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| US Colonialism and WWII" / Johan Galtung |
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Where is US foreign policy headed in the future and what implications does it hold for the rest of the world? For his second lecture onboard Peace Boat, Professor Galtung examined this question by looking at the idea of US's 'Manifest Destiny' at the world level. Until Tokyo, Professor Galtung will hold eight lectures related to how current conflicts have developed historically, how they might play out in the short and long term, and how these events relate to the US, Japan and other relevant countries and institutions. What we are learning quickly is that there is much more to understanding the world today than what we hear from mainstream media. The lecture today was a good example, discussing future Us global strategy as a means of understanding the present behavior, often contradictory in nature, of the world's sole remaining super-power. |
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| Empire |
| The interpretation of US foreign policy and strategy rested on its fulfillment of 'Manifest Destiny', something like a mission from God. Beginning with independence from England and the blessing of God, the expansion focused on expanding to the west, then Latin US, and now, the eastern expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe and the western expansion of pressure and presence in Asia, particularly in Japan. The goal is securing Eurasia, where both the resources to fuel the broad 'Empire' lie, and the greatest threats to its existence. Eurasia encompasses from Eastern Europe and the Middle East through Asia as far as China. But as history has shown, and can be predicted from certain factors currently present this expansion will probably fail as the costs will become too high, and what is necessary to secure such wide and powerful influence will become so contradictory to the ideals of freedom and human rights that allies and its own public will not accept such behavior. Where does this leave the sole super power? Time will tell, but considering history and current conditions, maybe a substantial decline of US influence in 25 years or so. Many of the ideas presented tonight by Professor Galtung, including others around this same theme, present a challenging task of reconsiderations for Peace Boat participants, though unfortunate that we have not found enlightening interpretations like this until now. |
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| Do You Know What You Are Eating?" / Alex |
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| All around personality on Peace Boat, sure to have a smile unless talking about what we are eating everyday |
Spanish instructor Alex showed a different side today, tearing into our understanding of the food we happily eat every day with an explanation of what that food has been through before it finds its way to our stomachs. While a top notch Spanish teacher with salsa dancing skills onboard Peace Boat, Alex was a student and professor of agriculture and irrigation at Roberto Quinones National Agricultural University in El Salvador. Hopefully making for better-educated consumers, Alex showed a side of the food processing industry usually not advertised on the front of the cereal box. In discussing Genetically Modified Organisms, we find that tomatoes and fish are now distantly related, a bug fighting gene in corn is now killing whole populations of Monarch butterflies and in the average US super market there are around 30,000 products containing GMO's. As for the meat we eat, growth hormones and antibiotics fed to the animals to increase growth and production that are being linked to unnatural developments in young people was just one example of the detrimental effects of the indirect costs of current production processes. Hopefully this news will inspire some of us to make conscious choices for the better.
Text and photos by Stacy Hughes
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PEACE BOAT is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. |
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