What Progress! Part 3/4

Reflection: #019

Countless Wars in the World.

In the never-ending conflicts between Israel and Palestine, I have long lost count.

The war between Iran and Iraq lasted eight years. The two countries bought fighter planes from France and England.  Pilots from Iran and Iraq had to train in England. One group in the morning, another in the afternoon. After weeks of training with the same trainers and the same aircraft in England, they returned to their home countries to hone their fighting skills. If this is not cynicism, what is it?  Iraq-US. United States-Iraq.

The wars in Africa don't have such spectacular names as "Desert Storm" One and Two.

No, they don't have a name. Neither do the peoples or tribes killing each other.

In Africa, people are murdered day after day, without comment in the media. With unimaginable cruelty.  The embargo against Cuba is still in force. None of the presidential candidates in the United States will lift the ban.

Obama, the Black senator, said he would talk to Castro—that's all.  These power plants will be destroyed with bombs if Iran does not renounce nuclear energy for electricity.

The new aspirants for the presidency in the United States are determined to do so.  

What progress!  

A country in the making needs energy. If there are no large rivers to build dams, what other alternative do they have? Iran knows that one day the income from crude oil dollars will end. What comes next? They study and invest in modern infrastructure with industries that are not dependent on oil.

Iraq did that. Libya did that. Improving infrastructure and preparing for a life after oil.

Being independent of other countries is the solution: separate from selling crude oil and independent of buying products from other countries. Is that not logical? Is this not a sound long-term economic policy?

Furthermore, do they not have the right to do so? No! That is what the United States says.  The profits from oil, from drugs (from all over the world), from the arms business, and income from various illegal transactions must be invested in a savings account in dollars.  These foreign currencies go back to the United States, and this money is invested there. But little in infrastructure and more in war technology.

The USA has many runways (airports), some highways, and nothing else. Every city has some tall buildings.

They have Las Vegas to spend what they do not have. Las Vegas has no water, no light, no food, no beautiful landscape. But the hotels are built like paradise.

Yes, every technological advance is—and has been—used there. But will someone please tell me with what money?

And for whom?  All that in a place with a permanent temperature of over forty degrees. Isn't it a deadly place for mortals? It isn't very hospitable to any species. But man built his paradise there. You can also get married and divorce in an hour.  Why can't you spend a dollar on developing countries? Then there wouldn't be a massive exodus of the poor to more prosperous countries.

They say it's not safe to keep the money in banks in these countries. But is it safe in the USA? The value of the American currency has halved, which means that half of it has disappeared. In other words, if you worked for thirty years and saved your earnings, fifteen years of your working life would be taken away.  

What progress!  

Continue …  

Josef Bauer