Enemies of My Enemy Become My Friends

The United States has long been apart of the vaunted "west". That global superpower that has-depending on how you view world matters- either spread its territorial claim and influence across the world, or been a pillaging and destructive entity forcing its culture onto others they deem not "civilized". Generally the term "the west" references the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom France, Germany, Portugal, Netherlands and a few other Western European countries. Recently though global power has been traveling from the west. Those nations are still considered "developed" and deem themselves the class of the world. Yet there is an undercurrent of growth going on where other countries are becoming stronger forces and now stand in direct competition to these western nations, particularly the United States.

Many nations are growing and developing as major players in the world with the help of the United States. Among these nations are India, China, and South Korea. These nations have blossomed and are now players on the world scene. Yet there are other parts of the world that the United States have not been so kind to. Interestingly enough, leaders of some of these nations have had particularly strong ties to Black Americans. History first shows that Kwame Nkrumah used his ivy league education to return to his native Ghana and fight against Britain's occupation of that land. Once he rid the country of British influence he moved markedly away from U.S. ideals of free market enterprise and sought to develop major national infrastructure. One way he aimed to do this was by granting any Black person born in the United States (and the world for that matter) dual citizenship to Ghana as well. Nkrumah encouraged skilled Blacks in the United States who faced oppression and racism to come to Ghana so they could use their talents free from the problems of the racist society.

Nkrumah was heavily watched by U.S. foreign officials and it is believed by many that his overthrow was backed by the U.S. However many Black Americans has also held a fondness or at the least respect for some that the United States declared to be the worst people in the world. In 1977 preacher and activist Andrew Young served as the United States 14th Ambassador to the United Nations. He was forced to resign from that position because he was meeting secretly with officials from the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Meetings were forbidden according to United States foreign policy, yet Young did this anyway. Here we see an example of Blacks who had serious grievance with the United States meeting with those who were supposedly known threats to the U.S. and U.S. interest. This feeling ran so deep among Blacks at the time that even appointed diplomats were willing to mislead the State department to take part in these meetings.

Young also faced controversy when he lauded Cuba and their army's support of Angola. When the minority White army of South Africa attempted to claim land in Angola, Cuba sent troops and helped the Angolans push back the White minority army. Again, the United States had (and still does have) a policy of not engaging Cuba diplomatically so to even throw praise their way got Young in trouble. But it would not be the first nor the last time Cuba would align themselves with Blacks in the U.S. or in the world for that matter. Besides the aforementioned military support in Angola, Cuba has also used its abundance of medical resources to tend (repeatedly) to the nation of Haiti. More famously Cuba played nice with longtime U.S. adversary Russia. In 2005 Cuba offered millions of dollars worth of both personnel, and medicine to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Cuba is not the only nation to take an interest in the plight of Blacks in the United States. Alleged "despot" and United States enemy Hugo Chavez recently provided heat to low income Black Americans in Queens, Harlem, and Chicago back in 2004.

Again the practice is reciprocated by Blacks in the United States. In 1986 Min. Louis Farrahkhan took a trip to Libya to meet with another U.S. enemy Muammar al-Gaddifi. Gaddafi offered Farrahkhan $250,000. The U.S. treasury denied it but in 1997 U.S. Congressman Earl Hilliard from Alabama also visited Libya at a time when diplomatic relations were still forbidden. That brings us to present day, where we see Hugo Chavez, aligning himself with not only Russia but Cuba and South Africa. Much of this unification is strategic for trading purposes and to put products in each others market place. More than that though, we are seeing a rebellion against the United States its philosophy of "western" hegemony. First Cuba and Venezuela merged, seeing a common enemy in the (in their words) facist and imperial policies of the United States. They then saw a kinship in struggle with South Africa that fought off Britian's oppressive apartheid regime for more the 25 years. These nations have since created many tri and multi-lateral arrangments that aim to promote fair-trade, universal balance and above all cooperation. It looks like the United States has done much to unify the world. Sadly for the United States, the world seems to be unifying against the U.S.