All those years of greed and abuse are now boomeranging and coming back to
haunt the countries of Europe and America. For decades they have ruined whole
cultures and installed governments that would obey them; no questions asked.

By Nasreen Pejvack

If we care enough to know what is happening in our world by following our
daily news and examining different sources, we witness, and we learn: Africa is
burning; Iraq is shattered; Syria is bleeding; uprisings and oppressions here and
there in different parts of our planet are wreaking havoc. Alongside all that are
extremist shootings against feared others — be they ethnicities or ideologies —
especially in countries rife with nationalism or xenophobia.

But then our news cycles fade into background noise as each of us busies
ourselves to make ends meet. Even if some of us anxiously follow the news and
worry about outcomes, we feel we are unable to make any positive changes, and
our lives feel tainted with desperation.

Also, we see that our climate is changing, harshly affecting the planet in ways
that should have our direct attention in light of alarming new patterns in
hurricanes, wildfires, floods and more. People are traumatized and their
livelihoods crushed. The Earth has been offended for too long and is losing it’s
capacity to support us as it once did. Our air is polluted; water in many areas has
been contaminated; whole ecosystems are transformed into commodities; weather
patterns change drastically. Yet slowly even these signs become normalized and
incidental in our consciousness, despite the efforts of our scientists and activists
to focus attention on our neglectful behaviour.

. . . life is best described as a continuous survey of upcoming new phone gadgets, improved home entertainment systems, what is fashionable in hair or clothing, or how one can gain more money or status . . . Consumer society cocoons
us in a world of gluttony and a fever for more. 

To no avail, as for far too many, life is best described as a continuous survey
of upcoming new phone gadgets, improved home entertainment systems, what is
fashionable in hair or clothing, or how one can gain more money or status; even if
by any objective standard we actually have more than enough; even if in our
pursuit of wealth we can see that the process only demolishes others half a world
away.

The epoch of “I don’t care, it’s not my problem” began long ago. Since the birth
of extreme advertising encouraged a carefree and competitive life, we are
invigorated to attend to non-stop marketing campaigns to acquire things we may
not even need, and to have more than our neighbours. Consumer society cocoons
us in a world of gluttony and a fever for more.

Cooperating forces hiding behind government and corporate doors work to
control the world’s wealth, aided by the rest of us becoming, in one way or
another, enslaved to that ever-growing, devilish capital gain system. It has been
many decades in which self-seeking decision makers have been monitoring,
governing, and exploiting the world’s resources and peoples; but now it has begun
boomeranging, and all of us are paying for it.

Let’s review the sixties and seventies, decades which witnessed important civil
rights campaigns promoting justice for minorities, women, and gays, as well as
heightening awareness around environmental issues. There were also many
protests, uprisings and revolutions across our planet as anti-war and anti-colonial
sentiments took hold among youth and students.

It has been many decades in which self-seeking decision makers have been monitoring, governing, and exploiting the world’s resources and peoples; but now it has begun boomeranging, and all of us are paying for it.

Activists challenged, for instance, the prevalence of child poverty and hunger
in many African countries following decolonialization, questioning entrenched
economic practices that continued to treat people unfairly; there and all around
our world. Why are we not paying attention sufficiently, examining causes and
effects, and most importantly, caring enough to pursue effective policies to right
wrongs?
➢ How did we become so disinterested?
➢ Why do the world’s leaders reliably work to inhibit meaningful changes?
➢ How do they stifle those positive and influential movements?
➢ Answer, simply by keeping the masses busy with empty distractions.

In the seventies an infamous cyclone in Bangladesh killed over 500,000
people. About the same time, environmental activists began to seriously look into
our collective lifestyle and how it profoundly affects weather patterns. We are now
at a point where these environmentalists, with the help of many scientists, have
accumulated enough data to portray in no uncertain terms the danger that we are
facing and the calamity that is quickly approaching us all. So why do people not
see or understand the implications of their actions? Why are our leaders not
walking hand-in-hand with concerned citizens and organizations to avoid a most
tragic epoch looming on our horizon?

Well, let’s have a look at our heads of state. I have always believed those ruling
a nation should have strong credentials and a robust education; perhaps in law,
economics, sociology or some discipline that makes them worthy and capable of
responsible decision-making. Since when are people offered up a realtor or a cleric
or some such clown who has no idea how to govern a country or negotiate sane
foreign policy. Are such buffoons meant to dictate to the world our quality of life or
whether we descend into nuclear disintegration?

And so we watch nervously as one unworthy leader takes a fit over the
belligerence of another, applies sanctions on the offending country, and then
commands the whole world to be with him or against him as a test of loyalty.
Where are we going from here?

