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Path: utzoo!watmath!watarts!sizma
From: sizma@watarts.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re(2): Nicaragua - (nf)
Message-ID: <2002@watarts.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Sep-83 10:04:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: watarts.2002
Posted: Thu Sep  8 10:04:30 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 9-Sep-83 01:28:14 EDT
References: ucbcad.5
Lines: 48

There are a couple of simple remarks to be made about the debate
on Nicaragua. I was there in June for two weeks, and
I saw and met several Americans, some of whom were actually working
in the country. Although Nicaraguans clearly made a distinction between
we Canadians and other visitors who were American, it seemed to be a
distinction of little significance: they knew our country was somewhat
different and they were curious in that respect, and they also
realized that our government was less hostile to them. This latter
factor was something to their advantage, of course: it
meant that we might perhaps intervene internationally on their
behalf with a different kind of pressure than American citizens.
	But Nicaraguans, like many other people who been involved
in political struggles for generations, have little in the way of delusions
about the relationship between citizens of a country and their "elected
representatives". Because of this they were always very clear to us that
when they referred to the U.S. government they were not referring
to the American people. Of course, in any country that is so besieged
by an external force, there are going to be people who express hostility
indiscriminately to any element of that external force. Yet as we wandered
around various parts of the country, most of us looking quite like
North American tourists, we encountered virtually no hostility
(apart from the odd remark, mostly directed at the women in a typically
-- yet still inexcusable -- machismo way) and an unexpected amount
of friendliness.
	The Nicaraguans continually indicated that they have nothing
to gain from being hostile to the U.S. The U.S., after all, holds the global
purse-strings. The Nicaraguans have a foreign debt of $3.65 billion
which they intend to pay off, and they are successfully meeting
the payments, unlike many other underdeveloped countries. Personally, I think
that they ought to forget about a lot of that debt because it arose
due to the money that Somoza borrowed from foreign sources so that
he could go on killing people. Money is not neutral; the sources of
that money were certainly aware of what the money was used for --
as any successful lending institution knows precisely the conditions of
a country it is dealing with -- and, as far as I'm concerned, it's their
tough luck that their side lost out. However, the Sandinistas have their
reasons for paying off the debt, and it's up to Nicaragua to decide.
	But money isn't the only factor, of course. The Nicaraguans
continually claimed that they want to run their own show (and we heard
this not just from the leaders but virtually everyone else we ran into
as well), and having an unfriendly American administration hovering
over you all the time makes dealing with internal problems all the
more difficult. They want "normal" relations with other countries because
they want to learn from them; they don't want to get stuck with just
one model, and as Reagan attempts to cut off the rest of
the western world from them, that's exactly what they end up with.

				--Steve Izma, University of Waterloo