I was struck this week by the report from Iraq that the food aid packs handed out to the Iraqi civilians by the so-called American liberating forces was the same yellow colour as certain bombs that they drop on the people's houses. Real humanitarian organizations expressed concern that Iraqi children, going into the kitchen in the morning for breakfast, would confuse the yellow bomb embedded in the kitchen table for the food pack. In an uncharacteristic move, the US complied with international moral concern and agreed to change the colour of the food packs to apricot, a few shades lighter than the embarrassing and shameful red it should have been.

The greatest international symbol of Americana, McDonalds, is reportedly proud of their heroic representatives in Iraq, although a little disappointed by the necessary change in colour of the food packaging. The colouring played perfectly into McDonald's patriotic strategic plan for expressing American democracy in the Middle East, as well as making a few bucks on the side of course, you know, oil for food kind of thing, but at a recent cabinet meeting held at Camp McDavid they came up with a cunning plan to circumvent the temporary setback. Food packs will now include the McDonald's clown, but with George McW. Bush's smiling made-up face and wearing a US military uniform. Condescending Rice Crispies, the US National Security Advisor, has agreed that it is incredibly cunning and plays perfectly into the US's subtle propaganda agenda.

Spreading American democracy has never been easier, or quicker. Rush in, blow the place out the water and impose on the shell-shocked survivors a democracy they have neither asked for nor participated in. Images of smiling Iraqi's milling around US troops, with news commentators, operating under Pentagon supervision, informing us that civilians are no longer under threat, are deceptive. Who wouldn't smile when they realize that they, their children, their families, are no longer going to die, regardless of who the victors are.

And who wouldn't smile when not stopping at a US fast food democracy outlet, like a checkpoint, results in your death, that of your wife and a bullet in the brain of your two-year-old son.

5 April 2003

Dion Marc Delport

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