Copy of My Email to Charlie Rose Re: Rafael Correa

Below is a copy of an email sent to television personality Charlie Rose.  It is self-explanatory. Read my email--below-- then watch the program yourself and decide whether you agree with me or or not!

--Jagor

Dear Charlie Rose,

I just watched your half hour with President Rafael Correa of Ecuador.

Calling it an "interview" would be a grave misuse of the term. Instead of a debate, or even a conversation, the half-hour consisted of you asking one "gotcha" question after another whose purpose was to entrap President Correa into agreeing with your stereotypes and prejudices, interspersed with mini-sermons about the greatness of the United States.

Every time President Correa scored a point--despite his less-than-perfect English--you completely ignored him and, instead of following up, you immediately changed the subject to try to trap him with another "gotcha" question.

For example, when you asked President Correa what his greatest influences were--obviously hoping he would fall into your "gotcha" trap and confirm your prejudices by citing Marx or Lenin or some another arch-enemy of the United States such as Fidel Castro.  But no!  President Correa stated that the most important influences in his political thinking were "the social doctrine of the Catholic Church and liberation theology!" 

Now that must have shocked you since it didn't fit your stereotype of President Correa, and it could have led to a fascinating few minutes of dialogue, but no--you didn't even bother to ask a follow-up question.  [Maybe it's because you don't even know what liberation theology is and were not going to reveal your ignorance by asking President Correa to define the term.*]

Although the whole 30 minutes was a sham, perhaps the worst example I noticed was when you trotted out that old nonsense about "millions of people from all over the world yearning to come to America to be free blah blah blah."

Have you or your researchers ever bothered to study the statistics for immigration in other countries around the world? Obviously not!  A United Nations study revealed that Russia has the world's second largest number of immigrants--eleven million.  Yes, that Russia--Vladimir Putin's Russia.

  

I live in France where, just like in every other country in Western Europe, "millions of people from all over the world wanting to be free" have been arriving for droves, especially since the end of World War II.  France has 7.4 million immigrants, and Germany has the world's third largest number of immigrants, 9.8 million.

Canada, too, has a very welcoming immigration policy, that attracts people from all over the world--7.3 million, in fact-- and they have free medical care for all their citizens, too, just like all the other civilized countries in the world--who wouldn't want to live there?

And now there's a new phenomenon: thousands of citizens of the United States are emigrating out of the United States to Mexico because they can get excellent health care for 90% less than what they pay in "the land of the free and the home of the brave."

And I am not even going to elaborate on the countries of the Gulf--Saudi Arabia [9.1 million immigrants], the United Arab Emirates [7.8 million immigrants], Qatar, Bahrain and Oman--were people arrive from all over the world, including the United States, hoping to earn the money to provide a better life for their families and themselves.  I know, because I have worked both in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Now I do not want to deny that millions of immigrants come to the United States; my point is that many more millions of immigrants go to many other countries besides the United States.

Of course, I was holding my breath, hoping  that President Correa would say all that but, unfortunately, he didn't, so you got away with perpetuating your bogus stereotype.

Charlie, with all due respect, I recommend that you go back and take 30 minutes out of your busy schedule to watch that segment again.  Then write me back if you believe that my observations above are erroneous.

But better than that, please stop peppering your foreign guests with "gotcha" questions and start engaging in actual dialogues with them.  You might actually learn some facts that would dispel your prejudices and misconceptions.

With best regards,

C. Jagor 



* The Wikipedia defines "liberation theology" as: "A political movement in Roman Catholic theology which interprets the teachings of Jeus Christ in relation to a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions. It has been described as "an interpretation of Christian faith through the poor's suffering, their struggle and hope, and a critique of society and the Catholic faith and Christianity through the eyes of the poor"