True Knowledge=Shattered Perceptions

[ Letter to a professor in response to the prompt: why should American university students study African Politics and its connection to Globalization in today’s world?]

Dear Doctor Wilson,

After giving the prompt much thought, I have decided that the interests of college students across America would best be preserved by avoiding the study of Globalization and Post-Colonial Africa altogether. Such a course holds a substantial amount of content capable of endangering our generation’s current perception of the world. If taught effectively and with objectivity, I fear that the information released may prove somewhat devastating to the economic and cultural foundations of our nation as a whole. We have spent far too much time and effort covering our eyes and ears to now suddenly find ourselves exposed to such impractical and obstructive truths. Consider what will happen to our daily routines when we discover that convenience actually has a cost, and further, a cost that impedes the well being of men, women, and children around the globe. How will we swallow our Venti Ethiopian Roast when we are no longer ignorant of the Ethiopian farmer who received 23 cents per pound at a regional auction for his beans? What will happen to our perception of the American Civil War when we realize slavery was never truly abolished, just shifted back across the ocean and later disguised with futile wage figures. Only guilt and shame can result from such nonsense. And who knows how guilt and shame might affect the monthly checks to my World Vision sponsor child in Tanzania.
If this course cannot be avoided, I ask that it be taught with sensitivity. Instructors must take note of our fragile American hearts. Instead of focusing on how the West’s demand for cell phones added fuel to a civil war in the DRC, why not discuss how three California bred teenagers brought down the LRA single handedly* with their 8mm cameras. We want to hear about Bono’s One Campaign, not about Heinz Ketchup and its corporate hoarding of Zimbabwean farm land. Yes, the horrors of the Rwandan genocide should be discussed, but instructors should be sure to explain that the United States Government simply found out too late to do anything about it. Deep down we American college students mean well. Sometimes too much reality can cripple our bright spirits. I want to feel proud to wear my “Save Darfur” t-shirt and not have to worry about the fact that it was constructed in a Fruit of the Loom sweatshop factory in El Salvador.

*technically speaking, “single handedly” should not be used to describe the work of three individuals, but “six handedly” doesn’t seem to produce the desired effect.

-Patrick Brosnan