Pawns in the Grand Scheme of Things
Not too long ago, after getting a coffee at Tim’s, I took a second look at my medium double double and said to my husband, “Maybe I’m crazy, but doesn’t this coffee cup look smaller than it was before?”
Now our provincial government is smiling broadly, their predicted deficit has been turned around by a massive increase in oil price. Will they use this as an opportunity to hire more teachers and aides, more doctors and nurses, build and equip more hospitals, catch up on infrastructure needs, bring cancelled services back online, implement projects to improve the lives of Albertans? Don’t hold your breath.
On the other side of the coin this rise in oil prices will hit the consumer hard. Gas and diesel prices have already jumped at the pumps. Increases in the cost of transportation will be attached to every product we buy. Once again, who will pay for these extra costs? The consumer will.
For every price increase that hits the bottom end consumer and the small businessman, some individual, some government or some corporation profits. The current oil shortage has been caused by war. All wars are destabilizing and destructive, an insanity that has forever plagued the human race. There are many losers in war - death and/or maiming of combatants and non-combatants, long lasting psychological trauma, infrastructure destruction, loss of territory, societal and governmental upheaval. There are also many short time winners - builders of weapons and suppliers of all the raw materials they require, companies allotted reconstruction projects, territory claimed or reclaimed, establishment of assured oil and mineral supplies, installation of puppet government leaders… Who pays for war while it’s happening and when it’s over? We do, with our standard of living, with our taxes, with our lives - regardless of which side of the conflict we support.
Though some may profit from the current war in the Middle East, most of us will not. I’m aware that not everyone will agree with my point of view, but there comes a time when political correctness becomes apathy, and apathy can cause major troubles down the line. Here we are, stuck in the middle, while two nuclear armed countries have joined together to remake the world order. The USA has attacked Iran. Israel, after years of human and infrastructure destruction in Gaza, has escalated its attacks on Lebanon. Allies are being dragged into the fray.
Israel and the United States are not defending themselves against an aggressor, they are the aggressors. They have stirred up a hornet’s nest that will likely go on for years, will involve numerous other countries and cause massive destruction and loss of life, could even escalate into World War III. Frankly I was terrified last night (March 12) when I watched, on Global National News, the leaders of the US gather together, TV cameras rolling, hands joined and heads bowed in prayer, while President Trump told his people he was saved by God to justify his most recent acts of aggression. This attempt to curry the favor of Christian zealots was further enhanced when Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War, quoted from the Old Testament. It’s unbelievable that this kind of rhetoric is coming from a country that was once proud of their policy of separation between church and state! How often has religion been used as an excuse to engage in war, to excite the masses to fear, hate and kill people who, they’ve been told, are their enemy?
I am a pacifist. I do not believe war solves anything. Gradual cultural change from within a country will endure longer than change imposed by outsiders. Negotiators who have studied the current culture and past history of participants when a conflict arises have a better chance of achieving a successful outcome than ignorant, insular despots attempting to impose solutions. Cooperation and diplomacy, sound economic partnerships, negotiating in good faith - these methods have a better chance to forge a stable world. On the other hand war sets everything back, annihilates all the advances we’ve made to improve or regenerate our environment. It doesn’t just harm people and their buildings, it harms the planet, its oceans, its potable water sources, its air, its nonrenewable resources, its animals. It is a short sighted solution causing long term consequences. It fuels hate that festers, is sustained for generations. The oppressed become the oppressors and the cycle drags on. Those who started the current war in the Middle East hope to profit from it, and they may, but most of us will not. We are expendable pawns involuntarily locked into the grand schemes of the powerful.
