I suppose historians will point to several crossroads in world affairs that have been instrumental in shaping global development. However, I submit that the crossroads we find ourselves approaching now is more crucial than at any time in our history. It's not just the threat of military conflict. We face an entire spectrum of adversarial division: military, economic, cultural, religious and developmental. During the last ten years we have debated the merits and demerits of globalisation. Perhaps this was premature, as we are now facing global fragmentation as economic power shifts rapidly to the east, the influence of the US on world affairs dimishes and the emergence of radicalised regimes is a regular occurence. And the root cause of this global malaise? Simply put, it is about the allocation of resources. Who has what and who goes without. At this point many people may be tempted to raise the population (or over-population) issue and with good reason. However, they would be wide of the mark in this instance. Its not so much the head count that's driving the current conflict, but resource utilisation. The unprecedented growth of the last ten years in the world's leading and emerging economies has exerted a huge demand for skills, fossil fuels, minerals, food and capital. Aside from the distorted allocation of resources that this demand creates, the ensuing wealth that is generated is highly concentrated leading to the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. This is a truly global phenomenon but one that has also been officially recorded in the UK.
Economists have, since the 1970s, been warning of the consequences of a highly skewed distribution of resources and benefits of development. No matter how obviously unsustainable the growth of the last decade may be, these warnings continue to fall on deaf ears, as evidenced by our own Government's attempt to grow their way out of recesssion by rekindling rampant consumerism - much to the disgust of religious leaders. Which brings me to my greatest concern - the lack of statesmanship that exists among the current crop of world leaders at this crucial juncture. Whilst the economic and environmental summits of the last few years have produced the rhetoric of collective action, the reality has been 'every man for himself'. The national and short- term demands of democracies the world over conspire to prevent the true collective action that is needed at this point in time. Will Mr Obama break ranks and forge a new era of morally-based global co- operation? Its a tall order! But what else have we to look forward to? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "World-thread" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/world-thread?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
