[Oe List ...] Our Future --- as it so happens . . .

Tue Jul 23 02:05:26 PDT 2024

Dear Jim, this is my bid to elaborate on the gaps

THE PERCEPTION GAP BETWEEN THE WEST AND THE SOUTH

Walden Bello’s article “Crisis of the West, Opportunity forthe Rest?” that Elsa forwarded is a good context for understanding the gaps in howthe West and the Global South perceives the world. At one time, this would not evenhave been an issue. Gaps in perception? Could the “Global South” even have a perceptionindependent of the West?

But as Walden explains, with the unravelling of the globalhegemony of the US and its allies, the liberal “rules-based” order has lost itslegitimacy, and many countries recognize it as a system designed to keep themdown.

ISRAEL: The article describes the US, in its relations withIsrael, as “reduced to a dog being wagged by the Zionist tail”. Fornon-Westerners, the racism that drives Israeli leaders is not surprising. But theypuzzle over the readiness of the US to get involved in what is clearly another country’sgenocidal mission to broaden its territory. Why do they do that? And it’sinteresting that American  youth seem to havea different take.

RUSSIA & UKRAINE: Russia is shown as going after Ukraineto compensate for the pain of having seen the Soviet Union collapse. The US,its European allies and Nato are presented as saviours. But in the South, it’s seenas America’s proxy war against Russia with Ukraine as its pawn. The US regime changetactics that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych a decade ago, the use of Natomembership as a bait for Zelensky, and the pressure on him to withdraw frompeace talks with Russia are not  forgotten. The US, not Russia, is seen as themastermind willing to shed Ukrainian blood to further its ends. 

Attempts to get nations in the South to condemn Russia are mainlyunsuccessful and seen as a bid to boost the anti-Russia strategy. US appeals forinternational law against the invasion of a sovereign nation to be honouredring hollow compared to US invasions over the years.

CHINA: In this unravelling, the rise of China, the world’slargest economy, plays an important part. The US hopes and believes it can containit. Nations in the South know this drives the foreign relations of the US and areunlikely to be taken in by anti-China narratives. They welcome China’s rise asit has given them an economic boost. At the same time, especially in Asean andIndia, there is worry over China’s growing appetite for broadening its borders.

    On Monday, 22 July 2024 at 01:18:24 pm GMT+8, James Wiegel <jfwiegel at yahoo.com> wrote:  

 Thanks, Ed; thanks, Dharma.
Local government and local community, whether bioregion or neighborhood or even intentional communities -- there seems to be an instinctive realization that that is important though how??
I did not know about Estonia--or maybe heard of it and forgot.  Would it be correct to assume they made a signficant investment in technology to do that?  Does most everyone there have online access??
To Dharma's point, at least in the US, I feel so self-obsessed with what is going on here that there is little room in my consciousness to think seriously of all the innovations elsewhere.  Dharma, can you describe a bit the gap you see between "the west". And the "global south"??  And the places you mentioned --Russia, Israel, Ukraine, China.  There is a lot of talk in Herman's study group about recovering indigenous world views and insights re:  governance.
Jim Wiegel

“We are all time travelers journeying into the future. But let us make that future a place we want to visit. “       Stephen Hawking

On Jul 21, 2024, at 10:12 PM, Dharmalingam Vinasithamby <dvinasithamby at yahoo.com> wrote:

 Hi Jim,Related to your question about what innovations, shifts or changes would be needed, I (probably like many of you) am aware of the growing gap in world view between the “West” and the “Global South” in recent years. I see this particularly in Western perceptions of and attitudes to specific nations – Russia, Israel, Ukraine and China, among them. My (?jaundiced) explanation is that those who run the media are eager to keep the “West” in a bubble that shapes how they see the world. For some reason, they are either unable or uninterested in doing this for those outside the West. Identifying these gaps and trying to figure out what causes them would help us get a grip on this gap that will surely affect how we as the world envision the future.
Dharma
    On Monday, 22 July 2024 at 09:25:59 am GMT+8, James Wiegel via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:  

 Some of you may remember Herman Greene.  I am involved in a "study group" with him and several dozen others looking into what kind of governance we need moving forward in this century with all that it holds.
Just wondering what thoughts any of you might have about what improvements, innovations, shifts or changes in governance, politics, morals, leadership that might produce better outcomes for all of us?
Thanks in advance.  
Jim Wiegel

“We are all time travelers journeying into the future. But let us make that future a place we want to visit. “       Stephen Hawking

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