Bolivia, Baghdad,Bogata, Bejing and Benin

Because the events in Iraq dominate both the headlines and the political discussion in our country it is easy to forget that many other conflicts still rage in many parts of our world. A quick look at the most volatile regions quickly exposes two factors that are common to most of them. The first one of course is control of energy resources. Whether we are talking about Central Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe or the Persian Gulf, when a nation explains intervention by saying it has “vital interests” in a region it is probably referring to natural gas or oil. Whether it is Columbia, Nigeria, Kazakhstan or Iran the rhetoric is about freedom or terror but you follow the money and you’ll quickly find oil. We just don't send the Marines for bananas, timber or copper anymore.

The other cause of much tension found in developing nations such as Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, India, Europe and the states of the old Soviet Union is the drive to privatize their economies, putting into corporate hands sectors and other resources than were always held in the public trust. Dismantling of sovereign rights through trade agreements, IMF lending and development aid policy only enriches a few and is the cause of much environmental destruction and the dislocation of millions from farms to rural slums. Prying open markets goes hand in hand with resource extraction., out-sourced jobs and sweat-shops.

It is no coincidence that the same people who hope to profit from the vast Iraqi energy resources also are proposing a strict neo-liberal transformation of Iraqs economy. This also explains why the leaders of Venezuela and Bolivia are so demonized by global financial elites and US politicians. This pro-privitization will be dressed up as part of the War on Terror ,anti-communism, or as "liberation" of the people from some Axis of Evil or authoritarian tyrant but we often see that Western governments are somewhat selective in their anti-despot and even anti-Islamic fundamentalist campaigns.

Some economies, China's for instance, don't require much prying or privitizing because labor is the resource US corporations are after and it is already so cheap and plentiful little intervention is required. Others, like Mexico's , require a two -prong strategy of natural resource expropriation and labor exploitation, buying government officials to both sell off resource rights and suppress unionization. In both cases it is argued that wealth is created through "trade" which will trickle down through the economy and it is a fact standards of living have risen for many through capitalization, manufacturing jobs and foreign investment.

The question is, what is the next stage of historical development and who will first imagine it and then instigate it's becoming? Shouldn't the uneven-ness of worldwide development be evened out, shouldn't wealth be more evenly created and distributed? Wouldn't that alleviate the pressures, the conflicts, the violent disruption which causes a world to live in fear? If shared ownership of the natural resources, the investment capital and the means of production led to an equal distribution of the earths abundant bounty wouldn't that mean a more just world and a shared purpose around which to unite?