Editor’s note: Jason N. Reed is on location in the Galapagos, where he is participating in the School of Journalism and Communication’s environmental writing program.
A lazy island day in the Galapagos erupted into civil unrest when hundreds of angry anglers marched in the streets. The roving mobs destroyed buildings, closed tourist avenues, and held a group of giant Galapagos tortoises hostage with the same curved fishing knives that had been sheathed because of bureaucratic fishing restrictions and maxed out quotas. The disconnect between the Ecuadorian government and the Galapagos fishermen culminated in this August 2000 breakdown when accountability by all parties disappeared.
Politicians here fall prey to festering condemnation by the people, but the government doesn’t always fail the people; the unsuccessful relationship is predominately because the people fail the government. A shining example of this civil shortcoming, the fishermen’s revolt was the fault of the people not the government.
Here in the Galapagos Islands, finger pointing ascribes guilt and trumps self-responsibility or moral actions. Fishermen blame conservationists, conservationists blame the local government, the local government blames the large tour operators and so on down the line until every islander is swathed in appointed shame. The Galapagos Islands are classified as oceanic islands, meaning that, like Hawaii, they have never had contact with any continent. Because of this fixed separation, the majority of endemic and native species on these islands exhibit qualities found nowhere else in the world. But humans are not one of these species, and the defects inherent in us exist far beyond these islands.
However, South American fishermen and rebels are not the only claimants to these shortcomings; Americans too fail the government everyday.
Sure, the oval office during the W. administration has not been a model example for its citizens, but these same citizens are not the epitome of ideal behavior either. With so many accusatory fingers all fastened in the direction of Washington D.C. there are no hands left to adjust the mirror so we can look into it and see where most of the blame should lay.
The majority of Americans feel the war in Iraq is reprehensible, and popularity polls consistently show the overwhelming disapproval for the war and the president. We read the newspaper or watch the news channels, shake our heads in disdain, and then jump into our 15-mpg sport utility vehicles, and complain about a war fought for oil. Gossip about the hedonistically extravagant Paris Hilton filled out conversations and chat rooms in a time when genocide, war crimes and revolutions festered around the world.
The inability of the citizens to take responsibility for their own actions, pervasive immorality and constantly futile aspirations has voided the ability for systems of government to achieve the transparency inherent in their blueprints. Yet we blame each other, blame the government, and create revolutions to overthrow governments or politicians only to feel the burdening weight of the same problems reoccurring in the future.
American parents have a choice: plop down in front of the television to watch My Big Fat Redneck Wedding, “where folks get hitched in wedding ceremonies that involve monster trucks, shotguns, ATVs and camouflage attire,” or read a book with their children to improve their progeny’s education. The latter choice will increase the ability of these future adults to solve problems in their own lives, and not hide behind for some elusive oppressor.
As students we can cut Facebook or MySpace time in half to check the Internet and read about the atrocities or heroics happening everyday in the world. This increased knowledge will allow us to make better-informed decisions about where we want to go in life. The only way to solve the problems facing Galapagañoes, Americans and every other citizen belonging to some form of government is through self-responsibility and education.
The problems in the Galapagos are a constant recycling of blame, armed uprisings and similar problems with different façades. The same fishermen, who wielded machetes in the 2000 revolt, still blame the government and conservationists today.
Blaming the politicians then hiding in the recesses of social ineptitude will only produce an unsuccessful government. If the government is of the people and by the people, how do you expect it to succeed if those people constantly fail themselves?
As citizens we’re failures, just like our government
Daily Emerald
July 17, 2007
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