In Ivory Coast Conflict, U.S. Rescue Is for First-World Citizens Only
By Kavin Paulraj
Opinions Staff Writer

Imagine living in a country with the name Ivory Coast (Cote D’Ivoire), so named because foreigners decided they could set up trading posts to make a profit killing elephants and selling their tusks. If the system of exporting the nation’s produce to its colonizer, France, was responsible for much of the underdevelopment of the Ivorian national economy, not much has changed since Independence in 1960. The French have maintained Ivory Coast as a neo-colonial enterprise and Ivorian laborers today continue to sweat for the benefit of first-world coffee cups. Keep in mind the racist mentality of the Europeans, who valued lives of whites higher than those of Africans and gave whites much more social privilege.

On September 19 military officers led a coup against the national government from the central Ivory Coast city of Bouake. At least 270 people have been killed in the conflict. Demonstrations have broken out for and against the government, and many people in cities such as Abidjan, Bouake and Korhogo live in fear. This political turmoil is rooted, at least partly, in the colonial administration. Imagine yourself as an Ivorian today, wondering if the international community, especially the United States and France, might actually do something positive for the Ivorian people. Consider a sample of recent headlines from CNN.com. September 23: “200 schoolchildren and staffers—including 160 American students—remained trapped Monday in a boarding school.” September 24: “With about 200 schoolchildren and staffers trapped in the crossfire of a military rebellion, U.S. Special Forces were headed to the Ivory Coast to help protect Americans there, U.S. military officials said.” September 26: “French troops have negotiated a 48-hour cease-fire with rebel troops, giving foreign nationals the opportunity to leave the war-torn country.”

What makes these 200 school children “worthy” of rescuing is their nationality. But what about other children in other schools, those who do not hold a U.S. or French passport? Aren’t they equally in need of help? Aren’t they equally human? The mainstream media bombards us with pictures and news reports of trapped Americans, as if they were worth more than anyone else in Ivory Coast. Sure, maybe the United States has a responsibility to look after its own citizens, but as the media glorifies the rescue mission, it ignores the coup itself and refuses to give any coverage to the political turmoil or its causes. At the time of writing this article, the Ivory Coast situation had either disappeared or had been reduced to the back pages of major news websites. (Imagine the coverage had the coup taken place in Europe instead.) This type of reporting says more about Western countries today than about West Africa. It goes to show the underlying racism of media and culture in the Western world at large. Such racism is evident, in biased reporting of news from Zimbabwe and in racist slurs and violence directed toward blacks everyday in Europe.

We live in a two-tier world. The citizens of African countries residing in Ivory Coast are not entitled to the same rights as United States or French citizens. By extension, the people of Africa, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe all find themselves living on the second tier. All the weapons and technology at our disposal are used either in defense of our own citizens, as we see today in Ivory Coast, or against the people living on the second tier, as we see in regular NATO or U.S. military engagements wolrdwide. Imagine yourself as an Ivorian, watching all the foreigners leave and wondering if you will one day become a first-class citizen too, rather than another poor third-worlder. The BBC quoted a French evacuee, Jamal Bittar: “It’s sad for the locals. They’re not going to be able to leave. We will pray for them.” But reality persists; Ivorians who struggled under decades of oppression by the French colonial regime are still not free. And while the First World rescues its citizens from hostile situations abroad, the people of Ivory Coast, as in so many other countries of Africa, remain wanting of a decent life in their own country.