My Impression of the 'American Dream'

Kettering Foundation's DDW - 2011

It is never easy to make a fair assessment and impression of a country or an organization based on a few brief visits. But despite how brief the visits were, it is also difficult to ignore the experience—good or bad. There is a saying that goes like this: “It is one thing to holiday in paradise, and yet another to work and live in paradise.”

My initial views of the United States and the Kettering Foundation were heavily influenced by a number of events, including my trips to the Kettering Foundation’s Deliberate Democratic Workshops (DDW), where I spent one week in July 2011 and one-and-a-half weeks in Dayton, Ohio and Los Angeles in July 2012. At the time of writing (February 26, 2013), I have spent three weeks with Kettering Foundation. All in all, I have spent five-and-a-half weeks and 36 hours in the United States.



While my impression of the United States has slowly altered by some reality checks since arriving three weeks ago, it is negotiating the cold weather that is most challenging. I felt and touched snow for the first time at the Dayton airport. During my first few days, I woke up each morning to rest my eyes on a gray-sky, white grass, leafless trees, white lawns, white car parks, and white driveways—a huge contrast to the blue sky and green grass of the tropics. But despite the cold, I have also learned new skills walking and keeping my balance on slippery steps and footpaths. Probably, I need lessons in ice-skating.

My fascination with the United States was partly formed decades ago, between 1996-1999, when I was a history-politics student at the University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji. Back then, I took an interest in the political thoughts of the icons of the American civil rights movement, especially Martin Luther King Jr., captured by his “I Have a Dream” speech, and also Malcolm X, a devout follower of the Nation of Islam, who took a more robust approach to the issue of racial equality.

The most interesting issue was the similarity of the philosophies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in the 1960s and their contemporaries in South Africa in Nelson Mendela and Steve Biko in the 1970s to 1990s. Though these icons of history were living at different times and on different continents, they fought a similar battle for racial equality. Sadly, of course, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Steve Biko were assassinated. Their battle also inspired other movements in fighting to end racial segregation in the United States, the creation of UN charters on human rights, the repeal of “White Australia” policy in 1967, the end of apartheid government in South Africa in the early 1990s, and the unwinding of colonialism in most countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Pacific Islands region in the late 1960s to 1980s.

While my initial view of the United States was skewed by historical events, my trip to the Kettering Foundation’s seminars on deliberative democracy in July 2011 and July 2012 left a long-lasting impression on me over a number of issues. It began on my arrival at the checkout counters of the immigration, customs, and quarantine at LA airport. The colorful mixture of the airport front-line staff of Afro-Americans, Latinos, Asians, Caucasians, and mixed race individuals simply put into perspective the notion of “I Have A Dream.” This is taking into consideration that 16 hours earlier, I checked out of the Brisbane International Airport, the third largest city in the Australian eastern seaboard, where the majority of the front-line staff of security, immigration, customs, and quarantine officials were Caucasians. My arrival in LA gave me peace of mind about the American dream.

My participation in the DDW-I and II workshops also provided a different dimension to the way I previously perceived the USA as a country of loud people. Now I realized that as a democratic and free-market society, it allows people to compete at the highest level, where individuals and business houses have to be at their “competitive urge” to be recognized in whatever they do. I also become more appreciative of my job as a journalist. I’m not just a journalist, but also a community builder, whose responsibility is to empower people to fight for justice.

The experience also helped me to put into some context the notion of the American Dream, which is arguably founded in the spirit and principle of “I Have a Dream.” It was not a myth, but a reality; secondly, the fascination of Americans with grand standing things—big jetliners, big airport terminals, big houses, big cars, big roads, big taxis, and everything big. And thirdly, the competitive nature of the American people to ensure that they are at the forefront of everything, and last but not least, the Kettering Foundation’s interest in the concept of “soft-power” through research. The above issues were impressive and new.

The observation gives me a new appreciation of the virtue of racial equality that infuses confidence in the minds of people, the desire to compete and not to settle for second best. In such a platform, people are equally competing, without waiting to be dragged to the front-line. They are obsessed with becoming the best—a mindset that obviously produces exceptional leaders and talented individuals in the USA.

The experience also confirms my conviction that people, regardless of developing or developed communities, share similar problems and desires, but at different levels in their quest to secure the fundamentals of life: freedom, happiness, security, a better future, something to eat, clothing to wear, and shelter to lay their heads. Anything else is secondary.

In more ways than one, the above impression forms the basis of my decision to apply for the foundation’s international residency. It is my intention to make the most of my time over here by embracing the spirit of the American Dream.

Note: The above article was written for the Kettering Foundation social media, where I'm a current Researcher, probing the use of the Internet and social media in developing countries.