For the first time since arriving just over a week ago, I watched the evening news in full. Among this evening's highlights was President Obama's visit today to Santiago, Chile. Obama met with Chilean President Sebastián Piñera to discuss a variety of foreign policy issues, obviously highlighted by the current general political unrest in many areas of the Middle East. Probably even more important in the news broadcast that I watched though was Obama's public commentary (and this media's station's reaction) on how Latin America is a great example for others in search of greater order and peace (i.e. "people around the world who are beginning their own journeys toward democracy").
This diplomacy meeting was Obama's second stop in his weeklong Latin American tour that has already included Brazil and will include El Salvador on Tuesday and Wednesday. Herein enters slightly jealous and judgmental overtones in the Argentine news broadcasters' delivery. Most likely these tones and attitudes emerged in light of opinions/implicit assumptions that Argentina has been passed over because it is not worthy of US investment and time. While certainly never stated directly, the trajectory of the story and broadcasters' tones said as much to the general viewing audience. I realize that these last couple of sentences involve several generalizations about US status internationally and Argentine sentiment on diplomatic relations but please hear my argument out-- don't rake me over the coals just yet.
I'd like to make a jump just once more to a conversation that I had with one of my referente's sons yesterday (in order to finally get to the main point I'd like to make...). We were discussing the city's traffic, crazy people on motorcycles and the city's incessantly probing parking enforcement aides (most similar to "meter maids" in the US) when we eventually got to gas prices. I mentioned that the price per gallon of gasoline was beginning to rise at an unfortunate rate when I left the US, largely due to the conflict(s) in the Middle East, or so the media likes to inform us. I asked Luciano what the tendency of the prices had been in Resistencia as of late and he replied with an appropriately sarcastic remark that the prices here essentially mirror the rise and fall of prices in the United States; in this case though, explained by Luciano, changes come largely because the United States is the largest consumer of oil and oil products on the world stage. Thus, Americans' actions economically, politically, and socially inevitably create a ripple effect to be felt in the news, in political decisions, and amidst the facets of everyday life even here in Resistencia, Chaco, Argentina.
What am I proposing here? Really, I'm not too sure myself; certainly not that President Obama should visit every country around the globe. The United States has more than its share of domestic issues that need to be addressed. Nor am I taking the position that Argentines are unjustified in their discontent over President Obama's country selections for recent visits of international diplomacy. This country certainly plays an important role on the world stage and has an autonomous voice worthy to be considered amidst others. I guess maybe what I'm getting at is that 1) we shouldn't allow generalizations hastily strewn by our news sources to define what we think about a region (i.e. Chile being mistaken ideologically for the whole of Latin America) and 2) we should always seek to broaden our perspective by searching for who/what/where wasn't included and asking 'why?' (in this case, looking to Argentina and its perspective on the international issues at hand). Y'know, just something to ponder the next time that you fill up your car with gasoline :)
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