Friday is First of May.

On first May we should unite and read

out aloud the verdict on capitalism. Capitalism, or rather,
Western capitalism is a failure. A big F-A-I-L-U-R-E. The US
is almost bankrupt. It could have collapsed by now had rivers
of money not flowed into the country from foreign sources.

Unbridled capitalist practices in the West, especially in the

US gave birth to the latest world financial crisis and many
people lost their jobs, homes, life savings and even their
families. Factories closed down and businesses shuttered.

Those who who hold secure jobs in government or in business or

industry were lucky but the same cannot be said of the majority
of the working class.

Those who suffered along with the workers include people who
operated small family businesses. Some had to close shop and
others were forced to borrow from loan sharks and there those
who were unfortunate enough to lose everything to rioters or
looting mobs.

During the previous major financial crisis, which affected

parts of East Asia, minority businessmen were the targets of
government-backed rioters. Properties were burned, belongings
were seized and people senselessly murdered. It was not at all
a one-off occurrence as such anti-minority mayhem was enacted
on many previous occasions usually helped by instigators from
local government figures.

Western business practices dominate world trade and unhealthy

ways or methods to earn big money in the shortest time possible
are chiefly responsible for the financial collapse seen today.
Such ultra capitalist practices are favoured by the West on
account of the hallowed capitalist principle that clever people
should be allowed to surge ahead without restrictions in a
capitalist society. This gave rise to market manipulation,
market speculation, artificially inflated prices, very rapid
and sharp fluctuations and of course very fat bonuses.

In a matter of just barely four months, crude petroleum prices

went from US$147 to below US$45 mainly due to 'paper barrels'
dominating the trade in the petroleum market. This very great
fluctuation in the price caused huge economic stress in many
countries that resulted in leaders losing their jobs and people
becoming violent and riots and anger ruled the streets.

The insistence on the use of the dollar to conduct world trade

is also a big contributor to the crisis. The US could afford
to not impose fiscal discipline on its own self since it is
the country that owns the dollar. Huge sums of money went to
the military to procure huge mountains of hardware, proliferate
the American military presence abroad and escalate tensions in
various regions around the world.

Meanwhile, US media put the blame on others, and US politicians

pointed fingers at everyone else except themselves. The US had
forgotten that exactly a century ago, Americans were playing
exactly the same blame game.
The US suffered an economic depression around the turn of the
century most possibly due to the prolonged after-effects of the
American Civil War, and Asians living in America, especially
people of Chinese descent were accused of being responsible.

Murder, riots, assaults and arson were carried out against the
minority presence and even politicians and officials joined in
the fray. Nobody ever mentioned human rights or anything close
to it. Nobody ever reminded the public or even the government
that the minority presence had chiefly being composed of very
hardworking and industrious people who had built up businesses
and trades by din of hard work and honest toil. They did not
steal, rob or loot from others. They did not even possess any
kind of political clout either. They were always at the mercy
of others instead.

The people in the journalistic trade also joined in the attacks

on the minorities who had little to fall back on for their own
defence. Even as late as the 1920s, writers like Lothrop Stoddard
railed at the minority presence and threw all sorts of unfair
and unfounded accusations against them.

Today, in other parts of the world, this ugly scenario is often

repeated time and again, especially when there is an economic
crisis hanging over our heads.

The minority gets the finger but capitalism is never blamed.

The minority is thrown all sorts of accusations just like in
the US a century ago. They are accused of monopolising the
economy. Nobody ever reminded themselves that people who are
industrious and possesss the capacity to toil for long hours
naturally are able to succeed. They are not able to gain or
obtain political power and mainly not interested either. Thus
they put their focus on things that they know best. Toil and
toil till they succeed in seeing the fruits of their labour.

Yet in a crisis the minorities are the first targets of rioters

and murderers. Nobody ever blamed the local politics or the
capitalist system.

The West is also to blame for the plight of the minority presence
in many societies. The Western media encouraged by Western leaders
often try to demonise selective races and thus instigate others
to use violence to solve problems. Words like 'goons', 'bullies'
are used. Minorites that concentrate on business and trade are
the ones most likely to be at the receiving end of goons and
bullies, not the other way round. There are minorities who prefer
to get involved in powerful labour unions and political parties
but these are the exceptions.

A university graduate from a minority group once said in reply to

the accusation that the minority group dominated commerce. He said
that his family operated a sundry store in a rural area. And the
family saved money by eating the vegetables and other perishable
items in the store that customers had refused to buy.

Many people fail to understand that running a business like in the

sundry store business is a very tough occupation. Customers often
take items on credit and there are the ones who take without paying.
And then there is the problem of security and safety. People in
this kind of business are often very vulnerable to local toughs
who often work hand-in-glove with the local cops.

The minorities in the world must unite and stand up against the
falsehoods spread by the big capitalist interest groups and their
apologists. Unbridled capitalism and the perennial false picture
or image that is the favourite presentation of the Western media
is the main cause of all modern financial crises. Not minorities.

The world needs to move away from the Western model and to put
more focus on barter trade and clamp down on market manipulators.
Otherwise we will forever be exposed to the sneezes coming out of
Washington or New York or London or Paris.

Minorities of the world unite. Down with unbridled capitalism !