Questions I wish I could ask Obama and McCain (II)

VHeadline commentarist Elio Cequea writes: Besides the policies towards the Middle East, there are other complications on the foreign policy front. For example, illegal immigration is a problem that seems to require the approach of a real maverick. If people would not have to leave their countries of origin as a last attempt to improve their lives, wouldn't it get rid of the illegal immigration problem? I think so.

But, how can an underdeveloped country, with half of its middle class making $300 dollars a month and the other half unemployed, ever hope to become developed?

What about the people at the bottom of the food chain? If the minimum wage in the US is $6 an hour, why do you allow the same US companies pay $0.30 an hour in other parts of the world? That is considered exploitation in the US but it is not in Central America. A wage of thirty cents an hour is absolutely not an incentive for people to stay in their home countries.

Do you think Latin America someday will have the same standard of living of the US? As leader of the free world, what would you do to make that a reality? Do you think that encouraging companies to pay $0.30/hour to "developing people" is the way to go?

At the same time, however, the US wants to spread freedom and democracy around the world. According to the ideologist of the right, democracy and freedom go hand in hand.

First, isn't "freedom" something people obtain instead of something forcibly imposed onto them?

Second, how come every time a democratically elected government uses "freedom" and refuses to align with US policies, it immediately becomes a pariah state and a target for economic pressure?

The US is a big defender of human rights. How come prohibiting US citizens from visiting their parents in Cuba is not a human right violation? How is it that squeezing the economy of a country for more than forty years, consequently lowering the quality of life of its population, is not an act of terrorism?

Last but not least, about my country of origin, The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

With regards to "populist" leaders like President Hugo Chavez, how can he play the democratic game and win without ending up like Salvador Allende? Is that the fate of all of those who dare to turn against the US political and financial establishment? Well, he could also end up living in South Africa, like Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Elio Cequea
Feico57@att.net
ecequea@gmail.com

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Venezuela is facing the most difficult period of its history with honest reporters crippled by sectarianism on top of rampant corruption within the administration and beyond, aided and abetted by criminal forces in the US and Spanish governments which cannot accept the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people to decide over their own future.

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