I find it somewhat amusing, but also more than a little appropriate, that a local drug gang apparently calls itself the United Nations.
It’s amusing in that you can just imagine these guys thinking they’d thumb their noses at powerful formal institutions such as the (“real”) United Nations. It’s like: “Look at us! We’re the United Nations now!”
But it’s also appropriate. Not simply because the gang was indeed multiracial and international. But because surely (like Haitians, tourists, and terrorists), drug smugglers are also good examples of global citizens, seeking to traverse national boundaries, indeed to leave the orbit of the nation state.
Jon Beasley-Murray is an assistant professor in the Department of French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies. He teaches Latin American Studies.
United Nations (and more global citizens)
By Jon Beasley-Murray,
A quick addendum to my recent post asking Who are the global citizens?
I find it somewhat amusing, but also more than a little appropriate, that a local drug gang apparently calls itself the United Nations.
It’s amusing in that you can just imagine these guys thinking they’d thumb their noses at powerful formal institutions such as the (“real”) United Nations. It’s like: “Look at us! We’re the United Nations now!”
But it’s also appropriate. Not simply because the gang was indeed multiracial and international. But because surely (like Haitians, tourists, and terrorists), drug smugglers are also good examples of global citizens, seeking to traverse national boundaries, indeed to leave the orbit of the nation state.
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Jon Beasley-Murray is an assistant professor in the Department of French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies. He teaches Latin American Studies.