Field Trip #2

Today, we went to the U.S Embassy. The Embassy is located just outside of central San Jose. To check into the Embassy we had to pass through security which took FOREVER (everything takes forever with over 50 people!). Anyway, we waited for awhile and were "escorted" by a woman to a small auditorium where our speakers were going to meet us. This woman then made an announcement to anyone who had to go to the bathroom. I thought that she was just going to lead us to the bathroom but, No! She was our escort to the bathroom. Never in my life have I been escorted to the bathroom!

Anyway, the talk we had was very interesting. We talked with two women and one man who were very good speakers and very nice people. However, I had a lot of problems with their points of views. If you remember a blog from last week when Otton Solis came and talked to us about his problems with U.S Foreign Policy. Well, these people had a view completely opposite of that! Basically, I heard lots of information on how countries in Latin America are weaker than us and therefore we need to help them and spread out principles to everyone who doesn't practice them.

Has anyone heard of CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement)? My guess is probably not, because we don't really talk about policy in the United States very much. Basically, this agreement is supposed to promote prosperity in the people and reduce tarriffs between seven different countries. It sounds really great for the United States because we basically have free trade with a lot of different countries. Unfortunately, this makes the United States seem like the bad guy because we fail to look at the consequences that this agreement has on other countries, like Costa Rica. Yes, there are two sides to every argument BUT, it sure does seem like the U.S pressured Costa Rica and other Central American countries into agreeing to CAFTA. Others (especially other Americans) would say that there was absolutely no pressure applied to agree to CAFTA.

Although these thoughts may not make sense to any of you, these are the kinds of things that are going on in my head. You never learn the severity of what the United States does in other countries until you can see FIRST-HAND what effects they have on those other countries. Everything is not as easy to figure out and I don't know whose side to take. I am not going to lie, down here Americans don't have the best image in the world! I hope and pray that I can try to change that image a little bit in my short time here! Thanks for reading my thoughts. If you would like to talk more about this, feel free to e-mail me.