Look, Uncle Sam is busy cleaning up its own mess on human rights problems. Does the US still think it's the beacon of human rights? Illustration: GT
The US, the sole superpower in the world, is also the biggest violator of human rights. The following terms or concepts are associated with Uncle Sam's infamous human rights practice and foreign policy.
American Holocaust: The massacre against Indians conducted by Western colonizers since the 16th century, which dropped the number of the American Indigenous people down from 10 million+ to merely 200,000 at the end of the 19th century. The Indian reservations were the concentration camps of exploitation, squeeze, and slavery.
The Slaughterhouse of Black People: A phrase used by furious South Africans to describe America after the tragic death of Lindani Myeni, an unarmed South African rugby player shot dead by Honolulu police. I CAN'T BREATHE - those were the last few words George Floyd cried and will forever ring in our ears. Floyd's killing is only the tip of the iceberg.
Human White: The term refers to America's political and socioeconomic system where white people enjoy structural advantages and rights that other racial and ethnic groups cannot. The New York Times reported that the term"white supremacy"was used fewer than 75 times in 2010, but nearly 700 times in 2020 alone (as of the article's printing on Oct 17, 2020).
The US Version Unit 731: The US traded with infamous Japanese biological warfare organ Unit 731 for experimentation data on live human bodies after WWII, by covering up Unit 731's ruthless crimes and offering 250,000 yen payment. By obtaining the data and medical papers of Unit 731, the US Army accelerated its development of biological weapons in Fort Detrick, which has long been researching on the virus and still stores a large amount of virus that threatens the safety of human beings.
New Monroe Doctrine: Referring to Washington's endeavor to maintain hegemonic political, military and economic influence in Latin America, long seen by the US as its political backyard. The US is using crippling economic and financial sanctions as means to bend or break "uncooperative" countries and "expel the influence of Moscow and Beijing." In fact, "Monroe Doctrine" never faded away into history, merely the tactics employed have changed over time.
Haiti Syndrome: Referring to the consequences of forceful transplantation of American model of democracy in Haiti. In 1915, the US Marine Corps invaded the Caribbean country, and remained there for almost 20 years. The US controlled Haiti's security and finances, imposed racial segregation, forced labor, and deposed presidents and legislatures that opposed the US presence. Haiti is now the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. Many other developing nations are also suffering from Haiti Syndrome.
Kicking Away the Ladder: Put forward by Ha-Joon Chang, a South Korean economist, the phrase refers to disgraceful deeds of the US and some other developed countries, which are attempting to kick away the ladder with which they have climbed to the top, thereby preventing developing countries from adopting policies and institutions that they themselves have used.
The American Trap: In 2013, French industrial conglomerate Alstom's executive Frederic Pierucci was arrested, and Alstom was then "dismembered" by the US. Any international company targeted by the US Justice Department could not escape the intervention of the US anti-corruption laws. Step by step, the US government is taking control of the core industries and highly competitive companies of other countries.
Digital Colonialism: The use of digital technology to export America's ideology and subjugate Third World and impoverished nations to US political, economic and social domination. It also includes America's crackdown on China's Apps like TikTok and WeChat to maintain its internet hegemony.
Coercive Diplomacy: One of the most popular tools for the US to achieve its policy goals by marrying diplomacy to military muscle, to coerce an opponent into stopping or changing an action already taken. The Pentagon characterized the $30.3 billion of expenses for FY2003 of George W. Bush's administration for "coercive diplomacy" as incurred expenses.
Whip Diplomacy: Washington has a tendency to wave its whip to punish the countries for impediments to its hegemony, such as imposing harsh sanctions (three times per day against other countries during the Trump administration).
Condor Diplomacy: The name is derived from Operation Condor, infamous missions of the CIA in Latin America since the 1960s. The US intervened all over Latin America during the Cold War. It rigged the local elections, assassinated political figures, and even toppled governments in the name of preventing the spread of Communism or protecting their economic interests.
New Cold War Diplomacy: The US antagonistic posture and moves toward other countries, notably China: To build small circles, to reject, threaten or intimate others, to willfully impose decoupling and sanctions, or to create isolation and estrangement. These will only push the world into division and even confrontation.
Lip Service Diplomacy: US foreign policy is hypocritical in various ways, and over-promising and under-delivering is one of them. Promises made, promises broken: from support for global infrastructure to climate actions, from combating COVID-19 to war in Afghanistan.
The Industry Chain of Lies/State Sponsor of Disinformation: The conglomerate of US lying politicians, media, think tanks, forming the industry chain of lies, for example, Colin Powell's "washing powder," video of "the white helmets" in Syria, and, the latest one, COVID-19 origins-tracing by the US intelligence community.
Illustration: Liu Rui/GT
Biggest Warmonger: America has been at war 93 percent of the time since 1776. At least 800 US military bases are located in more than 70 countries and regions. Since 2001, the US "war on terror" has killed, injured and displaced millions across 24 countries, while America's defense spending is nearly 40 percent of the global total.
World's Bully: The true nature of the US administrations, no matter who is in the White House.
Uncle Scam: A new nickname of Uncle Sam because of his nature of lying.
Eye of Sauron: Washington has been unscrupulously wielding its monopolistic technological might to conduct cyber espionage, surveillance and even attacks on a long list of foreign governments, enterprises and individuals, only to shore up its hegemony in global cyber space. One of its infamous cyber spying programs is Project Sauron.
Infamous Betrayer: America's disgraceful role as traitor of France (1798, 2021), Kurds (2019), Afghanistan (2021), and many others. Backers of the so-called independence for Taiwan might be the next victims.
Strategic Narcissism: Referring to America's tendency to view the world only in relation to itself. The US, on the one hand, boasts itself as the "lighthouse of democracy" or a "shinning city upon a hill"; on the other hand, it is seeking scapegoats and tilting at windmills to cover its own systemic deficiencies and governance weaknesses.
Plutocracy: The US government is dominated by an elite group of individuals who hold all of the money, and therefore, all of the power. The total cost of the country's 2020 election reached an unprecedented $14 billion, making it the most expensive election in history. America is moving to a government of the 1 percent, by the 1 percent and for the 1 percent. People are reflecting upon the hypocrisy of US democracy. It is now a "hymocracy" rather than a "democracy."
Liberal Totalitarianism: A phrase first used by Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, to describe the fact that US liberal democracy is converting to a totalitarian system with the development of a domestic police state, a monopoly on the media, and the irremovability of oligarchic elites.
Illustration: Liu Rui/GT
The World's No.1 Anti-pandemic Failure: As of September 30, 2021, the US has reported 43.2 million cumulative confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 693,000 deaths. In terms of both numbers, the US ranks first in the world. "It's a slaughter," said William Foege, an American epidemiologist.
Super Coronavirus Spreader: The US was the world's No.1 pandemic spreader based on its lax policies for disease control, travel restrictions and inhuman deportation of immigrants amid the pandemic. The period from November 2020 to January 2021 is the peak of the epidemic in the US, with an average of 186,000 newly diagnosed cases per day. During the same period, the average number of US citizens going abroad was 87,000, making it a veritable "proliferator." The US is also the big Petri dish for COVID-19 variants. A recent study showed evidence of four additional COVID-19 variants in New York City's wastewater.
No.1 Blame-shifting Country: The US has turned a global public health disaster into a major power tussle by politicizing scientific issues, the origins tracing of the virus, and the effectiveness of the vaccine, shifting the blame to the outside world and misleading the international community.
The author is an observer on current affairs. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn
