.svg/500px-Panama_(orthographic_projection).svg.png)
President Obama is to meet with Castro of Cuba. In the historic step toward reconciliation with the former enemy state, the President talked with his Cuban counterpart President Raul Castro.
In Panama, Obama spoke on the US values; the US entrepreneurship and its supremacy in the field of technology and finance. He insisted on the importance of ordinary citizens speaking up. In his rhetoric, he referred to the freedom march that freed the oppressed from the tyranny and the fear of white supremacy rule.
His speech on ordinary citizens speaking up their opinions may sound his regular cheer-up comments for his supporters, if not with billionaire and millionaire CEO's like Mark Zuckerberg in his audience. Their live objectives are very simply about making money. Would they care about the voices of the people in Central and South America?
The popular votes, or the civil unrest, are typically used as excuse for intervention. One important excuse for starting out the Iraq War was protecting Iraqi citizens mercilessly murdered by the dictators among all other excuses such as weapons of mass destruction. Now that more than hundreds or thousands of people died in the nation, and the US still staging a war there, you might wonder whether the lives of people there would have ever mattered than oil.
Listening to the voices on people is important only because it leads to good governance. What if, however, the voices represent the interests of the US or the ruling class of the US? Worse yet, what if the voices are supported by the US money? What if the regional power let it so that people ride along the voices and topple its own democratically elected government? The military and NATO budgets should not be an excuse for 'listening to the voices of people on the ground'.
Listening to the voices on people is important. Should they be, however, represented by the showy demonstrations on the streets? Could they solve the problems with the wealth disparity and high crime rates? Supporting the voices of media bought by the rich only exacerbate the problem of unfair tax systems. The crime rates can only go down under proper law enforcement, not by lynch mobs.
Let us hope this historic meeting brings people -- peace, prosperity, stability, and good governance -- there in Cuba and in the region.