How to understand the present situation of lack of income to pay the costs for food and the lack of employment? According to my opinion, the main problem is the lack of morality among people who have power. This regards not only the present rulers in Arab countries. They have to go, but it doesn’t solve the problem.
The lack of morality began to be visible on the 21st of August 1968. The Soviet Union killed communism with a human face, as the Prague spring was called, on that day. From that day on it was waiting until the wall should fall down.
When the wall felt in fall 1989, it was waiting until the free market system should fall. The lack of morality of the free market system became visible, when the bosses of banks and big companies started the get bonuses for millions of dollars, based on blackmail: if you don’t give me extra bonuses, I will go to another company, which is willing to pay me good bonuses. They show that water streams upwards and money upwards.
Then we got the financial crisis which became visible in September 2008. No longer, the banks trusted each other. Billions of dollars were used to restore the trust. But who pay these billions of dollars? The loss of jobs made visible that ordinary people pay the price.
But this is not all. The lack of morality went further.
The ‘holy’ free market made it for people, who are addicted to collect money as much as possible, started to speculate in rising food prices. This was possible by the almost zero percent interest of the yen. Borrow millions of yens for almost nothing of costs, convert the yens in another currency, where you get some interest and after one year you have a profit by the difference in interest.
The speculation in food pushes the food prices upwards and ordinary people pay the profit for the speculators.
The bosses with their bonuses expect profit from their millions of dollars. This is a way to get their profit. They see it as their natural right to have profit from their money.
In this way, communism and free market system show their moral bankrupt.
Which way we have to discover in order to realize a righteous world, a righteous society? This is the main question. The three monotheistic traditions have in common two righteous men: Ibrahim/Abraham and Melchizedek, a Jew and a non-Jew. They are an example for every human being.
So, the first question is: how to realize that just righteous people are in charge?
The second question is: how to get back the stolen money by speculation and the so-called bonuses?
The core issue is to restore moral authority. We are not perfect people, but we need a general board existing from righteous women and men headed by a person like Aung San Suu Kyi. Such a board needs to have the authority to change the world system in order to prevent further abuse of power, to get back the stolen money and to realize that ordinary people get the basics rights of employment, food and drinkable water, medical care and housing.
Louis Bohte, Bethlehem
