Uncle Sam Research Paper

Uncle Sam and the Third World

Do we, as United States citizens see ourselves bigger and better than small, poor, third world countries? You observe Uncle Sam being very large, well dressed, with small, often unnoticed hints. The people sitting on the ground in the third world are bald, skinny, wearing ragged clothing, colored. This image demonstrates Uncle Sam, or the United States, as being much more powerful and more privileged than third world countries.

Uncle Sam is seen as a very iconic well known representation of the United States and its people. In the political cartoon Uncle Sam is very large, both in weight and in height, and is white while the third world family is people of color, poor, and small. Size means power, and this

is why he is so large compared to the third world family.. It shows how they are not seen as important, compared to other countries. This is not always the case though. The United States will always take care of their own first, but look at the Haiti Earthquake in 2010. Haiti is a very poor third world country that in 2016, only had 1,786 international dollars. This earthquake was a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that caused many deaths, approximately 100,000-316,000, but because it is a third world country, there were little records on its citizens so it was hard to be able to keep record of who died. This is why it is such a large range of people. It also caused great property damage, even more than it would here, because Haiti construction standards are low, having not one building code. They were not able to give the relief that the people needed. Many different countries helped respond to this natural disaster. In a 13 billion dollar relief effort, there were tent shelters set up, food, drinking water, medical care, and many other things giving them relief that they could not get on their own. The United states is without a doubt one of the most powerful countries in the world, spending approximately 3 percent of its gross income on the military. It is well recognized, has good relations with other countries, a well developed system etc. The third world countries are the total opposite. These countries have corrupt governments, are very poor, have little to no clean drinking water, are low on resources, very little access to healthcare, causing disease to spread, like the aid epidemic. This very well could be why the third world family is so thin. Aids along with other vast medical issues could be affecting them, since they have almost no healthcare. We have it pretty well off compared to these countries. Why is that?
The United States is a relatively new political system. When we became an independent nation in 1776, the founding fathers took a lot of their system from the English system they were leaving, and using the parts of the system that they thought were unfair, changed those to make it as honest and true as they thought they could at the time. We have the three levels of government because they did not want the president to have power like the King of England had, at times being cruel and unfair. This system is not like this in third world countries like Haiti, whose leaders in government could be corrupt by cartels and other criminals, with no way to get them out of government.
If you observe the third world family, they are in very ragged and dirty clothing, very skinny, and bald heads.

They are poor and malnourished, fighting everyday for life. Third world countries are called third world countries because they are very underdeveloped, resulting in very poor income, and no businesses wanting to have operations there. This is a great reason why they do not have access to much food. They mainly get by on a hunter gatherer lifestyle, but in lots of countries like Haiti, they have such limited resources, and once the country’s rations run out, then everyone starts to become starved. A lot of these countries, many in Africa, do not have access to clean drinking water. They often do not know this or are so thirsty they do not care, and when they drink it, can cause a magnitude of problems for them, including bacterial infections causing vomiting, diarrhea, resulting in more dehydration and often death because there lack of healthcare can cause diseases we do not think twice about can kill them. I give lots of credit to people living in those countries. They live a very hard life, but most do it the right way. The African country of Somalia is another Third world country but often has great income because of the Somalian Pirates. These are fisherman whose water has been polluted affecting the fish population. To survive, they will hijack boats coming through their waters, and hold the ship and the crew for ransom, often being successful. They use this

money to survive, often feeding their villages. You may think of them as Robin Hoods. You wonder why have other countries not done this yet? It is wrong. These pirates have killed many innocent people, they have the “nothing to lose” mentality, and I do not think a lot of other third world countries want to have a reputation like that.
The ultimate message of this cartoon is the United States has a lot more power and privilege than a lot of countries in the world that are still developing countries, trying to get across the message that we should be grateful for what we have. What the cartoon represents as Americans being fat and happy, while people in third world countries are miserable. Third world countries do not have much to do with us, we should help them when we can and when they are in times of need. We have more than we need at times and they have much less than they need, and if we give that to them, it could benefit them much more than we could lose, financially, and morally we are helping other human beings.