Ten or So Years Later

Ten years later, it seems as if there aren't any more rich countries. Just a whole lot of rich people. People who got rich looting the public wealth and exhausting natural resources around the world.
~ from The Fight Against Climate Change Is Down to Us – the 99% by Naomi Klein ~

I have highlighted this one brief paragraph from a speech delivered by Klein because I believe it contains the kernel of the problem the people of the world face. While we are told that the financiers and industrialists of each nation are the greatest patriots, nothing could be further from the truth.

Capitalists care nothing for national heritages or sovereign boundaries. They care nothing for domestic laws or international treaties. The only thing that matters to them is the unfettered ability to create and stockpile wealth.

When Klein says "ten years later," she's referring to one of the first major protests of globalization that took place in Seattle at the World Trade Organization summit in 1999. What the protesters were pointing out to the world then -- that predatory global capitalism is a cannibalistic system and not sustainable -- is what is coming to fruition now.

Not only has it robbed the vast majority of world citizens of any degree of economic security, but it is destroying the habitability of Mother Earth at breakneck speed. All this is being done to enrich the meager few who thumb their noses at everyone else.

But for all their riches, political power, and cultural influence, there is one thing they fear: the 99 percent. If we would set aside our differences peaceably to stand toe-to-toe against them, they cannot succeed.