Jason Hickel

Most peo­ple agree that in­equal­i­ty is too ex­treme and needs to be re­duced.

The ex­tra­or­di­nary mor­tal­i­ty rates in In­dia be­tween 1880 to 1920 were no ac­ci­dent.

Af­ter all, West­ern economies – and their eco­nom­ic growth – de­pend ut­ter­ly on labour and re­sources from the South.

Cli­mate break­down is a re­sult of at­mos­pher­ic coloni­sa­tion – and its con­se­quences are play­ing out along colo­nial lines.

Im­pe­ri­al­ism nev­er end­ed, it just changed form.

Only a tru­ly glob­al vac­ci­na­tion strat­e­gy can en­sure equal val­ue is placed on the lives of the rich and the poor.

These in­sti­tu­tions, de­signed with colo­nial prin­ci­ples in mind, re­main large­ly colo­nial in char­ac­ter to this day.

The claim that we are mak­ing ‘won­der­ful progress’ against glob­al pover­ty is a fal­la­cy based on a colo­nial mind­set.

Scan­di­na­vian coun­tries may top every rank­ing on hu­man de­vel­op­ment, but they are a dis­as­ter for the en­vi­ron­ment.

And lied about it.