Reality and hypocrisy An illusion or disappointing truth ?
WE live in one world divided into seven continents split into 195 countries with a total population of 7.9 billion people.
Every country has its own representation, culture and people yet not every country is treated equally — despite all 195 countries being recognised via the United Nations, current times show that the world is divided as the ‘West’ and the ‘East’ with the former being progressive and liberal and the latter being conservative and playing catch up to the former.
Yet as history has shown, it was the West which exploited the East — by 1920, the British Empire occupied 24% of Earth’s land and accumulated over $45 trillion through their rule over India — the French Empire at its peak occupied 8.
6% of the world and colonised African nations taking away strategic resources such as diamonds, uranium, gas and oil – the Dutch used their colonies which ranged from America to Asia all the way to Africa taking their agricultural lands and fisheries to amass great fortunes which they never used to invest on their colonies, only on its interest in the colonies.
When the colonial empires came to an end, they may have left the land but left the people with nothing to build upon or progress on.
Instead, with a power void needing to be filled, the people fought with each other for the land while the conquerors used their exploits to invest in their home countries leading to their progression.
Globalisation has shown us the value of money, power and cooperation.While it’s true all the countries have to look out for their own people, the strongest economies are those that trade with other countries, not their military prowess.
Money may afford a country to develop itself, power may afford a country to be recognised and taken more seriously by others but cooperation is what has led civilisation to advance technologically, medically, have a better standard of living and access to a variety of goods and services which benefit the world and its people.
While Russia is invading Ukraine currently, the EU along with the US have put unprecedented sanctions on Russia in an attempt to cripple them financially and to end the war while urging other countries to follow suit.
The hypocrisy comes when the same invasion and casualties are being conducted on the ‘East’ side with Israel being financed by the US to expand its area by invading Palestine, with the war between Pakistan and India over Kashmir and USA’s confrontation against Iran.
The West in such circumstances only plead for peace yet actively do nothing for the East. The USA spent $2.3 trillion on their 11-year war (20 year occupation of) with Afghanistan – what they achieved was the destabilisation of a country and the loss of countless lives on both sides along with freezing $9.5billion funds which belong to the people of Afghanistan yet their current president wants to divide that money for the victims of 9/11.
While the ‘West’/EU has taken a firm stance against Russia by suspending services, freezing their accounts, blacklisting their banks and blocking their trade, they are pressuring the ‘East’ to follow suit.
Russia is the largest exporter of wheat in the world accounting for 18% of international exports as well as being the 2nd largest exporter of oil in the world along with gas/coal/military technology and due to its geopolitical landscape, it is much easier to be accessible by European countries and countries in the East.
The reality is that these same countries boycotting Russia will eventually realise that despite being a Union they have to look out for their own people and economy and through these unprecedented times, inflation will rise significantly and the entire world will continue to be affected – thus it wouldn’t be surprising if these same countries make their own deals with Russia to survive.
With China taking a neutral stance, they are the single largest buyer of Crude oil from Russia and with the current deal between the East and Russia for a gas pipeline deal, Russia has still solidified itself as a major global player along with having the most nuclear weapons in the world as a deterrent.
While renewable energy is the future, the world currently lacks the infrastructure to support it.
Oil/Gas is what runs the world, not money.The same Union which labels the largest oil exporter in the world, Saudi Arabia may have to make deals with them with Russia being frozen out or rely on the USA which is a strategically complex matter.
The same Union which is allowing refugees from Ukraine have started to limit refugees coming in from developing and war-torn countries in the East.
Countries a part of the same Union have not only provided financial aid to Ukraine but also weaponry, ammunition and defence systems despite Ukraine not being a member of the EU.
The United Nations which condemns violence and threatens sanctions against developing countries with unstable political stability haven’t been able to solve conflicts longer than this invasion let alone given other current major conflicts the same attention or action.
Ironically, the only time in recent history that the world has been united was at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in which all countries came together and decided to be more divided than ever by closing their borders and restricting travel by imposing lockdowns to keep their citizens safe.
Three major countries made a breakthrough by developing the fastest and most effective vaccines for this pandemic – China with Sinopharm being its most popular, Russia with Sputnik being its most popular and the US with Pfizer.
Despite the speed and cooperation it took for the development, rollout and supply of such vaccines, Sputnik is not recognised by the USA and only recently people vaccinated by Sinopharm were authorised into some countries, however, Pfizer is accepted by all.
The reality can be hypocritical yet it is also a disappointing truth – the illusion being that the West and the East are supposedly equal yet as history has shown and continues to show, the majority of the world’s population is victim to the consequences of the actions taken place by a handful of men and their propaganda.
While there will continue to be a global shift in the power of countries and a repeat of war and terror, may those who’ve lost their lives find eternal peace because life in this one world we share, we can only hope for peace and harmony yet we accept the evil and terror happening around us.
—The writer is Lawyer/Businessman.
