CONGO´S MOON BEFORE THE MOON

Source: infinite hope.

By Gundhramns Hammer
February 14, 2014
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If we take a serious look at the state of things on Earth, with terrible pockets of humans submerged in poverty and hunger, tropical forests being wiped out, anthropogenic pollution everywhere, dying coral reefs, etc., the famous phrase “for the benefit of humanity” so often cited by politicians, scientists and other experts around the world as an excuse for their agendas, it becomes clear that these nice words are simply an euphemism.

In plain language, they are bullshit.

To begin with, we are not the only ones who inhabit this Earth. There are millions of other species too. To be fair, it would be better to say for the benefit of the Biosphere, don´t you think so?

And regarding the big wave of economic development and scientific advancement in the last decades, millions of people have only gotten shit out of it.

They have yet to see any benefits.

Of course, there are hundreds of NGOs, associations and international aid programmes to see that this changes, but their efforts are mere drops in a bucket of water.

Furthermore, there are too often many bastards hiding in the crowd of good Samaritans. These deceitful muhfugga use the good intentions of other people as a cloaking device for their own selfish agenda.

Do you remember “Africa Aid” and others of its kind?

With the tonnes of money collected in the name of Africa and well managed, it would be another story. 

But this continent has served as a perfect excuse for many selfish creeps in the past. So is now.

In other words, amongst the good folks, with pro-social intentions, there are fucking blood suckers.

To put it in a nutshell, from the economical point of view, “for the benefit of humanity” too damn often means “for the benefit of only a few”. 

A sample would clear this issue. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is one of the best examples.

This African nation is vast and rich in natural resources and yet people are living in hell (Video 1). Congolese people, despite the word democratic  on the country´s name, are still waiting for the rhetoric of “for the benefit of humanity” to be fulfilled. 

                                                      Video 1. Congo´s holocaust.

The DRC is not the exception. There are many nations where people are dying of neglect and starvation all over the world (Video 2). There are other places where animals and plants are being destroyed because of deforestation (Video 3). The list is long.
 

                                         Video 2. Starvation worldwide.

                                 Video 3. Green, a film by Patrick Rouxel.

Congo´s moon before the Moon

 

We humans are fucking up this beautiful planet we call Earth (Video 4). We have plenty of unfinished man-made businesses like DRC and other similar issues here in our own backyard. 

                                  Video 4. Chris Jordan: Polluting plastics.

But even so, with so many issues unsolved here on Earth – hunger, poverty, pollution, man-made climate change and species extinction, amongst others – piled up against an overconsumption background of a few, man is already planning and charting the colonisation and exploitation of Earth´s satellite, the Moon (Video 5), and beyond.

                                          Video 5. Living on the moon.

Unless you own a big corporation involved in these projects for profit or are a professional whose life depends on it, otherwise this business of colonisation and exploitation of other worlds does not make sense at all when we already have a wonderful world.

But does man ever make sense? 

On the contrary, to take care of Congo´s moon before the Moon, in a sense, definitely makes sense.  

Before we go on a solar or extrasolar spree of looting and sacking other planets where we have no business, following an already misaligned economic line, spitting the fucking and so eroded excuse and expression for the “benefit of humanity” nonsense, we had better take care of our own fucking businesses here at home on Earth first.

And do not get us wrong. We are not against space exploration. It is just that it does not make sense to spend billions of euros or dollars on these things to satisfy our innate human curiosity, when we have serious problems to take care of here on Earth. 

For man to make sense he has to make sense where he should make sense where there is sense to do sense in a sense where all our senses must be focused: Making sense for Earth and its inhabitants. We all need a healthy environment, a healthy Biosphere.   

Like it or not, we have got to make sense on Earth, otherwise Nature will wipe us out regardless whether we make sense or not, if we continue on our senseless path against her to please the whims of our selfish senses.

Have you seen your Congo today?

Congos are not only in Africa. In a sense, we are surrounded by them. It is only a matter of paying attention to find them.

A small Congo could be your own neighbour having nothing to eat. 

A bigger Congo could be animals and plants of a mangrove being destroyed to make room for shrimp farming (Video 6) with the objective of money laundering and to export crustacean meat to please the taste buds of already overstuffed people far away.

                  Video 6. The truth behind "organic" shrimp farming in Ecuador.

Congos are everywhere. They come in all sizes. Many of them are too often man-made. The result of our own whims, blindness and selfishness.

Have your seen a large or small Congo today? What did you do for it?

Did you ignore it? Or did you help?

Although we humans as a species are basically ill prepared for a global perspective, we cannot just sit and do nothing. 

Now it is the time to do what we all must do for the true benefit of humankind and the Biosphere, be pro-social on a small scale to reach the planetary level all of us together.

We must let the feeling of empathy and compassion fill our hearts, for humans and nonhumans alike (Video 7).

                                        Video 7. Pig slaughterhouse.

Which brings us to the issue of each of us changing our eating and squandering habits. 

And all begins with our choices at the table at meal time or when shopping at the store.

What we choose to eat or shop will have an impact on the environment. And what you touch, it will touch back.

 Are you working on this issue? We are.
 

References

Badescu V. (Ed.) (2009). Mars: Prospective Energy andMaterial Resources. Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heildelberg, Germany.  695 p. 

Badescu V. (Ed.) (2012). Moon: Prospective Energy andMaterial Resources. Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heildelberg, Germany. 749 p.

Cavalieri P. (2001). The Animal Question: Why Nonhuman Animals Deserve Human Rights. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, USA. 184 p.

Ellis R. (2003). The Empty Ocean: Plundering the World´s Marine Life. Island Press, Shearwater Books, Washington, DC, USA. 367 p.

Gates A. & Blauvelt R. P. (2011). Encyclopedia of Pollution: Air, Earth and Water. Facts On File, Inc., New York, NY, USA. 1111 p.

Kisangani E. F. & Bobb F. S. (2010). Historical Dictionary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 3rd Edition. Historical Dictionaries of Africa No. 112, Scarecrow Press, Inc., Lanham, MD, USA. 624 p.

Schlesinger M. E., Kheshgi H. S., Smith J., de la Chesnaye F. C., Reilly J. M., Wilson T. & Kolstad C. (Eds.) (2012). Human-Induced Climate Change: An Interdisciplinary Assessment. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 426 p.