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n Bias Cuna to be in revolt agains) is constructed specifically to t th Standardization Agreement (e Panamanian State. This was shown by their raising not their own but the U.S. flag, "angering soldiers at the local Panamanian military garrison," according to the journalist David E. Pitt, who went on to say in his April 21 dispatch from Panama City that the flagraising was not a random event. "Although the Cuna say they did it partly because they knew it would infuriate the troops, many Cuna have a special fondness for Americans," he added. What happened later on, as they say, is history; yet another U.S. Invasion of yet another disorderly banana republic. Good Savage/Bad Savage The strategy of mimesis and alterity involved in using a powerful First World State, notably the United States, against the exactions of the local Third World State, is an important and often tragic element of modern history. Think of the montagnards as well as other "hill tribes" in Southeast Asia used by the U.S. in the Vietnam war. Think of the Miskito in Nicaragua, used by President Reagan and the C.I.A. taking advantage of Miskito resentment at high-handed Sandinista po

licy toward Indians following decades if not centuries of such alliances with European powers on the part of these Indians. Think of the alliances between Indians in Brazil, with well-intentioned North Americans and West Europeans, the Indians looking for power to hold back miners and ranchers and thereby infuriating the Brazilian State by what is seen as a challenge to national sovereignity