The Abuse of Power – Bolivar, Colombia
What life is…
fear, rage, desire, and love …
to stop feeling these emotions and to stop wanting to feel them…
Is death.
Take all of these feelings,
and everything that matters to you,
and fight for it!
-Sun Bak, Sense8
When I travel, I prefer to live with, interact and engage with the locals to really sink into the feeling of what it might be like to have a life like theirs and experience the things they do. I have varying degrees of success in doing that for different reasons. There can be a lot of fear towards foreigners (gringos, falang, etc.), especially in countries that are known for sex tourism and drugs. There is also a suspicion towards western capitalist philosophy, an everyman for themselves mentality. What it all boils down to is a lack of trust building in relationships. There is a primary focus on financial gain, personal gain, and selfishness on both sides of the equation. There are many examples of how humanity and the planet are exploited for profit… the abuse of power continues to be rampant around the world.
As a minimalist, I do not want for much material things in my life. I appreciate the quality of somethings that help keep my body in good condition like shoes, sunglasses and food but, I don’t go out looking to buy jewelry, precious stones or expensive clothing. When I am in places like I am now, Cartagena, Colombia, that can really irritate some of the locals who are looking to make a living on the tourism trade. I also appreciate and enjoy the haggling and bartering so when I am looking at the little things for gifts or reminders of where I have been, I can really beat up the locals to get the best deal.
My preference would be to move to a country where the children in some of the little villages struggle or never be able to get an education. I would feel much better spending my money raising up the impoverished people, so they have a better chance of surviving and not succumbing to the distresses of drug addiction, crime or alcoholism. That is much more important to me than to have a better car or a bigger home and all the material things that bring the illusion of happiness.
I met this kind and gentle man on the beach. He felt his family needed to escape from his country because of the problems millions of Venezuelans are facing today, unable to access basic healthcare, adequate nutrition, limited access to safe water and healthcare… due to the abuse of power by the government. This man is different than any other of the men I met on my travels. What is different about him is that he likes to talk, like I do, and he understands that “doing business” means building relationship and trust between people. I have sat with this man on numerous occasions sharing about ourselves and our life experiences. The things that I have learned from him have only validated some of my thoughts about the situation in the world. A complete abuse of power by people interested only in themselves and personal gain.
Wherever I have been in South America people keep telling me that I need to be careful which areas I walk in, not to use my cell phone in public, keep only a few dollars in my pocket, don’t wear flashy jewelry or fancy clothing… the fear is rampant. There seems to be lots of petty and small crime here like pickpockets, snatching cell phones from people’s hands, muggings at gunpoint etc.. This is partly the result from poverty, wealth inequality and lack of opportunity.
There are homeless people living and sleeping on the streets at all hours of the day unlike in USA where the government keeps them hidden from plain sight to hide the real problem plaguing society. I was even tempted to document some of this poverty in pictures but, something told me that would not be a respectful thing to do.
Corporatism has moved into Colombia and many other countries. General Motors, McDonalds, Starbucks, Levi Strauss, Motorola, Canon, too many others to even mention. Here is the problem. The DAILY wage for people here in Colombia is approximately $9 a day. Corporatism moves in, hires people at that rate and big business claims they are helping the local economy and supplying jobs. That is a big illusion they want people to believe. The reality of the situation is extremely different because businesses continue to sell their products at around the same prices you see in USA. With the extremely low labor costs, their profits skyrocket. Where do the profits go? Into the hands of a few at the top of the chain and not back to the local economy or the local people. This reality is putrid to me. If corporatism moves into a place with such low labor costs, they are obligated to treat the people and the community much better than just offering them jobs at the standard rate while their profits increase significantly.
What I am mentioning here in Colombia, is no different than what is happening in AmeriKKKa. The middle class is shrinking, and the majority of people will struggle to make a living. Thomas Piketty, in his book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, argues that in an economy where the rate of return on capital outstrips the rate of growth, inherited wealth will always grow faster than earned wealth. So, the fact that rich kids can move aimlessly from a gap year between high school/college to an internship to a job at daddy’s bank/ministry/TV network – while the poor kids sweat into their barista uniforms and a second job – is not an accident: it is the system working normally. The working class life is killing Americans.
I know there is no perfect world or a perfect country or a perfect human. I am just tired of witnessing the ongoing abuse of power over people in my own country and around the world; politically, economically, and psychologically.
I wish I had the clean and easy answers to some of these problems. I have given money to the people on the streets, taken people to the supermarket and bought food for their families, purchased things on the street that I wouldn’t normally buy to support people, and offered some of my knowledge to help some move forward with their work. And I still don’t feel I can do enough. I have had this reoccurring thought; I can retire to a country whose values more represent my own personal values and devote myself and all the resources I can to the education of the people.
And so it is.
