On Behalf of the Non-humans: The Struggle to Restore Our Humanity

ON BEHALF OF THE NON-HUMANS

THE STRUGGLE TO RESTORE OUR HUMANITY

Wadih Jreidini

I have faith in God, I only doubt humans

For my daughters, Angela and Laura, for wanting to make a better world for them.

©2016 Wadih Jreidini. All Rights Reserved.

E-ISBN: 978-1-946274-08-3

Edited by Huda S. Jreidini

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Because of the dynamic nature of the internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. 

Published by Wordeee

New York, United Stated of America

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Preface

Claiming that all people are equal is as absurd as claiming all fish are the same size. The notion of Democracy’s equality is no more than a tool for the elite to elude the public of the existence of a utopia. The fact is that the public of any modern nation, western or eastern, have fewer rights, less privileges and more responsibilities than their elites. There is not a single nation on earth that treats its citizens on equal ground. The problem lies not within the elites themselves, but within the very concept of nationhood. This means that even if the elite happened to be altruistic humanists, they cannot help but treat their citizens on unequal footing. Doing things any other way would bring down the nation, allowing it to become prey to other aspiring nations.

Ever since nations were born, there have been castes to go along with them. Slaves and emperors, emigrant workers and presidents; life was never fair in handing down roles. In nations, people always have to be grouped and categorized into clear and separate levels. Ironically, very few people actually realize that there is very little difference between a modern emigrant worker and an ancient Roman slave, a modern conglomerate chairperson and a Feudal prince. We look down upon nations who do not respect the human rights of the weak and the oppressed, while we fail to realize that the very notion of human rights is no more than a fantasy for the disillusioned public and a joke for the well-endowed. Just like any other weapon, human rights are invoked by the elites of one part of the world against other elites to tear them down or to merely pressure them to fall in and ‘share’ their wealth. 

Nations are tools of the elite. The first role of every nation is to group a set of people under a common goal. Although this might seem a noble gesture at a glance, it is that very grouping of one people against another that lies at the heart of all our collective miseries. Wars, famines, tensions, fears, patriotism, fanaticism, and all other forms of fears and prides are the bi-products of nations. The elites have come to learn over millennia of rule how to manipulate people’s emotions to keep them in their order of caste and to maintain their own positions on top. Without nations, the caste pyramid crumbles under the elite’s feet, for the very existence of nations requires people to rule from atop while others serve from below. 

Nations need workers to climb the flimsy scaffolds, collect the garbage, work the dark and damp mines, squeeze their hands inside heavy machinery, and every now and then throw themselves into the furnace of war for the sake of a nation that wants to keep them at the bottom. Without workers, nations are worthless, but without elites, nations have no goals. It is with that very need of both extreme castes that nations require a hierarchical system of rule in order to survive, for without it, elites and workers are mortals alike, no different from the billions of bodies rotting beneath the earth. The caste hierarchy is the sole guarantor of nationhood; so it has been, so it shall ever be.

Nations are like corporations. Like CEOs, the Elites draft contracts, buy and sell, and more often than most, compete with one another for resources as well as customers. The elites want more for their nations the same way CEOs want more for their corporations. Sometimes war is necessary to secure resources or captivate markets. At other times, nations promote membership loyalty by instilling pride in the masses, or by promulgating fear of the ’other’. Just like corporations, nations need the loyalty of their subscribers – the citizens – to remain strong and wealthy. National anthems and flags are mere loyalty programs. They give a sense of belonging to something big - not just a country, but an ideal, a form, a concept, a utopia. Just like corporations, all nations advertise. 

Corporations have middle management the same way nations have middle castes. Middle management is by definition a group of people having specialized skills – including people skills – to maintain the system and carry out upper management strategy. Usually middle-level managers don’t have the authority to move a dime without top management consent, and if they do get a budget to work with, it would almost always come with a very tight leash. This is because the money the middle managers spend is not their own, but that of their top managers and/or owners. These people know that money is the true source of their power, and unless they’re stupid, they would never risk losing it to a lower socially-ranked executive. On the other hand, middle-managers are given compensation of some sort. Although they could not budge with matters pertaining to their bosses, they have plenty of leverage with matters pertaining to their subordinates. Top management almost always consults its middle management before allocating an annual bonus to a subordinate. This is called ‘performance appraisal’. But what if the middle manager has a problem with a subordinate that is not limited to ‘performance’? Naturally, Human Resources would also play a role in defining the real performance appraisal of an employee. However, the director of HR is also middle management, and therefore is set at par with the other middle managers. If smart, the director of HR would allow some internal politics into his calculations. If he does not, the middle managers would simply gang up on him to speed up his retirement. After all, middle managers, like middle castes, know that the final say always belongs to the rank above them. All the middle castes – where the middle managers belong –work for a society that does not belong to them. Their elites, who control most facets of private and public life, will need to place their middle-caste inferiors in their place. They would reward them with luxuries if they manage to serve them well by keeping the lower castes in place, and would outcast them if they do not.

