Under the social contract, people forgo the right to take anything they want for security in possession of what they have. Internationally this is termed collective security. These contracts are enforced by law, by courts and by armies. Now rogue nations or stateless groups can use unconventional warfare, cyber-warfare or weapons of mass destruction to circumvent conventional defenses. States can’t honor their contracts. New contracts accommodating the interests of the world’s needy are overdue. Attempts to negotiate such contracts began in the early 70s under auspices of the Club of Rome and the United Nations, and while serious groundwork was laid, meaningful progress has eluded us. 9/11 should have warned us that our stonewalling can’t continue forever.

Our readiness to enter serious negotiations could be demonstrated by our enlisting in an international war on hunger financing our share by halving our expenditures on obsolete conventional arms. In such efforts we must rely heavily on the experience of the international community in determining where aid can be effectively applied, what aid is culturally appropriate and where goods can be sourced in such a manner as to strengthen the local and regional developing economies instead of assuming omniscience. Direct food aid is a stopgap measure and must be replaced by permanent improvements in local agriculture wherever and whenever possible. Where impossible, appropriate local industry must be deployed so exports may be traded covering the shortfall. By such methods developing nations can be empowered instead of enslaved to multi-national corporations, the pressure to migrate abate.

Some assert that globalization has lifted millions out of poverty. It has enriched elites whose wealth warps the statistics. Look at the millions struggling to survive on the margins of our megatropolises. We can do what is morally right and prudent, sharing our power and priveleges with them or turn away allowing the dying to continue. Let’s demand that the gridlock ends.

 

John E. Gibson

Owatonna