When I returned to the Middle East, I thought I would be able to use my power of living in a democratic state to affect the way the United States viewed the Middle East. I thought that International Organizations such as the United Nations and other IOs could be used to improve the situation in Gaza, but now I am recognizing what my professor said in my International Law class when he said that Intergovernmental organizations are unrealistic. They are all talk with no power. In the past there have been a few times in which they were able to exert power to influence their own outcomes. However, this is only under certain circumstances. This only happened when the hegemon decided to support these actions.
These are strange times that we live in. It is a time when globalization has thrust politics all around the world into the political realm of almost every person, yet people in America are currently not political. Protests and politcial movements are things that our generation thinks nothing of. Instead we "leave the politics up to those who can make a difference." Little do we realize, we are those people. At a time when everything is political, it seems no one is political. This is changing somewhat with the students becoming apart of the Obama campaign, but it is still there.
All of this is to say, that I have become disenchanted with the idealist and liberal policy and at times rhetoric. I am sad to confess I do not see International Organizations improving this world (especially when inter-national corporations have more power than international organizations and at times the state). What is to be done then? How do we change the situation in Gaza, Darfu, Brundi, Chad, Kashmir, Chechnya etc.? I don't know. I guess the only way we can change the situation is by changing the thoughts of those problems one person at a time. And (this sounds so naive and completely like Christian rhetoric, but it's true) through prayer.
