Bombed in Boston, Weeping in Somalia

On the very same day that bombs at the Boston Marathon injured and killed innocent people, many other innocent people died in bombings in Somalia, Kenya, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. However, the major world news media gave their attention almost exclusively to Boston.

Immediately I grieved with those who grieve in Boston, and was angry against those individuals responsible for this horrendous deed, and hoped they would be brought to justice. It is human nature to grieve most strongly for our own people; that is a fact. Bostonians grieve for the dead in Boston, Somalians grieve for the dead in Somalia. But it is my contention that, in an age when the world has become very small, that we need to think of the entire world as our local community.

That is why I grieve not just for Boston but likewise for those in other countries who also weep for their loved ones killed by premeditated violence – every day. Their emotional agony is no less real and heart-rending than the agony felt in Massachusetts.

Some heartless people informed me that Boston has more of a right to grieve because such acts of terrorism are relatively rare in the United States, and/or that it’s “news” in the States, but not in Somalia. They told me that people are used to death in Kenya, so their grief is lessened by the frequency of it. They assured me that life is of little value in Iraq and Afghanistan, so nobody cares when a mother or a brother or a child is killed.

I am shocked by such attitudes. Their views verge on verbalizing bigotry, that the worth of a human being in Somalia is far less than the worth of a human being in Boston.

A child whose mother has been killed by a bomb, or a mother whose child has been killed by a bomb, is the same worldwide. Just because it happens more often in Kenya, for instance, doesn’t mean a husband or wife, a father or mother, says to him- or herself, “Ah, these things happen every day in my country, unlike Boston. So those Bostonians have a right to grieve, but I should just suck up and forget about my dead spouse or child because life means nothing here, not like it does in Boston.”

Some people object to my views, saying that drone missiles and bulldozing Palestinian homes are necessary acts of war, but that bombing the Boston Marathon is terrorism. What these people forget is that that innocent people are dying in both situations, including innocent children. And these people forget, too, that the perpetrators of both horrors each believe that their deeds are a necessary act of war. Those who commit violence against innocent people in the United States and Western Europe say they are at war with the West, and that these bombings are necessary acts of war. Likewise, the United States government says it is at war with several other countries, and that the drone missiles that kill innocent people are a necessary act of war. I say that bombing innocent civilians at a footrace is incredibly evil – and that drone strikes on innocent civilians are likewise incredibly evil. Neither should be tolerated.

I am an absolute pacifist. I do not believe war, or acts of violence, are ever good. I want to see all of this stopped, before the world is turned to cinders floating in space. I refuse to justify drone missiles, and I refuse to justify bulldozing Palestinian homes, and I refuse to justify bombing the Boston Marathon. They are all violent deeds that solve nothing.

So why is it that the corporate media only tell us about Boston, and not about the hundreds who die in bombings elsewhere in the world? Because they want us to hate all Muslims and all Middle Eastern countries. The plutocrats who own the media also own the military hardware corporations. They make fortunes by selling war material to the government, and additional fortunes rebuilding, at taxpayer expense, the same buildings and bridges they destroyed at taxpayer expense. War brings them big profits. If the people of the United States start to feel sympathy for Middle Easterners, war will be harder to sell. These billionaires know that prejudice and parochialism is good for business.

Therefore, those terrorist plutocrats want us to feel that the deprivation, enslavement, torture, and killing of people in other countries, and of other religions, is justified. They want us to believe it promotes our sense of safety and plenty. The truth is that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made the world even more unsafe.

Nor – despite common belief – is the United States innocent or immune. Drone missiles are killing children every day – and they’re made in the United States. At Guantanamo Bay people are incarcerated without being charged and without trial, in defiance of the U.S. Constitution. The police in the United States were ordered by the plutocrats to crush the Occupy movement. And yet U.S. citizens think their country is immune from the horrors done by the terrorist plutocrats.

Thus, I do not hate nations or religions, nor do I blame them for this deed. All religions, including Islam, preach peace. All religions, including Christianity, preach understanding. It is understandable to hate the perpetrators of an evil act and want to see them brought to justice. But it is horribly wrong to blame entire nations or religions for such an evil deed. The deity I believe in is a God of Peace. And the deity I believe in is not only the god of the United States, but of the world. That deity loves all people, and not just those in one country.

This world is small and extremely fragile. It is victimized by two kinds of terrorism: the terrorism of the plutocrats who make fortunes from war, and the angry extremists who will go to any means to express their hatred and fear of the plutocrats. As long as we only grieve for some and not for all victims of terrorism, terrorism wins. As long as we hate other nations and other religions, terrorism wins.

When we start thinking globally, standing united with all who grieve in the world, then we begin to walk the path that heads toward real peace. As long as we think only of ourselves, we walk the path that will lead to destruction of this planet. We need to think globally, or the warmongers (including the corporate war merchants in the States) will win, and this planet will be destroyed.

So – yes, I grieve the tragedy in Boston, and I hope those responsible are brought to justice. But I grieve no less for all those, everywhere in the world, who have died at the hands of evil: bombs, drone missiles, “collateral damage”, and all the rest of it. I believe we all, worldwide, need to make vigorous effort to hook up against the corporate masters, the plutocrats who run the governments, who prey on the innocent and feed financially from war.

People are programmed by the media and government in the West to believe that drone attacks are somehow necessary. People are programmed by the media and government in the Middle East to believe that bombings are somehow necessary. We need as people to free our minds from the programming and to reach out and embrace each other, and make peace. Governments and media thrive on war; that’s where their profits are made. But the people, worldwide, suffer. The sooner we wake up and realize this and stand together in opposition to the warmongers, the likelier it will be that this world can be saved from destruction.

I hope you join me on the path to peace.

A Farmer Ploughed Under by Debt

NOTE: This is a cross-post between James David Audlin's two blogs, "A Writer in Panama" (panamawriter.blogspot.com) and "Ranting the Truth, not Gassing Political Platitudes" (rantingthetruth.blogspot.com)

In Santa Rosa, a quiet village well away from the highways and cities, I visited a farm specializing in milk, rice, and platanos. It is a lovely, quiet place, owned and operated by the same family for generations, is spread out over vividly green hills as full of life a new mother’s breasts, with occasional copses of trees.

I was introduced to the owner, a man in his sixties. His sharply observant eyes were set in a face hardened and lined by weather. His feet stood on the earth the way trees do. He showed us around not with pride but with an unspoken confidence: he didn’t have to convince me that the farm was well-managed because he knew this as well as he knew his own name. He felt no need to hear the polite pompous approbation of a foreigner who probably knows nothing about farming, but like all gringos thinks he knows everything about everything, better than these ignorant Panamanians.

So I was ignored. He went on to discuss with family members the high cost of milking machines, which he said he needs to purchase somehow if he’s going to stay in business. The conversation, in rapid Spanish, was rather technical, with a lot of facts and figures. These people knew their subject; these weren’t ignorant, foolish farm folk, as some people from the urbanized United States might think but sharp-thinking, well-informed agriculturalists. I followed the conversation going on around me as if I weren’t there, and then I offered my own comments.

