from NewsJunkiePost Website
It would be hard to contest that our world is in crisis, or at least at a turning point.
The models which were developed at the start of
the industrial revolution have either failed or are crumbling in front of us
in “real time”. If communism died in the 80′s with the collapse of the
Soviet Union, capitalism is now on life support. Nothing was revolutionary
about the industrial revolution, but instead the industrial leviathan
enslaved workers and started destroying our ecosystem by its immense
appetite for resources and for burning energy.
To an American businessman, it doesn’t matter if his home town is experiencing double digit unemployment if he can find a cheaper way to fabricate a product in China or India. Workers in both China and India are paid meager wages, which barely allow them to survive but allow the Chinese or Indian counterpart of the US businessman to become wealthy in the process.
Globalization has made capitalism into a
destructive machine of wealth concentration without any concerns for the
“worker bees” producing the wealth, and for the damage it creates to our
environment by draining our resources.
The Gathering Of A Perfect Storm
It is due to
speculation on commodities and land, climate change and overpopulation.
Worldwide we have now some major systemic problems on both sides of the food
scarcity equation: supply and demand. Both parameters are driving up food
prices.
The path that we are currently following
is unsustainable and is likely, like it did in Tunisia, to fuel social
unrest against national and transnational ruling elites.
Igniting A Pan-Arabic Secular Uprising For Democracy
Today, a Tunisian general, Rachid Ammar, who refused to back dictator Ben Ali’s crackdown on protesters, vowed to protect the revolution as the transition government is going through a major reshuffle to exclude elements of Ben Ali’s regime.
General Ammar, who is hugely popular in Tunisia for his role in ousting Ben Ali, said that the Tunisian army would act as “guarantor of the Revolution”.
On Saturday, thousands marched to the capital Tunis in what they called a “caravan of liberation”. Protesters want anybody affiliated with Ben Ali’s regime out of the government.
The “contagion” of the Tunisian uprising has already ramifications in Algeria, Yemen and Jordan by inspiring popular protests.
On Tuesday, it will be the turn of Egypt where Egyptian organizers are trying to start their version of the Tunisian revolution, and are calling it:
Meanwhile, protests by self-immolation or other public suicides are daily occurrences In Egypt and Algeria.
A big rally is called for tomorrow in Cairo and Alexandria, and organizers are on social media sites such as Facebook challenging Egyptians to stand up like their Tunisian brothers.
WikiLeaks And Social Media
Information And Activism Gone Viral Fuel The Global
Revolution
It was of course
the Green movement in Iran, the Red Shirts in Thailand, and social unrest in
Greece in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Many activists in
Iran and elsewhere are trying to keep what could have been a new revolution
in Iran alive using social media such as Twitter and Facebook. It is the
same with the Red Shirts in Thailand, and the anti-globalization and the
anti-capitalism movement in Europe.
However, it doesn’t mean that the respective failures in
Iran, Thailand and Europe are permanent setbacks, it could just be an issue
of timing. One of the key ingredients for success still largely missing in
the attempts was WikiLeaks.
For example,
Tunisians found out from the leaked US State Department cables that Ben Ali
was hosting lavish dinners at one of his mini-palaces where fancy French ice
cream was served after being shipped, by air, on one of Ben Ali’s private
jets.
The global elite will “chew the fat” (more likely the caviar and oysters) and will be asked by the organizers to ponder on,
However, they should reflect on the fact that they could shortly be in a precarious situation.
It is both ironic and insulting for the organizers to mention an “erosion of common values and principles” when they clearly belong to the very small group of people plundering the world’s resources and wealth. Only profit matters for global capitalism, not conscience or even real analytical abilities.
The global elite should reflect on the gathering storm on the horizon, and what could become the overwhelming power of the many versus the few.
The ingredients are accumulating to make a
successful recipe for a global, and hopefully semi-peaceful, revolution.
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