[afro-nets] Eliminating world poverty: making governance work for the poor (9)

["Jeff Buderer" <jeff@onevillage.biz>]

Eliminating world poverty: making governance work for the poor (9)
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Toyin,

Your comments regarding Kris' post are understandable however, the point he is trying to put forward is not communism but the need for a truly open and democratic process in the emerging global society. In the US we have sunshine laws, and what they say is that public policy meetings in local communities must proceed in the open and not in secrecy. Why is this confined to the local if it is that a free society needs to operate in the open?

What is communistic is the very nature of elites to operate in secrecy and without accountability, out of the sunshine of the critical public eye. Hence the excessive oligarchic global capitalism system in place resembles more and a communist system with a handful of people controlling not just one nation but the whole global society.

If we do not as you say "wake up" and "get serious" to the fact of the root cause of these problems that we talk about here, then humanity will itself be an increasingly unfeasible proposition.

Fukayama's "End of History" was based on the notion of a new age of history based on the fall of communism and the victory of capitalism. More and more intellectuals challenge this simplistic view of the world. Yet we much can also be learned from his thinking.

What I see is that "peace dividend" from the West's victory over the East (the idea was that without the need for huge cold war era militaries we could now spend the money on much development and social programs) was squandered (instead the peace dividend went towards tax cuts for the rich, prison building and the War on Crime, the War on Terror and now to sustain wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) and so now we have to deal with a rising tide of global problems including the excesses and externalities of capitalism itself. Much of Buffet's 32 billion came from candy, cigarettes and junk food (War on Human Health). So then we must ask: if we through some modified form of capitalism, cannot find a compelling and timely solution to these world urgent issues, then might its demise also follow that of its long time arch-nemesis communism? If so, what is now being developed that could replace its untimely collapse?

My own view is to modify the existing capitalism so that it is more adequately regulated in a global system. To me what is ludicrous is that we operate in an increasingly global economy that has transcended the nation-state but that this global economy still operates basically in a regulatory vacuum. This allows the West to promote and benefit from the outsourcing and development strategies without consideration to 
adequate health care, proper worker rights, human rights and consideration of the unsustainable ecological impacts of development that often human health repercussions (global warming, air and water pollution). How long can this continue? Can?t we see terrorism and rise of extreme Islam as well as other forms of extremism as knee jerk responses to ill thought out development policies that repeat the same patterns of exploitation common in human history?

What I see is a global ICT network that promotes accountability and transparency funding innovative market driven ecologically and socially sustainable technologies and approaches. A holistic Health Care Development model is a key part of this strategy.

Jeff Buderer
oneVillage Foundation
mailto:jeff@onevillage.biz