The oh. 6 no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, i mean weve got our families inside dying of homes. Youve had to go out to buy the you can see this one is getting back in the come up that they went across to make sure to get food. They say because there isnt enough food for them to be there in the camp. Theres more than 12000 migrants, mostly haitians in the comes that sprung up in del rio, texas over the last 2 weeks. They want asylum. The us authorities were overwhelmed. This is just the latest Splash Point in a month long surge of people illegally crossing the border. And theres little in the camp for them. Because ive got a sanitary product. There arent any food. There isnt any either. They dont give you anything. We met nicholas on the mexican bank of the river, searching for Food And Medicine for his family. He hadnt realized until we asked him about it. The us authorities are also now flying haitians back home, day planes now going to court and people. What do you think about locking them up . What kills me about that is everyone knows what we have are going through places. There is no president. Crime is high. Students cant go to school. There is no work. The economy is down. People cant put up with the port, taishan is not good for us. Like many others, he said he suffered to get this foe on a journey through south america, pulse gangs, and through a patch of Jungle Daddy and gut notorious for Rate Robbery too much for most of them. So that it was really difficult. I saw a lot of us who died. He told me now hes touched ground in his promised land, the us. But it looks unlikely hell be able to stay the in the rush with food. We didnt see him make it back across the river into texas. And by the afternoon, met, can security forces were patrolling the river to it was getting even tougher. Mexican authorities have opened the dime further upstream, which i do quite regularly. But it will, it means is that these people are now struggling even more to get across the waters a lot deeper here. Its just another obstacle in another danger. Held them as they try and get into the United States John Home and how does it . I couldnt you vote counting is underway after 3 days of parliamentary elections in russia. Exit balls would be pro kremlin united Russia Party on course to win with around 45 percent of the vote. Thats a drop of almost 10 percentage points in the last election in 2016 most criminal critics for bond from running after a year of crackdowns, a monetary in crisis is looming enough. Ganeth found where mound newish children are filling up hospital wards. Thousands of newborns are in desperate need of Treatment Unit that says many of them could die if they dont get urgent age gunmen in nigeria have released another 10 children, abducted from their school in kaduna state. In july, officials have confirmed the gunmen were paid to ransom 3 days earlier. 21 students are still missing. Us state of alabama had more death than birth. Last year for the 1st time in recorded history. State health officials have blamed the Corona Virus for the surgeon fatalities. The u. S. Is recording an average of 840000 new cases and 2000 deaths a day. And thousands of people have been told to leave their homes on the table, County Corruption on these Spanish Canary islands. It follows a week of increasing seismic activity on the island of la palmer, 500 kilometers off the coast of west africa. Those are the headlines. The bottom line is up next day with this i hi, im Steve Clemens and i have a question. If america held up a mirror to itself, what would it see . Lets get to the bottom line. The for literally billions of people, america still represents a land of opportunities where anyone can build themselves up, find success, increase tomorrow, its better and with a higher quality of life for their children. Many see america is a bashing of freedom where you can just believe whatever you want to believe. But once you scratch beneath that surface, youll find a nation full of contradictions about opportunity, where the divides on Race And Income and basic opportunity have really widened. On the one hand, america is a huge empire with soldiers deployed in a 150. 00 countries. Sometimes in the name of global security and sometimes in the name of transforming the culture and norms of other societies. But on the other hand, there are places in america where kids having actually go to the parking lots of a Mcdonalds Restaurant to get a decent Internet Connection to attend school. This empire also cant get millions of its own citizens to believe in public health measures. To protect themselves and theiR Neighbors, like wearing a mask. And lets not forget the rejection of the election results and the assault on the united States Capital just a few months ago. So is this an empire of contradictions . Well, today were talking to someone who has been holding a mirror to american society for years and years saying, look, this is you. He is way. Dave is professor of anthropology at the university of british columbia in canada, and national geographic explorer and residence. When you put that mirror up to america, what are you seeing and what should we be seeing about ourselves . Well, that, that