Welcome Amani Fellow VEII ZAYD KAUARIA
The unchecked hazards of the military industrial complex are far reaching all over the world and nowhere more so than our local communities. Local civilian populations are left to deal with the consequences of local policing and violence, lack of access to basic human rights like access to safe running water in some cases or access to quality education and safe environments to learn within their own communities that exist in the shadows of the most developed nation on earth. The tale of 2 Americas is a daily reminder of the state driven agenda of over policing oppressed neighborhoods, and the disenfranchisement of populations from basic social services and employment that pour fuel onto the fire of a strategic and historic reality of underdevelopment and lack of social mobility for mainly African Americans however an increasingly diverse population in some metro areas including St Louis where the tale of a global military industrial complex comes to an intersection of communities such as Somali’s who are driven to flee based on the ongoing conflict with roots in the hegemony approach to the conflict in that region.
Intercultural dialogue and exchange becomes a tool as people can unite their approach to overcome the barriers that their communities face against a form of oppression that can only be tackled by a broad based positive reaction from local community to find strategies to empower themselves in relation to the development of people and institutions within our communities to address the biggest problems in our communities on a local and international level such as food insecurity, health and education among a host of social inequities that continue to disadvantage minority populations decades after a history of segregation and slavery. As is the case with victims of colonial oppression all over the world the mechanisms are insufficient or non-existing in terms of dismantling the systems of power and exclusion that economically disadvantage people of color and perpetuate minority and corporate control of national resources in the hands of the few while the majority languish economically and otherwise with the existence of class based social systems that force people to deal with the vulnerabilities of poverty and conflict in their environments inhibiting generational progress and wealth.
Exposing the inequities rooted in an over militarized economy where these interests which are closely aligned to interests of wealth and power among the political and interest driven manner of legislative politics opposition to this status quo are sparse and consistent pressure is never openly displayed however a broad based consensus and opposition to this system are growing as society adopts a different view of their role in relation to local and national power structures that we encounter daily with so many instances of discriminatory practices and structural racism communities still do not retain transparent accountability from the police departments to their citizens who are victims of police based violence and implications from criminal records that forever impede access to certain rights and privileges.
A different approach at the Federal level could, in some ways, address the ever-growing cases of injustice in so many instances left unpunished with no recourse to compensate and prevent victims from undergoing violence and discrimination from a system that does not account for the toll it takes on the lives of local populations. Education can create a larger interest and build consensus for basic redresses from relevant authorities to change policy and have a more humanistic or social development approach as opposed to the current state of high incarceration and punitive militarized approach of dealing with the community. Neighborhoods can be transformed into communities where the needs of the people are addressed on this local grassroots level to develop an alternative direction to the public consensus that the American people support this heavy-handed system of state sponsored local and international terror that costs many lives and hinders development in the most vulnerable populations around the world.