In effect, the top ranks of every society are the most lavish and the most privileged. Their security in their excessive wealth also ensures that nothing short of a full scale revolution could remove them from their seats of power. The more one goes down the social ladder, the less privilege, less security and the more burdens one has. This is because one has to earn the favor of all the castes atop oneself in order to endure. A wealthy businessperson may be powerful in her realm and among her peers, but if her government chooses to place an embargo or raise the tariffs on her imports, her business could be ruined. An employee also needs to play by the rules of his government, for he cannot find proper employment with a rap sheet. Also, an employee needs to play by the rules of his employer; otherwise, he could get fired. A worker in the company mailroom also needs to win the favor of the middle managers, not to mention his requirements to abide by his employer’s rules and his government’s laws. As for the bottom of the social food chain, the emigrant worker, she is kicked and abused by the local grocer all the way to the country president, and upon the slightest suspicion of misdemeanor, she is deported, no questions asked.

Citizens for nations are like stones for pyramids. The stones at the bottom carry the burden of all the ones above them. The stones in the middle rest upon the lower ones and have fewer burdens to carry. As for the topmost stones, being the pinnacles of the structure, they enjoy the best view without any burden. Although all the stones come from the same quarry and are of the same size, it was deemed from time before time that some stones should rest at the bottom to be ground by incredible pressure and others should be carried on the backs of workers and beasts to the very top to enjoy a lavish existence. 

People are as equal as blades of grass are to trees. Here are some interesting facts I have effortlessly ‘Googled’ out by entering the phrase world population below poverty line. I was hit by a barrage of statistics so clear and available to those of us living in the privileged part of the world, and yet we have willingly chosen to ignore them lest they shatter our illusions of a pseudo-utopian life.

Almost 50% of humanity lives under $2.5 a day.

The richest 10% of the world’s population accounted for 60% of total private consumption, while the poorest 10% just 0.5%!

According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. That is over 8 Million child deaths per year! And they ‘die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.’

Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. 

Less than 1% of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000, and yet it did not happen.

One out of three urban dwellers, approximately one billion people, lives in urban slum conditions.

For every $1 a developing country receives in aid, over $25 is spent on debt repayment.

The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 heavily indebted poor countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s seven richest people combined.

There are almost 800 million people in the developing world still chronically undernourished.

Additional budget required to provide basic health and nutrition in developing countries: $13Bn. Annual pet food consumption in the United States and Europe: $17bn.

Additional budget required to provide basic education for all: $6Bn. Annual ice-cream consumption in Europe: $11Bn.

Additional budget required for water and sanitation for all: $9bn. Annual perfumes consumption in Europe and the United States: $12Bn.

Additional budget required for reproductive health for all women: $12Bn. Annual spending on business entertainment in Japan: $35Bn.

The distance between the richest and poorest countries in the world used to have a ratio of 3 to 1 in 1820. In 1992, the ratio rose to 72 to 1.(1)

Seeing these stats, how can we presume that the democracies we live in today are just and true? How can we, the top 20% of the world, claim to desire democracy and goodwill for the world while we sap three quarters of its wealth? The problem is we have grown so accustomed to our easy lives we now complain about a brand of shampoo running out of stores while thousands of babies on the other side of the planet are dying of hunger every day. Still, the real problem is much more sinister; we have ceased to view these dying infants as human beings. How could they be? A human being has rights, inalienable rights. Some of these rights we take for granted are food, shelter, medication and education. These dying infants must be of another breed, something non-human for sure.

Nationalism has created these vast rifts between societies because people are barely conscientious about providing for the needs of their fellow citizens, let alone the needs of other nationals and other races. Even worse, raising humanitarian concerns is at times deemed unpatriotic! This translates to the fact that if you are born into a wealthy nation you will have rights you might not have had, had you been born into a developing nation, meaning you are born a human being on one side of the world and a non-human on another.

Nationalism means one should care for the welfare of one’s nation. Have other nations burn to the ground and it would make little difference. As long as problems are locked outside the nation’s borders, it does not concern the national. Until today, I still get amazed at how narrow-minded nationals can get when they think that their nations’ borders are actually real. The world’s nations spend billions of dollars carving up and maintaining their borderlines. However, there is one thing they are still unable to dissect, control or divide, and that is the actual air, the actual sea and the actual land. Israel and Lebanon might have tensioned sea borders, but if the city of Haifa inside Israel dumps chemical waste into the Mediterranean, the Lebanese would still swim in them in the city of Sidon. Moreover, if the city of Tyre inside Lebanon releases toxic fumes, the wind might carry them to the village of Kyriat Shmona inside the Israeli border. The Zahrani river springing from inside the Lebanese territory - and feeds the Tabaraya lake from where the river Jordan flows - carries fresh water, minerals and rock sediments into Israel without the benefit of a treaty. The birds are oblivious of borderlines as they fly over them, and the fish travel in and out of territorial waters at will. The birds and the fish enjoy more privileges than non-humans as far as borders go.

