Belated Note: The G20 and the Protest Rabble.....

I think ultimately the summit will be more important than the protests, that this is obvious does not mean it should not be said. Despite the police brutality, this was not the face-off between capitalism and its nemesis:

The G20 summit was established to address the world we live in

Paradoxically that’s what the protesters were there to do as well

The G20 is made up of a group of disparate countries bound by one goal, not to let the global financial system go to shit. The protestors are a loose group of people not bound by one common goal, letting the global capitalist system go to shit. Spirited though they are, the protests are rooted in addressing the status quo and that, apart from the general apathy (in the world) is why the cries of revolution ring hollow. At least the leaders of the G20 currently stand for something. The protestors do not – disagreement does not a vision make. We know that free-market capitalism is not perfect – we also know that full-throttle socialism is not perfect. Somebody needs to articulate a vision that goes beyond both of these 20th century ideologies; something fantastical, that sits right outside the human imagination as it currently is – and which encompasses the visions, or more precisely, the aspirations of groups as diverse as the climate change campaigners, the trade unions and the fair trade movement. More importantly, it should be a vision that the people who are so vested in the status quo can either resist or support. Not the current wouldn’t it be nice? That characterises most people’s attitude to causes such as climate change and free trade. And I include myself in this category; floating through life, my outlook is underpinned by vaguely capitalist and socialist ideas, yet, nevertheless, I haven’t really been fired up by any of the visions of society that they offer. One idea that I recently encountered is the concept of a resource-based society, proposed by a prolific designer and engineer, Jacques Fresco. He argues that the resources upon which the world depends can be shared freely.

It’s not an impossible thought, if you are aware, for example, that technically speaking there is no scarcity of diamonds in the world, and that they are artificially made rare by global diamond corporations such as De Beers to artificially inflate the price of diamonds. The biggest problem in the vision of the resource based society is the problem of human motivation and drive, that instinct that makes human beings quest for achievement, at least so the argument goes. But really? The original quest for humanity was survival, and once that is fulfilled we seek to express ourselves in other ways. Have you noticed how you set to creating or destroying something once you have spent a long period of time being bored? Human beings will ultimately set themselves to creating something – the question is will they do it for nothing? It might be impossible for us to give up our attachment to the idea of money and impoverishment and with that the global capitalist system on which we now depend. After all, the fear of poverty is the great engine of capitalism, but surely someone can articulate a vision of the world – a welttheorie - that can incorporate an economic system based on maintaining the earth, and creating prosperous societies?

Side Business

On a post clubbing bus ride a few days ago, one of my friends told me a story of how he’d arranged to do a bit of business on the side by sending some items to Nigeria to be sold through a very close family relative. We’re talking through the same uterus close’. This close family member executed his duties very well and stood to gain a very handsome commission out of the deal – which said friend hoped to make into a regular sideline that would benefit not only him but also the relative in question.

For whatever reason, the relative managed to spend all the money gained, both his share and my friend’s. The story was told to me in a very downcast and bitter tone, with my friend vowing, more or less between gritted teeth not to trust anyone in Nigeria anymore, not even his own family. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard such a story before, and not I suspect the last. In my own family, there are countless examples of similar heartbreaking experiences. We both wondered how his relative could be so short-term in his thinking, and I recalled some of the stories I’d heard of others killing the ‘goose that lays the golden egg’. Apart from the fact that my friend was hurt, emotionally by the incident, the sad part of this story is the discouragement that it gives to people trying in their own small way, to make a buck and help people along the way.

It seems to me that the ‘extended family’ benefits of the African family that we’re always shouting about, are much less robust than we would like to think, and in fact, is corrupt down to its core – isn’t it just an excuse for family members to take advantage of each other and exploit each other? As to the idea of following the Asian example and building a business empire along family lines, like the Tatas, et al in India, it seems like we might be too selfish to do that. When I was at university, one anecdote that a well-oiled Nigerian (forgive the pun) colleague told me, was that his father had resorted to employing eastern Europeans to mange his farms, such was his distrust of his fellow Nigerians as employees. It’s a disheartening model – not only for job creation but for developing that social element which seems in and among Africans to be in short supply – Trust.