Pissing Off the Neighbors

There are Kangaroos in Australia.  

There are no Kangaroos in Austria.

Howdy Friends and Neighbors!  The Reverend Squeaky-Eye here, coming at you from the grey winter wonderland of Wien.  Like many of you, I'm sure, I have been watching recent events on the world stage with a certain amount of trepidation.  Honestly, a great deal of trepidation.  Just about the time I reckon that things can't possibly get any weirder, they go and take a cosmic leap further down the old weirdness scale.  

What's troubling Yours Truly today, puzzling the hell out me actually, is this notion that it's a good idea, a smart play, to make all of the neighbors angry.  Now neighbors can be a mixed blessing.  Those of our Brethren that came up in a small town know what I'm speaking of.  The same is true for our Sisteren that might have grown up in an apartment building with neighbors on both sides.  The thing about neighbors is that there has to be some give and take.  All take, and the balance gets upset, so then do the neighbors.  When the balance with the neighbors gets tilted, strife enters into our happy communities.

Now this big beautiful world of ours, it's not really as big as we sometimes think.  There used to be this concept called the "Six Degrees of Separation."  Simply put, the idea is that no living thing on the planet is more than six steps away from any other living thing once we begin a chain of connections.  It works like this:  I know a fellow in a small village in Laos.  You know a gal in Kamchatka.  You and I know each other.  There you have it, only three degrees of separation between that upstanding villager in Laos and that gal in Kamchatka.  Now, I use the past tense about the Six Degrees because anymore, it's tough to get further than four or five degrees.  We can emulate our Jungian Brethern and call it Synchronicity, or use the beautiful Buddhist metaphor of Indra's Net, it really doesn't matter.  When we look at our world as a series of interconnected folks, we get a clearer understanding of just how much neighbors matter.

In our little village of a world, there are about 196 individual countries, or neighbors.  Like any other neighborhood, there are agreements and squabbles.  Unfortunately, countries tend to let things get out of hand, doing things that good neighbors should never do.  Regardless of the squabbles, any country is inextricably linked to a greater or lesser number of other countries, either through shared borders, trade agreements, alliances, or a combination of these links.  

"Yes, we see your point Rev, but what has this got to do with Kangaroos?"  Right you are, Friends and Neighbors, right you are.  What Kangaroos have to do with this is that Kangaroos come from Australia (not Austria). 

The true and brave soldiers of Australia have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with those of the United States for a good long time.  Heck, I don't know how a country could ask for a better ally than our pals the Aussies.  The Aussies have fought alongside the USA in World War I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, in Iraq, and in Afghanistan.  The Australian armed forces are currently involved in the conflict in Syria.  That is what makes the actions of Donald Trump so puzzling.

In one of what became a bewilderingly stream of antagonistic contacts with the neighbors of the USA, Trump hung up on the Malcolm Turnbull, Australia's Prime Minister.  That's right, Folks, Trump hung up in the middle of a phone conversation with the leader of a foreign country.  Regardless of the nature of a conversation, hanging up on someone just doesn't make it any better.  In the case of foreign diplomacy, it is simply not done.  The result is strife in the neighborhood, and with one of our very good neighbors.

This was after Trump so angered Mexico's President, Enrique Peña Nieto, that Seńor Nieto cancelled a scheduled state visit to the USA.  Again, strife with the neighbors in our little village.  The USA shares a very long border with Mexico.  More than that, we share huge cultural and trade ties.  The total dollar amount of two-way trade between the USA and Mexico was 583 Billion dollars in 2015.  That is mucho dinero my Brethern.  There is also, of course, Trump's ludicrous idea to build a wall along the entire US-Mexico border, but that is the stuff of another post.

While Trump was casting stones, he managed to anger a good many more of our close allies.  China, for one, is not happy.  Not happy at all.  "Well Reverend, why should we care about that?"  I'm glad you asked, Friends, and doubly glad that your question is merely rhetorical.  The answer, of course, is trade.  The combined trade between the USA and China totaled 482 Billion in 2015.  Look at that electronic device on your table.  Turn it over.  Where was it made?  Yes, indeed.  China.  

The United States has a fine neighbor to the north, our friends the Canadians.  A helpful and courteous people if ever there were such.  And yet, and yet Brothers and Sisters, even the Canadians are mad at this man Trump.  He has angered the Canadian government, which actually takes some effort.  And guess who is the second largest trading partner of the USA?  Of course, Canada.  Trade totals for 2015 between the two nations equaled 662 Billion dollars.  I believe we are starting to see a pattern here.

Then, just today, a poll was released in Germany that showed that seven out of ten Germans feel that the USA is not a trusted ally.  That is a drop of over 37% since November of last year.  Based on this most recent poll, German citizens feel that the USA and Russia deserve about the same level of trust, and that level of trust is very low.  And why should we care?  Because Germany has been one of our staunchest allies for over half a century.  Germany is one of the most important countries in the European Union.  And, just to keep a theme going, the combined trade between the EU and the USA amounted to 1.1 Trillion dollars in 2015.  

Sisters and Brothers, as our global village get smaller and more interconnected, it just doesn't pay to  stand out in the yard in a wife beater and threaten the folks in the next yard.  No one takes kindly to that, particularly if the next day you ask them to watch your house whilst you are away.  Angry words, once unleashed in the neighborhood, take on a form and consequence all their own.  

It is our neighborhood, Brothers and Sisters, and we can make of it what we will.  As always, keep a helpful hand out for those in your village, and a sharp eye out for the Downpressor Man.  I will leave you with what I believe are the finest words ever written about throwing anger and pride into speech. 

"Primer Lesson" by Carl Sandburg

Look out how you use proud words.
When you let proud words go, it is not easy to call them back.
They wear long boots, hard boots; they walk off proud; they can't hear you calling--
Look out how you use proud words. 

 

Sources:

 

The Local :  news@thelocal.DE

 

Office of the The United States Trade Representative

 

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