Norris McDonald | JFK, the heavy chains of poverty and the ‘Four Horsemen of Apocalypse’

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party is in an angry mood. They want him out. He barely escaped being ousted but there is no guarantee how long he will last.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Johnson rose to power perhaps promising more than he could deliver, including a smooth transition to a prosperous UK, following their leaving the European Union (EU).

Britain exiting the EU – Brexit – was to have brought greater wealth and prosperity for the British people.

To hear Boris Johnson tell it, Great Britain was to be one “great big free trade zone” and agricultural expansion would boost rural farm income.

POLITICAL TURMOIL

This has not been the reality in the UK. There has been a general rise in the number of people living in extreme poverty. This includes homeless people sleeping on the streets. And this situation started long before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.

The recent pomp and pageantry of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee celebration can’t hide the fact that the United Kingdom is in political turmoil.

The shifting political moods saw the British Conservative Party lose North Shropshire in a recent by-election. This is a rural English district that voted for the British Labour Party for the first time in over 200 years.

The loss of such an extremely safe seat is one sign the Conservative Party is in trouble. This, coupled with other issues such as his partying during the COVID-19 lockdown and covering it up, further soured the mood of the British electorate and Johnson’s own party bigwigs.

There is a saying that when rats begin to jump ship you can know that the ship is sinking. In this case, it appears that the angry crew of Her Majesty’s SS Great Britain, like mutinous, rebellious buccaneers, wants to push the captain overboard, or make him walk the plank then jump by his own free will.

Meanwhile, it isn’t just Great Britain and Boris Johnson that are in a political crisis. There is political turmoil in all the main centres of power in the Western world.

JFK’s ALLIANCE FOR PROGRESS

The challenge all societies face, whether they be industrialised or economically backward, is this: how do they solve the social and economic problems such as the issue of deep-rooted poverty, hunger, and social deprivation?

Political leaders of all political and ideological shade and hue have tried to come up with answers to these everyday, urgent, pressing problems.

Among them was the young President John F. Kennedy, who, in his January 20, 1961 inaugural address, said he “wanted to create a new alliance of progress – to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty”.

President Kennedy may have been well-intentioned, but it is difficult to drag an entire society towards new ways and modes of thinking; especially if its national values are based upon exploiting the people, who Frantz Fanon called “the wretched of the earth”.

Two years after JFK called for his “alliance and progress” to “lift nations out of poverty”, he was brutally murdered. How shocking. How sad. But were JFK’s lofty ideas buried with him?

Also, will it ever be possible for America to set aside ‘global bullyism’ – as we saw in the run-up to the recent ‘Summit of the Americas’ – and work for a true ‘Alliance of Progress’ to get rid of poverty?

Imperialism as a global system sharpens the migration of skills from the poor countries to the rich, industrialised nations. There are now even public boast of brain drain from other societies.

The potential economic development of poor nations of the world is also undermined with the use of the foreign debt burden and currency manipulation.

‘THE HORSEMEN OF POLITICAL CHAOS’

My dear friends, conquest, war, famine, and death (plague) are said to be the ‘Four Horsemen of Apocalypse’ – the prophets Ezekiel and John foretold.

America, Germany, Britain, and France have been acting as if they are the much-prophesied ‘four horsemen of apocalypse’, since by their actions and political machinations, they have brought neocolonialist wars, death, plunder and economic ruin to nations and people over the last few decades.

As for America – the country is undergoing a prolonged, dysfunctional period:

• There are periodic mass shootings, with the government seemingly looking on disinterested, because of so-called ‘gun owners’ rights’, with no concern for innocent victims’ rights.

• Over 1,042 persons, mostly Black Americans, were killed by the police just last year alone, the Washington Post reports, and not much is being done to protect human rights and justice.

• A Select Committee of Congress is investigating the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in what they say were attempts by a coup-plotting cabal to keep Donald Trump in power.

• President Donald ‘the Coup Plotter’ Trump – he still thinks he is president – and his acolytes and minions are facing the accusation and charges of sedition. Just over 150 persons have pleaded guilty, while others have been found guilty and jailed.

• US House of Representatives Select Committee is investigating what they call a seditious plot to overthrow the United States Government.

• Republicans in the State Legislature are literally stealing Black people’s vote.

President Biden told Black Americans that “he had their backs” but when it matters the most, he has been ‘missing in action’.

It is the same thing everywhere. There was nothing going on for poor people before COVID-19, and judging by the political realities now, things may well just remain the same, perhaps for a long time, even when the virus disappears.

I still think all progressive forces can unite with well-thinking people all over the world in a general protracted struggle for, as JFK said, an alliance for progress to get rid of these ‘heavy chains of poverty’.

That is just the ‘bitta’ truth!

Norris McDonald is an economic journalist, political analyst, and respiratory therapist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and miaminorris@yahoo.com.