Why we must look left and below!

My blog is about my dream for a world where everyone is allowed to exist and improving the quality of life of the world’s citizens is our priority.
For many reasons I reject the current path of the world.

The rich world should reject the current system because of ever increasing problems of mental health, delinquency, drug dependence at all levels of society (including our greatest drug problem - alcoholism), ever increasing rates of divorce, more and more children with learning disabilities, a boom in health problems such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, obesity etc. All these problems are related to a poisonous society created by an economy, which puts money ahead of people. Most of these problems don't exist or have recently come to exist in the majority poor world.

The rich world is also destroying the planet as a whole. China and India are for the most part meeting "consumer needs" of the rich world. Third world populations brought up on western propaganda are equally keen for a new television, car or pair of shoes only exacerbating the struggle for resources to create more disposable products.

Indeed the problems of high infant mortality rates, lack of access to drinking water and lack of access to medicine are the things that aren't being eradicated in this wave of capitalist globalisation. What we are seeing is privatisation of education, water, electricity, health and ravenous demand for rich world products.

We can trace the trends of rich world privatisations and subsequent job losses as well as the continuous trend for manufacturing jobs to move to China or anywhere they can be produced for less to the same capitalist squeeze causing workers rights to be taken away. It's the same struggle. The person who owns the resource wants to find the cheapest way produce it and the most expensive price to sell it at. If they succeed they will have greater profits and their share market price will show their "success".

In this world there is no such thing as corporate responsibility. While companies like MacDonald’s are happy to "sponsor" kids soccer in the US they simultaneously brand the majority of America's youth with the most destructive food company the world has ever known.

A question was put to PR chiefs at a summit about corporate responsibility of some of the biggest multinationals in the world, "Where do you stand on taxes?" Indeed no company was even willing to lie and say that their company doesn't evade taxes as a business strategy. Surely something is wrong when the richest companies in the world are openly avoiding paying what should be the funds for our schools and hospitals.

I travelled around Central Europe and most of Latin America over the last 2 years and really started to think. Why is life getting harder for low and middle-income earners across the world? Why does starvation still kill tens of thousands of people a day? Why are there millions of people living in rich world countries that can't afford medical attention? How can we have developed so much technology in the world without discovering how to deliver drinking water to everybody? Why can some people now not afford to drink water?

I don't believe in bad people. I believe that we are all capable of doing terrible things and wonderful things. I know I have seen in myself the ability to make mistakes, which many associate with "bad people." This negation of bad people also takes away the possibility to put all third world problems down to "corruption."

I believe that our economic system is responsible for the problems of the world. Mostly implemented by selfish white men although many men and women of other origins have fallen into the same trap.

We have a system, which places the market above all else. When profits go up but 10000 jobs are cut and prices double who has won? This is what we are seeing the world over with privatisations and takeovers. When manufacturing jobs are shifted to china and the product is cheaper but you're left without the money to buy it who wins? Housing is big business; we strive for "investment properties" while low-income earners have to live on the other side of town from work and may never own a property. Housing is a right because it’s a need! More workers are living on the street everyday. Corporate taxes and tariffs are lowered to "compete" consequently money must be taken from education, health housing and unemployment.

The poor world is not living it up because of this shift of manufacturing and agriculture jobs. In fact when these big businesses shift they do so knowing that they can pay less for workers, less to meet environmental standards and if they happen to beat or kill some workers because of malpractice or organising for better working conditions they can just sack the workers and continue to churn out profits.

War - the US have been involved in armed conflict every year since the Second World War. More countries are taking up nuclear weapons each year. Millions of citizens of the world are dying in armed conflict which most of the world is against even in those countries that are doing the killing. People want peace, business wants war. Money is ready to be made. If you destroy a city you create massive infrastructure projects. If you occupy it you create billion-dollar industry. These goals are not necessarily government goals but Blackwater and the like are certainly in favour and will lobby for more war because that is what their business runs on!

Media - Mass media terrorism manipulating public opinion may be the single most destructive influence on the world and the greatest barrier to change. Miss-information is spreading corporate truths about privatisations, war, religion etc. but these are not human truths. Our major media outlets feed consumer madness and discourage intelligent thought. The norms we are being taught by television, Hollywood and MTV music are corrosive to society and based in a world that doesn't exist. Nobody is living the life we are being taught. Reject this world of lies to consider human problems. Baddies don't exist, the family of a criminal are hurt just as much by their death as a victims. I would steal if I was hungry enough, I would kill if I were forced to live in oppression and violence.
Are you sure that you wouldn't? If not who are the real terrorists spreading fear and violence?


Solutions. I hope I have depressed you enough and provoked a few thoughts or memories to have you pretty pissed off at the suffering of the world. The first step to a better world is rejection of the current system. Next we have to look at how to construct the alternative. This is where things are currently breaking down for many. How do we make a world that nurtures human talent and treats citizens as equals with an equal right to exist and prosper?

We need to look beyond money. What is it that we really want? What is it that we need? Some of the ways that a new world is being created at the moment include, subsistence farming, couchsurfing.com, WWOOF.org, cooperatives in which workers own the company and decide collectively under what conditions they will work. There are many other acts which if carried out across the world would change it instantly such as consuming less - stop buying new products - it may sound ridiculous at first but consider how many of the things you purchased in the last year that you could have bought second hand or indeed not bought at all. Use public transport and demand better services. Join community groups and organisations that deal with problems you or your community are facing. Support, create and watch independent media generated by people rather than advertisement driven mass media. Support other industries mass actions and don't believe media hype that it's for greed.

When we work together there is a chance for mass change. Every individual action and conversation has an effect on the world. We must consider why the world is the way it is and look for the next step. We all have reason to be looking.

Thoughts? If what I'm getting at is wrong tell me. If not look around you.