“It’s similar in the United States,” I told the farmer in Spanish. “Gigantic megafarms, run by huge corporations, are dumping huge amounts of cheap rice and milk on the market in the Northeast and other states. As a result, small farmers in those states are going bankrupt, and their farms being turned into suburban developments or shopping malls. And then, just as soon as these corporations have all the customers to themselves, the prices go up again.”

His eyes widened at my words. I had surprised him, and he was surprised, moreover, that a gringo could surprise him.

To his unspoken question I explained that for a decade, while I was editing the opinion page for a daily newspaper in upstate New York, I wrote editorials expressing considerable concern about dead and dying small to midsized farms. I told him that what local farmers told me as an editor cohered with my personal observations in the north of the state; the farms that had been active when I was a boy are now dusty meadows of weeds, repossessed years ago by the lending institutions.

“It’s the same thing here,” the farmer replied, speaking to me with appreciation and respect in his tone; he knew now that I was not just another ignoramus from the United States blissfully unaware of the damage that country is doing to his. “The same corporations are dumping milk and rice and other farm products on the Panamanian market. The prices are so low that the supermarkets eagerly buy, and we local farmers can’t possibly match those prices.”

“In the United States,” I went on, “farms usually produce much more in tax revenues per acre than they take in public services, such as fire and police protection. In other words, they help keep taxes down. On the other hand, the cost of public services for residential developments and shopping malls are generally higher than what they pay in taxes. The result is that taxes go up as a result of development. But government officials always seem to think the way to cover the shortfall is to authorize more development.”

“Yes,” he agreed. “And typically they, or their friends, are the rich businessmen who benefit from such development.”

This farmer was far from unique; farms are going under throughout Panamá and Central America, and his face reflected his awareness of that fact. He looked around at his beautiful land. His expression was different now; it was as if he could see his farm, too, like the ones in my memory, already subdivided, already covered with houses to sell to expatriate gringos coming to Panamá, eager to buy the good life at lower rates. Or it might be his inward eyes saw here no more than blowing fields, the barn and farmhouse falling in, decay everywhere. One way or the other, it was just a matter of time.

“And what,” he asked rhetorically – not asking me, just asking, “do people think they are going to eat when there are no more farms?”

There wasn’t much I could say to him. We both – as well as his family members – understood each other. We could only nod at each other, sadly. It was no balm for him to meet a citizen of the very country responsible for his woes and find out that his colleagues in that country were also suffering, in the same way, and for the same reason.

As for me, it was painful to hear again in Panamá the same story I’ve heard all my life. The new sorrow to me, and I told him this, was that I had thought those corporation megafarms were only destroying small farms in the United States and Canada; I hadn’t realized on what a global scope their depradations are wreaking havoc.

<><><><><> James David Audlin has released a new book this week! It is "The Book of Dreams", listed below....

<><><><> HARDCOVER EDITIONS:

James David Audlin’s novel "Rats Live on no Evil Star" and the nonfiction book "The Circle of Life" (the complete edition, unlike the shortened version published six years ago) are available in HARDCOVER at:

www.lulu.com/spotlight/JamesDavidAudlin

<><><><> E-BOOK EDITIONS:

Sixteen of his books are now available in E-Book format (Kindle, Nook, etc.) at this website. L'un de ses romans est disponible en français, y una de sus novelas está disponible en español.

www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JamesDavidAudlin

<><><><> PAPERBACK EDITIONS:

The same sixteen books are available in uniform, meticulously copyedited and designed, softcover editions as follows. (Unfortunately, there is no single link for the following.)

Across the Silence: Poems of James David Audlin www.createspace.com/3794120
The Circle of Life: A Memoir of Traditional Native American Teachings www.createspace.com/3803888
Rats Live on no Evil Star (novel) www.createspace.com/3787733
Palindrome (ROMAN EN FRANÇAIS) www.createspace.com/3788729
Palíndromo (NOVELA EN ESPAÑOL) www.createspace.com/3788975
All You Need (novel) www.createspace.com/3789645
Undr (novel) www.createspace.com/3790191
Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume I: The Voice of Day www.createspace.com/3791278
Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume II: The Wings of the Morning www.createspace.com/3791399
Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume III: The Productions of Time www.createspace.com/3791576
Seven Novels Of The Last Days Volume IV: A Mirror Filled With Light www.createspace.com/3792090
Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume V: A Stitch in Time www.createspace.com/3792618
Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume VI: The Stars Blindly Run www.createspace.com/3793296
Lives of the Saints (stories) www.createspace.com/3793905
Mooreeffoc: Stories from This World (stories) www.createspace.com/3790692
The Other: Stories from Elsewhere (stories) www.createspace.com/3795526
The Book of Dreams: that came to James David Audlin (dreams) www.createspace.com/3835074

Justice, Not Revenge

Many are the calls for vengeance againt George Zimmerman, the "neighborhood watch vigilante" who is said to have stalked and in cold blood murdered Treyvon Martin, an innocent African American boy whose only "crime" was being black in public, who was carrying nothing more dangerous than candy and a soft drink.

I understand the anger against Zimmerman. Although I am an absolute pacifist, nevertheless this horrible deed enrages me, and I personally wouldn't mind pulling out every one of his toenails and fingernails with rusty tweezers.

But what I tell myself and remind others is that this would not end the horror.

We must bear in mind that white bigots think Zimmerman was entirely justified. Indeed, I've seen some horrifyingly disgusting blogs where white racists had all sorts of reasons why Treyvon Martin "had it coming".

And no less than schlock talk show host Gerald Michael Riviera, who goes by "Geraldo Rivera", has said that Treyvon bears responsibility for his own death because he was wearing a hoodie. Come again, Jerry? Do you also think that a pretty woman in a miniskirt bears responsibility for being brutally raped?

Therefore, if Zimmerman is revenged upon, the white bigots will see this as further proof that they must fight back against the "liberal media" and this "black Muslim foreign-born president". It will not make them understand that Zimmerman committed a horrible crime against an innocent human being. Rather, it will lead them to conclude that they must do exactly what Zimmerman did - take weapons in hand and go out and shoot liberals and minorities. These people already believe there is a war between them and the flood of dark-skinned people, gays and lesbians, and non-evangelical Christian, as well as their weak-kneeds white liberal supporters.
Revenge upon George Zimmerman would only exacerbate this war.

What is more, the ultra-rich plutocrats who are using their proxies in the Tea Party and the Republican Party to destroy our civil rights and take every penny they can from us and put it in their fat bank accounts - these plutocrats are thrilledto see us, the plebeians, divided amongst ourselves. When we engage in class war, we are doing their work for them! We are making it easier for the plutocrats to take over and destroy the world in their quest for more fortunes.

