OPINION: In today’s world, humans are the worst predators
Switch on your TV or read a newspaper its all about terrorism, ISIS, war in Syria and Ukraine, crime on the streets, murder, global warming, mass shootings, floods, pandemics, stagnation, poverty, refugees and the list goes on and on.
It reflects doom and gloom and feels like the whole world is on edge. The news feed you with fear and pessimism.
On the other hand the great story of our era is that we are witnessing the greatest improvements in global living standards, poverty alleviation, malnutrition, illiteracy, child labour and infant mortality are falling faster than at any other time in human history. Life expectancy at birth has increased almost two fold, a child born today is more likely to reach retirement age than his forebears were to live their fifth birthday. This is because of two most important global developments.
First getting enough energy for the body and the brain to function well is the most basic human need, but historically many people were in deficiency.
Famine was a universal regular phenomenon, before 1800. While population increased at exponential rate, agriculture production increased only at a linear rate.
And then, in 1909 German chemist Fritz Haber succeeded in producing ammonia from hydrogen and atmospheric nitrogen (artificial fertilizer), cheap and abundant, this enabled the global population to increase from 1.6 billion to today’s 7.7 billion.
The next discovery was the high yield hybrid wheat that resulted into the green revolution and famines became historical.
The second global development was sanitation and availability of clean safe water especially in big cities. Food is not enough to sustain life; you also need a safe way of dealing with refuse and waste to reduce diseases.
Water is the source of all life, but throughout history it has also been a cause of great epidemics.
These two unique developments are attributed to be the foundation of high and comfortable living standards. Now let me remind you of a true incidence.
The vulture and the little girl, also known as “Struggling Girl”, is a photograph by Kevin Carter, which first appeared in The New York Times on March 26, 1993. It is a photograph of a frail famine-stricken boy, initially believed to be a girl, who had collapsed in the foreground with a vulture eyeing him from nearby.
The child was reported to be attempting to reach a United Nations feeding centre about a half-mile away in Ayod, South Sudan, in March 1993.
The picture won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography award in 1994. Carter committed suicide four months after winning the prize.
What humankind has failed miserably and can be referred as “homo rapiens” a predatory and destructive species that can end this civilisation.
In the midst of all incredible scientific discoveries that improve our living standards we have terribly failed to have at least minimum equitable wealth distribution because of our predatory nature. If one person becomes rich there will be ten who will become poor.
It’s a prey and predator spectacle. The gap between the rich and poor can be illustrated by the fact that the three wealthiest individuals in the world have assets that exceed those of the poorest 10 per cent of the world’s population.
The net worth of the world’s billionaires increased from less than $1 trillion in 2000 to over $7 trillion in 2015 so the gap is increasing dramatically.
Eighty two per cent of the wealth generated last year went to the richest one percent of the global population, while the 3.7 billion people who make up the poorest half of the world saw no increase in their wealth, according to a new Oxfam report.
‘Reward Work, Not Wealth’ reveals how the global economy enables a wealthy elite to accumulate vast fortunes while hundreds of millions of people are struggling to survive on poverty pay.
It takes just four days for a CEO from one of the top five global fashion brands to earn what a Bangladeshi garment worker will earn in her lifetime. In the US, it takes slightly over one working day for a CEO to earn what an ordinary worker makes in a year. It would cost $2.2 billion a year to increase the wages of all 2.5 million Vietnamese garment workers to a living wage.
This is about a third of the amount paid out to wealthy shareholders by the top 5 companies in the garment sector in 2016.
While we are striving to develop and we should by putting in a lot of hard work, we should be aware of the predatory nature of humans and these people will never hesitate to not only create hurdles but also actually take us back.
Also our development must be more equitable and not the prey-predator game.
Surprisingly we in the media mostly report on “the holes in the cheese” problems and conflicts but rarely about the cheese itself, society and its progress.
Zulfiqarali Premji is a retired MUHAS professor. His career spans over 40 years in academia, research and public health. He has authored over 100 publications. He resides in Canada.
