Zeitenwende: A turning point

Zeitenwende was used by Olaf Scholz, the Chancellor of Germany last year, to describe the end of an era, a turning point in history. It is in his speech where he described the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991 as the fall of the Iron Curtain. In the 30-year period since then, Scholz described this period as one of relative peace and prosperity. He said: “Technological advances have created an unprecedented level of connectivity and cooperation. Growing international trade, globe spanning value and production chains and unparalleled exchanges of people and knowledge across borders have brought over a billion people of poverty. More importantly, courageous citizens have swept away dictatorships and one-party rule. Their yearning for liberty, dignity and democracy changed the course of history.”

Some historians called it the end of history. It seemed to them that liberal democracy and a new world order had finally won. Democracy had seemingly returned to Russia. China saw the beginning of the Deng Xiaoping era which made it seem that China would finally embrace liberalism, human rights and capitalism.

After two devastating world wars and a constant fear of nuclear devastation, an era of peace and prosperity seemed to be finally dawning on the world.

Thirty years later, Scholz says that there was a tectonic shift because new powers have emerged, especially an economically strong and assertive China under Xi Jinping. A more aggressive Russia under Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukraine and has involved Europe and United States in a new war.

I do not see this as a geopolitical shift, but as a return to the old cold war before the fall of the Berlin Wall. In fact, perhaps the best way to describe this new era is that we are seeing the dawn of the second cold war. China’s aggressiveness and desire for global power is reminiscent of Mao Zedong and his desire for a new China as the most powerful nation in the world.

Putin, on the other hand, is similar to the Russian leaders of the Stalinist era that conquered the whole of eastern Europe and saw itself as the leader of the communist world.

The world therefore needs a way of dealing with this age-old problem of a fractured world wherein competition does not necessarily lead to conflicts. The world still needs global agreements that every nation can deal with on a global scale. The most important area is climate change.

Recently, newspaper headlines announce that “Earth scorches for three straight days.” The reports say that the Earth’s average temperature has remained at record high, which mark a climate-driven extreme. This is a problem that will equally afflict rich nations and poor, the largest nations and the smallest countries and will not spare any nook and corner of the world.

The world must also learn to deal with the paradoxical issue of globalization. This is an issue that benefits the wishes of large multinational corporations which push for a seamless uniformity across all the countries they operate in. There is no room in globalization for the needs of ordinary citizens in poorer countries.

For example, there is no doubt that the average Filipino worker is forced to survive with being paid below a living wage. However, most businessmen insist that the minimum wage must be kept low to make the Philippines “more competitive” with other countries. It seems that the best way for the Philippines to compete internationally is to keep wages low while allowing corporations to maximize profit. This is the very essence of income inequality which has led many Filipinos to lose faith in democracy and capitalism. This adherence to a principle of trickle-down which upholds that as the rich get richer, some of the wealth will overflow and benefit the poor. The problem is that many rich people simply use excess wealth to invest in mansions abroad, send their children to study abroad and splurge on foreign travels that benefit the richer countries and not their native land.

This push for globalization results in rules that favor the rich countries and the multinationals, and leads to increased economic hardships for small businesses. The book “Homecoming” by Rana Forooher, an editor of Financial Times, highlights the flaws of a globalized world increasingly dominated by profit-maximizing by multinational corporations and the disproportionate burden of adjustment that falls on people that have little capacity to bear it.

The United States has recently taken active steps towards lessening tensions with China. The big powers will do what it needs to benefit their own interests. The only solution for the smaller countries like the Philippines is to adopt regionalization. Somehow, the Southeast Asian nations must surmount racial, religious and language barriers and become more united in order to survive in this new emerging world order.

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