Had been intending to write about a lot of issues that have been bothering me more and more for the last few months but didn't do it until now. Found a good starting point today in "Time to Act". Talking about how more and more of our daily lives are being consumed in service of the corporate juggernaut, the author says...
"We'll also need common action to reverse the way that immensely consequential national and global decisions are increasingly being made at a pace that leaves no time for democracy. Powerful corporate interests want unlimited speed – to be able to conduct whatever activity they choose in a open global marketplace. Most promote a profoundly short-term concept of time – the next quarterly earnings report, the next cycle of the stock market – and for the politicians who back them, the next election. But this approach leaves little or no room for citizens to ask basic questions."
Yet another insightful article that prodded me to write, "Let them eat war", penned by a socialogist at berkley, delves into the mystery of why working people are supporting leaders who are actively taking away their livelihoods.
The common theme to these two articles is that people and more importantly, the media, are asleep at the wheel. In democracies, people are the ones who should ultimately ensure the correctness of the direction of their nations. And media is the one that has the responsibility of being the eyes and ears of the common man. After switching to Democracy Now! for my news feeds, I'm flabbergasted at the betrayal of the mainstream media in failing to go beyond the superficial and report the truth. After watching Amy Goodman with gratitude for her courage in making sure that voices of the weak are heard, I can see how even PBS' News Hour with Jim Lehrer holds back so much to make it seem as if nothing much catastrophic is happening in this world of ours.
Globalization of world trade, if done rightly, with respect for basic human rights and justice, can bring a lot of good to this planet. Instead, what's happening is a rush to exploit the unprepared. Basic labour rights, won over centuries with a lot of sacrifices are being lost in the blink of an eye. Workers of developing nations are now working for further advancement of developed societies without anything more than short-term monetary progress as compensation. Their political rights continue to be under-developed. The lost jobs in developed nations are causing a heartburn that seems to be ill-directed at the developing nations. Instead of holding accountable their own political and business leaders who have bartered away their jobs in return for stock performance, people of the wealthy nations seem to be suffering from a sense of entitlement.
And as if, terrorists aren't enough of a threat, governments are now terrorising other nations and their own with rollback of basic civil liberties. It's a shame that the government of my own country has hosted a head of state, even as the latter was waging terrorism against terrorists as well as innocent civilians. Many thanks to Ramana for introducing me to Edward Said, who struck a chord in me as he related how our personal diginities are being violated daily by those who deny us the right to equality and by the mainstream media who covers up their game without anyone even asking them to do so.
When will the world wake up to see that there's a candidate for american presidency, Dennis Kucinich, out there who's talking of denuclearising the planet and rolling back the military/corporate/political power structures that are dooming us all.
Posted by prasad at October 5, 2003 12:05 AM