Lessons From The Year

2011 was indeed an interesting year: it brought to bear the fact that the world's economic crisis has its roots in the detrimental distribution of the benefits derived from the world's productivity.

We live in a globalized world: whatever happens in a particular place also occurs in the rest of the globe.

In Canada, the top 100 earners brought home 189 times more income than the average earned by the rest of the population. 189 times !!!

The top earner was able to bring in 3,122 times the country's established minimum yearly salary.

The top 100 CEO's received an average of 27% increase in their income from the year before.  This goes to show that they are benefiting from OUR crisis.

On the other hand, the average salary increase experienced by the rest of the working population was a pitiful 1.1%. This in fact means that, according to official figures, they earned less than the previous year, due to an annualized inflation rate of 2.9 at the end of November.  In reality, things are worse seeing that real inflation was higher than what the government claimed.

The richer are getting richer at the expense of the not so fortunate.  Why ??  You tell me !!

That same year, the Canadian political party that has been feverishly, and successfully, in making the income gap between the have's and have not's larger, received the largest percentage of the popular vote in the elections.  It now holds a Parliamentary majority.

Does it make sense ?  It does !!!

2011 showed an incremental degree of concern over social issues.  Beyond the fact that the crisis is an issue of "distribution", there is no doubt that the "weapons of mass instruction" were successful in achieving their ultimate objective.  Much of Canada's population, as is also the case with the rest of the world, have lost their ability to conduct any introspective analysis, their imagination, and their freedom of thought.  Together, us Canadians are supporting not only a system that is imposed on us, but also the leadership behind such effort.  We behave as puppets. We are being manipulated.

The good  news is that in 2011 some of us woke up.  More people are searching for that internal guiding light that for years, those in power, have attempted to extricate from our minds. 

The solution to our crisis is at hand, and shows signs of becoming a more visible reality. It is up to each one of us to conduct our own introspective search and fight for what we find and believe in.

Edited by Renato Riva-Vercellotti