Peace Direct peacebuilding organization

https://www.peaceinsight.org/

1989, 2020 and tomorrow.

Monumental moments of historical importance are called upon to gauge where we are everyday. On this day in May of 2020, a few such days are being looked upon. Reaching back to 1989, there were a few moments that made major impacts on the world. One was the transformation of Russia and the other was the protests in China.

Those two events were moments where the average person had hope for an opening up of government and bring in a new era of transparency between what government said, did and what government controled. As the years rolled along much of that hope died as did many of the citizens. However small the change had been, there was a change. Both Russia and China did open the door of transparency enough to allow a gleem of light to shine through.

Decades later we have a global pandemic and governments around the world have to impose strict authorities to ensure public safety. Oddly enough these are the exact same reasons which China and Russia have used for years to control their populations. The difference is that this pandemic is a real threat whereas political threats were the main issue for China and Russia during the past 100 years.

Political threats are nothing more than ideology and thought. Both of those can never be stopped because they live in the minds of the individual people. Furthermore, thought needs to be acted upon and the only way to know what people are thinking is to actually discuss ideology with them. Through this discussion there can be positive advancements of society. Also we can learn of possible threats to society and then work as a team to act appropriately – for the better. Now, that is exactly what government officials will say in China and Russia is their goal.

The test to gauge whether that is true or not is the ease in which people are able to speak up about government. We have seen in China where tanks have run people over, people go missing, people are imprisoned in harsh condition for vague reasons. In Russia, opposing political leaders are shot dead in public spaces, jailed for vague reasons, people are chased across the globe and killed. Each of these situations point to governments that are not open. Now we have a global pandemic to deal with.

We have seen how these governments have acted in the past. With government controls tightened,who will ever know what transgression are being made at this moment. That fact that we have to ask such a question is enough to understand that there is harm being done to people so others can can retain control.

Here in Canada we have looked the other way in order to keep business open. In short we sold peoples lives so we can have stores full of cheap goods and sell our commodities. Although we throw in a sentence or two about our concerns for human rights. The hyporcacy is ripe in truth.

As a government we need to set strict trade targets. One such target needs to be that no one country can have more than fifteen percent of any one market or total trade. That means if China supplies four percent of canadian dollarama goods and buys eleven percent of our wheat supply then their limit had been met. This is a very difficult reality for many Canadians to grasp since we know the reality will impact us greatly. However, how much more can we take living a hypocites life?

Do we stand for peace, order and good government or do we stand for where the money comes from? Giving such ultimatums is never a good spot to be in and actually is harmful to the larger society. Yet, the truth is, we must scale back the dependance we have on a few trading partners. Yes this also means our trade with the Republic of the United States needs to decrease. We must diversify our trading partners. We must look to build other nations up so we can have new supply chains developed.

Oddly enough we can take a page out of the China play book with their Belt and Road programs. Now we are not going to look to oppress other nations or hold power over them as China is doing. We will true partners in peace, order and good government. We need to ramp up our efforts in this area now when the opportunity is ripe. This is our chance to rearrange our global relationships. There is a monumental hurdle to over come here. The work will be very difficult and rocky. We will piss off other countries immensely.

We are not here to eliminate disagrement or even dissent as others have a desire to do. We are here to build a world that is peaceful, free of fear from government authorities and to have truth in our discussions. It is possible, although not easy to accomplish.

With measured steps and actions, we will be known as the honest broker once more. Furthermore we will never again have to look the other way as people are killed for reasons of "national security". What bullshit.