Nasreen Pejvack, author of “Amity” writes about world politics, war, media, debunking the idealized myth of the West, and the urgent need to work together to find a a way to combat chaos and bring peace to the earth.
Many people from Latin American countries are running from their birthplaces, memories and families, and heading for the USA as poverty, high unemployment, gang violence and more cripples their daily lives. My question is: if they educated themselves on their histories to know why their governments are so ruthless, and seemingly powerless to fix their broken systems, would they run for help to America? Would they direct their path to a better life for their children in the direction of the great oppressor? To the country which had such a big hand in the making of so many of their modern problems?
Remember the School of the Americas – affectionately known as the “School of Assassins?” This organization trained Central and South American soldiers to fight the people of their own nations in aid of establishing tyrants and dictators in power. In such ways and with such agencies American administrations have chosen governments to control third-world countries for decades, to more easily take their natural resources or conform regions to their own ideas of a “Safe World.” Special Intelligence, National Security, Central Intelligence, National Intelligence, and more; count them, name them. We are to believe that these agencies are there to secure our homeland and keep our nation safe; though in time we have learned that they are mainly interested in the security of those in power.
Now, at this time in our history, the peoples in the developing world are wearied of the bullies and their fascist governments, so often manipulated, confirmed and supported by the G7 and corporate 1% elites. Yet these people are running to the western world for help. How innocently naïve to dash into the arms of their true enemy. Do they not understand to whom they are running? Could they even imagine that upon their arrival they would, for instance, be separated from their children? To not know history is to repeat it.
Here in America, Latinos and Latinas are trekking to the heart of their true adversary, and in Europe, Africans and Middle Easterners race to Europe, to the countries that have colonized their birthplaces for decades. Why they do not know these basics? Why they are not reading their histories? The sad truth is that they are simply struggling daily for food and safety; two basic human rights. They are surrounded by chaos and have the assumption that Europe and North America are safe havens.
But how are we in those havens understanding the situation. What are we to make of the worried dinner conversations and the frantic talk-show chatter about the economic burden of refugees or the fear of terrorists among them or why they are still angry about ancient dominations? Where is the space for understanding that they are still paying for those old systems that have left a legacy of corrupted leaders and crippled economies.
How are people to respond to living under a rain of fire and bombs or being threatened by internal conflicts? Can we not imagine alternatives; just policies that stop these wars and allow people to live in their own lands in peace and security? Does no one have any recommendations for what should we do?
Well then, what of our diplomats, scholars, sociologists, human rights activists, and political scientists? Essays and lectures abound with robust ideas and plans, but if a few are tentatively implemented here and there, clearly they are not effective. Why? They all are so scattered; each working on their own project or focused narrowly on different challenges. So I honestly believe our biggest problem is that we are not able to unite in a way such that we can effectively put all our ideas/plans on the table and forge over-arching solutions together. Is it that really so difficult?
And how do we gather the powerful political will of the general population? Let’s not only blame those in the developing world for not educating themselves. The broader public in our supposedly advanced and modern countries is not sufficiently aware of world affairs either. Busy with consumerism and our daily lives, we tend to forget the many unjust wars that are happening all around us. We read and watch wonderful documentaries about past failures in Vietnam and Iraq. Talk shows and YouTube are filled with evocative descriptions of disasters and debacles and earnest explanations of solutions and prescriptions, but then we go to work the next day, and what do we do about it? Sincere groups and organizations do what they can, but scattered efforts here and there have not yet given us positive results. Why can we not work together? Don’t we consider ourselves the “intelligent species” of the planet? Then why we are still accepting the axioms of the past – “Wars have always been there throughout our history.” By working collectively, look how far we have advanced with our technology, medical discoveries, and science. Yet still we are haunted by this ugly phenomenon of war, and we vote for irrational, self-interested leaders, without understanding the implications or consequences.
It is time to work together to find a method for arriving at solutions for combating the chaos that is destroying us all. We are already late, yet I reach out in hope and look for an alternative. We must come up with a solution to save our only home and as many people as possible. Let us find one another and work in concert. We need one another to correct the many mistakes made. Only a unified nation of a planet can deliver positive changes.
One Unified Earth
We need one another, find me, unite
together, we will be one, strong and unified
Let me find you, let us become whole, unite
in peace, one world, no borders, unified
Where there are no borders there are no wars
when there are no wars, people are unified
With no wars, children sleep in peace
their rulers and caretakers are unified
Children are not hungry, they go to school
they do not have fear, they are unified
One earth, one human race
Unified
– Nasreen Pejvack, author of Amity (Finalist, 2016 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize) (Inanna, 2015) http://examine-consider-act.ca