Mark Chatterton
Sun,31 Oct 2010
Mark Chatterton
1116
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There's been such a lot in the media about the cuts by the Government in the past few weeks. The day UK Chancellor, George Osborne announced his package of billions of pounds of cuts in government spending, the media went to town with news specials and pages and pages of debate in the newspapers and on line. Of course the biggest concern for ordinary people like you and me is how will it affect us? Will our jobs be safe, or will we lose our jobs in some cases? Will we have a wage cut? Will our bills go up? Well that is a certainty!
When it comes down to it, the cuts mean that we will not have as much money to spend as in recent years. Nothing new here, as many of us have built up lots of debt anyway on our credit cards, believing the lie that we can spend, spend, spend. If we don't spend as much on consumer goods, then more people will lose their jobs. Then there will be more discontent and social unrest and protests as in France. And then the fragile Coalition government could fall and we will be back to Square One.
Last week I was fortunate to hear the TV presenter and vicar, Peter Owen-Jones speak at Alternatives in London. He was saying that he believed the present system (or paradigm) that we have with money is not going to last. Maybe fifty more years; maybe less. I agree with him totally, but would go so far as to say maybe twenty years max. The old saying, “What goes up, must come down” couldn't be more true here. Large companies and businesses can't keep making profit year after year, as eventually the money they are keeping is being taken from the ordinary people, who are getting more and more agitated. Another old saying comes to mind here, “The rich get richer, whilst the poor get poorer!”
At least the people who govern us have announced cuts in the armed forces. The amount that is spent on “defence” is not just ludicrous. It's obscene! If only we could learn to trust other countries. But then it's the ones with the power at the top who propagate this climate of fear - that we need to protect ourselves from “the enemy”. Yet down at the base of the pyramid, that is the ordinary people of the world, we know that we do have so much in common and we are starting to realise that we truly are “one”.
Getting back to Peter Owen-Jones, who was reading extracts from his book, “Letters From An Extreme Pilgrim”. His letter to the Prime Minster asked the question, “Why does no country ever 'declare peace' on another country?” In reality this would mean getting rid of nuclear weapons - in fact all weapons and bombs and guns. It's like the people in power want to keep fighting each other, want to show a separation that really doesn't exist between people.
Whatever your take on 2012, at least as this “event” gets nearer, we should perhaps be thinking about what makes a better world. What makes for people living in harmony? What makes for people sharing their money and their possessions rather than stockpiling everything?
When it comes down to it, the ordinary people are the ones who have the ultimate power to change things. Not the law makers, not the policy makers, not the power brokers.
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