New world emerging By Shea Howell Special to Michigan Citizen News is transient. Events grab headlines one day, then drift from memory. The constant flow of information makes it difficult to recognize when something really new is happening.
So it was predictable that most current news would be dominated by the pageantry of the Olympics. Only the horror of the Russian invasion of Georgia (?) has been able to break through this focus. Behind the Olympic banners and invading tanks, a new world is emerging. The collapse of the Doha talks last week signals a fundamental shift in world power arrangements. The world order dominated by U.S. and European industrial nations is crumbling. Power is shifting to the south and to developing economies. First, developing nations such as China, India, Brazil, Venezuela, Indonesia and the Philippines are no longer going along with the U.S-European model of development. This shift in power is both because of the growing confidence within these nations and the diminished presence of the U.S. in the global imagination. Mired down in two wars, facing a free-falling economy, and dominated by ideologues that have justified horrific actions, the U.S. and its ideas of development no longer have persuasive power. We cannot reconstruct our own cities, educate our children, care for our sick, or provide for our own common good. Why should anyone think we have a key to how countries can develop in healthy ways? Second, within the U.S., Europe and the developing world, a new force is emerging offering a vision of global relationships based on fair trade, self-sufficiency, and care for the earth and one another. This force, sometimes called civil society, represents both the millions of people who have protested the WTO since its inception and their tangible efforts to create new models of international relationships. Highlighting the work of many of these organizations is the World Social Forum. Its first objective is “the construction of a world of peace, justice, ethics and respect for different spiritualities, free of weapons, especially nuclear ones.” These civil society organizations take as their obligation the preservation of “universal and sustainable access to the common property of mankind and nature, for the preservation of our planet and its resources.” They are committed to “the democratization and independence of knowledge, culture and communication for the creation of a system of shared knowledge.” Third, these civil society organizations are often under the leadership and philosophical direction of indigenous people. This week, garnering only a quick headline, was the reaffirmation of Evo Morales’ leadership in Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in the world. The first indigenous leader of the Americas since colonization, Morales has been transforming his country. In a few short years he has used revenues garnered from nationalizing gas and oil to attack illiteracy, which has dropped by 80 percent. He has restored education in Indian languages, provided free health care to over half the population, and created a “dignity” pension for those over 60. With aid from Cuba he has been able to provide 260,000 people with sight restoring eye operations. “Moreover,” as Michel Collon recently reported, “the public investments to develop the economy increased greatly. Bolivia eliminating its fiscal deficit, has repaid half of its foreign debt (now down from $5.0 to $2.2 billion), reconstituted a small financial reserve, multiplied employment in the mines and the metal industries by four, and doubled the production and the incomes of these industries. The industrial GDP passed from $4.1 to $7.1 billion in three years. A thousand tractors were distributed to peasants. New roads were built. In short, Bolivia advances.” These advances are the developments behind the headlines that are inspiring a new world. The question for us is whether we have the political will and humility to become a part of these advances. http://www.michigancitizen.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=1&twindow=Default&mad=No&sdetail=6374&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1070&hn=michigancitizen&he=.com This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
