May 9, 2020
Only truth can set the world free!
You do not need me to tell you these are hard times. In this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions are getting infected and thousands are dying. More than half of the world population is in lockdown and millions have lost their jobs. Many more million people do not even know where their next meal is coming from. Many countries are experiencing severe hardship, though the infections are flattening out in some parts of the world.
Many world leaders describe the war on the virus as like fighting an invisible enemy. There is little we can do to directly fight the virus as no vaccines are ready yet. Unfortunately, we cannot, therefore, predict when this crisis will end.
Before 2020, many people thought very little about their place in nature, and it is safe to say much more prioritized money and instant gratification over respect for the environment. One percent of the world population still holds 50% of the world’s wealth as 800 million people go hungry to bed every night.
When the virus spread, many world governments triggered economic stimulus packages in trillions of dollars to stop the economy collapsing and people losing their livelihood, though this does not guarantee that the world will recover from the current setback shortly. Of course, any government supporting its working class is a wonderful thing and a must for the situation we are in.
But spare a thought for those who used to go to bed hungry every night! Has anything changed for them? Now, more people will struggle to have even just one meal a day and for them, this pandemic has become a true catastrophe.
We might question why governments the world over have reserve or emergency funds only to deal with emergencies like wars or pandemics? Why cannot we use such reserve funds to eradicate poverty and to provide education to everyone in the world? Why cannot governments use reserve funds to minimize environmental pollution and global warming by switching over to cleaner energies? Why cannot governments establish better healthcare throughout the world and not only during a pandemic? Why cannot government use such funds to provide a better living environment in terms of hygiene and drinking water for the less privileged and marginalized?
Of course, the answer is not simple. If one country uses its reserve funds to bolster social equality, it might mean they are more vulnerable to attacks on their home soil (because if a country has no reserve fund, they will be less likely to fund their military to defend themselves in times of war). Or, when another pandemic hits, such a government might find themselves without funds to care for the disadvantaged. As always, geopolitics and economic matters are complicated. But still, we might ask ourselves this: Isn’t much of the chaos we are seeing worldwide as a result of this pandemic at least partially a result of a social-economic imbalance in society as a whole? What this pandemic has exposed is the sheer dependence the average person in any country around the world is dependent on corporations. The average person is dependent on their local supermarket for food, international production companies for entertainment, and oil for transport.
Capitalism is not all-evil. Capitalism has helped spur multiple examples of human ingenuity and invention. But we must now ask ourselves: Isn’t it time to move on? Capitalism has got us to where we are now, and it is time for a new form of government to be the way forward and to help us restore the balance in this global village we all now find ourselves members of, whether we like or not.
Now it is the time to question if it is right anymore for the world to have two sets of citizens, one who can hold 50% of the world’s wealth and another 800 million going hungry to bed every night. We need to wake up now to provide everyone in the world with food and education and only these two necessities can spring this world into real progress.
There is enough in this world for everyone to live happily and but not enough for every man’s greed! Only this truth can set this world free forever!