IT is very hard to think that the USA and the NATO countries have been acting from “genuinely selfless and humanitarian motives” in their invasion of Libya. The same portrait for a similar intervention was painted for Iraq. These actions are the continuation of more than 500 years of Western “civilising” of native peoples. It is a matter of trust. How can we trust a group of people who have had a constant history of using their powers to destroy and control the less powerful? The history is there – the genocidal waves in Africa, Central, South and North America are the blatant truth about the past – between us and them. Most recently the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and the recently added South Africa) countries met in Russia. This group of nations represents 40 per cent of the world’s population and they all play a most dominant role in the global economy.

This meeting sends a signal to the Third World or developing countries. The message is: let us build a new international order that will create a new morality in the global system of nations. The idea of democracy should not be restricted to domestic politics, but also as an important characteristic of global community. The rights of man must now be seen as the rights of nations.

The history of the past 500 years is important as a foundation to understand global politics, particularly the invasion of Libya. Gaddafi has become another “mad-mullah” who has to be contained. In the past, the African peoples have been vilified, demonised, invaded and subjected to genocide, slavery, theft of land and valuable minerals. The peoples of Central, South and North America have had similar experience of genocide, theft of land and valuable minerals. In some areas like the Caribbean (West Indies) the entire population of native peoples has been completely wiped out. These activities have been justified in the name of the civilising mission, saving the people from themselves to protecting the people from their wicked leaders. Toussaint L’Ouverture was vilified and demonised after the victorious Haitian Revolution at the start of the 19th century. The revolutionary army was described as a “cannibal” group of thugs. After the failure to retake Haiti, the French imposed an embargo on the newly freed slave territory. This embargo was complemented by the forceful call for compensation for land property, slaves and earning. Haiti was the most valuable colony for the French and a most important trading partner for the USA after its 1776 War of Independence/Revolution.

This embargo was supported by the leading imperial powers of Europe and the United States of America. These powers became fearful of the implications of the Haitian Revolution in terms of losing their colonies in the region. The earliest outcome of the embargo and the forceful demand of compensation arrested the development of the Haitian Revolution. The Americans in turn refused to recognise independent Haiti. The argument was that the newly freed black people were to be blamed for the destruction of that country’s prosperity – a view that blacks were lazy as they lacked the intellectual capacity to function creatively; and as such they would be very bad examples for the slaves in the USA. The world, as it was composed in the very early 1800s, stood by and watched the French-led organised destruction of Haiti. Haiti today is an outcome of continuous big power interventions. The world today is standing by watching the US-led embargo against Cuba and its intent to create another Haiti in the region.

The world today is way different from that in the very early 1800s. There are “them” and “us”. The big powers are the actors on the world stage; and we the people from the periphery, from the Third World, from the developing countries are mere spectators. In today’s world, the USA- and NATO-led countries have designed GATS/WTO initiative to deliberately strangle and arrest the development of Third World countries. Look at Jamaica’s foreign debt; it is approximately half of our national budget. What future does this signify? We are cast as failures and some say we should return to colonialism because we do not know how to make use of freedom. This is similar thinking to that made by “them” about the first Haitian Revolution. Some of our people believe and think in this manner. We must gather the strength to assert our sovereignty in the global community and reverse the foreign policy that yielded to foreign pressure to redefine this sovereignty to accept the rulings/laws of big powers and international regimes. We must demand equal rights and justice in the international sphere.

The meeting of the BRICS countries in Russia is very important. It has set the agenda for a new global alternative to the USA and NATO axis. It requires the developing countries to collaborate at the United Nations and bilaterally with the leadership of the BRICS collection of nations. This convergence is necessary to open the debate that will set the agenda for a new global morality. The so-called civilised world has unleashed the most uncivilised atrocities against non-Western nations and peoples. They have not accepted their crimes against humanity. Have they made any apologies, paid any compensation? They created a world in which they say, “Do as I say, but not as I do.” We must find the strength to stand up. I recall musician and activist Joe Ruglass of the 1970s; before he performed he would remind the audience that once the stage was designed to portray tragedy and comedy. Today, he argued, the stage was transformed into one of equal rights and justice. If Peter Tosh were alive, he would be singing, “…we want equal rights and justice.” Let the “rights of man” be the rallying cry for the rights of all nations. David is still alive, and so too is Goliath!

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