s a c was written really at the kind of the, in the sense a low point of cove. It a place where new York Streets for filling with the dead and we really didnt know what this is about or where was going to end. Or if it was going to. And remember, when i wrote that piece, i think it came out in august of 2020, at the time vaccines were a distant promise on the horizon at that time, the 1st Vaccine ever to be developed quickly was for the mumps. And that had taken 4 years. So at the time vaccines did not seem to be imminent. And what did seem to appear was a kind of failure of americans to sort of see what had become of them, which seemed to me to be the 1st step. You know, this, this nation that emerged from World War 2, not just economically dominant, but in the sense, morally dominant with an level of ass, once that allowed for the creation of the weekend. The creation of middle class, a world in which a working man could, you know, wife could stay at home and go. Ready off to work and create a middle Class Wage by a host, by a car, send us kids, good public schools and so on. And. And that kind of illusion of america is simply no longer existed. As we entered this new century, the disparity between rich and poor salaries for the rich incomes and security. For the poor. You could go down almost any kind of in the sea of social development domestically. And the scenario did not look good. And on top of everything internationally, you had a strange situation where this quite aggressive nation in terms of geo politics, china, with its own unique history, was not going to war. I mean, China Hadnt gone to war since 1900 Seventys America really had minute pieces in 1900 seventys every 3 years. China was poor in more cement than america did in the whole 20th century. And the, these wars were bleeding treasure that could have readily gone into increasing the infrastructure of home. And i think this, this, this connect, of course, was creating social dislocation, even psychological, dislocation, and accentuating this chasm between the haves and the have nots. But also between the 2 political parties and all of this was becoming a kind of perfect storm during the birth of the era of the internet, the democratization of opinion. You know, the extraordinary fact that people can get online anonymously, say whatever they want. And, and believe that their opinions value, remember that senator patrick morning, hand famously said that, you know, youre entitled to your opinions but not your own facts. But what we saw in the air of disinformation and both and polarity. What was the creation of new facts you know, and that is never good for democracy. Well, let me ask you this way. What i found fascinating about your essay, which if i had written it, i would be accused, as you have been of treason, i mean, youre in canada, but of treason against the state of, of being unpatriotic and unsupportive of america as opposed to looking realistically. So i guess my question is, what do you think it is about the american psyche and its, and its place in the world that it seems unable or unwilling to just take stock of the fact that it needs to sort through things to get back into a place where the driving itself in the future as opposed to just being a victim of circumstances that makes sense. Yeah, i mean, 1st of all, i think since that piece of mind came out, steve, we should acknowledge one thing which i was not able to acknowledge in that, that piece. And you may have seen the quip or, or the mean going around the internet. You know, china gave us cove it american kid, gave the world vaccines. And lets not forget that the develop into is multiple vaccines and such short ordeR Not just represents the, the most extraordinary achievement of modern science, but also spearheaded by ingenuity that clearly was, was rooted in the american scientific community and corporate community in terms of the major companies that rallied to make this possible in such short order. Dont forget that the, you know, the woman who, who really how to use R N a in the application as, as a did, she won the nobel prize, me just this wonderful woman in from an american university. Right . So, so at the same time in that piece, i kind of with a little bit overly proud of my country of canada, which at the time i wrote that had done exceptionally well with cool that well, of course, like all nations is proven to be more complicated more cases, more mortality and so on. I think in general, canada did a better job because we really are a society of conciliatory, of cooperation. You know, we, we dont celebrate the individual at the exclusion of the, of the, of the collective of the community. You know, we, we dont have a Health Care System which favors the wealthy. We certainly dont have hospitals where the private owners of the hospitals treat hospital beds almost as a rental properties. You know, theres a, theres a fundamental difference in a nation that is the social democracy in which it is taken as a given that public education, that good universal healthcare are virtually human rights. And that just isnt part of the american mythos. And some of this just comes out of the energy of america, which is what makes it