Wayne Kublalsingh
The European Union is in serious trouble. So is the United States. It will not be long again, within the next 20 years, before these two entities plunge the planet into global war to extricate themselves from their troubles. This is because these two super entities can no longer fairly compete in the global market for goods and services.
Latin America, whose nations (except Colombia) went bankrupt in the 1980s, has become a formidable market competitor: Brazil, Argentina, for example. Then there is the Pacific: Indonesia and Australia. The Far East: China and Japan. Then India. And the emergence of Eastern Europe and Russia.
In the European Union, as in the US, production costs tend to be high. In the chase for global markets, the chase to sell the last man in Samarkand a fridge, a stove, a pair of jeans, the EU and the US are lagging behind. In such a situation, fiscal difficulties arise. Who are to pay the higher taxes?
In France, famous actor Gerard Depardieu fled his nation for tax sanctuaries in Switzerland and Russia. President Obama has "wowed" the middle classes by advocating the heaviest tax burdens on the richest five to ten per cent of US citizens.
The decline in Government income has also led to cutbacks in essential services and social welfare; and a tidal wave of strikes in France, Spain, Italy, Greece. Central banks and the Federal Bank of the US are printing cheap money, or shelling out kick-start money into the system.
Small civil wars are ignited between governments and opposition: in France, Italy, Greece, Spain, the US Congress. And Britain, spotting trouble in the EU, has decided to recoil in preparation for her strike; Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that a referendum on British participation in the EU will be held in five years.
The European economies are tearing at the seams under the pressures of massive unemployment, trade union strikes, bailouts of debtor partners, and a general decline in favourable international trade.
In the face of all of this, France makes her strike: the intervention in Mali. It is not clear to what extent this was a move to debilitate "Islamic terrorists", the ideological whipping boy of EU, US and Nato terror, or to what extent it is to launch an economic offensive in Africa. This intervention, supported by the US and her European allies, is partly to counter the growing economic and financial influence of China in Africa; and partly to handle "the supply side" of trade.
Since Europe and the US cannot successfully and sustainably compete in the global trade in products and services because of high production costs, they will now try to grab and corral resources in order to reduce their costs. This is why the intervention of France in Mali may be regarded as a supply side move. And just as both Europe and the US have propped up elites and despots in the Middle East since the 1920s, especially since the formation of OPEC in the 1970s, to protect the price of oil and gas, so too would be the case in Africa.
Africa could well be, then, the next bloodied and bullied Middle East. And just as proxy wars were fought between the Soviet Union and Europe/US from the 1950s, in Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East, the Far East in Vietnam, Cambodia, the Koreas, Afghanistan–with tens of millions of natives of these nations being killed–so too, proxy wars against China could be launched in Africa. What this means is that Africa could be the new global star in the 21st century: war, carnage, genocide, the propping up of dictators with arms and diplomatic support at the UN, the International Criminal Court and the international media, CNN, FOX, BBC and so on.
The outlook for peace, development and a possible surge into an economic powerhouse does not look good for Africa. The dragon, the lion, the eagle are poised on Mount Kilimanjaro waiting to descend. Europe and the US will wrack and rend this wounded continent, and squeeze the blood out of it. They will create wars to smash the global economy, because they are not doing well in it (and possess the largest military arsenals), in order for capitalism to get the opportunity to build it fresh again. It is like muscled bully who will smash up the marble game when he is not doing well; the losing bully wants to restart the game.
Over the last 40 years, all the following nations have restrung their economic bows and become international powerhouses: the Latin American nations, Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia. But Africa might not get the chance.
The solution for African nations is to follow the Latin American model. African leaders need to get together and talk, plan, execute seriously. They need to form South-South alliances, banks, economic formations. They need to reject the inducements of the global corporate terrorists, unanimously and boldly.
Africa needs revolutionary leaders espousing African independence. It needs bridges such as CELAC, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States forum for social, political and economic development. Now, more than ever, Africa needs to stand up.
