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Fear of the unknown?
ACCORDING to a report from dated Feb.
2, 2007, Associated Press (AP) dispatch said that the US
is losing out on global tourism. It added that visiting
the USA nowadays isn’t as popular as it used to be due
to delays and difficulties in getting US visas, long
lines at customs etc.
Travel and tourism industry is being affected due to
what the American travel executives believe is the fear
of the unknown.
Due to this alleged wrong US foreign policy, the
perception of the American leadership is getting uglier
in the global scene these days.
In the Philippines, despite the good PR of the ever
smiling Ambassador Kenney and its spokesman Matthew
Lussenhop, Filipinos are still cynical of the American
agenda. One area that should be corrected is the
issuance of visa. Many Filipinos believe that if the US
government is freely giving visas to the Japanese, a
former enemy of the US, why not to the Filipinos who
fought a war not of their liking?
We Filipinos don’t mind paying as long as we can get
what’s due us. We are even willing to pay a surety bond
if the consulate believes that an applicant is a “TNT”
risk. If things are not righted, the US could lose the
Philippines because of this love-hate relationship. –
ERICK SAN JUAN, Makati City
What US really wants
The United States should stop
sermonizing on how the Philippine government is dealing
with the so-called extra-judicial killings. The local
communist problem is not to their interest because the
rag-tag New Peoples Army is an internal threat only to
the Philippines and not to the security of the
Americans.
The US wants us to be involved in a war against Al Qaeda
and its clones and heaps us praises whenever our
military scores against the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah
Islamiyah terrorist elements. The reason is obvious.
America does not want the terrorist elements to spill
over to their land and the better option therefore is to
nip these in the bud. They do not care how many
terrorist suspects are killed and it does not matter to
them how they are eliminated.
In the case of casualties resulting from the government
campaign against the New Peoples Army, America pretends
to be the guardian of human rights. In what seems like
an irony of ironless, they lend more their ears to the
legal fronts of the NPAs than they do with the military.
The classic example is the more recent Alston report of
extra-judicial killings which pins the blame on the
Armed Forces of the Philippines while nothing is said of
the atrocities of the NPAs. It is even absurd that the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front jubilantly celebrates the
Alston verdict and joins the communist fronts and the
American special rapporteur in rapping the Philippine
government for its alleged lackadaisical on the reported
extra-judicial killings in RP.
We have seen the two faces of America . Unfortunately we
cannot do anything about it because we are weak and
inconsequential to the realpolitik of the USA.
Unfortunately too, we need them more than they need us.
In the fight against terrorism especially against Jemaah
Islamiyah the assistance of the US is vital to us. Our
southern corridor is so vast that the Philippine Navy
can hardly monitor a kilometer of our beach line. JI
elements from Indonesia from Indonesia surreptitiously
enter our territories to replenish their forces as
quickly as our military eliminates them. If the US wants
to demonstrate their true sentiments for us, they might
as well provide our navy with crafts that can pursue
these suspects and deal with them before they reach our
shore. It is not farfetched they will ultimately
establish beachheads in the shores of the USA. – EDGAR
PALMA, edpalma1960@yahoo.com, Kidapawan City |