Instead of crying for vengeance against George Zimmerman, he should be treated strictly within the bounds of law and justice. He should be arrested, charged, and given an impeccably fair trial. If he has a legitimate alibi for murdering this boy, he should be given every chance to voice it. If he starts spouting bigotry against everyone but his bigoted friends, let him.

We need to show Zimmerman and all of his bigoted friends that justice comes not from violence but from truth, integrity, and dispassionate fairness. And we need to show the ultra-rich plutocrats who are out to destroy the structures of law and justice that they, too, could be found guilty of crimes against humanity.

A deeper tragedy is that this kind of bigotry happens all the time. I used to date a beautiful black woman, and I not just saw, but felt, simply from being in her company, being clearly her romantic partner, frequent glares, nasty comments, and outright maltreatment aimed at her, and at me for being involved with her. Every African-descended resident of the United States, and people of other minority descent too, has experienced this kind of bigotry nearly every day. And the bigots get away with it because the system allows it.

The system has, thus far, protected George Zimmerman. He goes free, while his victim is dead and buried. The police haven't done a thing - because, as sadly is so often the case, police departments are bastions of bigotry, pulling over African-American drivers for no reason other than their color, and charging them, and beating the merdeout of minorities under arrest while letting whites get the cushy treatment.

What we who care about Treyvon need to do is keep pointing out that this is not a tragic but isolated event - that it happens every day in every city in the United States, and many cities in Europe and elsewhere. And that it will not stop until we all say with one voice that bigotry must stop, the system must be once again a mechanism for ensuring that all the children of G-d are treated with courtesy and respect, and that those who fail to do so will be prosecuted. This is the answer to violent bigotry: not calls for vengeance but calls for justice.

INFORMATION ON JAMES DAVID AUDLIN'S BOOKS - Many released just weeks ago, and more coming soon!


<><><><> HARDCOVER EDITIONS:

James David Audlin’s novel "Rats Live on no Evil Star" and the nonfiction book "The Circle of Life" (the complete edition, unlike the shortened version published six years ago) are available in HARDCOVER at:

www.lulu.com/spotlight/JamesDavidAudlin

<><><><> E-BOOK EDITIONS:

Sixteen of his books are now available in E-Book format (Kindle, Nook, etc.) at this website. L'un de ses romans est disponible en français, y una de sus novelas está disponible en español.

www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JamesDavidAudlin

<><><><> PAPERBACK EDITIONS:

The same sixteen books are available in uniform, meticulously copyedited and designed, softcover editions as follows. (Unfortunately, there is no single link for the following.)

Across the Silence: Poems of James David Audlin www.createspace.com/3794120
The Circle of Life: A Memoir of Traditional Native American Teachings www.createspace.com/3803888
Rats Live on no Evil Star (novel) www.createspace.com/3787733
Palindrome (ROMAN EN FRANÇAIS) www.createspace.com/3788729
Palíndromo (NOVELA EN ESPAÑOL) www.createspace.com/3788975
All You Need (novel) www.createspace.com/3789645
Undr (novel) www.createspace.com/3790191
Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume I: The Voice of Day www.createspace.com/3791278
Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume II: The Wings of the Morning www.createspace.com/3791399
Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume III: The Productions of Time www.createspace.com/3791576
Seven Novels Of The Last Days Volume IV: A Mirror Filled With Light www.createspace.com/3792090
Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume V: A Stitch in Time www.createspace.com/3792618
Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume VI: The Stars Blindly Run www.createspace.com/3793296
Lives of the Saints (stories) www.createspace.com/3793905
Mooreeffoc: Stories from This World (stories) www.createspace.com/3790692
The Other: Stories from Elsewhere (stories) www.createspace.com/3795526

The United States is a THIRD-WORLD COUNTRY

Friends back home sometimes ask me, “Why did you leave the United States?”

My reply is that I didn’t. I say it's rather that the United States left me – and you and everyone else.

I say this because the United States is turning into an oxymoron: it is, today, an extremely wealthy Third World country.

And, yes, I know a thing or two about Third World countries; I live in the country of Panamá, which is widely considered to be part of the Third World. But my new homeland is a haven of democracy and justice and liberty compared to this strange new United States!

Third World countries are typically marked by oligarchies or dictatorships that do whatever they want, paying no attention to their constitutions. In the United States, the ultra-rich plutocrats control elections such that they have stacked the Congress and state legislatures with bought-and-paid-for puppets. State and federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States, have been widely subverted by crass ideologues.

Third World countries are typically marked by a ruling elite that distributes priviliges only to those of their own color and creed. In the United States, the dominant color, white, the dominant religion, evangelical Christianity, and the dominant gender, men, are doing everything they can to consolidate control. Civil rights legislation is being annulled, women’s health rights are being eliminted, and all religious minorities, including liberal Christians, are being systematically hounded.

Third World countries are typically marked by an extreme differential between rich and poor. Nowhere is this more true than in the United States. Most common people are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet - I was not alone in having to work five jobs, and still have trouble paying my bills. I was not alone in seeing my health coverage become more expensive and cover less, and then get eliminated altogether. I was not alone in watching prices for necessities climb ever higher. I am not alone in seeing my pension payments shrink.

Third World countries are typically marked by an access to decent medical services that is limited to the ruling elite and the wealthy members of the upper class. In the United States, an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) procedure costs on average $1,080, where in France it costs $280. Most people are forced to wait forever to see a doctor for only the brief moments prescribed by health insurance policies, and to all but force expensive testing and procedures dictated by those companies, out of fear of lawsuits.

Third World countries are typically marked by a gigantic do-little bureaucracy and powerful military that greedily suck in most of the government's finances and engage in meaningless unending wars so the rich profiteers who manufacture expensive missiles and tanks can make more fortunes. The clear and simple reason the United States is in such extreme debt is its unnecessary, unjustified, and extremely expensive wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere – with Iran probably soon to be added to the list. Cutting necessary services to the middle and poorer classes will never balance the budget, but that - plus cutting taxes to the wealthy - is what these crazed rulers are telling us is necessary. And the wars continue.

Third World countries are typically marked by weapons everywhere; by mass murders; by weapons fire for the "fun" of it; by murder for vengeance, robbery, insanity, or bigotry; by military aircraft often streaking across populated areas to keep them in a state of intimidated fear. The United States has more weapons per capita than pretty much any other country. It is marked by mass killings, especially lately in schools. It is marked by white bigots killing gays or Muslims or blacks just to "prove" some lame-brained "point" about their hatred of these people.

Third World countries are typically marked by censorship – the use of law to ban certain books from public libraries and schools, to forbid the teaching of certain subjects at universities, to control what doctors may say to their patients and, ultimately, to restrict free speech (both speaking aloud and in print) as regards any healthy criticism of the government and its agents. In Arizona, for instance, a law has forbidden university study of Mexican-American studies (which are important in that border state) and the reading of such classics as “The House on Mango Street”. In several states some of the greatest classics of United States (and other) literature have been banned from classrooms and libraries.

