For a brief moment the Christmas spirit brings out the best in humanity but also reminds us of a growing inequality swept under the carpet. Festive family-gatherings represent one side of the story but there is another side to it; the grim reality of homelessness but also of millions of people living in a nightmare being trapped at the centre of pure madness and evil never seen before – with the exception of the Holocaust.
The infliction of suffering against the weak and vulnerable in the hands of madmen has transmuted into a fact of life where one’s life is dispensable at will. This is an appalling state of distorted reasoning and sick mentality. But worse, the mass killings of humans no longer appear to touch the inner conscience of societies.
Far from the madding death zones, some prefer to cocoon and distance themselves from those harsh realities or, they simply raise their arms in despair feeling helpless to change events. But then again, why should they when the suffering of others does not affect their cozy lifestyle directly
Engrossed in consumerism fortified by a throwaway culture, saving lives no longer seems critically important. Desensitized to the daily sight of brutality exposed on television screens, people are programmed to consider materialism a priority rather than humanitarianism.
Trapped in a cycle of insanity and bloodshed, war victims subsist in the hope to live another day and tell their tale; a tale that hardly anyone wants to hear!
In fact, the world has never been so desensitized to this phenomenon, which has transmuted into a deadly virus that spreads havoc across the world. Faced with an ever-growing apocalyptic anarchy in Syria and Iraq, it portrays how a metamorphosed society tolerates cruelties.
Consequently, the virus has spread its wings and no longer recognizes borders, creed or religion. The long trail of men, women and children crossing continents on foot to escape the killing fields are a clear indication that something has gone badly wrong with the current misguided mentality tolerated by a political elite in the echelons of power. It’s as if nations are regressing back to the dark ages with faceless masters of wickedness controlling events!
Today, ISIS and other terrorist groups destabilize the destiny of entire nations and have transformed countries into a plethora of killing fields that uses human blood as its currency. The pandemonium in the Middle East seems tolerated by a new world direction; one that operates without empathy but with one objective in mind total globalization through bank loans and the use of arms!
The easy access to weapons has become the throbbing heartbeat of modern-day irrationality. The more wars the more the sales of arms; the more the killings the more the profits; and the more the cycle of insanity and bloodshed, the more the arms trade!
Military expenditure has reached over two trillion dollars or 4% of world GDP (SIPRI) annually. This shows how massive the arms procurement industry has become. It is so vast and lucrative many “wannabes” vie to dip their fingers in the honey pot. Triggering conflict is a way to get a taste of that nectar – legally or illegally. For the arm dealers and the death merchants of the world, wars can only bring manna from heaven.
Meanwhile, global banking institutions without a stitch of social and moral responsibility continue to fuel the warring factions to purchase more weapons and kill one another. The appalling effects of “profits by death” are so evident and yet, governments issue export licences to sell weapons to questionable buyers often led by devious despots and madmen. Stop the finance and legal flow of arms to madmen and soon the killing stops!
But not always! There is a more ruthless player on the scene that lurks in the shadows and has grown huge fangs; that is the international Mafia-style criminal organisations and their ruthless bosses!
They boast of having thousands upon thousands of hard-core gang members and a network of hoodlums at their disposal worldwide. To understand its magnitude, the Italian Mafia alone bragged of having “a much bigger army than Hitler did”. Those untouchable criminal cartels are well organized and dominate the lucrative arms trafficking and will supply arms to anyone that can pay for them. They are merciless and have no country or loyalty other than to accumulate mountains of hard cash; cash that is then deposited in banking institutions to “cleanse” the stains of blood and money laundering.
Those powerful criminal groups, the likes of Yamaguchi-gumi (Yakusa) in Japan; the Triad in China; Bratva the Russian and Ukrainian criminal organisations; the Chechen and Georgian Mafia; the American Mafia; the South American and Mexican cartels as well as the Afghanistan poppy warlords have divided the world between them as partners in crime.
Despite their great differences, all those organizations have one thing in common: money laundering, drugs, prostitution, extortion, women slavery and the abduction of young girls and boys for sex trafficking, pornography, human organ sales as well as the sale of arms.
The sale of weaponry by far has become a lucrative source of income. Those cartels have become so powerful no temporary government has been able (or dared) to stop them. In some countries they operate openly and do not fear the authorities; in fact they are the authority! Corrupt politicians and officials turn a blind eye to their activities and work hand in hand with one another.
They are highly talented organisations that use the latest technology and remain well hidden behind multiple front-companies and bank accounts internationally. They have infiltrated politics and state unions and also use political lobby groups deep inside the echelons of power and in the process have established a network of agents worldwide.
The wars today are not always based on the principles of “freedom and democracy” but most are proxy wars in the interest of power and profits. As long as extremists are able to pay for arms those arms traffickers will continue to supply and destabilize modern democracies.
This is the result of a social order that has gone mad! One hopes that some new leadership will come along one day to revolutionize the current political and often corrupt thinking to do the right thing and deal with such issues in the interest of humanity and not insanity by ruthless despots.
Andreas C Chrysafis
January 30, 2016
Author/Writer/Artist
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