More News from the Future
World Future Society Conference 2012
Toronto
By Paul Rux, Ph.D.
As a Professional
Member of the World Future Society, who has designed and teaches online courses
about trend forecasting for doctoral students at Jones International
University, this writer was eager to attend and “mine” the conference for
“nuggets” about emerging trends likely to shape our future. I would like to
“share the wealth” with you through quick summaries of some “nuggets of
foresight” that “bubbled” to the forefront of discussion in various conference
workshops in which I participated.
The first and most important “nugget” concerns Mexico. During a break in one of the sessions, this
writer turned to introduce himself to the man sitting behind me. He was a high-ranking military officer from
the Pentagon, where he is a “war planner.”
I asked him if he could share some of his current work. He answered, “Mexico.” Members of the Mexican Army are right now in
Washington to work with the Pentagon on how the United States of America will
support a probable war there against the drug cartels that threaten to destroy
the government of Mexico. I said this
confirmed what I had heard two years ago from a former member of the State
Department who told the audience at another conference in the USA. This country has branch plants operating in
Northern Mexico; there also is oil in Northern Mexico. It is highly unlikely that Washington will
allow drug cartels to seize these assets. Moreover, if the government of Mexico
collapses, we can expect a flood of refugees coming north to escape the
violence. While we bleed in the Middle
East, Mexico is getting ready to explode; Mexico is right here, on our
border. There is no way we can “sit on
our hands” while Mexico slips into criminal anarchy. Is war in Mexico likely? The Pentagon thinks so, for it is preparing
to fight one there in the near future.
The second “nugget” comes from the Dominican Republic. During the conference, a panel of five
“futurists” shared with us the “latest news” from their countries. The panel member from the Dominican Republic,
a young woman with a graduate degree in international relations from an
American university shared with us how her country coped with a recent food
crisis, which was “news” to this writer.
According to her, stock market speculators trade on average $4 trillion
dollars worth of food every day. The
result of this manipulation of food supply costs plunged Dominica into a food
crisis. People could not afford to pay
the “jacked-up” prices that the Wall Street “banksters” wanted for the food
under their control. As a result of this
food crisis, Dominica convened a “national conference” where the various
political parties there set aside their partisans ambitions to find a way to
make sure their people could eat. This
stunned this writer! Imagine Democrats
and Republicans in America sitting down to agree on what is good for the
welfare of the American people. Don’t
hold your breath for this kind of thinking and action here. In Dominica, the government – all parties
together – resolved to stop stock market speculation in food stuffs there. The national conference declared that every
Dominican had a right to enough food to eat.
People come first, and profits come second. After her presentation, this writer told her
how badly his country needed the political capacity to come together for the
good of the American people. He told her
how painful it was to hear Dominica could do it and realize we cannot.
The third “nugget” was painful. It came from the Pentagon war planner. After telling this writer about the presence
of Mexican military planners at the Pentagon, he also added that military
planners from Vietnam were also there!
Vietnam and the Philippines are at odds with China over control of the
oil in the South China Sea. The US is
hatching war plans to back up these countries against China. The tar sands of the Province of Alberta in
Canada have twice the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia; the war planners in
Washington are getting ready for possible military action over oil in the South
China Sea! Earlier during our chat, the
Pentagon planner told me how he was a draftee in the Vietnam War and had remained
in the military. Imagine. Here is an American Vietnam Veteran working
with his former enemies - who at one time literally tried to kill him - as
allies. I told him that I did not want
to pull any “scabs,” but I asked him what the Vietnam War was all about if the
Vietnamese, who were a colony of China for centuries, have been anti-Chinese
all along, natural allies for us. “Yes,
the Vietnamese have a ‘gut’ hatred of the Chinese,” was his reply. Beyond that we did not go; it is a hard topic
for Americans.
The fourth “nugget” was a complete
surprise. It came from the panelist from
Azerbaijan, a well dressed young woman, a “fashion plate,” who looked like she
stepped off the pages of Vogue. Our media constantly bombard us with
images of how primitively dressed women in the Middle East are in comparison
with ours. Her presence and polish
suggested our media engage in propaganda to help to justify our wars in the
Middle East – for oil, of course – against primitive killers and religious
fanatics. Her PowerPoint pictures of her
home country also caught me totally off guard.
Instead of mud huts, we saw modern urban centers which looked like
cities in America. This progress, she
said, was the result of the huge deposits of oil and natural gas in her
country. These resources have enabled
the Azerbaijanis to move quickly into the 21st century. They even have an Azerbaijani future society
which conducts trend forecasts about the possible and probable future of the
country. This was a surprise, but even
more stunning was her invitation to this writer to attend its annual conference
in Azerbaijan in 2013! I knew Azerbaijan
borders with Iran; reluctantly, for I did not want to create a “downer” after
her super update, I asked her about possible war with Iran. She pointed out that two million Azerbaijanis
live within the borders of Iran; another one million are refugees from Iran in
Azerbaijan. Yet, despite their severe
border problems, she saw no reason for war between Azerbaijan and Iran. Meanwhile, in the United States of America,
halfway around the world from Azerbaijan, we hear constant “drumming” for war
between Iran and America from “chicken hawks” in Washington. Perhaps this writer will make it to the
annual conference of the Azerbaijani future society; the “war drums” must stop
banging here first.
Paul Rux, Ph.D.
(Wisconsin-Madison) lives in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. He has presented workshops at the Washington,
D.C. conferences of the World Future Society and published in its journal, The Futurist. Last year he was part of an online,
global research group on the future of teaching trend forecasting for the
European School of Business, Wiesbaden, Germany. www.paulrux.net
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