Third World countries are typically marked by rampant use of illegal mind-altering drugs and alcohol. The United States is the biggest consumer of both. The international illegal drug trade is fueled by American with money, and will come to an end not because the police arrest the "mules", the relatively poor people (usually minorities, leading to a far higher percentage of minority prisoners than in the general population) who sell on street corners, but by going after the rich (mostly affluent white) buyers.

Third World countries are typically marked by unusually high rates of violent crime, including rape and murder. Third World countries are typically marked by gigantic prison populations, with most of these comprising an unusually high percentage of whatever minorities are hated. Third World countries are typically marked by legal systems that can be "bought": if you have the money you get justice, but if you are poor you get an unjustly heavy sentence; if you rob a bank you go behind bars, but if you're the president of a financial institution that destroys the savings of millions of families, you get to retire richly. Nowhere are these things more true than in the United States.

Third World countries are typically marked by a gradual disappearance of farmland and a gradual deterioration of infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.). Every year enough farms go out of business in the United States to bulldoze a ribbon several miles wide right across the country. Experts agree that roads and bridges are falling apart, and it is but a matter of time before their disintegration leads not only to transportation difficulties, but injury and death.

Third World countries are typically marked by an increasingly angry populace that is kept helpless by the threat of arrest, prevented from expressing its anger by a heavily armed, unnecessarily brutal police or military. Police in Oakland, California; Atlanta, Georgia; and elsewhere have used excessive force to put down the “Occupy” movement, resulting in injuries and even deaths.

Third World countries are typically marked by news media that refuse to investigate and expose government corruption, but instead defend it, and spread lies and slander against those who still have the courage to speak the truth. Fox News (or, as I call it, Faux Noise) leads the pack, but other news outlets have increasingly shown an alarming tendency toward jingoistic conservatism; all of the countrywide news outlets are owned by ultra-rich potentates who have clearly given orders to downplay this citizens’ revolt. Even National Public Radio, desperately afraid Republicans in the Congress will cut off its funding, has sunken all too often into ultra-right gibberish. The major media, including NPR, at first ignored the Occupy story, then they denigrated it (with false stories about violence and drugs, as not having a clear message, and so on). At the last count I’ve seen, 34 reporters working for independent news outlets (i.e., those not owned by the ultra rich) have been arrested and charged for covering – not taking part in, but covering – Occupy events. And a man who deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, Bradley Manning - who had the courage to expose government wrongdoing - remains unjustly behind bars, and will never be set free. He is a martyr, and joins Leonard Peltier as a political prisoner.

Welcome to the future, folks. George Orwell will take your ticket, Aldous Huxley will sell you popcorn, and Yevgeny Zamyatin will show you to your seat.

<><><><><>

Sixteen of my books are now available in E-BOOK format (Kindle, Nook, etc.) at this website. L'un de mes romans est disponible en français, y una de mis novelas está disponible en español.

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JamesDavidAudlin

The same sixteen books are available in uniform, meticulously copyedited and designed, softcover editions as follows.

Across the Silence: Poems of James David Audlin www.createspace.com/3794120

All You Need (novel) www.createspace.com/3789645

Palindrome (ROMAN EN FRANÇAIS) www.createspace.com/3788729

Palíndromo (NOVELA EN ESPAÑOL) www.createspace.com/3788975

Rats Live on no Evil Star (novel) www.createspace.com/3787733

Undr (novel) www.createspace.com/3790191

Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume I: The Voice of Day www.createspace.com/3791278

Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume II: The Wings of the Morning www.createspace.com/3791399

Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume III: The Productions of Time www.createspace.com/3791576

Seven Novels Of The Last Days Volume IV: A Mirror Filled With Light www.createspace.com/3792090

Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume V: A Stitch in Time www.createspace.com/3792618

Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume VI: The Stars Blindly Run www.createspace.com/3793296

Lives of the Saints (stories) www.createspace.com/3793905

Mooreeffoc: Stories from This World www.createspace.com/3790692

The Other: Stories from Elsewhere www.createspace.com/3795526

The Circle of Life (nonfiction) www.createspace.com/3803888

Undr (novel) www.createspace.com/3790191

Democracy is Dead

When I hear people discuss a presidential campaign (and in any country, including the United States, as well as Panama, where I live), they often say they would prefer Candidate A, but, since A is not a viable, electable candidate, they’re going to vote for Candidate B instead.

What does it mean to say a certain candidate is “electable”? It means that the news media have said that candidate has broad support among the people. But that’s a tautology, a logical loop-de-loop: people support a candiate because the media say people support that candidate. These people are “electable” because we are being told they are electable, because we are being manipulated into supporting them, instead of following the dictates of our own thought and conscience.

People should have the courage to support whichever candidate they think is the best, whether or not that candidate is deemed by the media to have broad support. In other words, the deciding criteria should be a candidate’s track record, views, and proposed policies, not the media’s anointing of “front runner” status.

This is, ultimately, another mechanism by which any pretense at a genuine representative democracy has been utterly undermined. You become a front-runner when ultra-rich plutocrats invest their money in your campaign, so you will do what the plutocrats want when you’re in office, and not what your constituents who voted for you want.

(And, what is more, the plutocrats get their investments back, because the money is used to purchase advertising time on television networks owned by the plutocrats, to buy storefronts in buildings owned by the plutocrats, to fly the candidate here and there to speak in huge conference arenas owned by the plutocrats, and so on.)

Other techniques for destroying democracy are also well known.

Politicians these days, as reader Zhimeng Yu points out, don't keep their minds open to good solutions. They rather are "branded", representing a previously arranged agenda. You don't get a representative who sincerely wants to fix problems, but one who wants to fix you: to persuade you to agree with the previously arranged agenda. These pre-programmed politicians intransigently resist any and all proposals made by members of other parties, even if they are good, workable proposals. Such intransigence freezes legislative bodies and amply prevents them from getting any real work accomplished. And, as Zhimeng Yu also points out, most people these days are woefully ignorant of economics, law, and even how they get their electricity or water, so they are not well informed enough to manage their public servants.

What is more, by law, the “party in power” is in charge of redistricting; that is, of redrawing the lines that define a voting district, and, in a method known as gerrymandering, they always do so to strengthen their own power and break up into different districts any communities where the other party is strong.

Polling likewise is a joke: whoever is footing the bill gets exactly the results desired (tricks of the trade, besides wording the questions to trigger certain responses, include polling during the day, when more retirees are at home, if you want more “conservative” results). Compare one party’s polling results with those of the other; though supposedly reflecting the views of the same voting bloc, you’ll think the results came from two different planets.

