Successive governments world-wide have failed to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. The rich corporations continue to reap record breaking profits whereas the common man struggles to put food on the table. More and more people are out of work, most cannot find work and many are under-employed, yet there are many who choose not to go to work for obvious reasons. The purchasing power is getting weaker by the hour and things are so expensive, that the essentials of life are getting out of the common man’s hands.
I am afraid all this and many more factors is a pre-mix, a mixture ready to churn towards civil unrest, where law and order will not only be difficult to maintain, rather impossible to uphold when things go beyond reason. History has it many times, one more time will not make much difference. The poor have nothing but themselves to lose. And the rich have everything but themselves to lose. Man does not learn, was, is and will always be driven by greed. And it is greed one day that will bring about its downfall. I hope such a time never comes, not at least in my life time, but if I look back at the last 10 years, such times are coming and approaching fast than we can anticipate, especially in the aftermath, when the governments are turning blind to the crisis that is growing by leaps and bounds world-wide. It is not the problem of one nation or the other. It is a global phenomenon. And I am not surprised.
What has gone wrong, people are no longer able to hold their leaders in government accountable. It’s become the jungle law once again and man has become it’s own deadliest enemy.
Education is not cheap, it comes at a dire cost, not only it cost so much more to go to school but the years spent in getting the piece of paper is no longer worth it. It results in unmanageable debt leading to corruption in the society, looks like cost of education is causing the society to be corrupt.
Small business ceases to exist, as larger corporations are flourishing by capturing larger share of the pie with cost cutting measures that are not sustainable at the local markets for local businesses.
Even the farmers are not spared. They are forced to pay higher taxes, cutting into their lively hoods of a respectable hard-earned life.The old saying that the prosperity of any nation lies in the hands of the farmer is no longer true. Farmers world-wide are facing crisis and many have quit.At this pace, there is already a shortage of food in the world’s bread basket. The floods and droughts in different part of the world not helping either. The world bread basket has not only shrunk, but its quality of food and nourishment has suffered considerably.Truly the old order is changing to yield place to new, but the question on my mind is, Is this new for the better?
We can drive the best of cars and use the best of technology and gadgets, is that development and a brighter future? Some argue we have made progress in medicine and science, have travelled out and beyond the earth, the solar system. Yes true, but for what. We have not been able to sustain the green pastures, the air and water on this planet, and I am not sure if finding life on another planet is more important than sustaining the existing life on earth, of preserving earth’s resources and generating recyclable energy has been more important now than ever before.
It is time to wake up and say no to many seeming conveniences of science and technology. In long term benefits of health and peace, of quality life for the man and fellow living beings again to abide in peaceful co-existence should be the real change that we need to invest in for today and for a better tomorrow …
Manjit Singh (Ottawa)
