The planetary game of Monopoly

Oh boy, am I angry, frustrated, mad now… Oh boy, oh boy, I feel like shouting into the sky.

I was participating on an international symposium about the Western Sahara issue where I presented our Talk Together project. Many other presenters were, directly or indirectly, connected with the world of international politics and the stories about the international politics in cases of conflict zones and humanitarian disaster areas they were sharing – through their presentations or in coffee breaks – were devastating. Not that I learned anything radically new, but the reality hit me really hard again.

It was really painful to see how corrupted the system is, right down to the bottom, and how it is always about power and money. I heard stories (and I am talking about stories with facts, names, dates, not some gossip stuff…) about people presenting themselves as global peace-builders, while they are actually on the payrolls of oil companies, lobbying to provide the best way for them to get access to cheap oil. Who cares about peace and who cares about people suffering in the conflict zones… I heard accounts of international “democratic” governing bodies that keep pushing conflict-zone issues off the agenda over and over and over again in order not to compromise a profit-making business that is going on with one of the parties involved – and while presenting a saint-like empathic face in public. I saw evidence of official U.S. and EU politics deliberately working on denying and playing out not only thousands of people in the Third World countries, but actually also the international law, UN legal opinions and resolutions. And I mean intentionally seeking ways to play out UN resolutions they have voted for a few months ago.

Why all this? Well, surprise surprise, it is all about money and power. Yes, it is only about this, no other grand missions behind.

The common thread is the following: we are rich and powerful. We want more wealth and more power. Our desire for wealth and power is more important than the need for food, water, wellbeing, freedom, autonomy, self-governance of thousands over there somewhere. Who cares! Let’s take it. It looks like the monopoly game played at the expense of thousands, millions…, who are, right now, dying of diseases, refugees trying to find some water and food, our fellow humans being killed and tortured, while we slowly drift into another hot bubble bath, with a glass of champagne, enjoying the beauty of life.

Now, how can you ever trade thousands of lives for some money and then deny it all? The answer is rather easy: when you label them as less worthy. Then you don’t need to worry about it, right? I read it all started several thousands of years ago, when the tribal leaders ceased riding in front their tribes and, now as kings, started to stick to their marble-paved headquarters, sending thousands into death and tens of thousands into suffering. Because the life of the king (or a priest or whatever…) became more valuable then the lives of thousands. I guess the end of empathy became the end of humanity.

And the saddest thing I have heard today at the symposium was when an ex international politician was asked which political option is, in general, more likely to value the needs of people in conflict zones over the profit. The answer was very clear: “It does not matter at all. They will either play the game or lose the power – because the power of the war for profit is just too strong. It does not matter whom you vote.”

Well, I will continue my struggle, but the bitterness is creeping in and the idealism in dying out.

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