The Electoral College is another one. In presidential elections, the manipulators of the system keep careful tabs on this entity. Originally its purpose was to prevent fraud, but now it's a mechanism for fostering it, with the result that individual voters in most of the country are well nigh irrelevant. If a state's electoral college count is going to be solidly in one camp or another it is no longer subject to the attention of those manipulators. That is to say, if your state's delegation to the Electoral College is clearly going to be in the Democratic or Republican camp, there's no point your going to the polls. However if your delegation's stance is unclear, if it could yet flip one way or the other, then the manipulating begins. Districts in that state where the outcome is known are, like other solid states, ignored. The focus goes right down to neighborhoods in key districts, districts whose raw voting could change the delegate count and therefore whether that state's Electoral College delegates end up in one or another camp. These neighborhoods are peppered with advertising, canvassers, phone callers, offers of rides to the polling stations for people who might not otherwise vote: everything is done by both parties to try to squeeze out a win. And the rest of the country be damned.

The whole idea of “electability”, therefore, is the plutocrats controlling the system. In no way does it reflect the people’s choosing.

Once they get into office, the unfairness continues, because legislators vote at the behest of their party bosses. Political parties are not mentioned in the United States Constitution. And, in my view, they are unconstitutional. The whole thrust of the Constitution is to empower local voters to manage and control government as their servants. The way it is supposed to work is that a majority of voters in your district put Candidate A into office because A reflects their views better than B. Once in office, A then sets out to introduce legislation, or vote for legislation, with those views in mind. The way it works in actuality is that A votes not according to the views of that majority of voters, but at the behest of his or her party bosses. Those party bosses may be elected representatives, too (the Speaker of the House for example), but they represent other districts, not yours; often they are not even elected to office but are simply potentates in the party organization – in either case, you wind up without faithful representation by your elected representative, you are disenfranchised, which is contrary to the intent of the Constitution.

Some have objected to my anti-party views by saying “nothing would ever get done”, since, with hundreds of representatives, each one touting his or her little district’s needs, there would be no means to build consensus or compromise. I disagree. If someone from a certain district makes a good case that that district needs a new bridge, it is discussed in plenary session, and, if other legislators are convinced, and if the money is available, it will be allocated. If the bridge joins two districts, those two legislators present their case conjointly. Such a need is discussed and weighed against other needs elsewhere, so available funds can be best allocated. Nobody presses for their district at the expense of others; they work together, as they should, for the good of all.

Another trick to squelch democracy: Once they get into office, these charlatans keep up only a pretense of debate between the major parties. In reality, it is a happy compromise. Few are the Barney Franks and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warrens, the genuine statesmen and -women, these days. Most Democrats only go through the motions of reflecting popular sentiment (especially that expressed by the Occupy movement), and they rest content in the knowledge that the Republicans will shoot down any efforts at real reform to the system that that gives them plenty of money and power. And the Republicans do the same, only making feints at pretending to do what they claim to support, knowing the Democrats will help them from making it really happen. It's a "gentleperson's agreement" in effect - the Dems can tell their supporters that they introduced the bills but those dastardly Reps shot the bills down, and the Reps can tell their supporters that, although those dastardly Dems introduced those bills, they, the Reps, bravely shot them down.

Another particularly nefarious nail being driven into the coffin that carries democracy off comes in the guise of religion. Rare is the political candidate who is without a personal religious perspective and membership. But increasingly rare today is the political candidate who thinks holding public office is an opportunity to press home her or his personal religious or ethical views.

I well remember the fear that many citizens expressed when John Fitzgerald Kennedy was running for the presidency, poppycock like that he would be getting his instructions over a hotline connected to the Vatican. Of course all this proved false – because, as former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, another great politician who happens to be Roman Catholic has eloquently explained, the job is to do the will of the people, not to impose one’s personal religious or moral views on everone else.

Thus, unlike some pundits, I have no problem with Mitt Romney being a Mormon. Nor do I have a problem with his being a privileged son of extremely rich, powerful people. Kennedy, too, was the scion of a wealthy, powerful family. But Kennedy stuck to his principles of doing the people’s will for the sake of the people. This is clearly not Romney’s approach; he seems more than ready to impose on the entire country his repugnant political views (or, more likely, those of his plutocrat masters, since he sang a rather different tune as governor of Massachusetts).

But I do have a problem with a system that prevents any serious candidate for political office, no matter how intelligent or qualified, who isn’t extremely wealthy and backed by people even wealthier – especially when these people use political office primarily to benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor. It used to be that sons in both rich and poor families apprenticed with their fathers at the same work, to learn the trade and prepare for their own lives as husbands and fathers. Nowadays, only the children of the wealthy have this opportunity; no matter how stupid or unqualified, they can be sure of a cushy do-little job with daddy’s big firm. Mitt Romney is rich purely because daddy was rich; if he had had as much opportunity as you and me, he would be worrying about paying the bills just like the two of us. Nowadays, for those of us who aren't born into the plutocracy, our sons and daughters are lucky to find any work at all, and as parents there is little if anything we can do to help them.

Which brings us to Candidate Rick Santorum (or, as I call him, Sanatorium, because that’s where he belongs). Again, I have no problem with his being Roman Catholic or the pampered son of plutocratic potentates. But I have an immense problem with his selectivity as regards what aspects of his faith to promote publicly, and they are all the “conservative” ones; he ignores the strong Roman Catholic support for the poor and the environment, among other things. That is hypocrisy; who is he to say what is Roman Catholic and what is not?

He forgets that there are two kinds of law: civil and religious. As citizens or residents in whatever country we live in, we are all bound by civil law. As participants in whatever religious expression we espouse (if any), we are over and above the civil law required to obey the dictates of of that religious tradition. No matter what our religious viewpoint, it is not only foolish to impose our particular religious view on others who do not hold it, but an insult to the Deity we claim to venerate to drag the higher, spiritual, covenantal, religious law down to the level of merely human, secular, contractual, very human civil law. It is a blasphemous mistake no matter who does it – whether that person is an “Islamist extremist” as the media put it or a candidate for the presidency.

Santorum declares that anyone he disagrees with is influenced by Satan, and anyone he does agree with has accepted G-d’s will. What he forgets is that G-d gave us free will. That is to say: we may be tempted by evil or motivated to do the right thing by good, but we still choose as individuals for ourselves. Yet Santorum foolishly ascribes his words and actions, and everyone else’s, to either G-d or Satan.

What is more, he is guilty of hubris in assuming he is right, and therefore doing the will of G-d, and that those he disagrees with are wrong and therefore doing the will of Satan. That is not only ego, but idolatry. The truth is, although pretty much every person thinks of her- or himself as right, we can never be sure of our own rectitude, and thus we must constantly examine ourselves to strive to be closer to the good.

Sadder yet, Santorum, like the other Republican candidates, is not, or not merely, espousing his religious views. He is entitled (as far as I am concerned) to espouse any views he wants, no matter how repugnant they may be to me. But he is using religion as a tool, as a talking point, merely to try to win votes. Religion is something within the heart and soul (or it should be), not something used to sell automobiles or insurance policies or political candidates.

