|
In Geo-Politics as in Local Politics When Money is Factored In, Moral and Political Correctness and Fairness Take a Back Seat By Dr. Wunmi Akintide
I
attended a special thanksgiving service of the 60th Birthday of a good
friend and townsman, the one and only Olatubosun Adedipe at the
First Lutheran Church at Montclair, New Jersey, on September 27th, 2003
only to hear the preacher eloquently argue in his sermon "that
money cannot and does not guarantee happiness." To prove his point
the pastor had cited several cases of Hollywood stars who
are known to be multi millionaires committing suicide. He therefore
sought to use that hypothesis to convince the congregation which
includes me, on that special occasion, that money and having it in
abundance, if you please, does not guarantee happiness. The preacher may
be correct only to a point, but not always, I dare say. Where you can
cite a few cases of people with plenty of money still going ahead
to commit suicide, you can also count hundreds of people going over the
edge to do something as bizarre as taking their own life, because they
feel totally helpless financially Preachers
once they mount the podium are ever so lucky and at liberty to say what
they please, and getting away with them, because, like the radio, they
are totally insulated from immediate rebuttal. From my own point
of view, however, money is critically important to survival and
happiness in today's reality in the world. Gone were those days when
Jesus had openly turned water into wine for millions to drink, and using
a few loaves of bread to feed millions. Such open miracles never happen
anymore. All you hear today is that miracles are happening, and the
preachers keep close to their chest who the recipients are in the
congregation. Not even T. M. Joshua the most dramatic of our several
powerful men of God in Nigeria has yet succeeded in doing what Jesus had
done, feeding hundreds with few loaves of bread, even though there were
many in his congregation who could not afford one meal a day in a desert
of want that Nigeria has become for many. As a matter of fact, some of
those poor people in the T. M. Joshua congregation and so many others
around Nigeria are still required to make offerings when it is time to
collect offerings which is one of the most fundamental reasons the
crusade was put together to begin with. I think Rueben Abati had said it
all in his latest article titled the Prayer Warrior and their antics
published by the Nigeriaworld on September 26. I doff my hat to Rueben
for his amazing satires in pinpointing the problems of Nigeria. My point
is that money which some have called the root of all evils has also
turned out to be the root of all good for many in our world today I
think Agartha Christie the great British novelist had gotten it right
when she once said "It is bad enough to marry for money, but worse
still to do so without it." Money is that important. Every time I
hit the road in the huge American Highways and turnpikes and I see so
many traffic on both sides of the Highway, I can tell you 98% of those
drivers and traffic on those Highways are out looking for nothing else
but money to sustain them and their families. You may or may not agree
with this observation, but that is my view, and I am entitled to it. You
won't find too many Yorubas naming their children "Owojomolo"
(Money is more valuable than having a child) only because they are just
too embarrassed to publicly admit it. You will hear names like "Omotola",
"Omoboriowo" Having a child is more worthy than going after
money. The last time I checked, the only "Omoboriowo" that I
know in Ondo State was willing to do anything, including rigging
elections in day light robbery to become the Governor of his State
mainly out of money pursuit. I used to think that Nigeria was the
primadona of nations that can do anything to get rich but on sober
refection, it is clear to me that Nigeria is not alone. It is a
universal disease. Money rules the world. This takes me to my reason for
doing this piece today. I
was an eye witness to the first George Bush's speech to the United
Nations on why Saddam Hussein's regime and Iraq had to be taken apart
whether or not the rest of the world was willing and ready to go along.
