Africa | One Lifetime Blog

Change is something that no matter how hard you try you can only slow down but not totally avoid. This is being discovered on many levels by citizens and governments across the globe. Some change is good and some change is negative or retroactive, though no change is avoidable the end destination of change can be redirected. Even change that has been orchestrated runs its own course and usually will never come out exactly as planed.

So now the middle east and north African countries are going through a political change that has yet to reach its end. It will be many years after the dust settles before the end results will be known. The only thing predictable about the circumstances the world is facing in this unrest is that more than likely that no one will head the warnings of being dependent on oil and not having a fair economical and civilian minded government. It will shock me immensely if any Oil consuming nation and their government even thinks twice about getting off the oil addiction. It will shock me even more if any nation ever puts the citizens before the government officials or the big businesses.

I have a lot of faith in mankind just not very much in the select few who rule by government or from their corporate towers. They have all the money and power and they surely don’t want to share it or even allow others to reach their status level because less competition equals more control and wealth. To be fair there has to be some in government and in big business that do care and try to do good with what they have, Just seems there is more of them that are greedy and power hungry than compassionate and humane. So being out numbered by their peers they have a lot to overcome to make any difference in the world.

I just think it is time for businesses to get their act together and realize crude oil is eventually either going to run out or become too costly to sustain any industry that requires it to operate. I also think it is time for governments to see that the citizens are the ones paying their paychecks and taking care of all the bills / loan payments the government has. So if you don’t keep the working man and the consumers employed, healthy and somewhat happy that the economy is going to either become stagnant or head into a downward spiral.

Invest in small business and help the innovative people of your nation so new technologies and new sources of income can be created. Keep them healthy so they can be productive and keep the economy strong and for gods sake listen to the public, they are getting tired of their words falling on deaf ears. And here in the U.S. the political parties need to grow up and get over their differences and be grown up enough to face and tackle the problems facing the country from the federal government down to the back streets of America.

And for as the national debt is concerned, Stop borrowing money as much, cut foreign aid a bit and maybe take a pay cut up their in congress. Most Americans are forced to survive on 20k if not less and rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $174,000 per year. Far as Social security, leave it alone for most of us middle class and below the social security benefits is all we have to retire on and due to the cost of healthcare most of us wont be able to live to see much past 60 years of age.

O.K. Enough Ranting for now,

Peace

Ray Barbier

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Across the globe citizens of all walks of life are protesting and rioting against governments that are now learning the lessons of not listening to their citizens. Imbalance of power, wealth and education is creating a wave of anti government sentiment and actions. In the U.S. the Unions and workers of many states are in a battle for their rights to have a good wage and decent retirement / Insurance coverage. The citizens of the middle eastern countries and north Africa are fighting for basic human rights. All of this is due to the greed and the inability of governments to listen to the wants and needs of their citizens.

I find it quite sad it takes such protests and riots to enact change in countries and governments of the modern world. Maybe some good will come out of all of this unrest and un needed killing in countries such as Libya. Maybe, just maybe other countries and their governments will learn to listen to the public and be more concerned about their needs and wants. Possibly they may even see the great gap in the wealth and health issues within their own borders and try and find a way to make it a bit more fair and balanced.

No country is immune to the divide between the economic classes, some countries have a larger gap than others and this will eventually create either unrest or a economical downward spiral for those countries. The working class is the one that both helps create/provides goods and is the major consumer of such goods/services. Neglect that class and allow them to become impoverished both financially and in education then you will see a economical disaster in the making.

Another lesson that the world may learn is that we really need to move away from the dependence on oil as our main source of fuel. The unrest in the middle east has already increased the cost of oil per barrel to over 100 U.S. dollars and has effected the stock markets across the globe. An oil based economy like what most of the world is connected to is not a very stable one due to the increase of demand and the dwindling oil supplies and reserves across the globe.

To those in Libya, Egypt and the rest of the countries in the Middle East / North Africa I send my best wishes and my condolences for the lives lost in the revolutions/protests.

Peace is the path seldom walked.
Raymond Barbier