Fence Eating The Crop (Part 1)

When I was growing up as a kid my sisters and I hated my brother immensely. I perceived him as a mean and selfish person that looked out for only his own interests. When my dad brought gifts and eateries-ice cream, cakes, etc., he assumed authority over distribution and gave himself a bigger share and even went to the extent of selling pieces of it to our cousins next door. Sometimes when the food item was his favorite he didn’t even bother sharing with others. I always wondered how one can be so cruel to his own siblings. I really thought he was very unfair and selfish. I wished my dad or someone in the family had done something to fix the dictator ruling my brother had imposed on us at home, and ensured that we all had got our fair share. I had always questioned (in my mind) my dad’s integrity in all of this.  Not sure if my dad really didn’t know what was going on at home or if he was in an indirect way supporting the monopoly game at home.

Now I am a 47 year old and my situation hasn’t changed a bit, only the players have. Corporations and Media have taken over the role of my brother, the Govt. is playing my dad and 5.9 billion of my fellow humans are suffering the fate my sisters and I did 35 years ago. Only difference is the current scenario is global in magnitude.

The key difference between the situation during my childhood days and the situation now is that we (sisters and I) knew ‘who’ was exploiting ‘what’ was rightfully ours but now it is very well disguised. Truth is definitely out there though if you want to see it. It doesn’t take intellect or passion to see the ‘exploited’ as well as the ‘exploiter’ in the current scenario.

Not clear yet? Here is what is going on with our social situation. Every human (philosophically speaking every living being, but we won’t go there for now) born on this planet is given ownership of certain assets. As a citizen of ‘a’ country you are entitled to a part ownership, however small that may be, of all the Natural Resources and Public Assets (land, parks, beaches, etc) your country possesses. For example, if your daughter is born tomorrow in Nigeria, she automatically will be a part owner of the Resources (petroleum, natural gas, coal, etc) of Nigeria. Similarly sons and daughters born in India “can claim” ownership to the Resources and Public Assets (and also debt of course; I will get to this later) that India’s borders include. In other words, the Natural Resources and land that our planet possesses have been divided, though unequally for practical reasons, amongst all peoples via national borders. With this national inheritance ‘truly’ exercised you are only as rich/poor as the country that possesses these valuable Resources at the time of your birth (not including the parental inheritance obviously). That means, if you and TAMBAM’s wife deliver babies tonight, your newly born babies’ economic status excluding parental wealth is exactly the same. They will (should) have equal rights on all the Natural Resources and Assets your country/Govt owns. It is your child’s FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT and a RESPONSIBILITY in a democratic country to obligate her Govt to make use of her assets in a diligent manner to provide her with the basic necessities (food, water, electricity, transportation, etc) FIRST before handing out luxuries to TAMBAM’s son.

(TAMBAM – Tata, Ambani, Mallya, Birla, Amitabh, Mittal)