>States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in
>the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots
>less.
>
>"The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the
>world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The
>European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a
>"developed" country? Anyway, that's the company we're keeping.
>
>Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American
>deaths a year. (That's six times the number of people killed on 9/11.)
>(NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)
>
>"U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the
>developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The European Dream,
>p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look "developed" to you? Yet it's
>the only "developed" country to score lower in childhood poverty.
>
>Twelve million American families--more than 10 percent of all U.S.
>households--"continue to struggle, and not always successfully, to feed
>themselves." Families that "had members who actually went hungry at
>some point last year" numbered 3.9 million (NYT, Nov. 22, 2004).
>
>The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores
>higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
>
>Women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America than
>in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
>
>The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder
>(CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).
>
>"Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead
>last in the growth rate of total compensation to its workforce in the
>1980s.... In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew
>only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1 percent" (The European
>Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any other
>industrialized country, and get less vacation time.
>
>"Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500
>rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies" (The European
>Dream, p.66). "In a recent survey of the world's 50 best companies,
>conducted by Global Finance, all but one were European" (The European
>Dream, p.69).
>
>"Fourteen of the 20 largest commercial banks in the world today are
>European.... In the chemical industry, the European company BASF is the
>world's leader, and three of the top six players are European. In
>engineering and construction, three of the top five companies are
>European.... The two others are Japanese. Not a single American
>engineering and construction company is included among the world's top
>nine competitors. In food and consumer products, Nestle and Unilever,
>two European giants, rank first and second, respectively, in the world.
>In the food and drugstore retail trade, two European companies...are
>first and second, and European companies make up five of the top ten.
>Only four U.S. companies are on the list" (The European Dream, p.68).
>
>The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade
>(CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).
>
>U.S. employers eliminated 1 million jobs in 2004 (The Week, Jan. 14,
>2005).
>
>Three million six hundred thousand Americans ran out of unemployment
>insurance last year; 1.8 million--one in five--unemployed workers are
>jobless for more than six months (NYT, Jan. 9, 2005).
>
>Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40 percent of our government
>debt. (That's why we talk nice to them.) "By helping keep mortgage
>rates from rising, China has come to play an enormous and
>little-noticed role in sustaining the American housing boom" (NYT, Dec.
>4, 2004). Read that twice. We owe our housing boom to China, because
>they want us to keep buying all that stuff they manufacture.
>
>Sometime in the next 10 years Brazil will probably pass the U.S. as the
>world's largest agricultural producer. Brazil is now the world's
>largest exporter of chickens, orange juice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco.
>Last year, Brazil passed the U.S. as the world's largest beef producer.
>(Hear that, you poor deluded cowboys?) As a result, while we bear
>record trade deficits, Brazil boasts a $30 billion trade surplus (NYT,
>Dec. 12, 2004).
>
>As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported (NYT,
>Dec. 12, 2004).
>
>Bush: 62,027,582 votes. Kerry: 59,026,003 votes. Number of eligible
>voters who didn't show up: 79,279,000 (NYT, Dec. 26, 2004). That's more
>than a third. Way more. If more than a third of Iraqis don't show for
>their election, no country in the world will think that election
>legitimate.
>
>One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half of all
>U.S. children will live in a one-parent house (CNN, Dec. 10, 2004).
>
>"Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies,
>videos, DVDs, music, and books combined" (The European Dream, p.28).
>
>"Nearly one out of four Americans [believe] that using violence to get
>what they want is acceptable" (The European Dream, p.32).
>
>Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified,
>according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).
>
>"Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the last
>year for which such data are available" (USA Today, Dec. 21, 2004).
>
>"The International Association of Chiefs of Police said that cuts by
>the [Bush] administration in federal aid to local police agencies have
>left the nation more vulnerable than ever" (USA Today, Nov. 17, 2004).
>
>No. 1? In most important categories we're not even in the Top 10
>anymore. Not even close.
>
>The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt,
>and delusion.
>--
>
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