“350 Arrested in Occupy Raids” http://www.democracynow.org/2011/12/1/headlines#10
In these times of the awakening 99%, people are beginning to smell the coffee aroma of truth in the crisp fall air. Fully alert, they have simply and succinctly announced to the world their awareness of the innate inequality of a “free and open market,” which never really was free to begin with and maintained a tightly closed community of speculators, share holders, big ballers and shot callers AKA the 1%. They maintained this idea even as the brave few are being evicted from the #Occupy movement of public spaces across America. And many around the world have collectively said, “Duh!” in response.
This is to say that the imperialistic economic force of the US has been felt for decades abroad, especially in places like here in Japan. There’s an applicable saying that goes, “When the US sneezes, Japan catches a cold.” Such a symbiotic relationship as is the US-Japan bond, albeit lopsided to the benefit of the US, reflects how small of a world we really live in. More than that, though, it exemplifies how intricately woven and delicate the balance of our global society is, economically, structurally, politically and humanely. A drop in the value of the dollar in the States causes Japanese automobile export prices to fall short of intended profit goals after the return exchange of dollars to yen transacts. A Japanese switch from US-made corn imports to imports of corn grown elsewhere causes an imbalance in supply and demand, not to mention, highlights the weighted tariff scales yet affected by any free trade agreements.
Casablanca’s character Rick once said in reply to a question of his nationality, “I’m a drunkard.” Evaporating from this sarcasm is a hint at the global citizenship that we all share. And as a “citizen of the world” (the explanation of Rick’s statement by his friend Louie), we each ought be more conscience of how our actions affect other communities as well as the ecological system. The 99% of us who are not uber-rich and who have no legions of lawyers nor lobbyists to protect our interests have our lifestyle choices, our various forms of currency and the way we hold onto them in banking institutions as well as our votes to answer in times of dire straights. We assert our world citizenship when we stand up to the power structure in these and other responses to extravagant power distances. We can choose to recycle or to just throw away unsorted trash. We can choose to use public transportation instead of personal cars. We can choose which community members we respect as leaders, from grass-roots organizers to elected politicians. Each singular effort we make might seem insignificant, yet, taken together, our collective massive presence shall be felt. That’s the promise of the 99%.
Specifically, an American worker who diligently seeks to upgrade her/his educational and/or professional development achievements ought to be granted the equivalent financial reward and economic status of such work. Teachers in Japan, for example, work very hard as subject teachers AND as coaches/advisors to after-school club activities, while attending to their year group’s special activities. They are constantly upgrading their skills via on-the-job training, area seminars and purpose-specific workshops. They get paid fairly well for their hard work and they are widely respected across Japanese society for the way they fulfill these tremendous responsibilities. What might happen if teachers in the States were dealt the same measure of respect? Students’ attitudes towards their teachers and toward their educational endeavors would positively increase excrementally. I don’t think American students would be as complacent and as downright lazy as they are with their chances at making their lives better through a better education if such a revision was made. And it would all be to the benefit, again, of our global village as the bright young minds of tomorrow are given that much more of a edge at leadership and organizing through practical, hands-on experience via teacher guidance.
The US 99% needs to be aware of the rest of the world, too. Social networks like Twitter and even just a sporadic reading of world news, a whisk of that hint of orange, will clue them in on the fact that other people around the world also have economic struggles for survival, usually much worse than their own. As people are arrested in Occupy raids by various local police, Pakistanis are mourning for their dead at the hands of NATO bombs. There is the fearlessness of Egyptians and Libyans taking back their countries from dictators, while Mexican drug violence takes the lives of many innocent people despite the country’s federal policies. True global exchange begins with this hint of knowledge of these events and more in order to translate into sympathetic pro-activism and social compassion beyond borders.
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