The Republican President had arrogantly told the world body, "If
you are not with America, you are against America" and that America
the founding father of the UN itself is now going to use preemptive
strike to knock out their enemies or perceived enemies because America
has been attacked in their own turf by some Islamic fundamentalists led
by one psychopath named Osama Bin Laden. The
reaction was clearly an overkill and a wreckless statement of huge
magnitude by the leader of the free world, because if every nation were
to take that stance and enforce it, the world could easily have become
"animal kingdom" where might is right regardless of who the
aggressor is, to begin with. The whole world including Russia the
erstwhile rival of America during the cold War had passively sat there
listening to Bush with their tail between their legs. No nation or their
delegate at the UN was able to confront or call the bluff of George
Bush, if not the United States, because they all knew that, sooner
than later, they were all going to need the almighty American dollar for
survival. They knew America had the money and the military power to now
bully the world and get away with it. The two nations, France and
Germany that had made some effort to stand their ground were labelled
saboteurs and threatened with trade sanctions and other subterfuge. You
have America and England locked in a room, and George Bush now calls
that a world summit. Unbelievable!. When
George Bush tells the world "if you are not with us, you are
against us, and must be ready to face the consequence" my mind
immediately went to the Non-allied nations that were put together under
the late Josep Tito of former Yugoslavia in years gone by. George Bush
was telling the world that such neutrality and contraption would no
longer be tolerated by the only super power on Earth. You can no longer
afford to be neutral, because if you are not for America, you are
against America, and has therefore become an enemy by not taking a side.
No middle course would be tolerated anymore. If such pronouncement by
any world leader is not considered scary enough, I wonder what else it
is. The
same George Bush running into some difficulty following his
Pyrrhic victory in Iraq that may well become a quagmire, if the UN's
help is not immediately sought, had gone back to the same UN about a
week ago, not to seek appeasement or some forgiveness for defying the
UN, to begin with, but to further tell the World he was right all along
to have done what he did, and that the world body now has another
opportunity to join the train before it leaves the station. If you call
that contrition, I call it blatant arrogance that the rest of the world
ought not to condone in the overall interest of the world. But the
reason why America is able to get away with such arrogance is all
because America believes it has the cash to bear the burden alone as can
be inferred from the answer of the Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld
when he, in plain language, had told the Congress Committee, "Is 87
billion a huge amount, yes it is, but can America afford it, yes it
can" I wonder how many other nations in the UN today can afford to
make that kind of statement. When money talks, all other considerations
must of necessity take a back seat. Why
do you think the Arab/Israeli conflict is taking so long to be resolved.
I offer the same reason if you ask me. The Palestinians and the Arabs if
they will not deceive themselves, knew as much as we all do, that
America is not just the traditional ally of the State Israel, but one of
its creators to begin with.If you are fighting Israel, you are fighting
America.You can't be too wrong if you call the State of Israel the 51st
State of America today. How could any rational person then expect
America and the allied powers that created the State of Israel, to then
become a disinterested and an impartial arbitrator in the dispute. In
normal situations, America would not even have been acceptable to play
the role of an arbitrator in the Dispute for fairness and equity
purposes. But because America has become an octopus and the "fons
et origo" of financial power in the world, there is no one to bell
the cat, if America will not do it. America
can destroy and rebuild at will, as we are now seeing in Iraq, and as we
have seen before in Japan and Germany and not too long ago in Yugolavia
and Bosnia. The same scenario is going to be repeated in Palestine where
the only hope of the Palestinians and the Arabs across the board is that
America will rebuild Palestine, no matter what, because America has the
means so to do. It
was for the same reason that America can now tell any nation who their
leader must be regardless. America wants Yassir Arafat removed as leader
of Palestine before they would grant Palestine any recognition. They
wanted an executive Prime Minister for Palestine and, if at all
possible, a ceremonial President in Arafat for the Palestinian
Liberation Authority. Abbu Mazin was therefore named Prime Minister.
America calls the shot all over the world today including Russia,
probably following the Madeline Albright Doctrine that '"there is
no reason for America to have power and not to use it, if and when
needed" It is all because America has the cash and the military
power which is always a fallout from the fact that they have the means
to do research and to manufacture some of these state of the art War
machines they have now begun to use to subjugate the world. Saddam
Hussein was clearly delussional to think he could beat America in their
game just like Noriega before him. As long as America remains the
richest country in the world, for so long will she continue to dominate
the world. All the world can hope for is for an American President like
William Jefferson Clinton, like FDR before him and even the senior
Bush that would learn to put a human face to the limitless power of
America around the world oday, by at least letting the international
community know they are still relevant in dictating what the world order
is going to be from now on. As far as the current American President is
concerned, the rest of the world can really "take a hyke"
like the Americans say. This redefinition of American Foreign Policy by
George Bush is predicated on the presumption by his Administration that
whoever pays the piper calls the tune. It may be good for America. I am
not so sure it is good for the world at large. I
rest my case. Dr. Wunmi Akintide |