The Returned Wealth of Nations

The Returned Wealth of Nations

If we look at a list of “powerful civilisations in history” we cannot help to realize how really “powerful” they were in terms of the size of land they occupied, and the level of dominance they have inflicted upon the people they have governed. Powerful nations today would be no comparison to history’s great giants.
There is also another characteristic of that list that may seem obvious at the first glance but may also be terrifying to realize and perhaps should be alarming when applied to our current understanding of international relations. That feature is that they all have vanished, most of the time in carnage, inflicting tremendous pain and suffering to their people and around.
One might say “So what? All empires rise and fall.”
Well, I believe that the carnage increases exponentially in time due to ever increasing population and advancing weaponry or tactics. So although the saying; "history repeats itself" states that this apocalyptic progress is unavoidable, I still want to believe that the re-realization of this fact could, and should fuel a motivation for the people of politics in order to consider a unified effort to stop it.
And if it can’t, the pain and suffering we will soon be on the verge of experiencing is so great that the human race’s existence could be in jeopardy. There a signs, facts and unfolding events which show that this is unfortunately, an ongoing process, rather than a pessimistic prediction of the times that are coming.
Every great war in history is followed by a time of fake peace and pushed but mutual understanding since, the ruling and the educating part of the society has a vivid memory of the suffering the wars has brought upon. As soon as these generations disappear and the disturbing memories of war become boring documentaries and books that dust in libraries, the war itself start to appear more as a “solution” to problems where the pursuit for peace seem to become more nonnegotiable and expensive.
Usually the defeated side in the previous war or a silently developing nation at a forgotten corner finds the national will, space, time and funds to create a better and stronger force or tactic which catches the victor at a bad time when the hopes of everlasting peace has transformed into cuts in its military spending and quest for ever impossible political pursuit of international disarmament. Europe today has far less military spending and funds for new arms research compared to the times when it had mighty armies that dominated Far East, Middle East and Africa. Although the weapons in its arsenal are still highly effective, the strategy they are beginning to encounter seems to be capable of defeating even the most advanced military might. The September 11 attack is a first in history where an absolutely powerful nation in terms of weaponry could suffer such damage in the hearth of its nation. Not in any great war since the beginning of history a nation has experienced such damage when she possessed such an enormous military power. The new way of the weak seems to start challenging the mighty, a lot earlier and bloodier than thought.
If this ever-looping course of history is not interfered soon and strong enough, the human race will bring its own demising apocalypse much earlier than the gods has promised.
What is to be done?
1. The wealth of Far Eastern, African and South American nations that has been confiscated by the powers of Europe during Colonial Times, must be calculated by the World Bank and returned to them to create a global fiscal balance, where huge economical gap among the world’s populations will be diminished, thus removing the reason of hate, fuelled by resentment towards the rich.
The rich is ridiculously too rich. News of people owning 12 luxurious cars or a guy living in a 64 room huge house with 6 pools is not supposed to be making sense when the next headline in CNN is starving children somewhere in the world.
We should never be proud of ourselves in term of justice and humanity if it concerns only the people within our borders.
The earned wealth of the West will still be in place since big companies will be giving up only some of their savings thus creating a buying power across the globe by granting purchasing power to the poor.

2. The so called religious conflicts, (Israel-Palestine, Pakistan-India, ...) should be redefined as conflicts of land and wealth, and addressed accordingly in terms of financial grants thus creating prosperity for the ones who are deprived of feasible land or access to any profitable resource.

3. All above activities must be carried under the supervision of, to be re-defined United Nations Charter and Security Counsel, agreed upon by all means and by all nations, enforced and protected by the proportionally equal joint forces from every nation, under a complete understanding and participation of every citizen on the planet.

Sound like a utopia? Well, if not accomplished, the world peace will remain a utopia forever.
The prosperity of the West was established by huge military spending and expertise while the countries fought one and other. There is a big pause to this activity since the end of Cold War and the rest of the world is getting stronger, in terms of productivity, weaponry and most importantly strategically. This pace may seem to be insignificant now but in 50 years, the tables can turn dramatically.
The West must interfere with this progress and turn it into a huge global financial development project rather than a military build up for revenge.
To be continued...
Serhan Ogan