IT is trite to say that global material wealth has flowed from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere since recorded history. It is also trite to say that we live in a world of consequences, for the obvious reason that nature is intolerant of disequilibrium.

Therefore, it was only a matter of time before the dire consequences of the aforesaid unidirectional flow of global wealth became manifest. One of the more grotesque of these consequences is currently in bold relief on the European continent. The latest unstoppable avalanche of north-bound refugees is a natural counterpoise of the sustained north-bound flow of global material wealth. That un-abating avalanche of economically-displaced persons is only a culmination of the imperceptible peculations that have gone on for decades.

Much as l do not want to come across as “harping on a string,” it is, however, inevitable for me to once again impute the unfurling global socio-economic crisis to the existing make-believe of anachronistic economics laws. Existing economics theorems are, at best, pseudo-scientific fabrications of economics philosophers at the behest of wealth-accumulating generations; the laws simply cannot stand up to scientific scrutiny. More to the point, it would be recalled that the unnerving challenge of stable price theory was never satisfactorily resolved by the great economics philosophers, in spite of their centuries of intellectual endeavours. Thus, market prices have continued to be subjectively fixed rather than objectively derived.

Price is essentially determined by projected profit margin; a rather bewildering puzzle, which had caused Harold Macmillan, a one-time Prime Minister of Britain, to say during a Commonwealth conference back in the ‘60s, that he was utterly confounded to observe that the prices of mass-produced industrial goods were upward trending whilst the prices of diminishing raw materials from the least developed countries tended in the opposite direction. This is an observation worthy of the proceedings of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT).

Those destabilising trends have not only persisted but have indeed intensified with time. Pity to observe with hindsight that the British ex-prime minister might have spoken with tongue-in-cheek; he hadn’t taken any known concrete steps to reverse the unsettling trends he had aptly observed. Rather regrettably, British foreign trade policies since World War I, much like her leading partner-nation, the United States of America, and other industrial countries have tended to reinforce the institutional frameworks that facilitate unidirectional flow of global material wealth.

Seeing that grossly unequal trading relations would invariably lead to international conflicts (wars), the advantaged countries have since morphed into a near-invincible force that insists on policies that would perpetuate their military superiority over the disadvantaged countries, (Look to the policy-thrust of the Security Council of the United Nations).

Only recently, Britain, whose economic reality has forced into a catching-up status (technologically) even to China, surprisingly embarked on constructing not one, but two aircraft carriers at a dizzy sum of six billion pounds sterling (!). Thus, as Kofi Annan, former secretary general of the United Nations made the world reflect in the anxious days leading up to Desert Storm I, military superiority is more for bullying weaker nations than it is for deterrence against potential attacks.

This fact is not lost on countries like North Korea, Iran, Iraq, etc. Selfsame fact largely explains the rising near neurotic hysteria of the so-called superpowers over every nuclear-power aspiration of developing countries. But, as the popular saying goes, “you can run, but you cannot hide.” The North/South destabilising trading imbalance can no longer be sustained. It is time to stop playing the Ostrich; the chickens are finally coming home to roost.

Token gestures; military muzzling; borders controls; etc, cannot solve the unfurling refugees crisis in the world. An enduring solution to global economic disequilibrium lay in one, and only one direction: just as massive capital (human and material) had been cheaply extracted from the southern hemisphere to extensively develop the northern hemisphere, the latter’s accumulated capital should now be deployed towards massive development of the socio-economic infrastructure of the former.

In points of fact, this is not an option; it is the only option as enjoined by the inexorable pressure of diminishing industrial space. Grow industrialism southwards, or stop industrial growth altogether. This ought to be a veritable food for thought for African leaders, most of who, with little or no introspection, continues to accumulate huge foreign reserves and devalue their national currencies to impress international financial institutions.
•Nkemdiche is an Engineering Consultant in Abuja.