CONNECTING THE DOTS II

03/02/2009




02/27/2009

CONNECTING THE DOTS

Item, the drug cartel wars in Mexico

Item, the mutiny of border guards in BenglaDesh

Item, take over of Swat Valley in Pakistan by the fundamentalists

Item, coca production in Columbia, Bolivia, poppy production in Afghanistan

So what do all these have in common? everything, actually they are all the same one problem, though some may see one or another angle to the problems, many, however, fail to see the common threads. But first we need to remember that ALL humans are mostly the same, even the educated and the rich have the same basic human traits of the rest, the uneducated and the poor, And the second, if the first is true, which it is, what can happen over there can also happen here, we are not immune because we are white, black, educated or or richer or Americans, what is happening over there can also happen here. As I had mentioned in my radio interview, back in march 2005, the problem with Mexico is not that they don't have money, especially with all the oil revenues, it was that the rich were hoarding money and corrupting the politics and justice systems.

Previously I have also said that if you corrupt the system for your gain, then you, yourself, also suffer the consequences of a corrupt system. In poor countries it is easy to bribe someone, but when bribery becomes the norm then more and more monies are required to corrupt someone, unless, the people are so poor that they can still be bought off cheaply. Mexican rich and the middle class are no longer safe. Safe heavens for the rich become smaller as the poverty and the corruption rises.

Unless you have been living in a bubble, you know what is happening in these various countries I have used in my example above, and just in case you do live in a bubble, here is some information. In Mexico drug lords have a war going on , not just between themselves, but also against the police and the army, kidnappings, murders, torture, assassinations are becoming the norm and no one is safe. Columbia and Bolivia have insurgencies tied to the drug trade, they have the same problems with corruption. In Bengla Desh, the border guards had a mutiny and they killed or kidnapped one hundred forty of their own officers, over seventy corpses have been discovered, seventy are still missing. And in Pakistan the government relinquished the control of the Swat Valley to the radical Islamists. Sway Valley used to be a summer heaven for the rich, where the poor population was used as virtual slaves for the summer months by the rich vacationers. Well ok, not as virtual slaves , but the poor people of Swat were just very happy to serve the vacationing for what ever money they could earn.

Who is standing up for the poor? On an empty stomach all philosophies turn to self preservation, and people will do whatever they think will feed them and their kids and kin. Taliban and Al Qaeda find recruits among the poor, and so do the Mexican drug lords, poor peasants in Columbia and Afghanistan grow coca and poppies.

In justice, real or perceived will always bring a reaction. While everyone was celebrating the growth of "richism" I was warning about people who got left behind. In nineteen eighty six i warned my relatives in Pakistan about the unfairness of the system there, told them about the corruption and its consequences. I used the example, not of the Iranian revolution, but of the French and Russian revolutions where the have nots had risen against the haves. I got excuses, no surprise there.

I had voted for Reagan the first time, a sin I will never forget, but soon as he was elected, I turned against him, he did not balance the budget, and his trickle down theory wasn't worth a cup of hot piss.

For the last forty years mankind has had an obsession with getting rich, it is no longer enough to have a roof over your head, and food to eat, and a nice family, it has al been about making money, and if you were not making money, and tons of it you were a fool, a slacker. It did not matter at all how many people you had to use, abuse, swindle, con, fool or back stab, long as you were making money.