The
World Flees from the “American Disease”

A
Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The
only way to avoid another dose is to reject economic entanglements
with the Americans.”

The
world is reorganizing itself to avoid further exposure to the most
virulent strains of what is now commonly referred to as “the
American disease.” The contagion is dreaded like the worst kind of
venereal infection. This disease is transmitted through political
and economic intercourse with the Typhoid Mary of the planet, the
United States. As headquarters nation for global finance capital, the
U.S. acted as vector of the current planetary economic meltdown.

No
country is fully immune to the ravages of the American transmitted
disease. Having penetrated nearly every corner of the planet, the
scourge, first spread by Wall Street hustlers, now threatens to
undermine the economic organs of the entire Earth. Just as with
biological infections, the disease must be contained before it can be
cured. That means avoiding contact with the Americans and their
hopelessly contaminated financial instruments: those festering
derivatives that so poisoned the U.S. economy, it is virtually
paralyzed.

When
the Wall Street plague hit Europe in October of last year, the
assembled heads of state were quick with a diagnosis, but not a cure.
“We want entrepreneurial capitalism and not speculative
capitalism, “ declared French Prime Minister Nicolas
Sarkozy.
But speculative capitalism is the only kind the United States has
been peddling for a very long time.
By
now, much of the world has come to the realization that the only way
to avoid another dose of the American disease is to reject economic
entanglements with the Americans.

“The
pathology will continue eating away at the political economy for at
least four more years.”

Meanwhile,
the United States continues to incubate the infectious agents. The
Obama administration is riddled with carriers of the disease –
corrupt bankers and their accomplices at every level – ensuring
that the pathology will continue eating away at the political economy
for at least four more years. There can be no cure if you don’t get
rid of the germs.

As
the world erects defenses to keep the American disease from
repeatedly infecting its global neighbors, the effect will be similar
to the redlining of neighborhoods. The U.S. will fall further into
decline as it is walled off from other nations’ efforts at economic
development. That’s the meaning of the redlining of America.

The
United States has been the object of redlining since at least 2003,
when George Bush finally convinced the world that Washington was bad
company with his illegal invasion of Iraq. Nobody wants to do
business with a crazy man – or a crazy superpower. By late 2005,
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations decided not
to invite
the United States as an observer to its annual meeting, but allowed
the Russians and Chinese to attend as official observers. When the
U.S. sent a diplomat anyway, he was turned away. Last December, the
heads of 33 nations of Latin America and the Caribbean pointedly
failed
to invite
Washington to their summit meeting in Brazil. Increasingly, the
Americans are shunned as bringers of war and killers of economies,
the two most feared symptoms of the American disease.

The
corporations that threw their money behind Barack Obama for president
were hoping his fresh face and charm would be seen by the world as a
prophylactic for the American disease. But the Wall Street street
walkers and the Pentagon refuse to change their risky behavior.
Increasingly, the world has no choice but to put them in isolation.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to
www.BlackAgendaReport.com.

BAR
executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at
[email protected].

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