ZUL-QA’ADAH 8 1430 A.H.
TUESDAY OCTOBER . 27 2009.
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Global peace, security through justice, share prosperity
By PAUL AJIDE
Global peace and security through justice, must be seen as an imperative for all of humanity’s common good Interactions and interconnectedness of today’s world has intensified so much that international cooperation is no longer a matter of morality or a desire to hold hands and sing Kumbaya, singing Kumabayahas become an imperative for global security, and even existential survival of the human race Increased global interactions and interconnectedness is exemplified by the ever increasing pace of extremism and violence.
Extremism driven in part by abject poverty, driven by ignorance, driven by religions, and as well as the parts driven by greed of the sorts which propel narcotics trade with its associated violent brutalities, parts driven by greed, the type which led to the global financial or economic meltdown. And in this digital age of the World Wide Web, there is also the greed which drives spam mail as an international menace to commerce. Greed is equally responsible for overfishing, toxic waste dumping. These sorts of greed have endangered sea lanes with piracy, which in turn burdens international commerce.
And so, what have these things got to do with the price of bread in your little corner of the earth? Everything! The way it works is rather simple. The willingness of some, to overlook or dismiss the suffering and the grinding abject poverty in some parts of the world may lead to social unrest or violence, which in turn, may drive mass migration to your quaint little town, from that unsettled part of Ethiopia or Somalia. The very fact that those who are capable of preventing the disintegration of nations such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Ethiopia, Somalia, Haiti etc through public policies refuse or neglect to do so. This should concern you and I.
The fact that those who should and must find solutions to the Palestine-Israel intractable dispute over land, territories, water etc are the ones who do the most, to inflame the dispute should give you and I, cause for fear. Fear of the clear and present danger of another suicide bombing and another Israeli offensive. Seeming innocuous incidents are quite to morph and multiply, with all the other accelerants which quickly affect the price of crude oil, which is derived mostly from the Persian Gulf. This, which in turn affects the price of worldwide crude which then affects the price of oranges delivered from Florida to New York and the price of a bunch of broccoli delivered from California to New York where I live.
This is reason enough not to ignore the sufferings in distant land, apart from the fact that any human suffering should concern everyone, even if we are unconnected. What is global security anyway? Why it is your business? Why should you care about Somalia, Sudan, oil exploration-exploitation pollution, global warming, blood diamonds etc? Why should anyone care how sausage is made instead of just the mere contentment from eating hotdogs?
I have always been news, and current affairs-junky and I have concerned myself with news and current affairs of a universal blend, since my teenage years, and which now feels like a million years ago! And as a result, I have discovered that there is almost always a direct causal connection or correlation between local incidents and global consequences in reverberations.
Note how for instance, a crisis in the Niger Delta of Nigeria creates volatility in world crude oil prices? Also note how quickly, extremists speedily take advantage of vacuums in governmental authority within nations in crises; which is why extremists’ sorrows, tears and blood for which narcotics replete with and wrapped in. There has been crossfire between the Mexican law enforcements apparatuses and the various strata of narcotics dealers and all involved in the thriving drugs and gun violence in Mexico. And, this has spilled across the border into the United States.
There have been murders inside the United States which were motivated by incidents of drug trades and drug use in Mexico.
There have been evidence in abundance, of relationships between gun purchases in the United States and drug trade and unbridled gun violence and gun –drug related warfare in Mexico. The West African nation of Guinea is reportedly mimicking Mexico in the extent of drug trade, if not in terms of volume, but as a transit point and the extent of corruption of some public officials who are supposed to tackle drug dealers and drug trade. Law enforcement officials in high and low positions have been induced and corrupted in Mexico and the same is the situation in Guinea. There is yet another connection and nexus in all these narcotics trades.
The end user of opium, heroin, and other narcotic substances are not in the main, resident in Mexico, Guinea or even Afghanistan.
A global connection, global interactions and interconnectedness again come to mind again. A sneeze in the opium field or coca laboratory in either Afghanistan or Colombia, brings acute colds or, fevers, even pneumonia, tears and blood to the streets of Guinea, Mexico and then, the United States and elsewhere. These are reasons why there should never be reckless refusal, neglect and abandonment of nations in crises. Humanity will be better served in taking active interests in crises anywhere in the world. Never again should we ignore nations facing disintegration and becoming failed states. We should never again ignore nations spiraling into disintegration as Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Somalia etc.
The consequences are clear or should be clear. The world is witnessing the consequences of such nonchalance regarding the sufferings of other humans it is rather glaring, for the human race.
These are now consequences which may linger for many years to come. When Somalia spiraled and disintegrated into ceaseless chaos, greedy persons and entities, took to overfishing on Somali waters and around the seas surrounding Somalia. Greedy individuals and entities took to dumping toxic waste, allegedly, into Somalia and her territorial waters. And nature rebels against vacuums, as the failure of the nation state of Somalia, and the attendant disintegration enabled the greedy, to overfish and to dump toxic was on Somali land, the spate of lawlessness also enabled a water borne disease which is also known as "piracy" or brigandage at sea! Catastrophes await humans as consequences of these greedy acts being inflicted now. Millions of dollars have been paid to Somali pirates in ransom monies or blackmail fees. The cost to international trade or international commerce is yet to be calculated as I write this. But it is suffice to say that the cost is already enormous and tremendous. And all these could have been avoided, if the world did not look the other way, as the nation of Somalia disintegrated and spiraled into lawlessness, because, it was none of our business? But the cost to international commerce is now our business!
Looking back, it clearly made eminent sense for the world to have sung Kumbaya together and not refuse or neglect to nudge Somalia and other nations like Somalia away from chaos and disintegration which is usually followed by lawlessness from which piracy sprung. Ditto Taliban, Al Queida which are the consequences of allowing Afghanistan to fail post-Soviet Union presence and American opposition to the USSR’s presence in Afghanistan. The trillions of dollars squandered in Afghanistan and Iraq wars so far, is sufficient to end and eradicate world poverty and global inequalities. What a waste of resources!
In sharp contrasts, the Swine-Flu outbreak occurred in Mexico earlier this year. Mexico took needful actions, actions which were quickly complemented by the United States, the World Health Organization of the United Nations and in effect, the entire international community was in sync with Mexico and the world may have through such synchronised cooperation, averted a wildfire of global Swine-Flu pandemic, at least, for the time being or in the meantime. And even if Swine-Flu recurs in the latter part of this year, there is already a blueprint of coordination and readiness preparedness from Mexico to China to Nigeria to the United States and in between.
All these would be impossible if the world looked askance, and acted as if the Swine-Flu outbreak was a Mexican affair and a local affliction for only Mexico to deal with. In the new world global village of nanoseconds digital interactions, interrelationships, interconnectedness and speedy travels, diseases, drugs, and collapse or disintegration of nations, now have immediate consequences, be it increased migration, the impact of piracy on international commerce in costs such as human lives, grief and nerves of panic over the unknown.
Terrorism finds bastions, succors and harbors in failed or disintegrated nations. Just as loose or lax regulatory environment in one part of the world, may unleash financial meltdown on all of us the world. In cost-benefit analyses, it is most cost efficient and much more effective to have policies and plans which focuses on the big picture. Quite clearly therefore, it is better to be proactive.
Kumbaya in unison as an imperative upon which global existentialism hinges! Global security and peace require a reexamination of justice, freedom and the removals of inequities which will bring about peace and global security. There is so much abundance in the world for all those who currently inhabit the earth. True global peace and security will be attained with justice, which demands complete regard for our shared humanity, through shared prosperity. Global Peace Security through Justice and Share Prosperity
Source: Nigerians In America
