The Old Field Tree

While this topic may seem to not fit into the broad scheme of nature, I assure you that it most certainly does. This question popped up into my head when doing research on critical minerals and the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI). AI relies entirely on the natural world to sustain its growth. And, countries are in arms races and competition for the critical minerals, and other natural resources, required to sustain this technology. Countries are advancing AI to fuel global wars and benefit the richest among us.

But the question arises: Is a country really a country if it is not owned by its people? What I mean is, what makes a country, if the leaders who run it care not about its people, care not about the land of America, the culture of America, and the health of America, but rather, they care about advancing their own agendas?

For example, it has been reported that Africa holds nearly 30 percent of the world’s critical mineral reserves, but captures only 10 percent of the global revenue. We have historically underestimated and undervalued Africa, which will certainly experience tremendous development pressure as the drones make AI everyone’s problem. But knowing this fact raises some questions.

Does the development of AI benefit the countries of Africa and its people? We could almost with perfect confidence say no. Mineral extraction wreaks havoc on local ecosystems and in African countries, regulations are not on par with the Western world (which is making an active attempt to eliminate environmental protections), meaning the inhabitants of the various countries in Africa do not truly see the gain of this development, yet their leaders are pushing for it.

I don’t believe a country is truly a country unless it is owned by its people and represents its people, the land on which we live, and everything in between. When a country becomes corrupted, which is happening in America and other countries globally, it no longer operates as America, our great country. It now serves the interests of selfish individuals and billionaires who would rather extract everything out of the Earth at our expense.

So I think we must separate the so-called leaders of the country, the politicians with corruption in their blood, and the people of the country. We must restore countries to the people.