Today I woke up to an arresting article about the economic inequity that characterizes our world today.
At this season we predictably wish each other "happy new year" (or "Happy New Year's" -- I'm not splitting hairs yet this morning) and totter off to our coddled existence. Much of every day we're oblivious to the squalor in which half the world lives.
The point is not that we need to dwell on it more, but that we, who have means (individuals and nations and alliances), have a responsibility to structure economic &/or distribution systems in a more equitable way.
Maybe for some of us--the 5 percent who live in the USA spring to mind at the top of the list--it will mean a bit of cutting back on our indulgences, such as a combined budgeted and black expenditure of about a trillion dollars annually on armaments and related doohickeys. Those who make and receive those payments don't like the idea of getting by with less and will resist (have resisted for decades); we need to account for that resistance and plan to overcome it. Otherwise situations in many parts of the world are near an exploding point.
This is the context that bares the roots of terrorism and makes it perfectly understandable. This is the domain in which to conduct a reality-based "global war on terror" and hope with assurance for a lasting victory.
All the best to all of us for the coming year, and may this needy world provoke the best from all of us in response.