gray, you know, in the, in the wake of World War 2. In particular, we celebrated the individual still with iconic intensity. But that was kind of the socio logical right in the splitting the adam. And so, so part of this is just america bank, part of this is just see the challenge of change america. Think about america went into World War 2, demilitarised. Bulgarian portugal have bigger armies. Within 3 years we had 15000000 men and women in uniform. We had individual factories in detroit that made more tanks and the entire german reich. For every 5 pounds of equipment the japanese got per capita to a frontline soldier. We got 2 tons and across 13000 kilometers of open ocean, an american merge from the war with the rest of the world prostrate, right . And so, and 945, we made 46. Once we went back and automated the old manufacturing, we made 95 percent of the worlds automobiles. And so with that kind of ascendency came in it inevitably, a certain amount of pride and hubris. And its difficult to back off from think of the british empire. Its surprising to remember that the british empire actually reached its greatest geographical extent as late as 935. Well, of course now we know that that, that empire was in, in retreat. If you will, by the diamonds you believe was certainly bled white in the fields of flanders in World War in World War one. And by 935, even as more of the Worlds Map was painted red, the nation was utterly impotent against the rise of, of fascism in nazi germany. And so, you know, history, history plays with a short dec. I know all and is, are born to fall and none of them and dissipate theiR Nice. But i find also that you said the canada in your writing, canada is sort of like living in a condominium above a Math Lab and kind of looking at, you know, i know that fair drugs in america, you know, go ahead. Yeah, i mean this, steve, that i have to confess, i didnt know at the time i, i pinched that line from robin williams. It was why i just got a live robin. The robin was a friend in the robin. The said one of the comedy routines that living in america in canada is like, live in an apartment above a mess lap. But you know, you know, it is, it is funny for us in, in canada, i think, or at any social democracy. We dont get me wrong. I love the United States. Dont forget. I chose to become american citizen as well. I married an american, i kids are americans. My father in law was almost us president. My brother in law was a us senator my, my son in laws serving on active duty in, in the navy right now in the United States. My, my nephew was Machine Gunner Grunt in the marines and afghanistan. So its not like i feel disconnected or in any way cynical about it and Id State my life was made possible by the United States in the years that i spent at harvard. You know, this was an incredible gift to me as a foreigner. So dont get me wrong. No one is, is less interested in the demise of america than i am. And believe me when china, if it is indeed ascendant with its ethnic policy, its domestic surveillance. Its treatment of minorities such as ers. I mean, if china is a send and i suspect will all be in a Style G for the so called american century. But this said, as we look at the United States, for example, and realize that in any one given year, you know, by, by about the month of april there been more fatalities due to, and guns, americans shooting shudder then occurred in, in the 1st month of the normandy campaign in World War 2. We see these policies that seem designed to tear people apart. We see a kind of demagoguery and you know, you also see, i hate to say we do see the fact that whether we like it oR Not in a sense, race is the story of america. You know, this is something an american journalist told me when i was an assignment of national geographic. We went over after 911. 00. We wanted to do a story on the beauty of islam because there was so much anti muslin demagoguery. And while were in the desert of the sahara, my friends said, you know, races, story, american, at the time, i didnt think it to be so simple. But now ive kind of wondered, you know, and you know, the reality is that racial divides based on slavery. Go back to the very birth of america. There was no North And South mean New York was built by slaves. Wall street is name for the wall that went around the slave market. You know, Benjamin Franklin own slaves. I mean, you know, one of the big differences between canada and the United States is that our founding father, if you will, John Mcdonald didnt, didnt have a bunch of wooden dentures in his handsome face. That contained human ivory ripped 19 from the mouth of his living slaves, but George Washington did, you know, are for the founding fathers, unlike jefferson, did not mortgage 140 of their slaves with the Dutch Bank to build their palatial home at monticello. Madison famously, as he wrote the the constitution complained that in order to get books off the ships from london essential to his work, he had to sell a slave. Weve been in the family for all of his life. I mean, Benjamin Franklin, even as he published some of the 1st tracks, calling in the question and celebrating the about abolitionists agenda. He himself owned 3 slaves, including a