It's pay back time

This week I am writing my column making key-strokes on my notebook computer with the fighting finger (dabara angilla) of my left arm. I must have slept wrong, done something to pinch a nerve or had an unidentified creature bite me, making my usual writing apparatus of the fingers on the right arm go painfully out of commission. Since I had planned my column content in my head last Friday, I though I must share that with you no matter how difficult it is, to do something one is not accustomed to.

Dignity and honour

I saw and heard on the visual media, both chiefs of the World Bank and the IMF warn world leaders who were in New York last weekend to attend the 66th UN General Assembly that they had to do something serious on the policy front to address the global financial crisis. While what would have been the top most item on the agenda for the session i.e. the application of the Palestinian nation to be accepted as a member of the world body, did not get the attention it deserved, I wondered if this tough talk about the financial crisis was a deviation tactic of the financial 'wiz kids' in New York or the avathars of Rupert Murdoch's of the media world. It could have been designed and timed to undermine the importance of a new nation's call for dignity, honour and recognition.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (L) submits papers for Statehood to United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon during the UN General Assembly on September 23 in New York.

Sadly, a good majority of the voices were silenced with an immoral threat from the US to use its veto powers to prevent an open vote on the floor of the Assembly on this issue. That is after a statement was made last year by the US President that he hoped this would be possible during this session of the UN. The faith I had, as a citizen of the world on President Obama's initial leadership promise of 'Change we can believe in' was once again shattered and much like the recent rating drop of the US dollar by Standard & Poor, my ratings of him also dropped substantially.

I also wondered why President Abbas was so keen on achieving this feat for his nation. He like many other moderates perhaps felt that this would be the best way forward to mitigate the tough stances taken by extremist Israelis and Hamas thus creating a more formal platform for discussing the issues that impact both nations. Like many other optimists addressing issues involved in seeking to create an environment of peaceful coexistence in that region, he must hope and wish that such status may lead to positive outcomes.

Not paid for

On Friday, upon hearing that some of the sickly economies of Europe (Portugal, Greece, Spain and Italy) may have reached levels beyond redemption on their debt repayment front and their debt may have to be eventually written off, I made a Google search to learn more of the current status of the financial crisis. That is when I came across this funny but apt quote that summed it all for me in. In just two lines Earl Wilson had said, "Today, there are three kinds of people (in this world); the have's, the have-not's and the have-not-paid-for- what- they- have's". I had my fair share of a laugh and concluded that it must be the third kind that has always gone on, creating the symptoms of global financial crisis.

Living in denial

We could very well forget that the world is heading towards another round of a financial crisis and go on pretending all is well. We could also go on gazing at our own navels and pretend that such crisis will not impact on us badly. The facts are that all is not well and there is so much the world needs to do to get out of the mess we have got into. Most of the world has lived beyond its means and has depended on resources plundered from Mother Nature or from others less fortunate who did not have the desire or the power to resist maintaining such life-styles.

Funds were transferred across nations and continents at the speed of light but with no real value behind them to back those 'riches'. Wars were made and are still fought overtly and covertly to gain control and access to the already dwindling resources on this planet, in dire attempts at retaining a false supremacy not backed at all by any moral right to it.

Different ball-game

My mind goes back to a statement I read as far back as 1973, when the first ever signs of an energy crisis was seen by the citizens of Mother Earth. In his book 'Small is beautiful; Economics as if people mattered' E.F. Schumacher wrote thus; "Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful". That was nearly 40 years ago and much water has flowed under the bridge since.

We are yet to see that new orientation coming. Promises are made at election time; here, there, everywhere and turning them into solid leadership action has been wanting. The world once turned even reluctantly to the US for such leadership for that was the epi-centre of what was known as 'modern development'. Now, using their very own parlance, we as citizens of the world have got to say "Sorry, it's a different ball-game".

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