The Americans have also gone to great lengths to keep the Mexican workers from illegally crossing their borders. However, despite the very high-tech, very expensive system spread across their vast southern border, it is merely able to limit, not prevent, this inflow. There are still an estimated half-million illegal entries into the United States every year (2). The reason they can’t really stop this inflow is mainly because the American economy is in need of these workers as much as the Mexican workers are in need of the money. This bipolarity of needs has become so codependent between these two societies; border control might as well stop a cloud from crossing into its territory.

If borders are meant to shelter nations, then they are doing a poor job at it. Guaranteed, no matter how tough border controls get, all they can do is postpone the inevitable while spending tons of money in the process. I am sure that every person reading this has once seen his or her nation’s political map. Have you ever compared it to a similar natural map of your country? Both maps show the same territory from two different perspectives. The political map’s perspective proudly shows the country and ends with its borders. No other neighboring country is shown next to it simply because it’s another country. The natural map next to it reveals our follies to what they truly are, for the mountains keep on going where the political map has proudly ceased, and the rivers keep on flowing where they have been graphically walled-up by politicians. The savannahs and the plains also extend beyond men’s borders, unbeknownst of their serious attempts to divide them. The natural maps reflect what is actually out there, while the political maps reflect what is inside our cobwebbed minds. 

The real reason behind erecting borders in the first place is to keep the non-humans out. Europeans have opened up their borders to each other, yet they have tightened-up their grips on outsiders from the third-world, developing countries, as they call them. The same applies to most other nations who open up to human beings from the more developed nations and close up to the non-humans from the lesser nations. It is only logical to do so, for the non-humans are the deprived of the world. If they are allowed too much access, sooner or later they will take back what was originally taken from them, and the needed leverage to control them is lost. They will cease to be non-humans, and with their exploding numbers, they will one day grab hold of the reins of power and throw the humans out into the gutters of history as payback on how inhumanely they were once being treated. Little do the human beings know that the non-humans already vastly outnumber them, and that number will continue to exponentially multiply as long as they are poor, whereby soon enough they will take hold of the reins of power, borders or no borders. So it has been written ever since the dawn of time that the young, the numerous and the hungry will tear down the city walls, plunder and destroy all the proud monuments and clog the rivers with the fallen nation’s books. If you, my dear reader, do not know this, then it is already too late for you. By the time your children learn of their parents’ follies, their city walls will already be under siege and this very book will be clogging a river system somewhere. Like it or not, border controls are only putting off the inevitable.

Nations are the root of all discrimination. People are no more equal than calves are to lions. Nations have put us off against each other for the most absurd of reasons in order to keep us apart. For now, the wealthy nations are the predator nations, while the developing nations, like the near east, most of the Far East and Africa, are prey. One thing remains certain; the cycle of hatred and hunger will continue indefinitely as long as the national system prevails. Let us first understand how nations have come to be before we decide how to find a solution with the very little time we have left. After all, if you, dear reader, are a human being, then take into careful consideration that your progeny might not be.

Part I

THE RISE OF NATIONS

What is common between humans and moths? The first natural thing a human being would do in the dark wilderness is to light a fire, fend off the dark, keep warm, cook meals and turn back wild predators. It seems that the fire serves such a vital purpose in a human being’s life, but it serves an even higher purpose, a purpose that has been at the root of all civilizations ever since pre-history. Fire is a beacon. If a wandering human being spots a flame from a glaring distance amidst a sea of darkness, he finds himself instinctively drawn to it. This is the effect of one small light in the wilderness.

Now imagine this light is a city.

For what is a city if not a bunch of people gathered around to illuminate the darkness? Whether it is the high-rises of Kuala Lumpur or the neon lights of Las Vegas, a city’s purpose is to attract people to it. The brighter the light, the greater the city. 

The city puts up its light in all its splendor, and like moths, people are drawn to it. It employs them, empowering the light which will attracts more to it. It employs them, too; increasing in wealth and might, the city’s light becomes a beacon of hope. People drop their shovels and forks in the distant mountains and fields, abandoning their gardens and families, and walk in enchantment towards it. Like children who trap their moths in jars, the rulers trap their people with economic shackles and dazzle them with spectacles of light so they will not break free. The city puts up a grand show that keeps its people enchanted to do its bidding.

Cities are the pinnacles of civilizations. They are the great lights in the wilderness. They need as many humans as they can muster, because without people at the bottom to serve, those at the top are just paper kings. 

Nations are born from camp fires. Cities have helped these fires burn strong and furious. But what has that actually done to the average farmer who was living in peace and harmony in his village? After having dropped his simple life to go live in a squalid misery belt, has he found his happiness or has