Trying to Understand the Present
What strikes me as a obsessive observer of US and international events is how difficult it is to get beneath the myriad of superficial and misleading media fed information and find out what is actually happening let alone and more importantly, why. For example, the Ukrainian situation where we are continually bombarded by accounts of Putin as this mad crazed Russian autocrat looking to expand his influence and power with little or no legitimacy. While of course, Western Europe and US are portrayed as the true defenders of democracy, freedom and international law. But if we just spent a little of our time reviewing the history of this region we can see far more nuanced reasons for these developments with grave mistakes, misunderstandings and misrepresentations on both sides. If we spent a little more time looking at the overinflated expansive behaviour of the EU and NATO an organisation looking to create a reason for being as opposed to existing because of defined and declared needs then the binary explanations that are offered by our 24/7 rolling news would seem hopelessly inadequate in offering the listener/reader a reasoned account of these events.
The Ebola crisis, once again we hear a considerable amount about the inability of certain African nations to look after themselves due to abject poverty, ignorance and systemic corruption, whilst President Obama proudly announces that three thousand US troops are to be sent to West Africa to help these beleaguered nations - the US cavalry rides to the rescue of the blighted homesteaders. We hear little about the involvement of China who are already there helping on the ground - coincidence, I think not - and we certainly hear little about the down grading and dilution of the World Health Organisation (WHO), an UN institution based in Geneva, explicitly set up to deal with crises such as these. However, due to the slashing of their budgets by the US and Western European nations throughout the last two decades the expertise and experience to deal with this condition has been hampered to such a degree that health threats such as these take on far more significance, destroying the lives of so many more people and families then would be the case.
Finally, the Middle Eastern Crisis - the true socio-political Gordian knot - an extremely difficult subject to understand let alone unravel since it involves the multiplicity of cultural, religious, and political stories of numerous communities that now seem in constant flux if not competition and brutal conflict due apparently to their inability to organise and manage their own affairs in a reasoned and humane way. But once again, while this implicit simplistic assumption that these people are unable/unwilling to govern themselves is clear could the intermittent but constant intervention and interference of nation-states such as the US, UK , France and Russia who feel they know better, under the conflated flag of human rights and nation-state security have anything to do with this desperate situation? Could the one eyed approach to international law over the behaviour of Israel by the US in particular have any effect on many peace seeking Arabs? Could the continuing need by Washington to contain if not control this region have a destabilising effect not a pacific one? Could the break up of this region just be a living metaphor as to the inability of our neo-liberal free market world to consider that there are other ways to be?
These are just three examples amongst many where much of the media and many politicians use contemporary often over expressed feelings of injustice and inhumanity to explain and justify the continuing the fight against despotism, ignorance and greed (The beheading of reporters and aid workers within the self pronounced IS caliphate is grotesque, however, Saudi Arabia, a nation feted and supported by most western nations uses this form of death within their legal system hundreds of times a year). Moreover, if we just spent a little time scratching beneath the historical surface of these events then we can witness these topics being acted out in similar fashion by our own representatives, we just recognise it via a different name - national self interest. The implicit and explicit nature of the need by Washington to defend their pre-eminent international position supported largely by Western Europe nation-states for self serving reasons, equates to - whether Obama likes it or not - the US adopting the role of international policeman. The problem with this self elected role is that the 'officers' are their as much to promote and protect the US as they are to invoke peace and security overseas. This powerful, imperial partial condition that has generated so much mistrust and instability in the past is one of the reasons why the United Nations was created, yet this institution has never truly been allowed to oversee the behaviour of the most powerful. The history of yesterday and today clearly reveals this, all you have to do is place to one-side the dualistic assumptions and stereotyping that we receive everyday confirming our superiority - 'our right to act' - and dig a little deeper into our past patterns of behaviour. Fortunately, unfortunately, you will find little has fundamentally changed concerning why we do what we do we just update our lexicon so that our understanding of the present remains 'understandable' but rarely truly considered.
KK
The Ebola crisis, once again we hear a considerable amount about the inability of certain African nations to look after themselves due to abject poverty, ignorance and systemic corruption, whilst President Obama proudly announces that three thousand US troops are to be sent to West Africa to help these beleaguered nations - the US cavalry rides to the rescue of the blighted homesteaders. We hear little about the involvement of China who are already there helping on the ground - coincidence, I think not - and we certainly hear little about the down grading and dilution of the World Health Organisation (WHO), an UN institution based in Geneva, explicitly set up to deal with crises such as these. However, due to the slashing of their budgets by the US and Western European nations throughout the last two decades the expertise and experience to deal with this condition has been hampered to such a degree that health threats such as these take on far more significance, destroying the lives of so many more people and families then would be the case.
Finally, the Middle Eastern Crisis - the true socio-political Gordian knot - an extremely difficult subject to understand let alone unravel since it involves the multiplicity of cultural, religious, and political stories of numerous communities that now seem in constant flux if not competition and brutal conflict due apparently to their inability to organise and manage their own affairs in a reasoned and humane way. But once again, while this implicit simplistic assumption that these people are unable/unwilling to govern themselves is clear could the intermittent but constant intervention and interference of nation-states such as the US, UK , France and Russia who feel they know better, under the conflated flag of human rights and nation-state security have anything to do with this desperate situation? Could the one eyed approach to international law over the behaviour of Israel by the US in particular have any effect on many peace seeking Arabs? Could the continuing need by Washington to contain if not control this region have a destabilising effect not a pacific one? Could the break up of this region just be a living metaphor as to the inability of our neo-liberal free market world to consider that there are other ways to be?
These are just three examples amongst many where much of the media and many politicians use contemporary often over expressed feelings of injustice and inhumanity to explain and justify the continuing the fight against despotism, ignorance and greed (The beheading of reporters and aid workers within the self pronounced IS caliphate is grotesque, however, Saudi Arabia, a nation feted and supported by most western nations uses this form of death within their legal system hundreds of times a year). Moreover, if we just spent a little time scratching beneath the historical surface of these events then we can witness these topics being acted out in similar fashion by our own representatives, we just recognise it via a different name - national self interest. The implicit and explicit nature of the need by Washington to defend their pre-eminent international position supported largely by Western Europe nation-states for self serving reasons, equates to - whether Obama likes it or not - the US adopting the role of international policeman. The problem with this self elected role is that the 'officers' are their as much to promote and protect the US as they are to invoke peace and security overseas. This powerful, imperial partial condition that has generated so much mistrust and instability in the past is one of the reasons why the United Nations was created, yet this institution has never truly been allowed to oversee the behaviour of the most powerful. The history of yesterday and today clearly reveals this, all you have to do is place to one-side the dualistic assumptions and stereotyping that we receive everyday confirming our superiority - 'our right to act' - and dig a little deeper into our past patterns of behaviour. Fortunately, unfortunately, you will find little has fundamentally changed concerning why we do what we do we just update our lexicon so that our understanding of the present remains 'understandable' but rarely truly considered.
KK
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