Santorum talks about the United States of two centuries ago as a kind of golden age. That is when only white men could vote, when African Americans were slaves, when Native Americans were being systematically exterminated and driven from their own homelands, when Latin Americans were on the very fringes of society. People of his ilk don’t care where dark-skinned or gay or Muslim or liberal people go; they don’t care even if there is no “there” for them to go to – rather, these rightwingnuts just want them to go.

And that is why none of them are fit to serve the people as president. And that is why democracy is dead.

I used to say "vote your conscience", rather than "hold your nose and vote for the least repugnant of the so-called electable candidates". More and more I am thinking it is pointless and worthless to vote. Those bright boys in the pinsuits have already calibrated your vote to make it work for them the way they want, democracy be damned. The only way to stop their evil is to boycott elections and take peaceably to the streets.

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Sixteen of my books are now available in E-BOOK format (Kindle, Nook, etc.) at this website. L'un de mes romans est disponible en français, y una de mis novelas está disponible en español.

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JamesDavidAudlin

The same sixteen books are available in uniform, meticulously copyedited and designed, softcover editions as follows.

Across the Silence: Poems of James David Audlin www.createspace.com/3794120

All You Need (novel) www.createspace.com/3789645

Palindrome (ROMAN EN FRANÇAIS) www.createspace.com/3788729

Palíndromo (NOVELA EN ESPAÑOL) www.createspace.com/3788975

Rats Live on no Evil Star (novel) www.createspace.com/3787733

Undr (novel) www.createspace.com/3790191

Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume I: The Voice of Day www.createspace.com/3791278

Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume II: The Wings of the Morning www.createspace.com/3791399

Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume III: The Productions of Time www.createspace.com/3791576

Seven Novels Of The Last Days Volume IV: A Mirror Filled With Light www.createspace.com/3792090

Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume V: A Stitch in Time www.createspace.com/3792618

Seven Novels of the Last Days Volume VI: The Stars Blindly Run www.createspace.com/3793296

Lives of the Saints (stories) www.createspace.com/3793905

Mooreeffoc: Stories from This World www.createspace.com/3790692

The Other: Stories from Elsewhere www.createspace.com/3795526

The Circle of Life (nonfiction) www.createspace.com/3803888

Undr (novel) www.createspace.com/3790191

The Panamanians Shall Inherit the Earth

Jesus once said that the meek shall inherit the earth. This phrase is often taken as a bit of hyperbole, as his way of saying it’s better to be meek, to be poor and humble, than to be rich and powerful. But I am increasingly convinced that this statement is also to be taken literally, as a prophecy – of what is coming in the near future.

Worldwide destruction, like it or not, is coming, folks, so start getting yourself used to the idea. As the polar ice caps melt thanks to pollution, coastal cities around the globe are in danger of inundation. As the ozone layer dissipates, as clean air and water and food become increasingly scarce, as earthquakes caused by fracking increase in intensity and frequency, as more Gulf of Mexico-like oil spills and Bhopal-like accidents proliferate, as more and more countries plus private militias get their hands on “dirty bombs” and nuclear and chemical weapons, as a large meteor approaches the earth in 2014 – there is going to be cataclysmic destruction.

There are other kinds of destruction looming too. The only thing keeping the United States economy away from disaster is the fact that the U.S. dollar is the medium for international monetary exchange. It is only because of this fact that the U.S. government can stave off its creditors by simply printing more money. However, with the dollar in big trouble, a movement has already begun among the world’s financial leaders to switch from the dollar as the international exchange medium to a consortium of other currencies. When that happens – and it is a matter of “when”, not “if” – the United States will no longer be able to print unlimited amounts of currency to pay off its debts. And that will lead to a colossal financial crash in the United States with global ramifications.

The entire Western capitalist system is based on exploitation. What made Europe and North America the financial powerhouses they are today was what these countries did in the past – exploiting cheap raw materials in Africa and Asia, enslaving Africans and Chinese and Native Americans, and then selling the finished goods to a consumer base with plenty of disposable income. Still today, the big companies buy their raw materials on the cheap, export jobs to where work is cheap, such as India and México and Pakistan, and sell the finished goods at high prices. But this is becoming increasingly difficult; sooner, not later, the European Union, like the United States, is bound to collapse on itself – it will lose the cheap raw materials and labor, and it will lose the consumer base as more and more of its own people lose their jobs.

Capitalism breeds crime. The wealthy use their power to get around the law, and the poor use cunning to get around the wealthy. Government becomes legalized exploitation, enforced by the police and military. Many turn to crime - elderly people stealing food or even selling drugs - out of sheer desperation. And government becomes a form of organized crime, propped up and protected by propagandistic media and the military/police.

Which is why the worldwide Occupy movement is flourishing. What began in Tunisia and Egypt has spread worldwide, including the United States. People around the globe, long subjugated to the greed and arrogation of the ultra-rich, are rising up in determined, but largely peaceful resistance. Sooner or later, either the people will grow frustrated by governmental failure to make major changes and rise up in revolution (as has already happened in North Africa and is happening in Syria), or the plutocrats will send in their police and military to brutally crush the peaceful revolution. One way or the other, there will be massive bloodshed.

As the United States Congress puts forth the National Defense Authorization Act, which allows the government (through its police and military puppets) to detain anyone in the world, citizen or not, on U.S. soil or not, to hold them in prison for any amount of time they choose, without trial. This is a clear and egregious violation of the United States Constitution, but these megalomaniacs do not care. This act in itself could finally bring the people to the breaking point.

And therefore I say that Jesus’s words – “The meek shall inherit the earth” – are to the point.

When destruction comes (be it from bombs or riots or natural disasters), it will be globally devastating. As Jesus suggested, if you build your house on sand - in this case, the sand of an economy based on speculative trading and vacillating stocks - that house will fall when the wind and waves beat against it.

Truly, skyscrapers will tumble, bridges will crash, and mass transit will stop running. There will be no gasoline for your car, no electricity in your house. There will be armed gangs roaming about stealing from you and your neighbors so they can survive. There will be no law, and no police to enforce it. The countries that rely on a massive infrastructure (North America, Western Europe, Southeast Asia, and Japan in particular) will be in disaster mode: there will be no food shipped in to feed starving millions in the cities, nor medicine, nor clean water. Nothing. Adding to the madness, the ultra-rich plutocrats are now looking at future disasters as a way to make yet more fortunes: in the United States they are planning to privatize FEMA, the government entity that responds to natural disasters.

When “earthquakes, wind, and fire” (to quote the story about the prophet Elijah) overwhelm the industrialized countries, millions will die when their big houses and office buildings and malls fall down on them. Millions will die when elevated superhighways and subway tunnels are tossed about and crushed. As the prophet Zechariah put it, they will beg the mountains to fall on them, and the living shall envy the dead. As the prophecy of the Nehiyawok (Cree) Nation puts it, in that day the wealthy will finally come to understand that they cannot eat money.

