Is CORRUPTION the invisible hand of the free market?

In my search for understanding of why life-capital at the planetary and social levels of life organisation are being spoiled and deprived while money-capital in terms of the money indices like the global GDP and stock markets continue to increase over time, I am beginning to believe that we have a global corrupt system in which public office and public resources (life-capital) are being captured and abused by private entities for private money-capital gains. I will be using as my ground of understanding Prof John McMurtry’s life-value analysis in this discussion to shed light on this global corruption that seems to have its hands working behind the scenes invisible to the majority of us.

Why is an Ounce of Prevention less valued than a Pound of Cure?

Over the past two decades of my study of and my practice in medicine, I have always been perplexed by the disconnect between the principle and the application of the proverb, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Given the meteoric rise of non-communicable physical, mental and social diseases and the cost of their treatment and their burden to society, I would have guessed that policy makers would have made health promotion and disease prevention a top priority, and resources locally, regionally and internationally would have been invested in elucidating the determinants of health promotion and disease prevention and implementing the wisdom of that enlightenment.

Truth be told, much has been discovered over the past decade on adverse childhood experiences and the long-lasting effects on physical, mental and social diseases. Also Sir Michael Marmot and his collaborators have investigated the social determinants of health and have shown unequivocally that social gradients of inequality in terms of access to the basic means of life growth and development does in fact affect life expectancies and disability-adjusted-life-years. Given this trove of empirical data to guide our policy and decision makers, one would have thought that major steps would have been taken at the local, regional and international levels to remedy the social deficiencies in our homes, our schools and workplace environments. This would then serve to minimize adverse childhood experiences, (in addition to the adverse experiences of the adolescents, adults and the elderly) and would also serve to optimize the social, economic and political environments to produce enabling policies that would inform and encourage healthier lifestyles and behaviours. Read More

Expanding our Public Health System to include Collective Life-Capital Health

“Natural capital’ is an understandable attempt to put a value on our living planet and all the services it provides for us, writes John McMurtry. But it fails by measuring nature in dollars and cents. We need to develop a new concept of ‘life capital’ that must be preserved from exploitation and degradation no matter… Read More

The Final Frontier – A blueprint for building a life-value rebased global economic and political system for healing and solidarity through the life-currency of life-coherency (Updated November 3, 2018)

What I hope to do in this article is to use what insights I have gained so far from my expertise as a medical specialist in terms of diagnosing and the treatment of diseases and see how far I can go in applying Professor John McMurtry’s life-value compass to the insights I have discovered along the way. I will draw heavily on my article, The Secret to a Healthy Nation – in-depth article based on presentation given at Operation Rescue’s fundraiser on October 3, 2015, and the critique of it by Prof McMurtry in The Secret to the Ill-Health of Nations.

“The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society” – President John F Kennedy 1961

The secretive jurisdictions of international financial centers which claim to be essential for capital growth and development, like state communism, is going to be the downfall of corporate crony capitalism, as both support conformity and rigidity of ideas in a top-down hierarchical pattern as “efficiently” as possible. This is done without challenge from outside; hence the stifling of genuine innovation and genuine resilience and ability to adapt to new knowledge of our destructive potentials in all of life’s spheres of influence and concerns, hence producing the persistent lack of truth and reconciliation and healing of all of the maladies of humanity and the planet. If this is not a form of globalised supranational “communism” now on steroids, where there is pervasive reverse projection, where the meanings of our labels have been tranmorgrified and no longer mean what they are supposed to mean any more, then I don’t know what is!

For example, do we really still have a “free market” and “democracy” anymore? Aren’t these ideals now usurped by the diktats of the financial-military-corporate media-digital collusive complex which now reign supreme where we have concentration of wealth and power at the top? When The Establishment preaches freedom of choice, freedom of mobility and freedom of privacy, are they talking about freedom for entitlement of theirs at the top, while relegating those of us at the bottom to a form of mental, social and debt slavery? Where is the genuine democracy and freedom in that? Should we not have by now an intelligent system that matches unused life resources to unmet life needs by the supply and demand principles of the free market? What about the genuine ability of the electorate to chose a leader of their choice without the rules of engagement being gerrimandered to maintain the power structure in the first place? Where is the economic and political justice in all of this? Again I stand by my claim that the only difference between state communism and corporate croney capitalism is not one of kind, but one of degree and scale, and the reverse projections that the latter creates to block out the obvious consequences of our life destructive and human indignifying machinations.

