The unrealized siege of Capitalism

The unrealized siege of Capitalism
- By U. Mahesh Prabhu

We all swear by our democracy, don't we? We appreciate our freedom. We say that we adhere to the finest principles of philosophy that which endures free will. We are not willing to be slaves. But how much of it do we really practice.

There is no need for an elaborate justification to say that 'Money' rules not just our lives but also our Institutions and other social framework, in totality. This is the hallmark of Capitalism. Capitalism, that which became very persevering theme after the World War II and grew to be an even major objective, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, is what ruling us today.

But how good is Capitalism? No doubt it gives a great lifestyle, lots of opportunities for growth and all that. But have we ever spent time to realize its constraints? I bet – never. Why? That's because capitalism hardly gives you any chance to think about zilch, but riches.

Let's assume what is happening in the social front. We all swear by our democracy, don't we? We appreciate our freedom; we adhere to the finest principles of philosophy that which endures free will. We are not willing to be slaves. But how much of these do we really practice? Take this case: As per the labour laws prevailing in this country a corporate house is not supposed to employ a person more than eight hours a day. But if you peep in to those countless software and services company offering solutions to international clientele, all the employees are slogging like donkeys for more than ten hours to keep up with their 'deadlines' and 'schedules'. They might be stressed, irked or even dehydrated, yet they will not stop to complain. Why? Because they have been hired under a contract which ensures they are not under prevailing labour laws, yet paid phenomenally. If they aren't doing their job to the best of their abilities they would loose it anytime. Well, yes, that's another matter to note that they might also turn unemployed if the company thinks that they have been over-staffed, at any given point of time. All for money honey!

Today the world is in the brink of an ecological disaster. We have the disproportionate amount of hydrocarbons polluting our atmosphere and corroding the life sustaining ozone layer, and creating the 'Greenhouse effect'. This is also to increase the global temperature and then steadily, in few hundred years, set to melt all the polar icecaps in the South and North Pole, thus depleting the land mass and pushing the human life to the brink of extinction. Nevertheless, we are creating our own doom. But there is still a chance to save it. We just have to stop these polluting industries and those machineries running on hydrocarbons, for this cause. It's not such a difficult task, but that will never happen. Why? Simply because it incurs loss!

Recently in Tibet, which is under Chinese dictatorship since 1950s, thousands of Tibetans began massive protests for their independence. Their cohorts in India too staged several agitations, though peaceful to begin with ultimately they turned semi-violent. The Chinese Communist Party, who never believes in freedom and free speech, retaliated - heavily and bloodily. The news spilled across the world through the Tibetan propaganda of 'human rights violations'. Beijing pinned the blame for the consecutive two weeks of violence on the Dalai Lama and said he was trying to sabotage the upcoming Olympics.

To ensure that its image, internationally, is not trashed, Chinese allowed and led some of the important international media into Tibet. This they believed would make an impression upon press that everything is calm and peaceful. But this design spun out of control when monks interrupted the media and exploded their angst against the Chinese administration. 'We don't have freedom of speech, we can't practice our religion here…', 'these people inside the monastery are cadre and not monks…', 'Please help us, we need freedom…' they shouted. Television media portrayed this heartening scene.

But instead of supporting, and showing solidarity to, the Tibetans the Chinese's vile statement against the Dalai Lama, reading 'Wolf in monk's robe', was being justified by our communist comrades in India. Despite call by the Tibetan leader along with rightwing activists for an independent inquiry into the Chinese crack down, which latter called as 'People's War', on protesting monks in Tibet, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) failed to even discuss the issue, forget the point of 'taking action' against Chinese administration.

On the UNSC issue Chinese diplomat said that it did not come up in the council 'as it does not pose threat to international peace and security'. 'It is a domestic issue' they asserted. Actually the reason for the issue not be taken up in the UNSC was because: China is a powerful veto-wielding member of the 15 member council and Washington often needs its support to get the resolutions through the body. And if you were to disagree with me on this then perhaps you need to explain as to why did UNSC voiced concerns against crack down by Myanmar's ruling Junta against Buddhist monks, asserting that 'it posed a threat to international peace'?

But what makes China so powerful? What makes it just impossible for mightier nations like Americas to intervene when they violate every single human rights law? The answer lies in those several industries setup by the international business houses in the Dragon land. These conglomerates have invested the money for the cause of cheap labour. There is cheap labour due to absence of the internationally framed labour laws. Billions of dollars are earned in profits by those conglomerates. And these are the same conglomerates unto whom those politicians have to turn to, for funding their electioneering campaigns, and thus play a very crucial role in the current international political scenes. And the only thing which bothers to business is returns. And because it matters to businesses it also matters to the politicians. And because it matters to politicians, they would certainly careless as to whether or not the human rights laws are implemented. Again… it's all about money honey!

Sad but true, Capitalism has begun to rule supreme over freedom and value. Let's not forget that what happened to Tibetans might happen to every one of us, should this monster of Capitalism go untamed.