The dykes are gone

The earliest writings produced have always taken as a fundamental precept the fact that all children are the result of a union between male and female – a perfect equilibrium of forces whose strength is represented in how they interact and counteract with one another, facing life’s challenges, surviving when confronted by adversity, overcoming odds and fundamentally, growing together.

As the pages of our collective History book were written by events which have shaped our destiny, this precept has been represented and reaffirmed time and time again throughout the centuries, underlying international relations: East and West, North and South, city against city, region against region, country against country, civilisation against civilisation and the greater the individual strength, the more likely the existence of mutual respect and the less probable the onset of violence.

And so it was with the Soviet Union, the USSR, which was the result of a myriad of historical, social and developmental vectors, bringing together and harmonising hundreds of peoples and languages and cultures and creeds, which individually were weak and divided and forging an example in social, industrial, scientific and economic progress, bringing medieval societies into the frontline of development in just a few generations.

The symbiosis was provided by the other side, the West, whose countries’ histories are pitted with imperialistic adventures, massacres and interference, disrespect for diversity, racism and the looting of resources. It was the USSR’s collective strength which from the first days of its existence guaranteed its survival (Russian Civil War, WWI, WWII, billions spent on sabotage and subversion) and it was its survival which served as an umbrella to protect the rest of the developing world against the collective greed of its detractors.

Thus the perfect equilibrium was created, guaranteeing not only peace through mutual respect but also, and due to this, development and prosperity as the USSR internationalised its model, helping countries to free themselves from the yoke of imperialism, allowing them to develop their own institutions as an alternative to colonialism and helping to implement systems of education, healthcare, respecting cultural difference in a collective spirit of sharing, celebrating diversity rather than suppressing it with a Bible and Bullet approach. The bottom line is that at its peak in the late 80s, the USSR was spending over $250 billion on development programmes abroad, favouring development of resources over deployment of armed forces.

To measure whether the world is better off today in the absence of such an important geo-strategic pole and a far-reaching geo-political role on the world stage, we only have to turn the pages of the recent chapters of our history to see that without the dykes to hold them back, the storm-waters run amok.

The Balkans was the first to feel the disastrous effects of western intrusion, which fostered hatred and ethnic strife, destroying hundreds of years of togetherness and fraternity, turning families against one another, creating enemies where neighbours had co-existed; Kosovo was the next insult to Russia’s sphere of influence, where the heart of Serbia was ripped out and handed to the Albanian mafia, creating a drug-trafficking state in eastern Europe.

There followed Afghanistan, where the West had aided and armed the Mujahideen (later Taliban), destroying the most socially progressive government the country had ever seen, replacing it with those whose approach to society was everything but inclusive and then offered Mullah Omar billions of dollars to construct a pipeline across his country. When he refused, the social, ethnic and tribal tissue was turned upside down and the ensuing decade of violence continues to spiral out of control.

With an absence of a counter-weight to hold it back, the arrogance became more brazen and blatant. First Iraq, where lies, hysteria and greed invented a casus belli which never existed and the UN looked on as a prosperous country destroyed; fast forward to 2011: Libya, where the Jamahiriya is being dismantled by terrorists as NATO has managed its ulterior motive of appearing as the UN’s world policeman as it globalises its interplanetary hegemony and intercontinental policies of greed.

We see what has happened, and what will continue to happen. Who is next? Syria? Iran? Venezuela? And who lies at the end of the line? China? Russia? It is not a question of if, but when. The ball is rolling, the momentum has gathered and the rest belongs to the realm of physics. It is already out of control.

The western media tries to justify itself by labelling the USSR as a monster. “The Evil Empire” of Reagan was a precursor to “The Axis of Evil”, contributed by his student in idiocy, George Bush as the more powerful propaganda machines swing into action. However, with the pages of the history book being monopolised by one writer, where does one draw the line between good and evil, where is the symbiosis?

It does not exist anymore. If what existed before had been substituted by something better, we could start to debate. But let us see the result of NATO’s hegemony, which sprang from the voluntary dissolution of the USSR (catered for in its Constitution).

And the result is horrendous. International law means zilch, the UN Charter has been breached regularly, the Geneva Conventions have been violated and every norm in the rules of diplomacy has been discarded. The legal precedents created from Westphalia (1648) to Helsinki (1975) have been derided.

Education systems across the globe have been destroyed as instruction has become a business. Healthcare have become a bargain among insurance companies, the patient has lost relevance. A guaranteed job no longer exists, it is practically impossible for a couple to buy a house, a drama to keep it; and the notion of a guaranteed pension is now risible. Millions of people have lost their lives or their livelihoods as a result.

The shocking disregard for human life and human rights demonstrated by exactly the same scourge which went globetrotting for 500 years is back amongst us again and as before, shall continue until it is stopped – maybe by the CSTO, maybe by BRIC. This will only be provided by a cohesive world community standing up for what is right, their words protected by an effective and aggressive independent media and their policies coordinated to make a difference where it hurts most, for the monster can only live if it is fed. Then we can say that the world is better off.