Things to think about and act upon

We live in an interesting time. We have some nations whose wealth and technological advancements have so far outstripped other nations so as to make some cultures look as though they are still living in the Stone Age. In fact we do know of some remotely placed tribes of people that do indeed still live in Stone Age societies with no knowledge of the outside world. There are about 150 groups of people scattered throughout the globe who have yet to be contacted by what we might choose to refer to as the modern world. How should we view those Stone Age cousins of ours? Should we rush in with our iPads and cell phones and drag them kicking and screaming into the 21st century, or should we just leave them alone. Alone to practice their cultural way of life as they have for centuries untold. Do we leave them alone in their jungle homes or move them into new condos on Main Street. How can we decide what we should do? Sadly enough the lives of these primitive peoples is not often decided upon with the truly altruistic ideals we would like to pretend all humans have. To be honest if it was discovered that these primitive peoples live in areas that have some natural resource we feel we can make a profit from, we would already be there. They would have met us, been forced off their land, and in many ways forced to give up their traditional way of life and be forced to adopt that of the modern world. On the other side of that equation are the missionaries. Generally well meaning people who only wish to introduce these shamanistic pagan cultures to the beauty and love of whatever denomination gets there first.

So the question still stands. What should we do, and even more importantly why should we do it?

International Affairs and Administration is a fascinating field of study. As I have pursued my education in this field I have been amazed at some of the things we, as societies, place in importance. On one hand, those of us in the western world, tend to spout off great ideals of freedom and justice, as our primary desires for citizens of the world. Yet at that same time our policies are driven more on the grounds of political or economic benefits. We have taken our global economy built by decades of wealth building and technological advance into areas of the world that still live in the same way their families have for centuries. We have gone into scattered parts of the globe and convinced farmers that they would be better off if they stopped growing food for their own uses and produced goods that other nations are willing to pay for. Then we have entire regions that forsake their own food security and produce crops they don’t use to be sold to people they don’t know so they can get money to buy what they need from someone else. Why not just produce what you need where you are and send whatever extra to introduced to the global economy. Who knows maybe that crop that has sustained people for centuries might even become well regarded by the outside world. We have this bizarre tenancy to find things in nature that have been well suited to an ecosystem for centuries and we then try to replace it with what we want rather than learning the uses of what is already available and abundant. An example of this is when European cattle where brought to North America by early settlers. As the settlers moved westward they came upon the vast North American plains. On these plains the first thing they saw was this great grassland that was thriving with biodiversity. Grasses that grew taller than a man on horse back, rich soils that produced tons and tons of native grasses and a land that supported the North American Bison. Also known, incorrectly, as buffalo. Bison herds where enormous. The shear numbers of bison in a heard where simply staggering to these new settlers. These bison had supported native plains Indians for as long as there had been Indians on the plains. And what did our forefathers see in this great land of plenty? Stuff the needed to replace. We wiped out the great bison herds; nearly to extinction did we hunt the bison. Did we utilize them for meat? No we just skinned them and left the carcass to rot in the sun. We took a resource that native peoples had been able to craft everything they needed from tools to housing to trade goods and decimated an entire ecosystem for very little gain. We made big money selling buffalo robes to the wealthy, and we did defeat the plains Indians by driving their primary supply for almost everything to brink of extinction so we could replace the might bison with cows. Eventually we even tamed these grasslands that produced so much on its own to shape it to our wants. Many would say needs here, I however choose to disagree. The land supported many native foodstuffs. We chose to import our own. We have taken what was so abundant and replaced it with crops that require so much more of the land. Now we add chemicals and drain aquifers in order to produce one more bushel of corn to be sold on the world market. We punish the land and pollute our waters so we can open up new markets in foreign lands to send our products to them so they will stop producing for them selves and grow what we want over here. So tell me again why we don’t just grow what we need and sell what is left over. Instead we have gone from agriculture to agribusiness. We have stopped growing for survival and we grow for profit. We literally grow food in quantities we cannot hope to eat or sell to the point that we now must move into other markets to replace what they grow so they will need to buy from us what we produce. Where in anyone’s right mind does this make a lick of common sense? We destroy what Is there to replace it with what we want then we turn around and try to make others replace what they produce with what we produce and try to get them to compete with us buy changing what they produce to sell to others who really don’t need it any way? No wonder the world gets pissed at us sometimes.