The Prison of American Hegemony

Okay. So today I wanted to talk again about Indonesia and about BRICS and the possibility of Indonesia joining BRICS. Indonesia was actually intended to be one of the founding members of BRICS and they've been rumored for quite some time to be slotted to join BRICS in the near future, which does appear to me to be the case. I think that's accurate. Indonesia was a founding country of the non aligned movement in the nineteen sixties during the cold war And they still tread a very careful path of neutrality in all of their foreign relations, balancing between China and The United States.

So they don't make any move hastily in terms of their foreign policy and in terms of their alliances. So here I wanna say something about what I think this situation sort of highlights, and that is that politics is complicated. Everyone needs to remember that, you know, when they when they when they form their opinions about what any government does, especially governments in the global South and in the Muslim world. In our part of the world, our governments are painfully aware of the ever present threat that's posed by The United States. US never lets anyone forget that.

They have to navigate their political relationships, their diplomatic relationships, and so on, their policy decisions, with a tremendous amount of tact, with strategy and discretion. Think of it like planning a prison break, which is something I've done, and it's not easy. You're under the watchful eye of the guards, the prison administration, and of course, the snitches, you know, other prison inmates who will inform against you with the prison authorities just in exchange for some measly benefit. I mean, there's people that will sell you out for an extra bag chips from the commissary. So you have to take every step very carefully, you know.

You have to move very gradually towards your goal of freedom without ever alerting the authorities so that you just end up getting chained in the solitary confinement cell. That's the situation of most of our countries. That's the situation of most of our governments. Just like a prison break, you also have to make sure that anyone and everyone who's on your team, if you're not if you're not trying to do it alone, which is almost, you know, next to impossible to do, then you have to make sure that everyone on your team is reliable and capable. They're capable of following through on what is expected of them.

And for a country, that mostly means they're regional allies. And for example, all of the members of BRICS, you have to know that they that they have your back to know that they're a reliable team. And these are legitimate questions until now. It's not clear about what what's the status and what's the reliability and the capabilities of Brix. I mean confidence is growing in that regard to some extent given the uniform stance that Brix has taken over Gaza.

They've not yet proven in my opinion that they are actually a stable, reliable, capable, and courageous enough team to actually follow through, you know, to give sufficient backup to any member state, that might make a run for it out of the prison of American hegemony. In my own, unsuccessful prison break, my team froze. And I found myself faced with a tidal wave of prison guards crashing against me like a ton of bricks. And I got six months in solitary confinement. So Indonesia doesn't want it to go that way.

They don't want things like that to happen to them. Because yes, if you try, to take your freedom and you fail, then you will end up making your situation worse. And your country will be cracked down upon with furious punishment. You have to you have to try to be outside the prison walls before anyone notices basically. So Indonesia is being very cautious and I think that they should be.

You know, most of us just want them to join. To most of us it's like a no brainer. Of course, should join Bricks. But we don't have to consider all of the things that the government has to consider. We're not privy to all of the threats and all of the risks and all of the potential consequences that any decision might trigger.

But having said that, I do think that Indonesia will join BRICS. And it's reported that they might even be the next country to be admitted, which in my opinion would be excellent for Indonesia and I think it would be excellent for BRICS as a political and economic block.