All ze media. So in the inner cities, at least I can say in Los Angeles, there is a tradition called park Day. If you were from what I understand, in a Piru neighborhood, it was more set Day, right, whatever the case may be. It was a day of peace. We were at the park and it was a chance for not rival gangs, but just for like, you know, sets like sometimes that you know, the the hood from San Diego would drive up or La dudes would drive down.
They'd have like kickball, they would barbecue. It was a time for the families. Now I know, out of context this might seem very bizarre, but these were, you know, kind of normal occasions. And one of the things you have to remember is a lot of times them dudes over there and boys over there, you went to the same head start with these guys. A lot of times you play Pop Warner football with these guys. You know,
you you've you kind of know them. You know, when when elementary school ends and then you have to go to the different feeder middle schools, you lose contact. And around middle school normally, at least in the era that I come from, that's around the time that you start sort of self selecting yourself into whatever, like you know, set you're gonna you're gonna be a part of or subculture.
You know. For me, I discovered graffiti and discovered hip hop and you know, and then something cataclysmic happens, like your family splits and you move, and that's what happened with me, Like my family split. You know, my mom went to one part of town, my father went to another part of town. And joint custody is a whole mess. But sometimes that happens. You know, before that splitting, you find yourself moving across town. Now you're in a whole
other thing. So the boys you grew up with went one route, and you know, now you live in this other route. Right, So all the times, you know, those dudes and park Day, like believe it or not, it's like it's kickball, you know, you just like there's barbecue and believe it or not, there's a philanthropic element of park Day where how do I say this? Back to school packs are given and you're giving away backpacks. You know,
there's sometimes the food's free. It's just a potluck. There's a dj like it's really a good time and depending on neighborhood you in, or the rules of the politics, if you will, your neighborhood, like you kind of have to show up for park day, you know, and then sometimes there's a even some squabbles around the fact that you only show up for park day. You only here
for the fun times, you know. But these moments are like, you know, sometimes they could be like a breath of fresh air, you know, and you sort of like get to know your friendly neighborhood gangster. So like everybody's guards down, it's just it's a time right now. In that time, sometimes beefs are squashed where there's like finally a broker ring of certain misunderstandings. Maybe you find out what the
next lick is going to be. But whatever the case may be, there is an exchange of information, of joy, and in some sense is if you were just living in the neighborhood a provision. Some movie tropes that you have grown up with their tropes because they sort of match our experience, you know, when the know, if you've ever seen any sort of New York mob movie, you know, guy going, hey, here's twenty bucks, go carry this over there. You know, how's your mother doing? You know, tell her
tell her thinking about it. You know, you just break the kid off some money, and you know you take care of your mom because again, these neighborhoods aren't that large. That dude knows your mama, the slink Johnson niggas know
yo mama. You know it's just something else. But you know, like the Ojesus, like this dude, you know, went to high school with your auntie, you know, with your cousins, So like you, there's you guys kind of know each other and when there's familiar ties when things come up, I'm just probably gonna look the other way or I'm gonna come to you if I have a particular issue. But most of the time, while there is a loving aspect of this, because you know, gangsters are also humans,
there is a utilitarian part of this. You're investing in your freedom to move about the city. I mean, you could go to every house with a gun with the stick and just be like, my niggas is out here. They ready to slide, so don't nobody say shit. You could do that, or you could be like, man, I mean this, you know this man is I mean bought my school supplies, you know what I mean? Like you always look out for me. You know what I'm saying,
Like he done ran off, which was my experience. When these big boys they run off, the guy's picking on you. At that point, I'm going to defer to them. Think, if you ain't got your head about you, you start truly trusting these people as your protectors, right, and then you feel an obligation to give back. Right. So when when opportunities arise, say someone like myself, for example, let's just say you start having decent career. You know, then when big homie says his little cousin been doing is
like rhyme and his shit. That's so they say, eve rhyme and his shit. You know, he gonna tap in with me to be like, hey, man, talk to my little I mean, of course, yeah, I'm gona talk to I'm gonna talk to the homies. You know, nephew, you feel me now, this man, this og is very dangerous. I know that. I know that at anymore, all this can change. And again, if you don't keep your head
about you, you might forget that. But these experiences are creating what we call soft power, which is what I want to talk to y'all today about and why usaid actually matters hood politics. Y'all. All right, welcome everybody. I've missed y'all. Not that I ever see you, guys, but I've missed y'all. I've missed doing the show like this. I've been on the road to go to All Star Weekend, which was crazy. You know, that was super fun. I went to a poker game and didn't play a single hand,
but I was at the building. Know. Then after that, I went up to Vancouver to Keats Island to this thing called Sanctuary, which was pretty dope. It was about art, spirituality and mental health and want to help church folks talk about mental health better, which was a great thing to be a part of. Sawce Homi's there. These is what I like to call my white friends. But then I made some black friends, y'all saying shout out to to to Johnny Lane. What I'm saying, it was a
