Thinking Globally
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 20 Jul 2015
Mazin Qumsiyeh – TRANSCEND Media Service
Millions of humans suffer in this world under tremendous pressures. Every day thousands are killed by starvation or by weapons in a world where we actually produce more than enough food for everyone. Hundreds of millions of children go thirsty for clean water (e.g. in Gaza) when there is plenty of water for everyone. It is inequality and the rich get richer while the poor get poorer that is sometimes taken as a rule. Sometimes there is push back and these uprisings are quickly put down brutally.
The rich are worried though and that is why they use media to scare people and keep them thinking of fighting others and why many countries spend much of the collected tax money on “security” (for the rich). It is a classic diversionary tactic and division of labor.
One branch is the “security services” and the second is the elite media to talk much about terrorism, crime, Iran, Islam or just about any boogieman except the real threats to humanity: the profiteering billionaires. The latter sometimes get into politics (e.g. Michael Bloomberg, Donald Trump) but most of them are rational enough to leave that work to underlings who can be played by the invisible strings of finance and power.
But the biggest Achilles’ heel of this structure is that it is based on lies and hypocrisy and these can be exposed. For example, the elitist media pundits are not allowed to expose the massive human rights violations in “Saudi Arabia”, the western creation in Hijaz/Arabia run by the corrupt Al Saud family who received trillions of dollars from the oil riches of the country and spent it lavishly (and also for funding US wars on fellow Arabs in Yemen and Iraq etc). Meanwhile most citizens of that country live in poverty. By contrast, despite the crippling sanctions, Iranians and Cubans are better off than most so-called “Saudis” are.
One thing about empires that people have to know: they do not last. They get the hubris to think they can last and that they can manage affairs of other people in perpetuity but this is an illusion. There are occasionally reminders of this where reality trumps rhetoric and ego. The end of the isolation of Cuba and the coming end of the isolation of Iran shows that empires can be resisted. The recent statistical data that shows that 6.2 million Palestinians (Christians and Muslims) live in historic Palestine (although under Israeli apartheid) shows that Zionism and the Israeli feeble attempt at empire failed. More Israelis are leaving the country than those Jews deluded enough to come under the banner of Zionism. Despite Israeli massive restrictions, 300,000 Muslims prayed at Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem last Friday [10 Jul 2015].
This power of the people is uncontrolled and can’t be controlled. That is why both the king of “Saudi Arabia” and the ruler of Apartheid Israel were both “unhappy” about the deal with Iran. But the former puppet ruler will simply have to live with it and even pay for it while the latter (Netanyahu) is seated in position of power over congress and will make sure to profit from his “unhappiness” (real or acted). Look for more US taxpayer money going to Israel in the form of weapons and more.
Wall street barons adjusted their portfolios to reflect anticipated oil price decline and gold and dollar increase but still remain bullish on arms manufacturers because they expect “conflict manufacturing” to still be part of the coming decade. But the current neo-liberal model is fraying as evidenced by Greece’s crisis and much more.
Soon people everywhere will insist on being participatory citizens and not mere consumers (of goods and propaganda).
The above paragraphs are what they call “thinking globally”. But the second part is “acting locally” and there are many ways to act. I compiled just a few here http://qumsiyeh.org/whatyoucando/
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Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment, author of Sharing the Land of Canaan and Popular Resistance in Palestine. He is a professor at Bethlehem University and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History in Bethlehem.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 20 Jul 2015.
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