Over the past six months we've seen citizens of 20 Arab nations rise in glorious defiance.
Starting with the Green Revolt in Iran in 2009-2010, the tidal wave of freedom is beginning to change perceptions in the xenophobic West of the populations in the Middle East.
Change You Can Bet On
For anyone who is not dead to the core and without a soul, it has been one thrilling even after the other, interrupted by grief about the casualties, and horror at the sight of the brutal oppression.
It has been revealing: More than anything, it was remarkable how the Western powers finally acknowledged that the rebels were essentially fighting "their dictators", the Western puppet regimes.
Tyrants have fallen in two dictatorships, Tunisia and Egypt, reshaping the geopolitical structure of the region. More are under pressure. The outcome is uncertain. But bet on change, for a change. Change you have to believe in.
Here Comes the Non-Violence
The Economist reports on Sunday's Nakba massacre:
"...if you're among those who have made the argument that Israelis would give Palestinians a state if only the Palestinians would learn to employ Ghandhian tactics of non-violent protest, it appears your moment of truth has arrived.Many reports indicate that the global consensus about Israel is changing, and that the patience with what can now openly be called an Apartheid regime, is running out. A CIA report states that Israel will fall in 20 years, predicting
"...an inexorable movement away from a two-state to a one-state solution, as the most viable model based on democratic principles of full equality that sheds the looming specter of colonial apartheid while allowing for the return of the 1947/1948 and 1967 refugees. The latter being the precondition for sustainable peace in the region."Poverty Will be History
And Christian Science Monitor can report that in 2020, for the first time, the global middle-class will eclipse the poor.
In another article in the same paper Brink Lindsey, senior scholar in research and policy at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, predicts the socio-political consequences by extrapolating from American history (he is the author of a book titled "The Age of Abundance: How Prosperity Transformed America's Politics and Culture."
Economists talk about capitalism's "creative destruction" as old firms and industries topple to make room for new ones. But creative destruction isn't confined to the economic sphere; it's occurring in the cultural realm as well. And the rise of the global middle class promises to unleash this disruptive but liberating force as never before.There's a slideshow of the new world rising in the ashes of an old.
The Unravelling of Empire
I said yesterday: "Everything is changing before our very eyes." I said: "It is happening, and it's happening right now." I said: "It is T minus X and counting."
We don't know how fast things will develop, but UK has just sent Pentagon a resounding "NO" to providing "full spectrum capabilities" for the joint military operation in Afghanistan, a condition set by the US.
The US has apologized to Pakistan for a drone attack that killed killed nine people in North Waziristan on Monday, which is a new tune for Washington - the apology comes with renewed incentives to cooperate with Pakistan on security, after Pakistan has threatened to begin to shoot down drones that enter the country's airspace.
This coincides with the deadline set by US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for the US debt celing to be hit, "no later than May 16, 2011."
The US Congress is still bogged down with the internal conflict, between Republicans and Democrats, and between the Republican Party industrial financiers and the Tea Party monster it has created.
They're past the deadline, now cutting into pension funds. All the while trust in USA is crumbling by the hour.
Democracy is Coming
It's a new world. The old masters are shaking, every single one of them, without exception. Revolution is brewing. It is a fearful place to be a plutocrat.
It doesn't take a prophet to see, or to dare to say, that all this is just the beginning. Next democracy will be arriving in China with everything that entails. It cannot be stopped.
People will want to be free, and they will challenge power, again and again and again, even at the cost of their own lives.
Change is happening on all levels, except in the "old world" that now also includes USA.
It is the change promised by Barack Obama, the change he couldn't deliver. It was the hope he spoke of. Now the world delivers it for him, and perhaps even to his doorstep.
People Get Ready
There's a train coming, just like in the old gospel song.
The demographics of USA are changing. Today's census says 61 percent are "all white", and the numbers are dwindling, while the fastest growing ethnic group is Hispanics.
For those who don't understand the concept of Anglo-Saxon oppression, of Caucasian privilege, of white male supremacy or patriarchate, and of hundreds of years of colonialist history and racist politics, this may seem like an odd and racially tainted statement.
But for millions, yea billions, it is a source of hope, just like the election of Obama was.
It is hope of representation, of equality, and acknowledgement of worth - in a world, in a form of existence that is, for so many, characterized by forced submissiveness, discrimination and structural oppression.
Like a Ton of BRIC
I would have called the article Brave New World, if the concept hadn't been tainted by Aldous Huxley's dystopic vision.
Obviously, everything is not going to be all right, and humans aren't going to become all peaceful, all tolerant, all humble, and all lawful, and the world is not going to enter into a singularity that will lead to a Paradise on Earth.
There are still many battles to be fought. There is still widespread ecological disruption and global climate change to be dealt with.
And there are many reactionary leaders who will oppose a change to the oppressive financial structure governing the world today. There are many who will bet on war, on military-industrial complex, on corporate exploitation, and on corruption.
But as for the former colonialist rulers, the current imperialists, all arrows are pointing in the same direction. The writing is on the wall.
If the leaders of USA and Europe aren't willing to change, and if the people aren't ready to embrace "the Third World", the truth is going to hit them like a ton of BRIC.
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