From: Witness For Peace Date: 20 Dec 91 08:57 PST Subject: WFP: October 91 Myth Message-ID: <1563600104@igc.org> Lines: 209 Status: RO Witness for Peace 1492-1992 Expose the Myths: Calling for a Just World Order Myth of The Month--October 1991 Myth: Christopher Columbus discovered the "New World," and the United States is heralding a "new world order." "In Fourteen Hundred and Ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue..." and discovered the "New World." His European followers settled and civilized the Americas. In Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-one, George Bush's "new world order" had begun.... The "new world order" establishes a world of "freedom and security." Response: The Americas contained advanced civilizations and millions of inhabitants when Columbus arrived in 1492. The conquistadors claimed this "New World" for the Spanish crown through a show of force, ignoring the sovereignty of the native populations to govern themselves. The "new world order" which President Bush announces is an order based upon the U.S. "policing" and enforcing a policy which does not promote freedom and ignores the rights of Third World nations to determine their own systems of governance. Colonization and the "New World" It is estimated that between 70 million and 120 million people lived in the Americas when the first European ships arrived, a population larger than that on the European continent. Civilizations such as the Mayas and Aztecs lived in highly organized communities with intact cultural, artistic, religious, and economic systems. Anthropologists laud the pre-Columbian indigenous societies as some of the richest in history. Columbus was not the first explorer to arrive in the Americas. According to historians, the Americas were visited previously by African-Arab traders and Norwegians, among others. Nonetheless, the mythology of discovery claims that Christopher Columbus and his crew were the first to land on the shores of the New World, thus claiming it for Spain. Only 70 years after the arrival of European colonists, more than 90% of the indigenous population was wiped out. While sparse records remain of some groups of peoples, other civilizations were completely destroyed. The land, resources, cultures, societies, and religions of the indigenous peoples were violated and exploited, beginning a cycle of enslavement of indigenous and African peoples. Despite the aggression of the European colonists, some indigenous Americans have been able to maintain their heritage and continue, after 500 years, to resist the subjugation of their culture. The New World: Peace, Security, and the Rule of Law Just as colonization was sparked by misinformation about a "new world," economic colonization of Central America, and indeed much of the Third World, has been justified by what George Bush calls a "new world order." George Tinker, a Native American theologian, points out that the so-called new world order is already 500 years old: similar guiding principles of European colonization now undergird U.S. policies throughout the globe. Since 1900, the United States has militarily intervened in Central America more than 25 times, including three invasions within the last 10 years. According to the rhetoric of Washington, U.S. military and economic policies offer security and the hope of freedom to the people of Central America and the world. In his State of the Union Address on January 29, 1991, George Bush said that: What is at stake is more than one small country [Kuwait], it is a big idea: a new world order where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind_peace and security, freedom and the rule of law. Such is a world worthy of our struggle and worthy of our children's future. The "big idea" of the "new world order" is "the common effort of diverse nations to obtain peace and security." This brings up many questions about national sovereignty and self-determination. How has this idea been put into action? * The United States has continued to send aid to the government of El Salvador, despite the fact that no one has been apprehended for the murder of six Jesuit priests and two female co-workers, and that people continue to be tortured, _murdered, and disappeared daily. * On December 20, 1989, the United States invaded Panama in violation of international law, of the U.N. charter [articles 2(3) and 2(4)] and the Organization of American States charter [articles 18, 19, 20, and 21], killing more than 1,000 Panamanian citizens. * On August 7, 1990, one day after the United Nations passed a resolution approving economic sanctions, President Bush ordered U.S. troops into the Persian Gulf. This indicates that President Bush had no intention of waiting for sanctions to take effect, but instead leaned toward a quick military response. * On January 16, 1991, President Bush ordered a military offensive against Iraq, beginning the most intense bombing campaign in the history of warfare. In his announcement of the offensive, the president cited international law, ignoring the fact that the same international law could have been used to condemn the U.S. invasion of Panama one year earlier. The reality of the "new world order" as it has played itself out