Environmental Catastrophe, Shameful Inequity, Egotism
It is of no secret. We are living in a highly complex world which despite its considerable achievements, is fatally flawed. Life on earth may either end through nuclear war or through environmental catastrophe with the doomsday clock already set at “one-minute before midnight.” Indeed, it is dawning upon us now the realization that the way we live, for all its manifold benefits, threatens our very own survival. The multitude are suffering as enormous amounts are pocketed by a few because of a flawed economic paradigm known as Neo-Liberal Capitalism fronted through Corporate Globalization. Such shameless inequity is perpetuated by the Regime of One Percent composed of some one thousand giant corporations and financial institutions, so engrossed in the blindness of egotism. These Business Corporations are called the “Masters of Mankind” and “Architects of government policies” which are advancing the Modern-Day American Imperialism which controls more than half of the world’s resources. That imperial power has put-up more than 100 US Military Nuclear Bases world-wide, also in the Philippines which were secretly established.
These corporations are the super-rich globally, constituting only one percent of the world’s population but their combined wealth is greater than the total assets of the 99% of the 8 billion earthlings. Their amassing of wealth is done through the non-stop manufacturing and usage of coal and fossil fuel, earning some 16 trillion dollars annually or 10 million dollars every minute. They are intensively promoting unbridled consumerism and materialism, sacrificing the people and the environment to the altar of greed and power. For these “Masters,” war is the” health of the nation.” Thus, through wars, they earn trillions of dollars by supplying arms to the warring factions. As “Architects of Government Policies,” political parties are their allies, especially in the United States where the political parties, i.e., Republicans & Democrats, are now called business parties, based on the deep analysis of Dr. Noam Chomsky, the number one intellectual in the world, as they follow the dictates of these corporations. Who ever these corporations support will surely win as what they did to then candidate Barack Obama who won to the presidency because of the support of these super-rich. When he became US President, he lowered down the taxes of these super rich and transferred the taxes to those below the economic ladder.
Knowing this truism, it behooves for all of us to pause and reflect on the issues of poverty and hunger not only nationally but more so globally. As embodied in the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), all the nations in the world have targeted the eradication of poverty as their number one priority. This is so because of the 5.2 billion people in the developing countries, 1.7 billion live on less than $1/day; 3.2 billion on less than $2/day. Close to 790 million struggle to meet their basic food need requirements on daily basis. Each year 15 million people die of poverty-related causes, most are children. Worse, it is those who are poor who are the primary victims of environmental disasters, wrecking so much havoc to their lives and rendering them homeless while the loggers and miners are well entrenched in their mansions.
In the Philippines, the Social Weather Station, in a survey conducted, disclosed that 17 million Filipinos are subsisting on $1/day while 43 million on $2/day. It also disclosed that 15% of household heads reported that their families had experienced hunger, without anything to eat, at least once in the last three months. As stated by development experts, “despite years, efforts and funds to fight it, abject poverty continues to afflict our country such that it has become second skin to more than a third of our people. We have made no significant headways in improving our quality of life. Poverty is one of the main culprits behind the sad tale that is told much too often – the thief to many a child’s dream.”
Such shameless inequity, out of greed, is not just confined to impoverishing the multitude but has become a threat to the earth’s survival. Indeed, as declared by a world’s amazing environmental young activist before the United Nations named Greta Thunberg, “OUR CIVILIZATION IS BEING SACRIFICED FOR THE OPPORTUNTY OF A VERY SMALL NUMBER OF PEOPLE TO CONTINUE MAKING ENORMOUS AMOUNTS OF MONEY. OUR BIOSPHERE IS BEING SACRIFICED SO THAT RICH PEOPLE CAN LIVE IN LUXURY, IT IS THE SUFFERING OF THE MANY WHICH PAY FOR THE LUXURIES OF A FEW.” Indeed, climate change is not just an alarming possibility, it has become a fearful reality because of the way we live which despite its considerable achievement is fatally flawed. As declared by the amazing well-known environmentalists world-wide, “We have to change not only our lifestyle but our belief systems. We have ransacked nature, treating it as a mere resource because in the last 500 years, we have cultivated a world view that is different from that of our forefathers.” What is that flawed world view?
Here is the truth as declared by well-known environmentalists world-wide: “This worldview championed by Christians and captains of industries (the one percent super-rich) alike, promotes and preserves business as usual and has led us to the brink of ecological collapse. While majority of the people in the US and Europe accept that climate change is happening, most reject the need for radical action.” And you know why? Because they can not moderate their greed and they cannot abandon the destructive structures and blindness of the EGO. Abandoning the EGO is not a popular virtue in this modern world. We need the like of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela who had debunked the EGO and went to the sublime to liberate the poor and the oppressed and stood to protect God’s vanishing creation. To quote Mahatma Gandhi, “If man has to be liberated from doom, development must be in harmony with nature and not at its own expense.” Such statement has opened-up a new understanding of ourselves and a fresh perception of the world around us.
Indeed, what a crazy world we are living right now. Environmental catastrophes are the reflection of the Homo sapiens’ combative and destructive ways of living based on selfish desire for wealth, fame and power. For the Homo sapiens material values must be maximized not the inner values. We must now serve notice that inner values are more important than material values. In the last 500 years, we made great material progress but it is precisely the material progress that is leading to environmental destruction, this time, the imperative call is to maximize inner values not consumer goods or profit.
Let us serve notice to one and all that we cannot save our planet unless we undergo a radical change of mind and heart, which will certainly be demanding. This transformation cannot take place overnight. We too like Mahatma Gandhi have to learn to see the things of nature with reverence and this will require sustained efforts, an authentic change of the heart, discipline and commitment.
When that happens, we will leap-up to that transcendental dimension of space consciousness to know who truly we are AS CONSCIOUSNESS CONNECTED TO THE OCEAN OF CONSCIOUSNESS, THE UNSEEN FORMLESS BEING CALLED GOD. When this happens, we will have a NEW EARTH, devoid of collective insanity, unfettered from negativity and satanic ego. With that CONSCIOUSNESS, every day we should try to know in our minds “the holiness of every single object and person that we encounter,” as declared emphatically by well-known environmentalist named Karen Armstrong, adding that “Each person is a holy mystery and each animal or plant has its own unique dignity and beauty. Energy-wise, oneness and inter-connectedness with all life our universal essence. All must be treated with kindness and reverence for a new earth and a new heaven”—all for God’s greater glory!
