By Pablo Ouziel
6-11-08, 9:06 am
We can continue to believe our politicians as they echo messages of stability and order around our planet, and we can continue to feed off the BBC or the New York Times to get an insight into the normality of the global situation, but sooner or later, the collapse of our economies is going to affect us directly by hitting our pockets, and then perhaps we will be ready to act. Hopefully, against those politicians and global capitalists who are infecting our daily life by bringing a painful and miserable reality to the majority of humanity.
Yesterday, as I drove on the motorway towards Barcelona, I was overcome with tears. Lining the roads were truckers slowing the traffic, waving banners and making noise to be heard in order to be understood, while the rest of the drivers in their cars were feeling annoyed at the inconvenience of a minority obstructing their daily routine. The radio was repeating negative messages about the truckers, the politicians were repeating over and over again that these people were a minority, and that the rest of us should not worry, because they would not achieve the goal of disrupting the flow of petrol or the arrival of goods from one point to another.
As this was happening in Spain, discontented truckers in different points of the planet were also complaining. Their complain was a simple one: “We can no longer afford to feed our families.” Yet, solidarity is running so short these days, that isolated groups get affected by the global economic situation, while the rest of us continue our routine without paying much attention to their pleas. What people are failing to see, is the connection between the truckers today, the fishermen a few weeks ago, the homeowners losing their homes, and the global revolts because of rising food prices. The people being affected directly are giving us a warning of things to come, and the only way this can be reversed, is if we group together and begin to show support to those who are feeling the pain right now.
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