Markets, Procurement, and emergencies.

 

Markets, Procurement, and emergencies.

If we want peace on earth, we must eradicate poverty and near starvation. Another big step is reducing human dependency on fossil fuels owned and controlled by a few. The explanation is long and complicated, but it must happen or else. At this moment, the most profitable businesses are the pharmaceutical industries, energy, and weapons manufacturing.

The problem is in our way of doing things. Politicians want to be in power. Civil servants want to keep well-paying jobs. Oligarchs want more money. The working people want easier lives at the expense of other working people. Others want to enjoy life while contributing as little as possible. Most people want to climb on others and be on top. They climb up, trying to keep others down. Life is an ugly game and we blame it all on natural selection or survival of the fittest.

Humans should learn from insects where the whole hive works hard for the survival of the society they build together. All members contribute what they can and benefit from the outcome. We humans will survive if we work on improving cooperation, not competition. Competition is a tool to motivate people but needs regulation.

When Hitler took over Europe in the second world war The Germans used a new strategy called the Blitzkrieg. They didn’t set up to fight enemy armies for months or years, but drove tanks and planes to the capital cities and toppled governments. They used the same approach against Russia. Stalin refused to believe that Hitler would betray the treaty he had with him and almost lost his country.

Now seventy-five years later, we moved from tanks to jet airplanes and supersonic missiles. Wars move on a lot faster and inflict much damage fast from the air. A country the size of Canada must have a good air defense capability that can deter the big boys from bullying us. We can’t assume that the US will protect us at all costs and not exact a price. The price could be a loss of freedom and independence.

The war in Ukraine taught us a lot about the world today. A small separatist group can cause a war if they ask a big country to “liberate” them. As Jason Kenney so famously said, we can’t let the “lunatics take over the asylum.” We have separatists and white supremacists as we have seen in Coutts and the “cry babies caravan” in Ottawa. I am not a Kenney supporter, but I agree with him on that. Canada “as is”, is a great place to be. As we see in Ukraine, a country can be peaceful and free, but it must also be strong.

In the world today, you can’t be strong without the ability to move fast and, to some degree, independent. We all remember how we purchased N95 masks and PPEs and watched Trump stop them at the border under his “America First” rules.

Some years ago, Canada was a developer and exporter of vaccines. Previous governments believed that the market knows best and sold the industry. When people last year were dying from COVID, we waited two months for our vaccines while across the border folks were vaccinated and free to go on with their lives.

The same is the story about modern warplanes. Canada was a leader in building modern jet fighters in the middle of the last century. Politicians who believed in giving the market free rein to rule us sold the industry and destroyed our Avro Arrow project. Now, when we could use many more fighter planes, we are stuck while a serious war is going on. Ten years ago, we should have ordered the new planes. Money wasn’t saved by not building our own. We will pay $115 million for each F35 fighter.

Sweden, a country with less than a third of our population, developed the Sab Gripen that is sold as a competitor for the F35s. The difference? The Swedes do things for the country, not for the investors. Their citizens enjoy a higher standard of living than we do.

Now we watch a war where people who are much like Canadians are giving the second largest army in the world a good fight for their money. They are doing it with donated weapons and cheap Turkish drones. We should learn from them and be prepared even better than they were.

Our Minister of Procurement just said that we may be ready in seven months to order a fleet of new F35 jet fighters that will not be fully operational for years. In a world like ours, we must have the ability to move much faster in every way.

If our dedicated professional health care people must save us from emerging pandemics, they need the country to have the ability to produce vaccines and medications that we can definitely develop. If our armed forces need to save us from attacks from outside, they need equipment and training that is the best in the world. Canada can provide it plus a lot more if our leaders will be dedicated to what is good for Canadians, not for private corporations.

To sum it all up, I believe that the major goal for humankind should be the survival and continuation of the species. We will only achieve it by learning how to live in peace and cooperate. We also have to leave some resources for future generations. In order to do that, we need to change our ways, starting with education, mass media, and ideas about the role religions play.

In the meantime, we must fight corruption and selfishness with all we have. We should select leaders for their ability to care about the country and the world, not for obviously being power hungry.

It’s a lot to ask, but the sooner we work on it, the easier it will be. I am sure that there are many people around who want a better world just to have peace and life.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.