Woman College of mine. So in other words, this is in a, the story of america. I mean, robert E Lee heralded as the great general which she was of the america a southern cause was also by definition a traitor to his country who even in the wake of the war, condoned the click, the k k. K. On, on, on the campus of what became washington and lee university. He was a white supremacy to the core. The civil war was not, as is often been said by someone i admire like the bunkie shelby foot speaking to ken burns. In that famous civil war series. It was never about states, rights was always and exclusively, essentially about slavery. And so this is, this is sort of, you know, a kurtz. I mean, just before he died, Martin Luther King wrote a beautiful piece about canada because he was given some lectures here and he said, you know, canada was the north star, ouR Negro spirituals, Road Encoded Messages on how you could actually get north on the railroad to freedom in canada, canada is a perfect place in terms of race and certainly in terms of our history, with indigenous people, the 1st nations, but we never were a society built on slavery. And that is, in some sense the inherent contradiction of the american experience, the country, the Birth Freedom and democracy through the lens of the enlightenment. At the same time was living with that Seed And Wound which was that their entire economy was built on the atrocity of slavery. Torture with grease of the end of the american economy. Weighed. You talk about Robert Lee and slavery in a, in another wonderful essay that ill tell our readers about called this is america. A promissory note, not yet paid. You talk about robert E Lee, but we now just saw in charlottesville, just very recently, the great statue of Robert Lee taken down. Also in richmond, virginia, the statue that dominated the, you know, the main boulevard. Taken down and chopped up and shipped off so they can figure out what to do about it in your peace. You quote james baldwin, who is, who has an optimism about the future. But he says, we can have, you know, essentially rose tinted glasses looking at things we need to see things how they are. So i guess, as were talking about essentially, America Unraveling in good ways and having that discussion. What are you seeing by way of, of, i wont call it a bounce back because im not sure thats what we deserve or want. But essentially, a more informed, more enlightened, less dysfunctional or domestic context in america. And maybe unraveling the american empire with the rest of the world is a healthy thing. Mean, so how do you see the potential next steps . Well, thats a very interesting point you raise. I mean, on the one hand, i think those of us who have some trepidation about the ascendancy of china for obvious reasons, which are not racist. Reasons are simply about the political system. Not about the chinese people, per se. Would be concerned about the demise of america. On the other hand, of course, empires have come and gone. I mean, i love the image, for example, of the collapse of the roman empire. And so the italians kind of looked around and said, well, were not going to do that again. Why dont we have fun before you know, youve got the other div, which is the italian essence, right . Great food, great films, great beauty, whatever, you know. And so, in other words, here is a sort of transition that does happen in, in history. But, you know, the, i think we also have to remember that, that great line of lincolns, can we not find the better angels of ouR Nature. And my experience with americans is that there remains in a way that you might not recognize from the media a great middle way. And thats sort of what the Dalai Lama always speaks about. The middle way, which is, as ive gotten older, steve seems to make more and more sense seems to be more and more wise, something my father told me, and you know the polarization of america. But i really do believe that theres a big middle of america, not in the next Sony Incense of the middle america, you know, utilized a sort of exploit hatred and fear, but rather a true ground of good, decent people inspired by the very best of, of, of what their country has been and what it can be, and i think, i think frankly, for all the way that we like to and are almost called upon to criticize the follies of american foreign policy. You know, i, when 911 happened, i wrote a long, broad sheet called toward a global declaration of interdependence. And it was published pull out an alternate oR National paper, and canada was picked up in europe. Reprinted all over the world. The one place that it would not be printed was the United States because what it really called for was for us to understand the fundamental elements of the challenges of, of, of, of inequity in the world. But also what is really going on in the middle east. Right. And it was neither pro israel or pro palestinian. It was simply, we have to recognize that there are forces at work here. There are reasons to be, quote, unquote aided, if you will. Well, you know, obviously no american with touch but, but, but the thing is that i think for the sake of the world in the short term, its hard to see whatever country might be in line to