Hoping capitalism will end next decade

I don’t mean to sound like some wise old sage, because let’s face it, I’m not one; but if there’s one thing life has taught me, it’s that there’s truth in the adage that the older you get the faster time seems to pass. To a child, 10 years sounds like a lifetime away: but when you get to my age, you know those years will be gone in the blink of an eye. So when I was asked to write about what changes I’d like to see in the world in the next 10 years, it didn’t take me long to realise that the first responses that sprang to mind just wouldn’t cut it.

Yes of course I’d like to see world peace and an end to all conflict. Of course I’d like to be able to celebrate an end to global poverty, and to live in a time when everyone, the whole world over, is free to live a life of their own choosing, not one governed by religious or patriarchal dictat. Of course I’d like every child, no matter what their gender, race or country of birth, to have the chance of an education, to have clean water, a roof over their heads, and adequate protection against the preventable diseases that still claim all too many of our young. But all of this within the next 10 years? Much as I’d like to think that all of these things, and more, are achievable in such a short space of time, even I’m realistic enough to know that they’re not.

Equality
So instead, what I would like to see in the next 10 years is a genuine change in attitude towards all of the items on my shopping list. What I would like to see is national governments and international organisations genuinely committed to improving the lot of everyone on this planet, man, woman and child.

At the moment we seem to be all but drowning under a massive tide of bureaucracy, with human rights instruments and global treaties drawn up to cover just about every scenario under the sun. Meanwhile those who hold the reins of power convene meeting after meeting, conference after conference, doing deals behind the scenes and spending endless hours renegotiating their way out of doing anything that’s ever likely to effect any tangible change. It’s all smoke and mirrors: paperwork gets signed, lip service gets paid, and the lives of those this is all supposedly set up to help grind on unchanged.

Respect of the majority
What we need is a universal acceptance that in order for things to improve for the majority, the minority will have to give something up. What we need is an end to rich nations having opt-out clauses that protect their own interests but do nothing to help those beyond their own borders, and a UN or similar such organisation that possesses real clout. We need international laws that are binding and non-negotiable, and, most importantly, we need the privileged elite to somehow wake up to the fact that if this planet is to survive, and to survive in a way that makes it a place worth living in, then its people have to be prioritised over how many riches or how much material wealth they can manage to amass.

Ultimately I guess what I’d really like to see is an end to global capitalism and to the corporate power that governs all our lives. What I’d like to see is a new international politics, one where greed and self-interest are discarded and where humanitarian concerns take precedence instead. Of course I don’t expect us to have got that far by the end of the next decade, but some genuine commitment, some steps in that direction, surely that’s not too much to ask?