good time. I was glad, glad to be a part of something like that, especially when you could say ass at church, you know what I'm saying. Anyway, it was a good time. But I'm glad to be back in the seat here. This is teacher prop again. As you know, we put out a survey to try to see, like what y'all like if the menu is up to y'all's liking. Teacher prop seems to get a whole lot of feedback
and desires. So I'm going to try to have more teacher prop episodes like we did with it birthright citizenship. You no, we're not taught about how to how to how to schoe this works? You feel me? So this teacher prop in the building. So I want to talk to you all about us AI D. I'm sure unless you work in philanthropy and nonprofit sector or in humanitarian peacemaking, peace building, unless you work in these spaces, you ain't never heard of nothing like this and how much money
it actually spent. So I when to talk about its origins, and it seems like it would be such a great thing, you know, but that great thing. Almost everything in this world got two utilities. This is one of those things, which is why I started this episode the way I did that is really the circle VENN diagram, where it's just one circle of how the street politics in some
senses really overlap with geopolitical politics. Again, if you understand ood, you understand politics like this is one of those crazy sort of overlaps. So this is actually going to once we're done with talking about this, besides all the history and the facts of stuff, you're gonna already know this
stuff You're gonna realize. Yeah, I kind of already knew this, And I'm gonna make an argument as to why gutting USAID really not only puts the bag in danger, puts our immune systems in danger, and ain't nobody gonna have our back, which is why this episode is called Girl you seem to love me? Now? Will you love me if I was down and out? Will you still have love for me? Girl recipes snake dog E What a unique voice. I have some personal connections to this before
I get into the history of it. The personal connections are, first of all, my introduction to USAID and what I'm gonna talk to you guys about pep FARV and these. If you think your field, if you think your world got some acronyms, got some jargon, right, would blow your mind. I came from education, so without teaching. When I would teach a high school, the amount of acronyms to try to keep up with was like Pokemon cards. It was like, I mean, it's like keeping up with stats in seventeen sports.
Ain't no way in the world you can keep up with all these things unless that's your life. Right. Government's even worse the amount of acronyms. But I'm gonna talk to y'all about Pep Bharf, talk to y'all about USAID. I've experienced with both of them. My introduction in USAID came in, i want to say, twenty fifteen, sort of from two different sources that kind of made them both work together. First was the One Campaign that's Bono's joint. Now, the history of the One Campaign had a lot to
do with World hunger and AIDS. Now, they had called up leaders in music that have some sort of faith angle to lobby the Congress to continue this funding. Right, but the origins of even why they called us to be a part of this it will be a word salad. But anyway, we had a training from what like they say on the Capitol Hill, like the policy wonks. Those are the people that just like they be the ones in the weeds that like can tell you that that
actually that actually read read the law. You know what I'm saying, y'all know you hear on the news. They be like, Yo, this was a one thousand page document. Nobody's reading a one thousand page If there's anything chat GPT should be for, nobody is reading a one thousand page document. I know. My voice just peaked right now. And Matt keep the peak. No one should read a
one thousand page document. But somebody do those be the policy wonks, but you should be able to run a document through chat GPT to be like, what the hell does this say? You know? So they sat us down and they made an argument or built a case as to why this was important, right, and why this was important believe it or not? Goes back to President Bush and are you all ready for this? All my ex evangelicals and the newsboys, Oh my god, the newsboys. So
I might as well just jump into this. So okay, So one campaign in Peth card Bono got hipped to suffering everywhere, Okay, right, Bono got hip to the AIDS epidemic. All this stuff was going on, and age was raging through Africa and obviously raging through America, right so so, so AIDS was whooping everybody. Ass Now, somehow news got out that George Bush got saved. So George Bush is believe it now, and George Bush is listening to Christian rock. Right,
So Bono had this idea. He hooked up with this man. Now listen again. Now, if you don't know nothing about White Church, these names don't mean nothing to you. But he hooked up with Michael W. Smith. Bono, Yes, Bono hooked up with Michael W. Smith and called up the newsboys,
Michael tating them DC talk listen these days, I think. Listen, I know I'm saying stuff that if you, if you, if you White Church adjacent, this is bonkers to you, right, the rest of y'all trust me, this is the if it didn't end so well, this would be the funniest story you've ever heard. So anyway, since George Bush, now this I'm talking about, Junior, since George Bush now spost to be supposed to be a Christian man, he stopped drinking. You know, remember he was party animal, you know, so
he stopped drinking. This aide research and this medicine that has been that was that was being developed, that America had and had the bread to spread out. If we were to just share the wealth a little bit, you could pretty much eradicate a getting it if it's not gonna go away. I don't know. If you know how our age medicines work, It's like it doesn't get rid
of it, but it keeps the cells to undetectable. Right, So if you depending on your case, if you you know you you you keep your meds, if you keep your meds up, you could essentially live a normalized life even have you know, sexual intercourse, because you're at a levels of undetectable. So it's a great thing, absolutely saving lives.