However, ironically, poor countries, Third World countries, with relatively little infrastructure, will fare far better. People who live in simple homes like I see here in rural Panama will be fine; a roof of straw or thin sheets of corrugated tin might fall on them in an earthquake, but they will just laugh and put it to rights again. Citizens in the urban seacoast – in Panamá City, Colón, and Davíd – will starve, because there won’t be any trucks bringing them food, because the pipes bringing them water will be crushed and broken. But up here, surrounded by the abundance of farms and wilderness, flowing rivers and clean mountain air, people will survive the destruction in relative comfort.

In the words of the Magnificat (in the New Testament), “He has thrown down the mighty from their seats,” as in an earthquake!, “and exalted those of low degree.” And, from the same passage, “He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.”

So, clearly, when the industrialized countries are in ruins, simple places like here where I live will be still all right. “The meek shall inherit the earth.”

While, yes, Panamá uses U.S. dollars as its own legal tender and heavily relies on its gringos to bring in more wealth, I fully expect that, when the U.S. economy collapses, this country will simply declare its financial independence and what used to be dollar bills will continue to flow around Panamá as its medium of exchange.

More than that, here in the Tierras Altas (Highlands) of Panamá – and still in remote villages around the world – there remains the structure of a barter economy. I love how neighbors in my village come by with a bag of onions or potatoes, and we share the same way with them. I love how my dear Panamanian wife sends over to them plates of the same supper she has prepared for me.

Here, people live by genuine Marxian principles – those who have to spare share with those who don’t have enough, because people here realize we survive not as competing individuals, but as a coöperating community. “From each according to his or her ability, to each according to his or her need.” This is the kind of relationship that all religion urges: covenant, as opposed to the greed and cheating that inevitably are fostered by capitalism. As Saint Paul put it in the New Testament, my neighbors here “strive to outdo one another in generosity.” Or, as Jesus put it, quoting the Torah, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” He condemned the rich, with their storehouses full of grain while the poor suffered. He urged his followers, if they had a coat to spare to give it to someone who had no coat.

And here in the Tierras Altas people look out for each other; if armed gangs come up here from the cities to try to steal their survival, they will face a choice - either they somehow defeat a united, strong community, or they respectfully join that community and live by its covenantal rules.

You see? “The poor shall inherit the earth.”

In a barter economy, the focus is on building strong relationships with your friends and neighbors and relatives – so one gives as much as possible and accepts as little as possible in return. In a moneyed economy, the focus is on buying as cheaply as possible and selling at as high a price as you can. return.

That’s the problem with money. There’s no end to how much of it you can gain – or lose. In a moneyless society, there isn’t any reason to stock up more food than you can eat, so either it goes to waste or you do the smart thing and give it to someone who doesn’t have enough.

Likewise, you may have nothing, but you can’t possibly have less than nothing, and, when you have nothing, somebody is going to help you out. But in a moneyed society, you can have more money than you can ever spend, and you can fall into having less than nothing, into a debt deeper than you can ever climb out of again. You see, a money economy removes the parameters naturally imposed by “everyone has what he or she needs and shares the excess with those who do not.” In a moneyless society it’s impossible to be a billionaire, and it’s impossible to be seriously indebted. A moneyless, barter society fosters sharing, not hoarding.

In a moneyed society, those who make a lot of money get to make the rules. If you’re rich, you can contribute to the campaigns of politicians you like – politicians who will change the laws so you can make even more money. Therefore, under capitalism, if you’re rich, you will inevitably get richer and more powerful, and, if you’re poor, you will become poorer and more helpless. The facts show it – in the United States and other industrialized countries the gap between rich and poor is widening fast. This is simply the nature of capitalism; it is inevitable in a capitalist economy.

The only way to prevent the tendency of capitalism to develop a rich class and a poor class is through government: that’s why, until recently, the U.S. government had laws to prevent monopolies, laws to prevent industrial pollution and mineral exploitation, and laws to ensure big business and ultra-rich people paid their fair share of taxes. These were instituted after past periods of excess: the railroad and coal barons whose greed brought about the Great Depression. Now these controls on rampant capitalism are being dismantled by the teaparty proxies for the ultra-rich, with the inevitable result of a widening gap between rich and poor, leading to total economic collapse.

Hence, more and more people are losing their jobs – and, what is even scarier is what the statistics don't show. The statistics give how many people have jobs, but it counts the under-employed (those who settle out of desperation for part-time work or very low wages) as employedD, so it doesn’t count them among those looking for work. Moreover, the statistics don't tell us about those people who are just as much overwhelmed with anxiety as the unemployed, filled with constant fear that they are soon going to be fired – those who have jobs, but probably not for very long.

Indeed, employers in most states do not even need to give you a reason; they can fire you at will, anytime. Most if not all states now have pro-employer legislation that allows them to fire employees at any time, with no reason needing to be given. And the first to go are usually the more expensive middle-aged people who need a higher income to support their families, who take more time off for family or health reasons, and who cost more in health insurance. They want to replace a middle-aged head of household with a kid fresh out of high school at a lower wage? They decide they don’t like you because you’re black or Muslim or gay? Doesn’t matter; you’re gone. I was let go as an editor at a certain daily newspaper because I refused to compromise my ethics and experience as regards tribal casinos – the newspaper wanted the advertising revenue from the casinos, and only I was willing to express in print the horrible devastation these casinos wreak. I was let go by a private company for absolutely no specified reason, though it was clear to me that it was because I was middle-aged and more expensive than a kid.

And, again adding to the madness, the ultra-rich are finding ways to make a profit off your joblessness. Consider the big financial company JP Morgan. It has contracted in a majority of U.S. states to provide food stamp debit cards. The company is paid for each case that it handles, so that means that the more Americans who go on food stamps, the more profit JP Morgan makes. In an ABC News interview, JP Morgan executive Christopher Paton admitted that this is “a very important business to JP Morgan,” and that it is doing very well. Considering the fact that the number of Americans on food stamps has exploded from 26 million in 2007 to 43 million today, one can only imagine the soaring profits JP Morgan makes in this part of its business. In the interview Paton said that 40% of food stamp recipients are currently working, and he said he expects continued “growth” in this “product”. JP Morgan, which is already one of the primary financial institutions implicated in the “robo-signing” forclosure scandal, has admitted to wrongly foreclosing on more than a dozen military families and overcharging thousands of other military families on their mortgages. What is more, if you seek help from a JP Morgan call center for your food stamps or child support debit card, and you will be talking to a Morgan employee in India.

We who oppose the evil schemes of the ultra-rich plutocrats are just as guilty. For we, too, are obsessed with money.

The ultra-rich are always thinking how to make their next fortune, and how to avoid paying taxes. For them it’s just a game, a job to do, since they certainly don't need more money. And the rest of us, constantly worrying about how we’re going to pay our bills and our taxes, tend to obsess about how to come up with more income. We fall for the schemes of the rich to make us covet the latest electronic gewgaw, to buy the brand-name instead of the generic brand, – such that the rich make another fortune, but we are left with nothing to pay the necessaries. Yes, the rich manipulate and mesmerize us into doing this, and that is part of their evil, but it is still ultimately our choice.

