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Friday, January 13, 2012

THE OCCUPY WALL STREET/99 PERCENT MOVEMENT

By John Cheruiyot
Cheruiyot96@gmail.com
The Kenyan media has failed to highlight a major event taking place in the western world.
It is interesting that our media has ignored a real event that is in real sense changing fundamentally the way the world is run.
Some movement began in New York in September 17th, it called itself occupy Wall Street/99% Movement.
The movement was inspired and triggered by the Tahrir Square protest which brought down Mubarak’s government in Egypt. The movement has since spread its tentacles to countless cities of America, Canada, UK, Australia and other countries of Europe.
The movement particularly in America is protesting against economic inequality where the economic and political power is vested on 1% of the population. The movement has protested against multinational corporations and banks whom they believe have become the real tools of oppression in America, Europe and the western world.
Indeed the Congress -the throne of America is portrayed as a puppet and a tool of the rich minority-the elite who sponsor political class in the elections. The movement is stripping naked capitalism which has no human face and feelings in its vision and mission. Secondly the movement is striping naked America as a democratic and progressive country.
The Occupy movement has moved from Occupy Wall Street to Occupy London...Orange County…Auckland…Denver…Vancouver...Wal-Mart...Washington DC etc. The occupation participants are the jobless, homeless and desperate Americans crying for economic equality and equity.
The movement is driven by the middle class using the internet and all manner of super highways.
“We the 99 Percent” are the first ever revolution in the youthful 21st Century. The fall of communism in the late 1980s led to the collapse of the Soviet Union one of the twin super powers of 20th Century.
It appears that capitalism like communism is becoming obsolete and totally impotent in this century. The mantra of privatization and globalization is being scrutinized and examined by the ordinary citizens who are wallowing in poverty and hopelessness.
While the western populace is occupying symbols and icons of western capitalism Kenyan workers were busy calling for strikes. It was the university dons, then doctors, Telkom workers and teachers.
As inflation bites after Central Bank raised interests from 6% to 16.6% Parliament and the Executive are fighting over the control of bank rates. While the parliament is trying to ceil the hyper bank rates the executive is moving to appease the banks by giving them blank cheques to raise interests at their whims.
The executive arm of government worldwide is a puppet of the rich 1% who are in real sense ruling the world. The presidents, the monarchs and prime ministers of the world are mere watch dogs of the big business.
The 1% is currently running UN, IMF and World Bank. They also control the civil society, the media and all the resources of the world. Kenyan banking is the most profitable business with the highest return on investment.
Banks are economic ticks with which the 1% milk the world’s poor dry.
Current economic scenario where the 99% are exploited, oppressed and dehumanized cannot go on forever.
All the governments of the world are servants of the 1%, they use the police and security apparatus to suppress and subdue the poor and the middle class.
The demolitions of Syokimau and the Maasai Manyatta where the police were sent to supervise the destruction of assets owned by the middle class are a proof that government is longer of the people, for the people and by the people. It is generally of the 1% for the 1% and by the 1%.Governments of the world are stooges and puppets of the rich.
Hence Occupy Wall Street & 99% Movement should spread to the third world nations where multination corporations are having heyday more particularly in Africa and specifically Kenya and South Africa where inequality is among the highest in the world.
The emergence of the Mungiki, the Sabaot Land Defence Force and the Mombasa Republican are symptoms and signs of how the 99% have been dehumanized through poverty and economic exploitation of the masses.
The truth of the matter is the world is currently brutalized by the invisible hand of imperialism, colonialism and fascism of the highest order.
In Kenya the 1% are in control of all the national resources. Every tribe is controlled by tribal elite-the 1%.The Kikuyu 99% are controlled by their 1% elite .The Kalenjin 99% are controlled by their 1% elite ,the Luhya 99% controlled by their 1%elite ,the Kamba 99% are controlled by their 1% elite ,the Luo 99% are controlled by their 1% elite ,the Kisii 99% are controlled by their 1% elite etc.
The 1% of every tribe are busy exploiting their people. The rich Kikuyu have no mercy on the Kikuyu hoi polloi and the same is true for all the 42 tribes of Kenya.
Democracy is dead throughout the world; that is the hardest bill to swallow. The political class no longer stand for the aspirations and interests of the electorate. Hence the world is headed for a revolution, governments and the ruling elite are losing credibility to rule unless they resort to tyranny and use of police and security machinery to subdue the people.