I mean people was dying. So anyway, Bono got these people, these Christian artists to sit down with George Bush Junior and make a theological case that this is you loving your neighbor and you now this new Christian right, you being a global citizen. This is you when the scripture talks about Jesus saying depart from me, I never knew you, and then saying to these other people like, hey, when I was poor, you cover me, when I was hungry, you fed me. When I was in prison, you took
care of me. And they say, when did you? When did we do that? He said, when you helped the poor, when you served the needy, you weren't just serving them, you were serving me. That's the Jesus that we grew up with. You feel me. So so they make this argument to President Bush, I know, war mon gird drone striking, I know, and make the argument to him and he like, well, goddamn, yeah, cud let let's do this. Now. You want to take a picture with me. Gotta take a picture with you, Sirtain.
You like, I can't understate how big of a star Michael W. Smith was, which I know for thousands of you, this is the first time you've ever heard that word the words together. But please, please, please, please please please trust me. He's he there, him, he there, Bono he he White Evangelical CC and Bono Michael W. Smith Like, I don't. I almost I almost don't want you to
google it. I mean, you gonna do it, but I almost don't want you because there is no way that the music that's gonna come out them speakers, that's gonna come out your earbuds is matching the story I'm telling you right now. I know, I already know. I'll tell you I've been in some green rooms where I was
like him. That's y'all one, Okay, anyway, So this is the origin story of PEP FARV and believe it or not, AIDS dropped when I say when I say in half, when I say the number of deaths, you had to understand, like you, I can't, I can't. I don't know how to transfer you back to the eighties, to when we didn't know what the hell AIDS was, when they used to think it was a gay disease. Like, listen, people were I mean, you thought we thought a lot of
people during COVID. You thought hospitals was overran during COVID. BR people were like dieing with an incurable Are you listening to me? When I say an incurable disease? How freaky that is to a nineteen nineties brain. This is incurable. You are going to die from this. It's just a matter of time. Well, what's the disease? How the hell do I know? We don't even know what the disease is. It's AIDS whatever, I don't know. We was gonna call
it AIDS, immunity immune deficiency syndrome. We don't know TADES. You're gonna die. But we got these pills though, which is another reason why I really don't understand why they trying to bi doze in them is cutting the CDC. Because the one thing that we got in common, one thing that we got that we leading in. That's good. We are definitely leading in incarcerating our citizens, We are definitely leading in mass shootings. Were the best in the world for both of them things. But we also the
best of the world in medical research. We really are ahead of the game when it comes to breakthroughs in medicine. And for some reason, these people are hell bent on taking w's off the table, Like why you keep you keep removing your wins. Operation ward Speed was a win. You trying to remove that. I don't understand why you want to remove your wins. The trade deal? All this trade deal is a joke. Like I said last month,
that was your You brokeer that deal. Like why the second black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ever was a Trump appointee. You just removed it. Why do you not want your wins? I don't understand. So this was one of the American wins was wait, let me back up. I was sold this story in Capitol Hill while preppering to go make an argument to keep doing this right. That was an amazing, amazing thing that I
got to experience that I'm very thankful for. And you got to and we got to meet our congress, our congress, our senators. Now, oftentimes you don't meet the senator themselves unless you're really lucky. Most of the time you meet with one of the staffers, and the staffers pretends to take notes, go in there and telling me. But again, whether I know what I'm talking about or not, whether I am making an argument or not. Again, believe it
or not, these people truly do work for you. They truly do care, They truly do want to know what the streets is saying. When it comes to the things, it's not just who's gonna keep giving me power? Because listen, if see, if you can follow me on this, on the politics of it all, I can't take a No one's gonna want to bribe me if I'm a politician with no power, So follow me. You could say, back end deals and all that stuff is real, Like don't
you're wrong? All the back end deal stuff is real like that, like, oh, well there's this lobbyist and then there's this person, and then there's this person. Now, if you a lobbyist why would I lobby somebody who ain't got no pull in they hood? So you know what that means is you have to remain for you to even be able to get the kickback, for you to be able to even be lobbied, for these people to even care, you gotta have some pull. So you need to protect your pull, not just so you could keep