It is time for healing!! Transitioning from a debasing petrodollar recycling dictatorship to a rebased life-capital recycling democracy

What we need to do now is heal the wounds of this life-destructive operating system at all levels, and rebase our global reserve money system on life-capital sequencing. This would help us to transition from a system where self-preservation based on petrodollar recycling supremacy or national security trumps (pardon the pun) life-capital recycling or global security. All of our trade deals and wealth management exercises and rules of engagement can now be rebased and re-coupled on building mutual understanding, mutual respect and mutual caring for all life capital – past, present and future. This would then assist us in moving from a petrodollar recycling dictatorship and catalyse the creation of a more democratic, or better yet, a meritocratic world, where the global insecurity of the world no longer exists, and the raison d’être for 1) wars, be it on drugs, cancer, obesity, and terrorism, and 2) inequality-creating wealth management strategies need never rear their ugly heads again.

Enlightening humanity’s double blind-spots

If you have been following the recent posts closely, you would have noticed that much effort has been made to show that our life-blind prescriptions have been singularly responsible for most of the political and economic debacles in terms of their mismanagement of our “household” in their respective spheres of influence. Professor John McMurtry’s book ‘The Cancer Stage of Capitalism:… Read More

Is the denial of our mortality the root cause of all our maladies?

I deal with suffering, dying and death almost on a daily basis. On my ward rounds with my students at the hospital, I always think to myself or ask my students if the suffering or premature death of this or that particular patient could have been prevented. I have alcoholics being re-admitted over and over again… Read More

The inescapable social, political and economic implications of the Lord’s Prayer

“The Lord’s Prayer is Christianity’s greatest prayer. It is also Christianity’s strangest prayer. It is prayed by all Christians, but it never mentions Christ. It is prayed in all churches, but it never mentions church. It is prayed on all Sundays, but it never mentions Sunday. It is called the “Lord’s Prayer,” but it never… Read More

The Secret to a Healthy Nation – in-depth article based on presentation given at Operation Rescue’s fundraiser on October 3, 2015

The pdf version can be dowloaded from here.

The Secret to a Healthy Nation

Dr Bichara Sahely, BSc, MBBS, DM (Int Med)

October 16, 2015

Abstract

Health is a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and is a fundamental human right. It would have been hoped that in this age of globalising free-markets where unused resources would more readily be able to flow to unmet needs, that our states of well-being would have been optimised. Sadly, this is not the case, and the data suggests that the health of our lives and that of the planet are being compromised.

The leading causes of death at home and in the region are the non-communicable diseases of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and injuries, and the main drivers of these diseases are hypertension, overweight/obesity, alcohol abuse, smoking, unhealthy eating and physical inactivity. Since the 1970s, the prevalence of overweight and obese individuals and their complications have increased to epidemic proportions mainly as a result of the behavioural risk factors of unhealthy eating, physical inactivity, tobacco smoking and heavy use of alcohol.

The major driver of these behavioural risk factors is the globalisation of the fast food industry aided and abetted by the mass media, which has not only increased the prevalence of childhood and adult obesity and by extension the non-communicable diseases, but has also been responsible for ecological pathologies such as climate changes and global warming. Also global trade agreements have made it more and more difficult for leaders of nation states to act in the best interest of their citizens as “free” market dictates have stymied efforts to create policies that are more conducive to healthier lives and a healthier planet.

A new perspective of globalisation and its negative effects on people’s lives has been proposed by psychologist Dr Bruce Alexander. He makes the provocative claim that globalising free-markets necessarily fosters psychosocial dislocation of individuals from their families, communities and health-nurturing cultures, and this in turn results in destructive and compulsive behaviours being substituted for these disconnections. These addictive tendencies are not only in the use of illicit drugs, but also in the abuse of legal substances such as tobacco, alcohol, fast food, and extends to other activities such as shopping, gambling, sex, the acquisition of more and more wealth and even more and more power, and in their wake, the unintended consequence is a host of physical, mental and social maladies. Given that psychosocial dislocation is the root cause of our unhealthy physical, mental and social behaviours, it behooves us to find ways and means of reversing these trends and regain psychosocial reintegration and reconnection and to achieve more harmony and balance with ourselves, our communities and our planet.

We will discover that the fundamental unit of production, growth and development in our nation are not individuals, but relationships, and links are made between the quality of our social relationships, mental capital, stress and the physical, mental and social negative outcomes. Since we cannot treat ourselves out of these chronic diseases, prevention of these illnesses has to be the mainstay of treatment through the development of local, regional and international policies.

A bottom-up approach, that focuses on patients and families supported by the physical, mental and social health care teams, community partners and the creation of a positive policy environment, is the only approach that is worthy of consideration as it is the only approach that is wholistic, people-and planet-centred and that is designed to succeed.

Our true physical, mental and social capital will be revealed, along with the secret to healthy living and the creation of a healthy nation. It is fundamentally about responsible stewardship of our life-supporting and life-nurturing networks within our bodies, our families and communities, and ultimately about responsible stewardship of our biosphere and lithosphere which have been gifted to us and have supported and nurtured us for billions of years.

We have enough information to guide us now, as we take a more wholistic approach to health promotion and preventative health maintenance, as we all work together to create a better and brighter and healthier nation, once and for all, and for one and all.

Tag: Bichara Sahely