displace america in terms of international dominance that id, id want to be living in you know, its a fascinating thing to sort of look and posit the future and, you know, i sort of feel as if we are changing. Were an Inflection Point and dont know what coming next. Ill also tell you then in 2016 i interviewed then Vice President Joe Biden about the domestic political scene in america. And he said to me that the democratic party had become a party of snobs. And that where they did not feel what was happening, the people on the street that had lost their jobs in the financial crisis that were struggling over Race And Identity and drugs and opioids, etc. And that we were getting a lot of this wrong. And i just love, you know, from your, i know that youre deeply ingrained in american waterfront, but you also have a kind of off short perspective. How do you look at biden, in his approach so far . Is he solving this not problem . Or do you suspect that this is going to take much, much more Work And Work through for us to get into a different place . I think he was right on point with those comments. You know, whether hes been able to deal with it. Hes only been an office for a while and hes been overwhelmed by the debacle in couples. I mean, i think i, i think that, you know, the, the retreat, the abandonment in the sense of afghanistan was his cat as a cataclysmic if and uninterrupted as that from saigon in 1975. But in defense of biden, i suppose how else where theyre going to ever get out. And i think it was never going to be pretty and inevitably, whether they like it oR Not, theyre going to lead countless people behind who would undoubtedly become victims of the of the taliban. Or in the case of south vietnamese vietnam. Of the, of the Viet Cong in the north and me is so, but its business of snobbery. I think its true. I mean, i think, you know, i think a big part. I mean, i, i think the trump cohort, if you will, the supporters were not nearly as monolithic as they were often depicted as, as they were reduced to caricature. There is something on the left, particularly in the sort of woke orthodoxy that is particularly infected. The universities were all words walk on egg shells and theres a kind of a almost tear radical orthodoxy of opinion. That if you deviate from you are not only wrong, you are demonized. And this is, im not a university professor. I can, i can say that this is not hyperbole, im not exaggerating. And i think i think that, that kind of, that conceit, the anticipation of, you know, social engineering based on their values alone. The ology of left i think, can be as offensive to people as the, as a kind of intolerance of the right. And thats, thats where we have to somehow find a way to the middle in terms of Balance And Understanding and some kind of recognition that if were going to move our way forward, we have to understand that on any issue of public policy, there cannot be enemies there can only be solutions while i have to say that im just very grateful for a real discussion with real terms, thats candid and not as controlled. So i want to just say thank you very much way davis anthropologist, Botanist Photographer Author explore in residence. Thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you very much, steve. So whats the bottom line . My guest is not the 1st to predict that the american empire and the american dream are fading. What is happening is that american identity at home and abroad are being sorted out, but dont be so quick to dismiss america. Ultimately, the mix of cultures with diverse backgrounds and experiences is a huge strength that most otheR Nations dont have in working through its racism. And the gap between rich and poor, the United States may come back ultimately healthier, and less dysfunctional africa of it. I dont want to sound like a pollyanna, but the soul searching that america is experiencing right now may just be a driver, a positive change. And thats the bottom line. Ah, this is held through morse vicious where the slightest error means a one Way Ticket over the edge. We have that we may not come back to homes, may not meet on childrens breathing. Tough condition, facing death. Every time Theyll Gamble with their lives, just to uninstall risk in its all on our on the streets of Grief And Team Grid Violence is on the rise. The road you have to go from. I will tell them that this is the front of them and increasingly migrant farm workers are victims of vicious beatings. Jo reed asked, lam is helping the pakistani community to find a voice. The stories we dont often hear told by the people who live them undocumented and under attack, this is europe on al jazeera. The news. Ready again, im truly back to boy until how with a headlines on al jazeera, hundreds of haitian Migraine Fixed Spells from the u. S. On repatriation flights have arrived in portal prince. There among the 13000 to gather at a Border Town in texas, up to 7 daily flights of plans in mass 50 for taishan operation. Let and will not. Not. When we didnt want to leave on the Bus And Board the plane, they locked us up in the bus to campus 10. Some women even took a beating the beat men and women know they will be ready to receive and process these migrant