In January Mokenman posted an article on the effects of Bush’s war, the price of oil, and U.S. economic mismanagement, on the poor people of the world.
Note the IMF and World Bank have released statements only this week outlining the crisis of rising prices and food shortages throughout the world, but in particular in poor countries like Haiti.
I attribute the delay of four months, between the Mokenman post to present media attention, to the “gap” between reality experienced by the people of the world, and the political cloud where the politicians and media hang out.
One writer for Rolling Stone magazine said in a recent interview, most reporters are Ivy league types who just spit back the information they are given by government spin artists. In fact words like surge, moving forward, and many other official adjectives are created by the special interest group or government office, with the specific task in mind of turning the truth into something different and perhaps more palatable. NO THINK, NO QUESTION, AND NO FOLLOW UP, are the bywords for todays average media reporter.
Now when things get so severe, (pain being the mother of invention), as in Haiti, and a long list of other developing nations where food shortages have caused riots, media is forced to report on the situation. Therein lies the apparent “gap”. The same “gap” is present between most government functions and the people they are intended to benefit. The result is one reality at ground zero, and a total disconnect up the ladder in some corporate or bureaucratic office!
Back to origins of the current crisis. Not withstanding mutual and simultaneous situations, such as use of bio-fuels, climate effects (droughts), and the outstanding growth in consumption by China and India, the largest contributer to the current problem is the policies of the Bush Administration in the U.S.. This includes a do-nothing Congress, do-nothing populous, and a general disregard by the Americans for the health and well being of anyone outside their immediate borders. Bye and large the Americans seem punitive, highly ego centric, vindictive, angry, aggressive, opinionated, judgmental, greedy, and war like, not to mention self righteous! If this is your neighbor what do you expect, if not chaos, disharmony, economic instability, and constant war? Let’s call it the way it is, not the way we thought or believed it was, or is supposed to be. Not the way the politicians would like us to see it. Not the way we were raised to believe it was!
Complicated, maybe one can string that case out. But simple, in this sense. War by the Americans has turned the world on its sides! America and Iraq are major players. Oil is a major source of cost for everything manufactured and shipped! When the economy of the world is shocked by mismanagement of the huge U.S. economy, hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on credit for war materials, and the few who benefit from war, and those dollars are not invested in infra structure, health, education, or any of the normal nation building arenas, it will and has had a tremendous negative effect on inflation, the falling value of the dollar, and the price of oil! Add to this the dishonesty allowed by non regulated bankers who have stolen all they can from the credit system, by issuing bogus loans with faulty and disguised worthiness certificates, to greedy bankers around the world, and now who pays? I can tell you it is not the perps!
The U.S. has given billions of dollars in cash to the Iraqi people, groups representing all factions in Iraq, colluded in secret arms deals, including buying rifles from Russia to arm the Shiites, and used inordinate amounts of oil and natural resources to maintain a presence in Iraq, and at the same time diminished the ability of the #2 supplier of oil to the U.S., to even produce oil in amounts and at prices near prewar standards! OPEC is telling much truth when they says it is not the world demand, nor production causing the economic crisis, but the mismanagement by the U.S. administration of their own economic house!
You simply cannot spend money you do not have in these astronomical amounts and in these ways, and not see the world go into an economic downturn with huge price increases for everything, a dollar worth next to nothing and falling, failure of basic infrastructure, and failures in a banking industry based on greed and corruption! This is the simplicity which allows me to tell you four months ago what is happening NOW! It is a matter of telling the truth!
Unfortunately there is no mechanism in place to correct this situation in a timely manner. There is essentially no U.S. election, and even if there were, no one can take power from the Neocons who took control years ago in a coup, and have a firm hand on control at present. Integrity and truth are missing from U.S. industry and government. It is not “profitable” to take responsibility for our mistakes, nor do we get promoted or elected by being honest and responsible. The game is about blame, and ego promotion, bending and distorting truth for self interest or the interest of a group you are affiliated with. Absolute power has corrupted absolutely.
So do not look at the source for taking responsibility for this global damage, nor to do anything significant to correct the mistakes of the past which caused all of this hunger and pain. Sorry but you have seen only the tip of the iceberg!
Pain is beginning to dictate behavior in the impoverished countries, like many in the Caribbean. What few countries are capable of producing food, are not equipped to supply the many islands who cannot grow their own. This lack of foresight, unwillingness to make significant investment in agriculture, (such as Dominica, St. Lucia, Guyana et. al.), is creating the situation today where most food consumed by populations on non-food producing islands (Antigua, St. Maarten, Anguilla, The Virgin Islands and many more) must be imported through grocery store channels from the U.S., Canada, and the European Union. The costs of those foods is fast becoming prohibitive for most islanders, who live in poverty. It is not possible for the Caribbean food producing countries to catch up on production in time.
The outlook is bleak, I am sorry to say. Until I can see some change in current policies, attitudes, honesty, and a shift to value humanity, brotherhood, freedom, and world health, things will get worse before they get better.
The truth shall set you free!