in Central America (and elsewhere) is not an order of freedom and security, but of economic devastation and domination designed to maintain U.S. and Western hegemony. A true new world order would create peace through understanding not through war and military intervention. A just world order would not be based on intervention and exploitation, but would permit people to own their land, grow crops to feed themselves, celebrate within their own cultural identity, go to school, have health care, and have a place to live. Examples: Columbus "discovers" Espaola Upon their arrival in the Americas, European conquistadors wanted to set up forts in order to support their military operations in the region. The first such fort was constructed on Espaola, an island that is presently Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Espaola had a population estimated at 3 million in 1492 when Columbus first landed. Bartolom de las Casas wrote that "upon such people the Spaniards fell as tigers and wolves and lions fall on lambs and kids," leaving only 300 survivors by the early 1500s. The invasion was justified in order to set up a base from which further exploration could begin. Establishing a New World Order In December of 1989, Panama was militarily invaded by the United States Marines, leaving as many as 2000-4000 civilians dead (as estimated by human rights organizations) and 14,000 homeless. The Bush Administration justified the invasion as a means of ousting Manual Noriega, who had been on the CIA and U.S. Army payroll for 31 years, in order to clear the way for democracy. One year later Sadaam Hussein invaded Kuwait.... Why did the U.S. so vehemently condemn the invasion of Kuwait when only a year earlier U.S. forces had invaded Panama? And by what right was the United States military permitted to be the "police force" of the world? Was it our "divine right" to control the political system in Panama and to protect our economic and political interests in the Middle East? The "new world order" as demonstrated by U.S. actions rather than by U.S. rhetoric resembles the same thinking that allowed the domination of entire nations and even continents of people during colonization. Alternative Quincentenary Celebrations At the Continental Meetings of Indigenous and Popular Organizations, indigenous people of the Americas have been organizing to challenge the "conventional celebration" of the Quincentenary. Participants in the Continental Campaign state that: for the indigenous peoples of America, [the Quincentenary] marks the beginning of a nightmare of genocide and ethnocide that has lasted almost 500 years.... But it hasn't been all pain and suffering. Our peoples still exist with pride and dignity: it has been 500 years of indigenous and popular resistance of tremendous courage and heroism. The Continental Campaign of Indigenous and Popular Resistance is looking toward the next 500 years. The campaign is a vehicle for communication and organizing, seeking to create a strong fellowship with international solidarity groups that search for peace and well-being. Calling for a Just World Order: To expose the myths of the "New World" and the "new world order": * Organize a commemorative service for the indigenous population killed during colonization; offer positive images of contributions made by those civilizations and celebrate their survival. * Organize a commemorative service remembering those killed as a result of military aggressions in Panama and the Middle East. * Become a Media/Legislative Contact for Witness for Peace (see enclosed flyer). Write letters-to-the-editor pointing out the "discovery myth" and calling for accurate language in reports of Quincentenary events. * Meet with school board officials and teachers groups to offer materials about colonization from an indigenous American perspective. * Learn about Native American, Latino, and African-American struggles for justice. Meet with local groups and learn from them what their present political and economic situations are and, when possible and appropriate, join them. * Organize an alternative commemoration to Columbus Day in your local synagogue or church. (See enclosed liturgical pieces for more information.) * Join the Witness for Peace delegation to Panama to commemorate the anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Panama (see enclosed delegation schedule). Discussion Questions: 1. What are the similarities and differences between the mythology of the "New World" and the mythology of the "new world order?" How are those myths perpetuated? 2. What are the effects of U.S. policy toward Central America for the common campesino? What are the effects for the elite class? 3. What would be the effects of the U.S. acknowledging Latin American nations' sovereignty? How would it affect U.S. policy? How would it affect your life, if at all? Resources: A Peoples History of the United States, Howard Zinn, Harper & Row: 1980. Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, Eduardo Galeano, Monthly Review Press: 1973. Panama: Made in the USA, John Weeks and Phil Gunson, Latin America Bureau: 1991. What We Have Seen and Heard in the Middle East: Iraq/Israel/Palestine, Vincent Cobb, Witness for Peace: 1991.