November 8th 2025

The Growth Humanity Needs

The growth humanity needs

It is a beautiful day. The perfect temperature. A slight breeze. There is a saxophone piece playing in the background – “Have yourself a very merry Christmas.”

Okinawa is a little like Hawaii. And it has that vibe. Very laid back, even though it is a city like Honolulu. Rather than surfing, it has diving.

Where we are staying is right beside the largest US Air Force base outside of the US. Which means we see many service people.

And the sight and sound of the most expensive aircraft in the world coming in to land is a common occurrence. They are stunning to watch, and strangely beautiful. That contrast of beauty and lethality is hard to reconcile.

I listened to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio as I ran this morning. And there again is that sabre rattling. The big bad wolf, China. Increasing its military might.

The arms race is on. A race to the bottom. A zero-sum game that can never be won, for it is a completion of the biggest, and there is no end to that game.

The world relies on economic growth to keep the Molochian machine alive. Yet the beautiful little Japanese boy we met in a cafe yesterday could tell you that no matter how much you want it to be, you cannot squeeze more out of something when what you are squeezing is empty.

We look to growth in the wrong areas. We forget that growth is a cycle. And that as humans we grow in dimension, and then, hopefully, we grow in wisdom. Up, then in.

The economy as we have constructed it simply cannot survive without more and more.

Yet the economy we need is not just circular, it is a complete whole systems cycle.

The growth humanity needs is in wisdom and maturity.

Perhaps the childish, immature leaders we have are the last vestiges of our infancy.

As Zohran Mamdani wins the unwinnable election, with his opposition funded by oligarchs, I celebrate who he is. His wife is Syrian. His mother is a Hindu Indian. His father is a Ugandan Muslim. He is a microcosm of the world and our future. He speaks truth to power. He stands for justice for all humans. He will fight as strongly for you, no matter who you are, as he will for me, transcending race, religion and origin stories, with the guardrails of equal justice and integrity.

His win clearly states that the people are not the xenophobic rabble we are portrayed as. We long for the same things. When given the right context, we behave differently. Not all of us, of course, but most of us.

Dignity, equality, justice.

Whether you are from Taiwan, China, or Western Countries.

The sabre-rattling is the old story, where power and wealth differentials are the point.

Okinawa is the only part of Japan that was colonised. By the Japanese, and to some extent, the Americas, after World War II.

A tiny little island archipelago in the middle of the Pacific on the giant chessboard of global hegemony.

The fighter jets come and go.

PS. I missed posting yesterday, between diving early and travel, the day disappeared.

Photo Taken November 6th 2025, Article published November 8th, 2025

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