{"id":344366,"date":"2018-01-18T13:57:12","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T12:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/there-are-no-s-hole-countries\/"},"modified":"2018-01-18T13:57:12","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T12:57:12","slug":"there-are-no-s-hole-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/there-are-no-s-hole-countries\/","title":{"rendered":"There Are No S\u2014hole Countries"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

We recently learned that Donald Trump referred to African nations and Haiti using a derogatory and profane term. (Accounts differ, but all seem to agree it ended with \u201chole.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

Writing off an enormous percentage of the world\u2019s landmass and population as inferior isn\u2019t just nasty, it\u2019s incorrect.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that some nations have oppressive, despotic, or corrupt governments. Some have high rates of poverty. I don\u2019t envy the citizens of North Korea, as they have both.<\/span><\/p>\n

But human nature is universal. Human beings in every country demonstrate the same levels of courage and bravery, compassion and kindness, and intelligence and ingenuity as we do here in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve traveled to five continents (all but Australia and Antarctica) and I\u2019ve met people in each place who excel in ways Americans value \u2014 such as by attaining college educations or succeeding in high paying careers. <\/span><\/p>\n

But I\u2019ve also encountered incredible people proving their greatness in other ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"climate-change-farming-crisis\"<\/p>\n

(Photo: Flickr\/Danumurthi Mahendra)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In Mexico, I visited boarding schools in which the children, some as young as seventh grade, grew, harvested, and cooked their own food every single day, in addition to attending class and completing homework. <\/span><\/p>\n

They did this without tractors, refrigerators, or stoves. Making breakfast meant waking up before dawn to light a fire (with wood they chopped themselves) and cooking beans and tortillas from scratch. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the Philippines, I visited a community that was being exploited by a multinational corporation. The community called in an international non-profit organization to investigate and publicize what was happening. Then they bravely gave their names and told their stories publicly, risking retaliation as they attempted to fight for their rights. <\/span><\/p>\n

In Kenya, children spend far more time in school than Americans do. I stayed with a family whose two kids arrived at school earlier and stayed later than I ever had to \u2014 and they went back for more on Saturdays. In Kenya, such dedication to school work is normal. <\/span><\/p>\n

In Cuba, I found people who could invent just about anything from simple materials. One man created a hydraulic irrigation device out of a few soda bottles and some plastic tubing. With no electricity, the device turned the water on and off at regular intervals, providing the right amount of irrigation to the man\u2019s guava seedlings. <\/span><\/p>\n

These were not unusually extraordinary people. Just as many Americans exhibit brilliance, creativity, and hard work, so do people everywhere. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, there is value in diversity. By traveling and meeting people from five continents, I not only encountered diversity in skin colors, languages, and cuisines \u2014 I also encountered diversity in ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Americans can only lose if we shun people from the rest of the world. When we meet and work with people from each different culture on earth, whether here in the U.S. or outside it, we gain from their unique perspectives just as they gain from ours. <\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the most exciting developments I\u2019ve witnessed have come from two or more cultures working together, combining the ideas of each to create something more than the sum of its parts.<\/span><\/p>\n

A nation\u2019s poverty isn\u2019t a mark of its people\u2019s intelligence \u2014 or their value. By all means, criticize oppressive governments. Hate poverty, war, and disease. But remember that people everywhere possess the same common humanity that makes each culture on earth great.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The post There Are No S—hole Countries<\/a> appeared first on OtherWords<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This piece was reprinted from Other Words<\/a> by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We recently learned that Donald Trump referred to African nations and Haiti using a derogatory and profane term. (Accounts differ, but all seem to agree it ended with \u201chole.\u201d) Writing off an enormous percentage of the world\u2019s landmass and population as inferior isn\u2019t just nasty, it\u2019s incorrect. It\u2019s true that some nations have oppressive, despotic, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2523,"featured_media":307709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-344366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2523"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}