your job, so you could keep getting them sweet bribes. Baby, you know what I'm saying, you don't get none of the perks. So, in a weird, twisted way, my California representative needs to know if I represent hundreds of thousands of people, if the words I'm bringing to you represent really the will of the street. Like like I said, like Kendrick saying, I'm what the culture feels. I'm saying what the culture feels, And if you had any sense, you would be like, wait, is he saying what the
culture feels? Because if he's saying what the culture feels, I better listen to young brother right here, because if I don't listen to young brother, then I am messing up my own bag. Is you following? Is you picking up what your boy is trying to teach you? Politics? Fam at a chance me and the doc ZP refer to her by her prefix doctor Olma. We had a chance to go meet with a couple of senators and congress men and women to make our case as to like, yeah,
you need to you need to keep doing this. My second introduction to artists to USA in the aid that we do across the world was this story that I told in my book as that I said, one day I'll tell you about the most whitest email I've ever gotten in my life. I told you all about the second. If you read the Terrorform book Building a Better World please Terrorform by Propaganda, the poetry and short story, go
check that out. I talk about the first, the second most whitest email I've ever gotten in my life, and that was to go to Montana to go fly fishing with a bunch of men. It was a incredibly in prairie dog hunting. I was like, yeah, this is white as hale. I'm good I ended up going. It was a great time. Try new things, guys. But the first whitest was this one. The email was just and I'm glad I went again again. More of the story try
new things. That's where actually where I met the poet of Jasmine Man's like I met her at this thing. Shout out Jasmine an incredible, credible poet. She has merch that says byeweed for women. She's dope. But I got invited to this thing that took place an hour outside of Nashville at a resort center in the woods. Now when I say resort center, it's more like a retreat center. And for me, when I hear Tennessee retreat center, I
think former plantation. So there's already that you don't convert the plantation, And I'm gonna come here and feel comfortable, Like That's what I was thinking at first, right, But the email was entitled horibital Perspective. Now the word salad I'm about to tell you about this is makes it even more fun. But anyway, they talked about that if the science is right, if the aide stays together, you know, according to the researcher from the One campaign and other
philanthropic and humanitarian organizations. Now this was the year that Trump first got elected. I said that if we if we stay on the route, if we continue to do what we're planning on doing in thirty years, we could end world hunger. Which is part of again with the one campaigns directive that if this was twenty sixteen, if we continue to use the USAID funding in the projects that we just have going to, if we just stick to the plan, don't increase it. You ain't got you
ain't got to increase it. If we just stick to the plan in thirty years, we could end world hunger. That was the argument. So what they wanted to do was to get us millennials because the Michael W. Smithson in the newsboys they done aged out. So they need the young shooters right to come in here who are globally aware, have some sort of faith foundation to come talk to y'all about ending world hunger. I don't know why you need a faith to do that, that seems anyway. Now.
The side note about all this is, of all the money that you spend on USAID as part of the budget of the national budget, it's less than two I mean, it's the difference between you buying a second beer once for the whole year. That's how much money we talk about in relation to let's just say, in three hundred and sixty five days you went to Chipotle every day. I don't know what's wrong with your stomach and why
you would choose to do that. But if you would if one of those days, if on March second, you said, you know what, I'm not going to get the avocado today, that's how much money we talk about. That's it. Everything you spent the entire your entire year's salary the one time you got alvocado. That's what we're saying. Now. I know alvocado is expensive, That's why I'm using that comparison, but I'm just saying, of the when compared to your rent every month and every bill you got in all
the money you made, we talk about extra avocado. That's what we talking about. But anyway, that extra avocado saved millions of lives. Is the point they're trying to make. You could end world hunger, so we need to make a case for that. So us not knowing Trump one oh one, just having a feeling about Trump one oh one. When they said all right, it's up for it's up for like renewal. Usaid the money to end world hunger, it's up for renewal. We were like, they got renew it.
