| by Pearl Thevanayagam
(August 19, 2013, London , Sri Lanka Guardian) Conflict resolution became a byword in the ‘90s among peaceniks following wars fought within and outside nations liberally endorsed mainly by the West, namely US, USSR, UK among others who generously provided weapons both to the governments and their opponents at a price. This is also a modern US invention while it provokes and promotes wars as it skips along its merry way selling arms to both the governments and its enemies; whoever pays the bigger price.
The bottom line is profit as capitalism which dictates US policy in governance and human rights is but a side show to proclaim to the world that its mea culpa means it has a gentle heart towards its fellow human race. But nothing is further from the truth.
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The world is full of charlatans and politicians top the list. Politicians are predators and let us not believe for one nano-second that they have the interest of their voters. Today’s politicians are the biggest lie and they will move heaven and earth to proclaim they want to better the lives of their voters.
According to the World Book of Lists, the United States of America is the largest producer of arms and ammunition and it funds all major wars in the world. Then, it goes one step further. It sets up peace initiative and forces nations to succumb to its threat of invasion through coercion aka World Bank and IMF (International Monetary Fund) which stipulates how its loans are utilised.
These institutions which charge very high interests will tell third world nations how to run their economies, how to invest in US ventures, how to provide cheap labour for US off-shore businesses all the while pontificating on human rights.
The West destroyed ancient cultures and forced indigenous people into subservience. Now the tide has turned a full 360 degrees and the West is inundated with refugees banging on its doors and seeking redress. From the Red Indians who are now living in nuclear dumps and lead poisoned homes unfit for human habitation; from Australia’s aboriginies –the legitimate inhabitants who have been force-fed alcohol and made stupor to invade their legitimate lands – the West stands accused of gross human rights violation.
It was the marauding West which fed opium to the diligent Chinese so that it could plunder its wealth. It also tells Iran that it has no reason to develop nuclear weapons. Iran and North Korea are doing exactly what the US has been doing for a very long time. And what right has US to tell other nations that they are violating international laws in producing nuclear weapons?
Is it not the same West which invaded Afghanistan and encouraged the poppy cultivation to feed its populace’s cocaine high. Just read media reports of Westerners caught red-handed trafficking Class A drugs and you will see that the West cannot contain its populace from drug addiction. Pursuit of happiness is entrenched in the Bill of Rights as Abraham Lincoln proclaimed and so is freedom of expression.
But at what price? From Charles Taylor of Liberia to Saddam Hussein of Iraq, from Gorbachev in the glasnost and perestroika period of the 1980s to Afghanistan’s US controlled puppet regime to overthrow Taliban fundamentalists, US has been flexing its muscle to lord it over the rest of the world claiming moral responsibility that it is the watch dog of the universe. Who bestowed this title on the United States of America? It is us third world bootlickers. When third world is offered scraps pf scholarships, grants and other perks to buy out brains and brawn a selected elite few are ready to sell their souls and together their homelands
US nurtured and trained leaders among others in warfare but Saddam Hussein became a pariah following the Kuwait invasion in 1990 which saw the Arab nations pitting one against the other.
The founding fathers of the US constitution truly and sincerely believed that North America would be the watchdog on the rest of the world and it will take over from British Imperialism which collapsed circa 1950 following demands for self-governance by colonies.
Now Egypt is bleeding and hundreds if not thousands of lives are lost in the follow-up to the uprising of civilians against Hosni Mubarak, the ever smiling president not unlike our own leader Mahinda Rajapakse whose smile belies the disingenuousness of his cunning in inciting mobs to attack mosques and at the same time sending in re-inforcements to quell attacks masterminded by his brother and defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse.
The world is full of charlatans and politicians top the list. Politicians are predators and let us not believe for one nano-second that they have the interest of their voters. Today’s politicians are the biggest lie and they will move heaven and earth to proclaim they want to better the lives of their voters. On the contrary, they use hapless voters and mesmerise them into believing they are on their side.
Thumbs up for Iran and North Korea which turned the word democracy on its head and are proving to be a challenge to the farce the West is bestowing on other nations. The days of intimidating lesser powerful nations are over as we see in the uprising of the Arab Spring. And When Islam and other radicals take over the West, it had better tuck its tails in between and ponder where it went wrong.
If conflicts the world over challenge leadership then it is up to the masses to rise up and fight the good fight. The circle has turned a full degree and no more will the masses take the West’s pig-headedness lying down.
(The writer has been a journalist for 24 years and worked in national newspapers as sub-editor, news reporter and news editor. She was Colombo Correspondent for Times of India and has contributed to Wall Street Journal;where she was on work experience from The Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley, California. Currently residing in UK she is also co-founder of EJN (Exiled Journalists Network) UK in 2005 the membership of which is 200 from 40 countries. She can be reached at pearltheva@hotmail.com)
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