The Americans: Preaching, or Practicing?

IT MIGHT SEEM A BIT STRANGE, to be an Indonesian citizen, awaiting the arrival of American Secretary of State John Kerry, strange to greet him warmly and to hear him speak to your country, telling everyone that your country will soon sink into the ocean unless you and your countrymen change your ways. It would seem strange for several reasons. First, being told how to live your life by a foreigner standing on your own soil might offend the pride of even the most humble of humans beings. Secondly, the very behavior alluded to by the visiting American, causing global warming by injecting billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere, is a behavior which the Americans themselves elevated to the level it is today. Another strange thing, from the Indonesian point of view, is the obvious fact that within a couple of years, the Americans are likely to send over some high ranking government official who will say just the opposite. There is no global warming, full speed ahead with economic development, using all available resources, and may our two nations find beter ways of cooperating in the investment of American corporate dollars for the further development of your lovely nation. You never know you're gonna get from the Americans; hard driving capitalism, or high minded environmental activism. You just have to choose which one to believe, and hope that Americans stay close to home, and tend their own economic and environmental clean up business.