He was like nah. So they was like listen, we got to like we got to figure out how to make a groundswell, right, pressure the administration to not stop this. Now this was the first this was the first Trump administration. Right, So we need to make music, we need to do do whatever we need to do to use our social medias whatever the case. They basically like they need a new voice that is protecting the moral compass of America as a global institution. Is the wait for which they
sold us to us? Now here's here's a freebie. Okay, this was put together by the Gates Foundation. Now, before you judge me, I had never heard of the Gates Foundation. I just knew these people were very kind for which that I met, in the way for which they treated me. I was like, this is dope. It's to me. These are nameless and faceless white people. Said they're billionaire philanthropists who want to see the world be better, and I
was like, huh. Never connected the dots, even when they said Bill and Melinda, never connected the dots, had no idea what they were talking about. The thought never crossed my mind that the Microsoft document had anything to do with the fact that I'm sitting out here in Nashville. No zero, y'all can judge me. I can feel you judging me through the screen. I had no idea. I just knew that fool's cool. I just talked about this. You've ever been in the institution that you like? Yo,
this institution is trash, but that fool's dope. It was kind of that scenario. They're cool. You know. I'm speaking my mind, having a great time. The story gets better, just a freebet, y'all. Listen. I just get a video call and they said, hey, our staff really enjoyed, said they really enjoyed their time, and your wisdom and your
intellect and your insight. They were really really impressed. And everybody reported back to Bill and Melinda that like that you were You're a very important voice in this world, and he would like to have dinner with you. We'll send a flight for you tonight if you're down. Now this is like three point thirty PM. And at the time I get this text, I am driving to my oldest daughter's ballet rehearsal. She's got dance class. I'm just in a parking lot, right. It's my turn to do
the after school activities. We just I just did the pickups. She got on her little leotard, you know, two to two whatever, and we was going to we're dance practice. I'm just being a dad. Now, keep in mind, I just got back from this trip that I'm telling you about. Now, let me ask you this. Any of y'all cis gender or not even sister? Any of y'all married to a female? Let me ask you this is she? Is you married
to a latina? Is you gonna tell this woman who's been working all day after you had been gone for a week, that you're gonna drop your child off ahead to the airport again right before dinnertime? You gonna tell her today you're talking about, I'm gonna send you a flight. Bro. Let me get this straight. You want me to get on You want me to walk into this You want me to walk into this house and tell this woman I'm leaving again for dinner. So I'm thinking you are.
I'm gonna leave. I gotta drive all the way to the airport. You gonna catch you, You gonna send me. You gonna pay for my plane? Like, oh, so you're gonna pay for my flight tonight? Bro, it's to hurry like dog, like I got a booking agent. You're not gonna go through my system. I'm good. So I was like, all right, let me see what's up. I just ignored it. Listen y'all. When he said I'm gonna send you a flight, I know now he meant I am going to send a plane.
You have to remember, I still don't know that Bill Gates is Bill Gates. I've not connected the dot in any way. So so they don't send the plane. I forget about it. I mean two to three years later I run into one of the employees that was at the thing, or one of the visitors, or I ran into somebody that was at the stuff, and they go, yeah, that was the Gates Foundation. And I was like, huh. There was like Bill and Melinda Gates and I was like yeah, they were like prop as in Bill Gates.
I was like what when I tell you? I was like, are you serious? They even said we're gonna fly you to Seattle for dinner. I still did not connect the dot. It wasn't until two to three years later I ran into and then almost ten years later, almost no, like six seven years later, I ran into that assistant at the watch This the word Salad in Portland, Oregon at
the Moloma Whiskey Library. I ran into him and I told him that story, and he was like, I remember that, And I remember thinking, prop must be the coolest man on earth who turns down Bill Gates somebody that don't know is Bill Gates. Anyway, That's how I found out what USAID was.
Now let's get to the history.
Ir back now. So that's my story as to how I understand it. But let me teach y'all about where it comes from and what its real purpose is. So USAID started in nineteen sixty one by John F. Kennedy. It was an executive order. Now, one might think that the reason for doing this, I mean, there's war, there's famine, there's horrible things going on all over the world, would be self evident. You do it because it's the right thing to do. But do we ever do anything because
it's the right thing to do? I mean, you must be new here. You tell me, you tell me what thing is in American culture, especially at the governmental level, that's altruistic. Why did we go to the moon? You remember we talked about this before. While we go to the Moon, Well, one, we was developing nuclear weapons, and so the technology was therein two. It was a pisson contest, right, It's this is the Cold War, and during the Cold War all things are pissing context right, like everything whose
way of life is going to win? This is a without being cornery, this is a world order issue, like I know, like New World Order NWA, suck it, degeneration x I get it right, That's not what I'm talking about. I mean, by definition a world order, what's going to win capitalism and democracies or communism and socialism. This is
a way of life that is existential to the European powers. Now, keep in mind because wealth has been hoarded so much by these countries that you and I talk about as the world, which again, if you got a little melanin you understand it. This is a very small faction, but they just hold most of the wealth in the world. To exert those powers, you can go the Roman Empire route, you could go the Alexander the Great route and just go conquer them and just throw flag on top of them.
