First World Suffering Isn't the Gauge to Care And/Or Take Action

Interferon is protein based and serves as the foundation of the vaccine socialist Cuba has created to address COVID 19, not just in Cuba, but throughout the world. Meanwhile, the U.S. has no strategy besides human beings isolating from one another

COVID 19 isn’t strange to me.  We live in a world today dominated by capital over human dignity, so since we don’t know exactly where or how this virus originated, in this social environment where money is always more important than people, I wouldn’t and couldn’t ever be surprised that something like this would happen.  In some part of your brain you had to expect something like this to happen eventually.

What does make me angry is the level of self-centeredness and total lack of awareness so many people are exhibiting.  I understand people are panicked, scared, and upset – with good reason, but there has to be a standard of decency that we all agree to accept if we are ever going to have any chance of overcoming adversity when it rears its head.  In other words, if you fashion yourself as someone genuinely concerned about humanity, then there are certain contradictions that appear in times like this that cannot be ignored.

Its perfectly normal for people in capitalist countries like the U.S. to be upset, but the world reality is children under 18 routinely die every day from hand mining columbite tantalite (coltan or cobalt) in Congolese mines so that Apple, Samsung, etc., can make billions while you get the latest iPhone.  Thousands of people died in a flood in Mozambique recently.  Immoral and illegal sanctions are leveled by the U.S. and other capitalist countries against sovereign countries like Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and Iran for no other reasons besides the fact those countries refuse to stand in lock step to the demands of the capitalist world.  Meanwhile, these immoral sanctions cause those countries to experience empty shelves and shopping centers as a regular part of their lives.  Children in occupied Palestine (Israel) are subjected to daily indignities, death, and terrorism.  Oil workers in Nigeria are killed at an average age of 40 due to the harsh conditions imposed upon them by Dutch Royal Shell so that you can have gasoline to embark on your weekend road trip.

The point is all of these things happen routinely, primarily to provide capitalism with the capital to continue to exploit the world.  And, since a part of that process is to provide you in these capitalist countries the crumbs from that stolen wealth to buy your allegiance to upholding this capitalist system, you are in essence as guilty as the corporations.  So, for those of us who live with, and understand these realities every day, it causes anger in us to see people in capitalist countries suffer the types of slight inconveniences that the recent COVID 19 scare has created, while these people act like the world should now stop and pay attention to any level of suffering they are forced to endure.  I see people criticizing people for using humor to help them through this period when those issuing the criticisms never stopped using humor that was either unconsciously or consciously connected to any form of suffering the people previously mentioned face daily.  People in capitalist countries, and not just the Europeans, have embraced, either intentionally or not, this narrative that your lives are more important than everyone else on earth.  So, in your mind, when you suffer, not anyone else, that’s when everything needs to be acknowledged.  That’s when action needs to take place.  To you, the value of the world is based on centering yourself, despite whatever rhetoric you express every day about humanity.  What this latest ordeal is exposing is that come push to shove, you exhibit the same racism, xenophobia, and self centered philosophies that are the reasons for these social dysfunctions in the first place.

If we are to develop as human beings its going to be essential that people focus on building some maturity and political sophistication that goes much deeper than rhetorical proficiency.  Loss of life is loss of life.  Don’t just get tuned in because you can’t get toilet paper, or your children don’t have to go to school when you generally are living your best life while the children of Palestine or the Congo suffer.  Learn how to demonstrate that you truly do have concern about humanity and not just you and your nuclear and/or extended family.  Do this by doing the only thing that provides that example.  Get involved on a consistent basis.  Don’t just react and do something for the next few weeks to make yourself feel good, then go back to business as usual while the majority of the world suffers (as long as you don’t have to see or deal with it).  Join organizations that are working to address problems.  Help them build up capacity.  Encourage and help them to connect with other organizations around the world.  By doing this, we greatly increase our ability to make change.  And, we improve our understanding about how that will happen.  We institute political education so that we understand the world we live in and how we fit into it.  We develop the ability to come together to address these problems and take care of each other without relying on our enemies for information or direction.  We eliminate the current reality where people who haven’t even read one book about socialism are comfortable making comments about whether socialism would make any difference with the COVID 19 situation.  The facts are undeniable.  Genuine socialist countries like Cuba have developed a vaccine they are implementing.  A vaccine called Interferon which mobilizes the proteins in our system to build up resistance of our immunities against viruses.  They are utilizing this vaccine in the Caribbean countries and they have sent doctors and medical teams to Italy and China to help. 

It was announced by the World Health Organization today that 47 countries in Africa expect to have capacity to provide widespread testing for COVID 19 and they are going to be able to do this despite the fact they have an abundance of resource issues.  Meanwhile, the U.S. – the richest country in the world – has no capacity and/or plan to test people widespread and no other strategy besides the physical separation of human beings from one another.  Think about that for a moment. 

You are not the center the world.  The country you live in is not the center of the world.  What happens or doesn’t happen to you is not the gauge from which to assess or direct the value of anything.  You just happen to live in the country that gained its wealth status by being the absolute best terrorist and thief  in human history.  For me, I live here because I and millions of others like me, are survivors of that terror and theft.  I know this so I always act accordingly and with respect for the rest of humanity.  Not only do I reject this notion that I’m aligned with this capitalist society, I work every day to strengthen the capacity and abilities of the rest of the world to reclaim what rightfully is being stolen from them.  If you don’t see the connections of any of this.  Or, you don’t believe in any of this.  Or, whatever you tell yourself to justify continuing to center yourself.  No matter what happens going forward, you will forever be a part of the problem that created whatever devastation lies ahead.

For me, I have no question we will overcome COVID 19.  We will overcome global warming.  We will overcome poverty, houselessness, white supremacy, patriarchy, homophobia, and we will overcome capitalism.  We will make our contribution to all of this happening by fighting for one unified socialist Africa.  And, we will continue to support other movements fighting for similar justice.  I have absolutely no doubts about any of this and I know I will not be here to reap the benefits of these victories, but I know they will come.  I believe this because I am a dialectical and historical materialist.  That means I know that if the world can be disrupted into its current realities, there has to be a way for us to reverse these adversities because that’s the only way we could have maneuvered into this place we are in today.  We may not have all of the answers now, but we know that coming together and organizing is the pathway to get the rest of those answers.  We can’t even hear those who are naysayers.  We don’t speak their language.  We refuse to be stopped, but a critical part of this journey is honesty.  We have to make this call to action for us to get serious and stop playing games with the future of our world.  Who is truly ready to go beyond useless fronting mechanisms?  Who is ready to have real conversations that lead to real work?  Who is ready to put some skin in the game beyond just talking on social media about lots and lots of nonsense?  Who is ready to test themselves and make a real difference?  Its not COVID 19.  Its not global warming.  Its none of those things that will decide the future of human existence and the quality of that existence.  Its how you and everyone else decides to answers these questions that will determine where we are 100+ years from now.