Sunday, July 24, 2011

An asymmetrical world

© Serene Assir/MSF

(ES)

The threat of terrorism, after the attacks of 11-S, has served the governments of East and West to cut civil rights.
The economic crisis of recent years has served the governments, mainly Western, to cut social rights.

The war conflicts of this decade have been the pretext of the supposed war on terror, and the trace of death they have left, is the wick of the terror they want to fight.
The welfare cuts to fight deficit has mainly served to prevent the bankruptcy of big national banks, at the expense of subjecting states to credit pressure whose debt to the big banks barely will be able to afford.
The food crisis, announced in advance, is merely the prelude to what will happen in coming years on a larger scale resulting from the concentration of agricultural and livestock production, in short, the land owned by oligopolies speculating with prices in the market for staples.

Is this progress? Who benefits from the fear and hatred that comes from outside its borders? Who wins when states implement drastic adjustment measures to contain the budget deficit while central banks raise interest rates to contain inflation? When wealth is no longer tied to the means of production who is the greatest beneficiary of this bubble system?

Perhaps the main failing of this system is that the progress of recent decades has not been accompanied by a genuine social progress. West and some countries of the so-called emerging markets have achieved some levels of social and economic development without precedent in history, but forgetting that their wealth is based on an asymmetrical and unjust world. And now that Western prevalence is threatened, both economically and socially, fear makes us insensitive to the increased suffering of others.

When Western countries grew in prosperity, its citizens did not take advantage of the opportunity to move equally in social, demanding their governments greater effort in development cooperation. Now that the decline is unstoppable, fear paralyzes society and slows down any progress in the realm of social and cooperation. The progress has enriched Western and emerging countries at the expense of impoverishing the rest of the planet. Recession impoverishes us all, including the poorest, at the expense of enriching only a few

This social and economic climate makes that a terrible attack on Norway impacts us more than the humanitarian emergency of millions of people due to starvation in a remote part of East Africa. Again, another sign of the asymmetry of this world.
Any violent death is a tragedy, but is not violence a child death because of hunger?
It is in our hands to stop this violence, which will end when this world ceases to be asymmetric. Only social progress will be able to convert such asymmetry into virtue of all peoples.



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