That's how colonialism and perialism works, right. You just make them subjects to your sphere of influence, which I remember in high school is like my favorite word. Just like in the hood, you could just go just go bust missions and I mean you start beating, you start beating heads in You could do that, right, you start taking lunch money and robbing bikes, and niggas will learn. I mean you could. But is that always the best route? Is that always the best route to secure people's silence,
people's allegiance? Because who hasn't heard the phrase, you know, you catch more bees with honey. Again, we're talking about a time where there's this like biblical level fight in the eyes of the Western countries for how the world is going to look for the next hundreds of thousands of years, well not thousands of years, but for the next hundreds of years, will democracy prevail? You have to remember, in the eyes of the West, Russia represented everything wrong
with the world. And the other problem with Russia in the Red Scare and all this stuff Macarthyism, is the fact that like they're actually closer physically to the rest of the world. We way over here on the other hemisphere, we're not connected to none of these other European powers. We way over here connected with this. That's why we were so scared about Cuba, That's why we were so
scared about Iran. Contra all this stuff, because it's this idea that like, I can't have no one blood set just over here in my neighborhood, like you allegiance to the Pyrus. I can't have you. We can't have that. That was the attitude. So Kennedy say this, Well, rather than running up there with guns, why don't we run up there with food. Now, you have to remember they was playing from behind, since Russia got all this bread and they already communists, they already socialists. They like, well,
we'll help you. We right next door, We'll take care of you. Don't worry about it's so then when the big bad Americans come, dude, just remember who took care of you. America was like, bet you right. So we stopped coming with guns, and you know, we started coming with We started coming with food, with medicine, building schools, building hospitals, paving roads, providing resources, and we not stupid.
You slap your logo on there. You think this person in the middle of Zimbabwe, this person in Chile, when they when they walk, when they when that person come from out the mountains, right, come from down from the from the from the mountains. Because you just need some penicillin for your baby because your baby might die. And then you walk it to the clinic, and the clinic got a little emblem right on the counter with the American flag, and it says in Spanish, you know, greetings
from Gustavos who negos gasi ia migos as sulfamilia. You think they remember that. Let me tell you how I know they remember that. I remember I was torn through South Africa and one of the one of the the the promoters that brought us out was from Zimbabwe. We was talking politics or whatever, right, and he told me his his hero was Momar Kadaffi. And I was like, I'm sorry, sorry, what I've never heard anyone say that. Then he started explaining how every school he went to
was built by Kadafi. I was like, he says, you ask anyone in Africa their doctor's Cuban. It's a trope, the Cuban doctor, because it's only us they got a problem with Cuba. Cuba been sending doctors all over the world, all over these third world countries, all over these If think about it for a second, child, just use your antennas. If push come to shove, If America were to attack the nation of the people that provided your clinic. Who do you think they're gonna side with America? Wasn't stupid?
We need to be the clinic. So if we the clinic, if we're the ones that investing in your infrastructure, if we're the ones that are taking care of your children, if we're the ones that are digging wells and providing food when you get up, when your nations get up, and especially in Africa, follow me, there's not a single natural resource that Africa ain't abundance in that that that that precious coal, balt you know what I'm talking about.
That's keeping your iPhone sixteen up, that nickel that we need to make these up solar panel that comes from Africa. So when your country figures out how to export them things, Ay a hey, remember remember who helped you build this infrastrcuar. Remember who paved this road? Uh huh? Remember remember who Remember that flag that was on that We've been taking care of that flag that was on that that that clinic. We've been taking care of y'all for a long time.
Uh huh. We while your babies are alive, while your boys are healthy, while y'all not dying of AIDS. So when it's time to start trading, why would you trade with Russia? What they do for you, they wasn't here for you. And let me ask you this. Let's just say you decided to trade with both of them. I need a better deal because I don't already invested a whole lot of money. You was about to have no mail.
They was gonna you were gonna you weren't gonna have a work force if we didn't provide this medicine for you. So I feel like you need to hook us up. I feel like me and you. I feel like I have a say over who you trade with and who you don't trade with, because you alive because of us. What I am describing to you is called soft power. That's what I mean by like, ain't nobody boy scouts.
