Recently there was an international poll taken byGallup that interviewed 53,749 people spread across68 countries. It is interesting that around theworld most people agree on what the major problemsare. They are not war or terrorism, but poverty,the environment and the gap in wealth between therich and the rest of us.

The question that arisesis that with so many people in so many placesrecognizing the real problems that society mustdeal with, why aren’t we dealing with them? Why,instead of governments using our resources to makelife better for everyone, are they squandering themon futile and needless wars supposedly fightingterrorism, drugs, or whatever the cause du jourhappens to be?

Almost every social and environmental problem thatwe face can be traced back to economics and thedistribution of wealth. Wars are fought to controland monopolize resources, terrorists feed on thealienation of the poor and dispossessed,corporations and governments feed onmanipulating the threat of terrorism and stagemanaging conflicts.

Both feed on despair throughtheir profits from the drug trade, and theenvironment is destroyed both by those trying toeke out a bare survival by stripping what they can,and those stripping everything that they can gettheir hands on to increase their wealth and power.

Why does this continue? It continues because itbenefits the wealthy in the short run to have itcontinue. In the long run it will destroy us all,but long term planning is incompatible with themodern corporate system that is predicated on theethics of greed and pillage. This system isincapable of any long term vision other thanfairytales spun by academics on its payroll becausefacing the truth would cause it to shut down.

Thefact is that the truth is so threatening to thissystem that it spends millions buying governmentsand controlling information and education tomarginalize those who would challenge it. Thisstate of affairs continues to exist because most ofthe time the power of wealth trumps the commonsense of the people.

Today we have the richest society in the world,the United States, pouring billions down rat holesin Iraq and Afghanistan, among other places, whilemany of its own people are descending into poverty.It has an infant mortality rate higher than mostother industrialized nations, and although itspends more money on health care than any othercountry in the world, over 45 million of its peopleare without health insurance.

Meanwhile it is hometo 371 of the world’s 793 billionaires. Germany isa distant second with 55. As the number and wealthof billionaires rises, however, average incomes aredropping.

To compound this situation, in the U.S. taxes havebeen cut or held down while spending on wars hasdramatically increased. The result of this is thatthe billionaires get tax breaks on one hand, anddirect profit from supplying the goods and servicesrequired for the foreign adventures on the other.The average citizen with the falling income,however, gets to contribute by supplying the sonsand daughters required to do the dirty work and whorisk being maimed and killed to keep the operationgoing. It is clearly a system stacked against thehealth and well being of the many for the benefitof the few.

Canadians should pay more attention to what isgoing on. Currently there are those who see muchbenefit to be gained from becoming a partner withthe U.S. in its imperial ambitions. Canadian Forceswhich have earned world renown over the decades fortheir peacekeeping skills and fairness have beenplunged into a new role of war fighter in theservices of U..S expansionism. The rhetoric comingout of Ottawa and from certain military officersthese days sounds like a script written inWashington, and supports a mockery of whatCanadians stand for.

One case in point happened recently in Afghanistanwhere a man was arrested and charged with the crimeof becoming a Christian. Not only did he face thedeath penalty for his conversion, but many of ourAfghan partners vehemently wanted him dead. Themore horrible death the better.

The question is,how can Canadians tolerate this attitude, we whosubscribe to the Universal Declaration of HumanRights that guarantees religious freedom? PrimeMinister Harper of course made the obligatoryobjections, but they were spineless. Did he demandthat this offensive law be stricken from the booksin Afghanistan if they expected us to defend theirgovernment? No. Did he demand that the Afghangovernment comply with the principles of the UDHRand remove all of the offensive provisions ofIslamic law in their constitution? No. He justblustered a bit for domestic consumption and waitedfor the event to fade away.

Canadians must ask, what do we have to gain fromwasting our tax dollars and needlessly endangeringthe lives of our troops in defense of a regimecommitted to principles that go against everythingthat we stand for. Are we being had yet again toincrease the wealth of those who already have toomuch?