The Big Blue Marble

We can only guess what it was like in the beginning, but from what we do know historically, we are a species that has always had personal interests as top priority.

We have killed, enslaved, and invaded for as long as one can imagine. It used to be worse, but today it’s only less pervasive because the playing field is somewhat more level, and the element of surprise has been practically eliminated. To say nothing about the fact that so many players hold the fate of the world’s population in their hands. This factor is probably the only one keeping the world’s power mongers from breaking out into another world war. Unfortunately, that doesn’t keep them from inflicting pain on each other on a lower scale, although people continue to lose their lives over ridiculous ideologies.

We look around today and witness a few ideologies creating most of the turmoil such as borders and religion. We can’t seem to grasp the idea that the way forward is in unison. There are many reasons for this. One is the wealthy that control the markets. They know that our economic system doesn’t work and is headed for disaster, but they don’t care, their only interest is to retain their power, which involves their money. Another reason is war. There are conflicts today in parts of that world that are being staged because one party is afraid of another having a strategic upper hand, Russia with the Ukraine, and China with Taiwan, to just skim the surface. in the name of religion, people are dying by the thousands all over the world because of fanaticism. Interpretations of scriptures written by men thousands of years ago are front and centre in today’s modern, educated world. All of these things are used to control our lives on a daily basis, whether we care to admit it or not. And then there are borders and nations. I don’t know much about how the world was carved up, except that I’m pretty sure it wasn’t with the agreement of all the parties concerned. Hell, Portugal and Spain divided the known world between them back in 1492 with the Treaty of Tordesillas. Those included resources, people, everything. We may now find this somewhat amusing, but, in a much more complex manner, the same is true today. Today’s world is carved up between those who exploit resources. They control the distribution and sales, thus controlling the lives of just about everyone. Every “conflict” that arises affects both, according to them. We are at the mercy of these controlling entities because our very existence depends on them and their markets.

Since the results from the errors of the past are still affecting millions of people today, we see much ado about reparation and compensation. Indigenous peoples all over had their futures altered by greedy colonialists, anxious to reap profits from resources that belonged to nations that didn’t know the meaning of terms like “ownership”. Self-titled “pioneers” simply took over vast areas of the globe in the name of their rulers as if those that were already there didn’t exist, and no amount money or apologies will ever change anything. Indigenous people will never recover, neither will the pioneers ever give anything back, especially when the wrongdoing occurred so long ago, when things were so different. Even with our best intentions, what was destroyed can never be rebuilt.

Honestly, the best thing we could do is treat them like the fellow human beings they are and willingly bring them into the fold, while helping them maintain whatever remains of their culture. We can’t be faulted for what our ancestors did, but we can be faulted for the marginalization we created.
Fiquem bem,

Raul Freitas/MS