Awhile back, longer than I remembered, I wrote this last post titled 175 Countries, spurred by this announcement:
This NFL broadcast is being watched by military personnel serving in over 175 countries.
Granted, my chest swelled a bit with the pride of being “an American” and the only country who can afford to garrison its troops around the world, in 175 countries.
Then the reality of that number hit me. 175 countries. American troops are stationed in 175 countries. Why? Do other countries have their troops stationed in even 10 countries? Russia, China? Anyone?
Imagine for a minute the world where Russia or China or, or ... Maldives had their troops stationed in 175 countries. It would be different, right? Very.
But before we get into a whole nationalistic jingo, paranoid, fear-based mental exercise ... let’s look at this number differently.
175 countries.
What if American ...
- teachers were serving in 175 countries battling the evil forces of illiteracy?
- engineers were serving in 175 countries bringing paved roads ( we could use some of those) and safe bridges (same) or clean-safe drinking water (come to think of it, we need that, too.)?
- engineers were bringing alternative energy sources like solar and wind, bringing light and heat to schools and hospitals in 175 countries?
- farmers were helping either bring or learn sustainable farming methods in 175 countries?
- doctors and nurses were serving patients in 175 countries around the world? We’d bring healthcare where it’s not been before and learn how other countries deliver higher quality healthcare at lower costs. After all our healthcare system is the most expensive while it delivers the lowest quality of care if you consider infant birthrates a key indicator for developed countries.
I know, I know. I said I wanted to avoid jingoistic conversations and here I am saying “American, American, American.” So, my focus is a little myopic. Hey, I’m an ... American. However, the point of this was to ask what impact we have on the world by our own internal priorities and wonder what if ... what if those priorities were different and we had other skilled American serving in 175 countries? Or more Americans skilled in these areas serving?
Just a question.