Today is a most treacherous and complex time in our history. The number of
poor and homeless increases as does unemployment, and most telling of our time,
a tsunami of migrants flees from wars or famine. With decolonization, the era of
directly conquering or colonizing countries was over, but a new poisonous practice
took its place. It involved duplicitous agencies of the developed world, flush with
the riches of centuries of exploitation, intervening in the affairs of the
underdeveloped world to manipulate or change governments that were not
effectively working for them. Over the decades we saw the toppling of Salvador
Allende’s successful government in Chile, the overthrow of Iran’s exercise in self
governance and decolonization with Mossadegh’s economic reforms, the support of
Iraqi’s fascist regime, only to topple that too when it failed to obey anymore.
Subsequently, each new administration suppresses, tortures and imprisons its
own citizens, just to toe the superpower line and stay in power.

And why does dissent not change the world? The great lesson learned in controlling a population is distraction. 

And have the turmoil’s of those resource-rich countries during this post-WW II
epoch been acceptable to citizens of the domineering states? Not when they look
beyond their own borders to see what’s happening in the world, and then voice
their raucous but largely ineffective protests. And why does dissent not change the
world? The great lesson learned in controlling a population is distraction. Keep
them busy with the superficials of flashy movies, engrossing video games, self
serving social networks, and frivolous fashions. The commanders of culture and
the marketplace can then do as they please, controlling the world’s affairs.
Sometimes I ask myself, are these behaviours, both grandly Machiavellian and
personally consumerist, a kind of mental illness? Do we have a gene for greed
installed in our brain that makes us so driven to satisfy our desires. Have baseline
human yearnings and behaviours been nurtured and magnified by increased
wealth, mass media, sitcoms, filtered news, feel-good movies, and pervasive
advertising, all of which directly and indirectly instruct people how to live;
encouraging consumption and gluttony?

And so the effects of the rich world’s dominance grinds away over so much of
the planet, smashing societies and ecosystems, often causing people to flee their
homelands into the safety, ironically, of their actual oppressors; the refugees being
too preoccupied with survival to mind their unease that these countries are the
source of their pain and problems, or not having the education to understand
their own histories.

All those years of greed and abuse are now boomeranging and coming back to
haunt the countries of Europe and America. For decades they have ruined whole
cultures and installed governments that would obey them; no questions asked.
Greedy puppets, eager to stay in power, kept their own people on a tight leash;
uneducated, unaware, and frightened. Tired of decades of injustice, the
downtrodden are trekking to “lands of opportunity” in a chaos of involuntary
migration all around the planet.

Here in the safe lands, many do not understand why these people appear at
their borders to press upon this part of the world. Those dwelling in their heavenly
cocoons do not understand that their own leaders have made a mess of those
resource-rich lands, and have been too distracted in their comfort zones to realize
that they have been voting for quite the wrong sort of leaders.

Now more than ever, activist groups all around the world must see that
unification of efforts is essential.

They need to work together at stopping the wars; ally themselves with scientists to challenge the damage being caused by climate change; educate people that they should not be paying for carbon taxes, or any other taxes for cleaning our air, when such responsibility lies with those who are creating the poisons, and have enough resources to clean up their acts.

Our many selfless activists and educators are scattered around the globe
doing the best they can. It is a shame that they cannot seem to be able to work
together. Imagine an army of activists, environmentalists, and scientists of all
types, who could put their minds together to challenge our world’s governments
and pull back the reins on their reckless behaviours that cause so many of the
problems we are facing today.

For instance, at this time I do not know what to believe about the situation in
Venezuela. Are the powers behind the scenes playing the same old games as with
the CIA coups in Iran and Chile so many years ago? How do I know if the people of
Venezuela want or do not want Maduro? How much of the unrest we see is staged
to get rid of him, perhaps because he is not cooperating with his oil. How oblivious
are we to be played over and over, as the world’s elites change governments at
their whim?

Similarly, what of the disaster in Yemen, where Western weapons in the hands
of Saudis are destroying the livelihood of a nation and its people, aided of course
by Iran’s manipulations in the area. Global and regional players flex their muscles
and force their will on the usual victims: common folk who, dare I presume, might
want nothing more than to be left to their families, farms and factories in peace.

The world’s people either do not care or do not understand what’s really
happening regarding the important environmental and conflict issues of our day,
but in the end the only thing that matters is that not enough care enough to put
in the effort to stop all of this, by working to forge a unified moral force against the
madness in this world. Our only home.

http://examine-consider-act.ca/Articles.html
http://examine-consider-act.ca/
Nasreen Pejvack is a former Programmer/System
Analyst and Counselor/, who has worked in
Ottawa, California, and Vancouver.
As of 2014, she is an author whose historical novel “Amity” was published by Inanna Publications in 2015. Amity was a finalist for BC’s 2016 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Following Amity’s success, she published a book of short tales inspired by her experiences of life in Canada, “Paradise of the Downcasts” and also a book of poetry, “Waiting,” both published in 2018. Nasreen was also a judge for BC’s 2018 Fiction Prize.