Heading into 2009, the human race is like the Titanic heading into “The Perfect Storm”. The poor will suffer and many will not survive, most of the rich will still get richer. All now live in trepidation of a rapidly collapsing world economy, with the loss of homes, jobs, savings, pensions, businesses and earnings. It will be tough and hard on many. How did such world-wide economic collapse happen? Who is responsible? Millions of people were convinced by business advertising to borrow and spend, even if it meant spending more than they earned. Debt was good, they said.
As a result, the world was wallowing in wealth and the millennium goals to end world poverty were now achievable so long as the consumers just kept borrowing and spending, so said the politicians and the money moguls. Globalization would ensure that everyone everywhere would prosper because of free markets, people could buy and sell anywhere at anytime with few or no restrictions, regulations or controls.
There was evidence and prove it too. We had The Celtic Tiger, emerging Europe, expansion of the EU, Asian growth miracles, economic bubbles. Housing prices rose, and salaries too. India and China were making spectacular progress.
However, disturbing evidence began to emerge that the number of poor were increasing, not declining, "prosperity" was limited to a select slice of society. Globalization was enriching the rich and the poorer were getting poorer. What was going wrong? Well just about everything, under the surface there was immense corruption. It was and is the age of avarice and acquisition, the cult of the consumer thrived on the slogans, “shop 'til you drop", "moan until you own", "buy on the fly". Consumers borrowed and bought everything they could and even minors and students were encouraged to use credit cards.
The materialistic society expanded and most worshiped mighty mammon in the cathedral of capitalism. Vice flourished, gambling, promiscuity, violent crimes, drug abuse, excessive drinking, spiraling road deaths and moral decay dominated society. The old was passing away, the new had arrived and it was not beautiful, good or virtuous. Social injustice, intolerance, cruelty, aggression, war, torture, assassination and corporate and political corruption spread. The godless materialistic war mongering Western societies alienated Islamic countries and gave an excuse to fanatical terrorists to vent their anger and hatred. Will 2009 bring the worldwide recession to it's moral senses? Does it have any?
Not everyone believed the propaganda of the licentious liberal capitalists who promoted the “borrow and buy” culture. Dissenters, marchers and protesters raised their voices and their fists during the G8 summits and the world trade talks. They claimed that globalization was of limited value to the developing countries as it removed protective tariffs to the imports of the rich nations. These unfair trading rules killed fledgling local industries especially agriculture. Compete or die was their slogan, but how could the poor compete in such an unfair world? Worse corrupt leaders of the developing poor nations made it possible when they took the bribes and sold their people down the river into modern slavery. Their natural resources and even land, craved and coveted by the industrialized nations were the object of their desires and evil schemes even land ownership by foreign nations was allowed.
They brought disaster to their people. The World Trade talks brought to the fore very clearly that the trade rules and regulations were weighed in favor of the rich nations. They gave massive subsidies to their agricultural industries and the low cost produce was dumped in the developing nations wiping out local industries that could not compete due to lack of subsidies and investment. No wonder the poor are continually poorer and the rich richer.
The present collapse of the world economy that started with the banks was inevitable as billions of dollars and Euros were borrowed by the corporations with flimsy collateral to finance these massive investments acquisitions, mergers, buy outs and other dubious financial products. It was all driven by that primitive crass urge of humans to have more than another - greed. The desire to own, possess, dominate and have power over others is the sin of the world.
Fr Shay Cullen has been a missionary in the Philippines since 1969.