So let us not single out others when we, in a different way, are to blame too. We could, if we were wise, emancipate ourselves from their controlling influence.

We could join the ranks of the poor – and build strong local barter economies based on sharing, not on taking – and, when the cataclysms come, as inevitably we too will inherit the earth.

NOTE: The most recent chapter, "Village Economics", in my other blog, "A Writer in Panama", is on the same theme. Go to - panamawriter.blogspot.com

The Larger Ninety-Nine Percent

Supporters of the Occupy movement in the United States are fond of pointing out their federal government’s hypocrisy for supporting the citizens’ peaceful uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, and elsewhere, and then coördinating a police effort to literally beat down the uprisings in the United States.

But these Occupy supporters are themselves often guilty of the same kind of hypocrisy.

Even though those who started the United States version on Wall Street, New York City, drew their inspiration from Egypt and Tunisia, and even though the Egyptian movement has sent advisors to Wall Street, some of the U.S. Occupy people have become culturocentric: they claim, erroneously, that the movement was born on Wall Street, and that it spread worldwide from that beginning. No, it began in Egypt and Tunisia, and spread worldwide, including the United States, from there.

I've had it put to me that the Occupy movement is against the ultra-rich on Wall Street, and not against the government, but the signs and voices I hear in the United States and in the entire world are saying the same thing: that complacent, bribed governments of puppets to the rich are enabling the plutocrats to get ever wealthier at the expense of the 99%.

It’s all very nice being loyal to your own country. But it’s not so nice when it not only ignores the facts, but becomes an implicit racism. So let us accept the truth that the U.S. Occupy movement did not begin in the United States, and to say otherwise denigrates the wisdom and efforts of the peaceful citizen uprisings that preceded it - and continue to this day.

I say this because there’s another way in which American Occupy supporters hurt their own movement outside their country:

They forget the global perspective, in which the entire United States (and Western Europe and Japan) are the ultra-rich 1%.

They forget that other countries don't have strong environmental controls, and are being polluted with carcinogens and particulates that kill. They forget that other countries don't have strong labor laws, and children are forced to work to survive, that people work incredibly long hours under inhuman conditions - and count themselves lucky to have a job at all!

They forget that the 99% in the United States – even when they’ve lost their jobs and their pensions – are far better off than most people in the world. Yes, there’s a gulf between the 1% and the 99% in the United States – but that gulf is far wider between the billionaires and the world’s poor.

They forget that the poorest American, the American with the least access to health care and decent food, is still considerably better off than most people in the world. In the United States there are social services, food stamps, and other support systems. In much of the world, there are no support systems.

They forget that many countries don't have the constitutional freedom to assemble and speak in order to seek redress from the government - and, even if the Republican Party apparatchiks are seeking to take away this right, for now Americans still have it where many other peoples do not, and that therefore it is the responsibility of all Americans to speak out in behalf of those who cannot!

When the U.S. Occupy movement ignores the desperate plight of the poor in most of the world it is actually helping the evil plutocrats, the ultra-rich monster billionaires to continue their rape of our planet for the sake of profit. Shame on those who ignore and overlook this overwhelming global horror!

Here in Panama, some folks I know count themselves fortunate to earn $6-$8 a day. In parts of Africa, people earn that amount in a month. Others here, and in Africa, do not have any employment, any source of income, and are reduced to relying on family or friends, or, if they have none, the desperation of begging or petty thieving.

Strangers in my little mountain village stop me to ask, simply because I'm a gringo, if I can hire them. When I explain that I'm very poor, they ask if I know of any other gringos who are hiring. They are polite, but they are clearly desperate.

I live in a land where many people would be thrilled to earn a U.S. minimum wage – that rate would earn them in about 45 minutes what it takes them a day or more to earn, if they have a job.

We who support the Occupy movement must of course be concerned for the poor in our own countries, but we must never lose sight of the fact that the abyss between rich and poor is a global issue.

The same ultra-rich who are responsible for these problems in the United States have so raped the world that there are even greater problems elsewhere. There could never be a Bhopal in the United States, thanks to labor laws. There could never be maquiladoras, or child slavery. There are at least some resources available for those who are unemployed.

Here in Panama, for instance, if you’re unemployed, there is nothing, and you're desperate to find a way to feed your family, along with many other equally desperate poor people.

A family of Native Americans in my community with whom I am friends live in a shack made of corrugated tin and castoff boards. The floor is dirt. The stove is a wood fire. Their water comes in buckets from the river. Their shower is one of those buckets. They have no electricity.

The conditions in which they live would not be allowed in the United States.

These friends don't even know what a television is. They've never seen one in their lives. They are amazed by my little three-dollar camera, when I take pictures of them. One of the children found a broken camera in the road, no doubt tossed away by a wealthy expatriate American, and – even though it doesn’t work – she loves to aim it at me and pretend to take my picture. The children play outdoors, rain or shine, in the same threadbare (but always clean!) clothes and bare feet. I have watched them turn a stray plastic grocery bag into a kite and a tree branch into a swing, and remembered my own children whining, despite all their electronic toys, that there was “nothing to do!” This family of a hardworking mother and father and six children are desperately poor – yet they are happier than a lot of whining Americans.

Several studies have shown the world is capable of supporting its human population - the problem is one of distribution, not availability. Yes, birth control is needed worldwide. But it’s not for the United States, which consumes about 60% of the world’s nonrenewable resources, to preach to the rest of the world about conserving resources.

We need to think triage – help most immediately where the worst problems are – and that would be large regions of Africa and Asia, and even Central and South America, and the Native American reservations of North America.

We need to think long-term strategies for getting the overabundance in countries like the United States, where farmers are paid not to grow crops, to countries like Eritrea and Sudan.

We need to help U.S. citizens overcome the propaganda that has them believing that the Occupy people should take a bath and get a job. That, moreover, nobody should be helping those dark-skinned people who worship cows or whatever Faux Noise says, and realize that, as Jesus said, we are ALL G-d's Children!

We need also to insist that the United States government stop its campaigns against the world’s poor: sending its own poor children to kill the poor children in foreign lands. Sending low-flying military planes in Iraq and Afghanistan, simply to keep the local populations in a state of anxiety, so they will lose the ability to act decisively.

It is written in the Acts of the Apostles (in the Christian Scriptures):

“The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. ‘We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,’ he said. ‘Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.’

“Peter and the other apostles replied: ‘We must obey G-d rather than human beings!’”

This tells me that we are required by Scripture to obey one Law only, and that is the Law of G-d, and obey human laws only to the degree that they conform to that Law – and, when they do not conform, and when the forces that decree these human laws don't obey the Sacred Law – it is our sacred responsibility to SPEAK OUT!

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IN MEMORIAM Eleanor May Vock Audlin, 10 September 1926 - 25 November 2011, who was the author's mother and his first teacher of spirituality and honor and goodness.