I'm guaranteeing that I can continue to strip you of resources and you will gladly let me do it, rather than me sending troops down there to take it from you. It is at this point when we start singing Nate Dog again. Girl, you see you to love me? Now, everybody love it and see that's now listen, that's Trump's argument. Love us now while we're paying for you, will you love us when we down and out? Will you still have love for me? Because that's hard power. Now let
me back up. That's the logic. Now, let me back up. There was this book called The Ugly American that Kennedy almost wanted to make all the diplomats read because the trope about loud, gross, obnoxious Americans. It's a trope for a reason. Our diplomats used to be like that. We go to the Orient, the Orient wow, because I'm using the sixties terms. We would go to Asia, nigger order French fries. It's place socks. There's no burgers, just nasty,
obnoxious hot dog shoving in your face. American difference. Don't did no homework, did no research, ain't got no decoral We walk it all over the world talking about, hey, we hear homie, Where the where the hoes at these countries, just like I can't stand the Americans. Russia comes in different, Russia come in low key, Russia understand culture. So it
was like, listen, man, we gotta change our ways. We can't just come in here and just be in these boisterous, annoying upshots that swear we know everything you gotta chill bro and hence the birth of USAID. And it continued on another way that USAID, which I realized seven told you what it have stood for. It stands for the United States Agent see for International Development, and it's also us AID USAID, right, so you know they think they
got bars. Anyway, when the world shifted from the Cold War and just being like America's got a bad reputation, the next issue was post nine to eleven, it's terrorism again, we had a bad reputation. Our reputation is we come in, destabilize your country and then leave take your oil. And when a country is destabilized, like we said in all of the you wasn't outside episodes, you're just making This is how you create radicalization. Do you think I'm gonna
have You've bombed us to the Stone age? What love would I have for you? Are? Like, are you crazy? Of course I'm gonna get radicalized. I just watched you. Like there's a song on my ep terra Form the People. It's called we were only ten And it's a comparison of the things that turn someone to the streets compared to the things that radicalize a person, like all through the Middle East. This, this extremism was being birthed, not out of nowhere. It was a natural response to targeted
air strikes, to removals of presidents. Do you like, my god, the fucking aroundery of what America has done in this region, Like it's it's a college level PhD course, the amount of tomfoolery we have done in the Middle East, Like like funding both sides of civil wars, Like just the mouth of bullshit we've done there. You're gonna your attitude is gonna be like, man, fuck America, Like why wouldn't
it be like that? It's just we are of horrible reputation, and for some reason, the light bulb didn't turn on about America that this the way that the Middle East feels about us until nine to eleven, that for some reason we thought something was wrong with they. Religion is what turning them into this. No, why is America the great evil? Because y'all be evil, y'all be treated us terribly. Somebody went, Okay, now we gotta do better. We gotta do better around the world. So we switched our brains
from world destroying to world building. So all those infrastructure things where we're supposed to be going in there and we're supposed to be rebuilding nations with our monies. That stuff was because the light bulb turned on that you can't just be a bully everywhere. You gotta like help in some ways. Now, this is where a lot of the like when you go back and look at well, has any of this stuff worked? This is where a lot of the like the drama starts setting in because
it in a lot of places it didn't work. We spent a ton of money only for the nation to not look any different. It a great example of stuff in our lifetime, like the Fall of the Taliban gave birth to isis like that where it's just like it didn't do what you thought it was gonna do a lot of programs that got put together ended up being not a good use of our money because it didn't not only did it not help these people, it didn't secure us in any way. It had no utility utilitarian, yeah,
it had no utilitarian in service anyway. It's messy. Like I said, for sixty years, it has been a way that not only have we exerted power, but we've also kept diseases out of our country because the world is global. The world is interconnected. Think about ebola, think about other diseases that could have traveled here. A lot of those things stop at their nation's border. Why because we send doctors. Are we doing that because we love them? Absolutely not.
