American Dream

Also known as, capitalism, or the fire that will ravage all of our dreams if we let it

Dear friends,

I wrote a letter about a month ago now and still haven’t published it. I don’t think I can. In recent months and years, I have become increasingly aware of the dangers of writing about Hong Kong. At first, I thought, I’ll do it anyway. I’ll publish it, because it matters, and because it’s the truth. And if the consequences come, then let them. But I can’t. Because the consequences indon’t just affect me. They affect my loved ones. And that’s how they get people, isn’t it? For years now, I have been wary of self-censoring, because isn’t that what they want? To intimidate people into silence? But I am trying to think of this not as silence but as a way to continue for longer. I want to dream of more creative ways to make, and think, and write about the things that matter to me. What are ways that can ensure more longevity? Longer term impact?

I have not forgotten. So many people are still waiting for a more opportune time, to survive until then.

In the meantime, there are so many things that matter, that we should be talking about. The bookstore arrests in Hong Kong, the wildfires in Canada, the continual United States air strikes in Iran, and the Palestinians who keep being murdered and killed across Gaza. I couldn’t write about it all today, but know that I am thinking about them as things unfold, and as I continue to write and think about how to do so safely.

This past Monday, I had to move my things into a new storage unit. I had gotten help moving my boxes from a company that had hired two movers, a Montenegrin man who had been in the country for about five years, and a Serbian man who’d just arrived in New York a month ago. After we filled the back of the van with my boxes, they pulled a pink cardboard box from the back of the van. It was the size of cheap boxed wine. They pulled a moving blanket and spent a few minutes finagling it into the front of the car. A few minutes later, we were on the road, the two of them sitting in the driver’s and front seat of the car, and me in between them, sitting in a make shift seat comprised of the pink cardboard box and the blanket on top of it. It was surprisingly comfortable. They each told me about their time in the United States, how exhausting it was to live here. I asked if they liked it. The Montenegrin man shrugged.

There’s no life here. It’s just work. Every day, I work. I have no social life. Even the rich people. I know very rich people. Do you think they enjoy life? No. They just work. They have all this money, and all they do is work, to try to keep making money. You think you come here for the American Dream, but what dream? This cannot be it.

As he said this, I pointed.

American Dream. A sign, an actual sign.

He laughed. The American Dream. This is not it either.

I’ve been reflecting on life in America, life under capitalism. It isn’t just America that is under this system. It’s the whole world. I looked up American Dream after I came back from the storage unit. It’s a park, North America’s largest indoor water park, in New Jersey, right off of the highway. There’s a mall there, and restaurants.

I think about the amount of money that has gone into this water park. The amount of money it is supposed to make. The lights they keep on inside. The water. The real estate, and vast emptiness. I think about all the AI data centres that are being built, that have already been built. The forests that have been cut down and communities that have been denied of clean, fresh water in order that AI mega data centres can be built. At this very moment, over 830 wildfires are burning across Canada, with over 100 considered out of control. More 115 million people are likely to be affected by the smoke and unhealthy air quality. Meanwhile, people continue to write articles about how AI can more accurately predict future fires. Meanwhile, people continue to boast about how AI can make videos about the fire, how AI can map out where the fires are and where they will continue to go. Do people still believe climate change isn’t real? Do people really believe that these fires are not directly correlated to us? To the way you ask ChatGPT about your skin rash or to help you craft a text to your roommate about why she hasn’t taken out the garbage?

And then there is the actual violence that so many of us have become numb to, that has become normalised.

This past week alone, three people have been shot and killed by ICE in the United States. First, on July 7^th, ICE agents in Texas shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old man, following a routine traffic stop. He had been driving a work crew to a construction site. He was unarmed. ICE claimed he used his vehicle as a weapon, but this could not have been farther from the truth. He was a husband and a father of three children. He owned a small construction business. His son, Ronaldo Salgado, is a teacher, and said his father had “dedicated his life to giving his family the American dream.”

This isn’t a newsletter about America or the American dream, but it is one about justice, freedom, and the ways that they are intertwined around the world. And most importantly today, it is about how capitalism has shackled us as a society. Whenever I see Hong Kong activists or politicians try to reach out to western powers or leaders, such as Donald Trump, for support, I am baffled. It is evident to me – and I believe many of you – that Trump, for example, and therefore many western countries, are interested primarily in their own (economic) wellbeing. What can supporting Hong Kong do for their financial gain? And if it has nothing to offer, then why should they help? This is true not only for the west, but also our leaders in the East. This is why I believe to fight against injustice in one place is to fight against it in all places. We cannot ask Trump for help knowing what he does to the people in his own nation, knowing the ways that he not only enacts and supports violence, but actively belittles the people who suffer as a result of it. This is not how we become free, it is how we become even further bound to the violence that comes with capitalistic greed and selfishness.

This past Monday, Jesús Manuel Arenas-Silva, a 45-year-old Venezuelan man, died while being transferred between ICE detention facility in Georgia. He was the 22^nd person to die in ICE custody this year alone. During his detention, ICE did not provide him with necessary medications, despite his family’s pleas. And on the same day that Arenas-Silva died, Mexico began filing complaints to the US state and federal prosecutors to request criminal investigations for the 17 Mexicans who have now died in ICE detention facilities. These facilities are managed by private for-profit companies, to which Mexico has also sent cease-and-desist letters.

The fact that these facilities are managed by for-profit companies means that there are individuals around the country and world who are profiting off of these deaths, and the violence and neglect enacted on these individuals. It isn’t just about America and who Americans vote for, but the ways that we spend our money as a global society, and how we understand where that money goes. The money we spend on Amazon, on food deliveries and groceries. Where does it all go?

On July 13^th, ICE agents killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrego, a 26-year-old unarmed Colombian immigrant. He had been working two jobs. He was a food delivery driver and a late-night cleaner at a veterinary clinic. He was in the United States legally and was authorised to work. He had a wife and a three-year-old daughter who he loved dearly.

And on July 14^th, an unarmed man was killed after being hit by a semi-truck while running from an ICE and Homeland Security encounter at a gas station in St. Augustine, Florida. He had been stopped in a gas station early in the morning, with three other people in the car. He had fled across the road when he was hit by the truck.

There are so many more things to write about. I will be back, to write more, think more, dream more. If you are also thinking about the same things, wondering how to speak up while staying safe, know that I am swimming in the same waters.

Love,

Parachute 香港人