Ten years ago, I wrote a song that I call my “holiday greeting to the world”. I played all of the instruments and my wife and I performed it in my modest home recording studio. Then I made a video.
Since then we have seen humans plunge into more violence, more brutal inhumanity, death, destruction and suffering.
I wouldn’t change a word of what I wrote back then. In fact, its message is more vital and timely than ever. We need to embrace one another in what unifies us as a species, not destroy one another over differences which in the grander scheme of things are irrelevant, if not petty.
As we approach 2025, may I wish the best year ever for you and those you love!
By the way, ’akemashite omedetou’ means ‘Happy New Year’ in Japanese. Here are all of the lyrics to the song:
1st Verse:
It’s a very special time of year / For family and friends holiday cheer / For those no longer with us / We shed a tear / A time to share / A time of feast / A time to care / And pray for peace / A time to give to those who have the least
Chorus:
Merry Christmas? / Happy Hanukkah / Peace be with us / Happy New Year
2nd Verse:
This is the time to start anew / Atheist Christian Muslim Jew / To reach within and find the love inside of you / Discard the old seek out the new / Reject the false embrace the true / To look ahead decide to bring out the best in you
Choruses:
Merry Christmas / Happy Hanukkah / Peace be with us / Happy New Year
Akemashite omedetou / Peace be with you / Happy New Year
Merry Christmas / Happy Hanukkah / Peace be with you / Happy New Year
© Copyright 2014 – Words and music by John Rachel, produced for Dancing Needles Music – ASCAP (All rights reserved.)
War is making us poor?
Since 2006, I’ve been in 35 countries. Total over my lifetime is 44. I’ve been in extremely wealthy countries with sky-high standards of living — Sweden, Norway, Monaco, Switzerland, Austria — and been personally immersed in extreme poverty — Uganda, Kenya, Laos, Cambodia, Philippines, Myanmar, Nepal. When I was in Kenya, I lived in a community called Mbita, that had no running water, no electricity, and we went to the bathroom in a hole in the ground. I bathed with the locals in Lake Victoria. All I had to bring was a bar of soap and a towel. But we had to be on guard. The local hippos were temperamental and often very aggressive.
Granted, compared to the extreme poverty in Kenya and other 3rd World countries, for most people life in the US is luxurious.
So . . . how can ‘war be making us poor’?
‘Poor’ is a relative term. The US constantly trumpets itself as the richest country in the world, the richest country in history! And via carefully compiled spread sheets prepared by neoliberal economists, we can find strong evidence for the claim.
However, facts on the ground for millions of American citizens, tell a different story.
The simple truth is that, yes, there are a handful of Americans who are doing incomprehensibly well. They have vast piles of money, huge stock and property portfolios, accounts in tax haven countries bulging at the seams. But this is at the very top of the economic ladder. This opulence and affluence is not shared with 99.9% of the rest of us. The brutal truth is, wealth inequality has become so extreme, it has gutted our economy of vitality, undermined what used to be a diverse and robust manufacturing base, inaugurated “casino capitalism”, i.e. rabid financialization and speculation, and stranded ordinary citizens without what many other countries consider the “basics” of a healthy functioning society. For everyday people, while they may not have to bathe in local streams and lakes, these changes — which only benefit the wealthy elite — have made life increasingly difficult. Opportunities are disappearing and for the middle and working classes, just surviving and maintaining an acceptable living standard has become an increasingly daunting challenge.
Travelers from America, gone for extended periods of time and traveling in some of the better-off countries — including, by the way, Russia and China — report being shocked when they return to the US . . . shocked at the condition of our basic infrastructure, by the filth of our cities, by the level of homelessness, by the general quality of life they see. They are shocked and appalled by the level of anxiety, depression, and often anger and hostility which has become the norm. People are anxious, confused, frustrated, often frightened.
I’m not going to compare the US with Bangladesh or Haiti. Or Monaco or Switzerland. But I think it’s realistic to contrast what the US has become, first, to what it claims to be; and second, what it, as the “richest country in the world”, by its own reckoning should be.
I suggest you read my book. It’s very eye-opening. It’s not just a catalog of misery. It both takes aim at the primary cause of our economic malaise and decline — endless war, unnecessary and accelerating militarization of our society — and points the way for citizens to directly intervene and reverse the disintegration . . .
Before the US can no longer function as a nation.
We can do better.