We're doing that so disease don't come here. That that's not obvious to you. It should have been. So if that's what we're doing, why would we stop? Because one could make a very clear argument that a big reason why war is rarely, if ever, played out on our soil is because of soft power. Why people continue to trade with us, it's because we take care of them. Do you want to do you if you the other country, you want that to stop? Do you want us to
stop sending aid? You want us to stop building roads for you? Then go ahead on take your chances. This practice has continued on again. If you travel because now we're not just talking about Russia, were talking about China now, because when you travel through Africa, guests who's building their roads now? Who's building their airports? Now? There's even a discussion among African activists that are just like, are y'all did not was y'all not here last semester? Don't y'all
know what's happening right now. These people are giving us these things not because they love us. They're exerting power. I am you. They building airports and paving roads so that they trucks can take your resources and fly them back to China. They just built their own road for it. Is that terrible? Yes? Do we got the right to say it's terrible? No? Because that's what we did. Are y'all following? Are you following me right now? Now? Is there corruption in USA? I d is their frivolous spending?
Of course, there is a lot of frivolous spending. There's even arguments for things that you know didn't work. There was a program in Afghanistan to give women job training and put them into the workforce as a way to help liberate this place. And they say, of that program, the thousands of women that are part of that program, eight eight girls got a job. That's that's a fail. I don't know how else to explain it. That's a fail.
But then there's other programs that, like I said, I know firsthand through Search for Common Ground, through preemptive love. Before I was with Search for Common Ground, I'm reading emails I got a I got a board meeting next week to discuss the programs that are ending. If you can go back to the first Terrorform episode I did with Shamil or Shamil shaml Idris, the CEO of Search for Common Ground, we did this around this time last year.
I encourage you to pull that up and just listen to the programs that he talks about and even the work that they've done in Palestine. Right now, it's like these are these are real lives and real consequences that from a humanitarian perspective are very scary. But just from a sheer utilitarian perspective, people remember who abandoned them. People remember who take care of them. This is why you need soft power now. Obviously, Trump and Elon and them,
they don't believe in no soft power. They believe in leverage. Now. Granted, soft power and leverage might be synonyms, but their version of that leverage is the stick. It's you either do this or I beat your ass. Now, as a parent, this is the case I'm gonna make, at least a parent trying to be better at it uses a combination of these things, soft power and hard power. If you come from a more melanated home. When a dinner plate is set in front of you, you already know where
I'm going with this. You eat what I give you right now. If you don't like it, you can have sleep for dinner, because I'm not. This is what you can that's authoritative hard power. It's either I know your options, is this or nothing? You can go to bed. Then there's other ways to say, hey, listen, it's real simple. I've provided this for you. There are a few options. If this is completed, there is a dessert for you. Now. If you choose not to eat this, then you have
chosen to not eat your dessert right now. Refrigerator's fine. You can get up and I'm not Your hands aren't broken. You can make your own I'm not cooking another thing. But if you would like something else, I require for you to eat a vegetable to have these things like you, you can do this, but if you do that, there is no dessert for you. Dessert comes from finishing the meal that I've made for you. That's it's a different type of power. Right So, then as the child, you remember, okay,
there's something in it for me. If I just trump prefers the authoritative power. Now, if you got again any sense, the case is you need a combination of both. Again, if we're talking sheer utilitarian, you just need to you you don't. You don't go one way or the other, because, as any bully knows, it's exhausted. It's exhausting. You can't play king of the hill all the time. You can't always be like what what what what? At some point, these people gotta want to listen to you, because if not,
all they gonna do is hunt for cracks. They're gonna wait for moments of weakness. They're gonna watch you real clothes. And why they watching you real close? It's somebody over here saying, hey, hey, you don't have to live like this, do you? Are you hungry? Let me take you to dinner. And they gonna remember that. So usaid came out of an understanding from the Cold War that we have to have a better reputation in America because if we don't, Russia going in. Oh, and maybe we'll stop some diseases
from being brought here by them dirty brown folk. All right, now, don't you hit stop on this pod. You better listen to these credits. I need you to finish this thing so I can get the download numbers. Okay, so don't stop it yet, but listen. This was recorded in East Lost Boyle Heights by your boy Propaganda. Tap in with me at prop hip hop dot com. If you're in the Coldbrew coffee we got terraform Coldbrew. You can go there dot com and use promo code hood get twenty
percent off. Get yourself some coffee. This was mixed, edited and mastered by your boy Matt Alsowski Killing the Beat Softly. Check out his website Matdowsofski dot com. I'm a speller for you because I know m A T T O S O w s ki dot com Matthowsowski dot com. He got more music and stuff like that on there, so gonna check out the heat. Politics is a member of cool Zone Media, Executive produced by Sophie Lichterman, part of the iHeartMedia podcast network. Your theme music and scoring
is also by the one and overly Mattowsowski. Still killing the beat softly, So listen, don't let nobody lie to you. If you understand urban living, you understand politics. These people is not smarter than you. We'll see y'all next week.