Clean Hands Campaign

Washington D.C. is amongst the capitals of the great states where the national flags are waived as a sign of pride and not of the protest. The American flags posted in the streets, offices, balconies and windows are not annoying anybody. “If patriotism can be democratic and international, that that’s good enough for me.” We could put these words of the contributing editor of the “Vanity Fair” – one of the most popular magazines in the US without quotation marks here. This is the lifestyle of Americans. This is the way they live and as citizens pay no less attention to the snow falls and the ice in the streets.

No one smiles on these words here

Snow falls were very much awaited for Washingtonians up to recent days. Schools, airports, and offices shut down due to the upcoming snow storms. The “Snow Storm” is just the snow fall or the rain for us. City authorities are all mobilized working around the clock. Together with economic and political shifts the readiness of the road cleaning vehicles are the kea stories of all the news programs.

There is one big black man asking for money in Downtown Washington. He’s asking for the quarter (25 cents) and blesses everyone who passes by. “My name is Bob and I’m homeless” this is all that is written on his small desk. The number of the homeless is not a lot, nor is it few to stay without the public concern. One of them has died before the temperature dropped to freezing. The local authorities expressed their condolences saying that there has been delay in building of the shelters for homeless. The second day you could see the number of these shelters built in the different parts of the city where sometimes you can walk and never find the one who can speak English. These shelters are constructed for one season only and use very cheap wooden material and do not require any significant expenses and do not seem to be a problem for any government at all. The government tries to care for every homeless and nobody smiles here while hearing these words.

The National Headache Drug

While it is true that the campaign in the Afghanistan has shifted from the first pages of the media to its interior security still remains the number one priority for special services. Trash-cans have been removed in the Metro stations and substituted with the stronger constructions capable of withstanding certain kind of explosions. Even though nobody is afraid of Anthrax any more there are special equipments capable to alarm in case of the use of chemical or biological weapons installed in the stations and shopping malls. Every American handles his or her postage calmly that are filled with lots of bills and ads.

While riding Metro you may seriously start to think about joining “Clean Hands Campaign”, in its most trivial sense. Nobody is surprised by the ads in the Metro trains telling you that the first thing one has to do when he or she comes home is to wash their hands. And if you don’t know how to do it, you can visit a web site specially designed for this purpose. (http://www.washup.org/). After that it is less surprising whey the “National Headache Association” has been established.


Security or Freedom?

The bus traffic that was halted due to September 11th events has been restored in Pentagon and it is reopened with the new design. Still there are lots of restrictions for pedestrians there. The re-construction of the Pentagon building is still underway. Over the building as well as everywhere in the city you can always see the patrol helicopters.

The human freedom has become the issue once and again here. Law enforcements got the expanded investigation and interrogation rights. Lots of students of Arab origin were questioned already by police and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This caused the resentment of the human right activists. Many universities offered legal services to these students. The opinion of the Government suggests that when the country is in war, security is the number one priority. According to the human right activists there is no value in security without freedom.

State – a new choice of youth

Private companies trying to recruit new graduates from the top American universities face a new competitor – the Government. According to “Bloomberg News” there has been significant increase of demand for the Universities that offer degrees in international relations and/or public management. The Head of Career Service of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Ron Lumbert said: “There used to be a perception that the private sector created more change in the world than the public sector… That's starting to swing back, and people are seeing the government as playing a very important role in the future."

The Harvard Kennedy School specializing on public administration also lucked the student interest towards the public service. “Even at a place like the Kennedy School, which has a public-service mission, we've had trouble attracting our students to government work… since Sept. 11, there are a lot of suggestions that that is changing." said Steve Kelman professor of the School.

Dead or Alive for Eight Dollars

There are number of new books on the shelves printed after September 11. “The Heroes of New York Tragedy” tells the story of those who showed their courage and dedication including the Mayor Rudolph Gullianni and the firefighters as well. Americans know the value of the brave hearts and the publishers know the supply-demand rules.

This is why nobody is afraid of the name of Osama Bin-Laden any more. Along the Federal Triangle you can get a tee-shirt for eight dollars with the picture of Bin-Laden and the text: “Dead or Alive?” This is neither the question nor the alternative to citizens. This is the overcoming of fear; this is what made the operation in Afghanistan the primary business of the Government and not of ordinary people.

One of the latest video tapes of Bin-Laden that was distributed by Al Jazeera TV Station could not avoid mocking on several leading US stations. One of the talk shows on Channel 9 broadcasted the excerpt of this tape and then an American dressed in shorts emerged from the background of the scene shouting: “Come on man, don’t torture me in this heating. I tolled you that its is not good! Ok, let’s do the new tape” Not only the staff of the TV company but majority of Americans did not like the way Number One Terrorist looked that day.

Planet as a Gift

Americans still have not finished their Christmas and New Year shopping. There is hysteric discount on the way. Someone (certainly not a lazy one) calculated that the Americans will use so much gift packing paper in these days that will be enough to pack our planet completely. As a Saint Valentines day approaches there are lots of greeting cards and romantic readings appearing.

On January 21st Americans celebrated the birthday of the Martin Luther King Junior. Several human rights demonstrations and lots of prayers were held in the city. The most quoted words today were the famous words of him delivered on August 28, 1963: 'we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’... I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.” And today when you ask the big black man Bob how is he getting on he like thousands of other Americans replies: “I am fine.” All he dreams of is his own apartment.

January 21st, 2002
Rusudan Rukhadze-Tsutskiridze
From Washington D.C. for the “Georgian Times”