It has been close to thirty years since neoliberalism and what Henry Giroux has called “the new gilded age” has brought us new conditions like globalization and militarism resulting in inconceivable inequalities, which is supported by a corporate-owned media that daily give us empty messages about “war on terror,” “support the troops,” “we need change,” “Israel has a right to defend itself,” “ clash of civilizations,” and other nonsense framed as messages about global justice discourse.
Let us look at some planetary facts:
About 50% of the world (nearly three billion people) lives on less than two dollars a day (see UN figures). If the developed nations spent about 1% of what they spend on military (i.e., building bombs and other weapons), they could send every single person on the planet to school. Approximately 3.5 million people die of AIDS related illnesses every year. In Africa alone children account for over 80% of malaria cases—many die. Close to 700 million people live on less than $2.00 a day, and another 400 million on less than $1.00 a day. Lack of sanitation and access to clean water kills about 2 million children—due to diarrhea—every year. Nearly 40% of the world’s population uses biomass—not oil, but things like bullshit–for their energy needs, and this condition coupled with lack of sanitation and clean water causes many diseases, resulting in many deaths. About 30% of people on the planet do not have access to electricity, and many more get it a few hours a day. 90% of the world’s population does not have access to the Internet. There are only about 500 billionaires in the world. Do the math; that accounts for 0.000007% of the total planetary population, and yet they have total assets that equals close to 8% of the entire world’s gross domestic product. Furthermore, Western or multinational (Western controlled) corporations own 80% of the world’s wealth. One of the wealthiest nations in the world (guess who) has no national healthcare. Close to 90% of the world’s goods and services are consumed by only, approximately, 18% of the wealthiest countries—with an unconscionable 50% of world’s garbage produced by US citizens, which at 300 million only has 5% of the planet’s population. In the EU and the US people spend close to 17 billion dollars on pet food, while, globally, the world spends only 9 billion dollars on sanitation and water filtration. More than ONE million Iraqis have died as a direct result of the US invasion. The US spent close to 700 billion dollars on its military in 2007 while drastically cutting back on public education and other social services.
The list can go on and on…Don’t take my word for it, go to the internet and after reading about Paris Hilton’s latest shenanigan log onto www.unicef.org www.un.org www.ifamericansknew.org www.globalissues.org www.justforeignpolicy.org www.linktv.org etc. and see what you will see.
IT DOESN”T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY.
When are we going to realize that we are all members of the same family? When are we going to understand that we are not separate from nature, but only part of it? When are we going to educate ourselves to embrace our differences and, as free thinkers have said it over and over, “disagree nonviolently?” When are we going to take back the public airwaves stolen from us by corporate media, and put a stop to the relentless propaganda about the greatness of neoliberalism and the ghostly war on terrorism, and equation of democracy with capitalism? When?
It doesn’t have to be like this. We can end world hunger, denationalize–and globalize–education, eliminate national borders, drastically reduce national military apparatuses, get rid of all nuclear weapons, clean up the planet, take out land mines and plant trees instead, close down sweat shops and build schools instead, provide universal healthcare to the citizens of the planet, and much more. We can do all of this and still be prosperous, and in pursuit of happiness!