In 1919, Irish poet W.B. Yeats wrote The Second Coming, vividly capturing the spirit of a fractured post-war Europe ravaged by a flu pandemic. “Things fall apart;” he wrote, “the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worse are full of passionate intensity.” Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. It seems the world is more out of balance than ever. Wars are being waged on many fronts. People are fighting for their lives. Some of the issues are political, some environmental, social, cultural. Many have their roots in widespread economic injustice. What the world lacks is an economics of belonging. They’re three aspects to the economics of belonging that capture the imagination. The first is the right to work, enshrined in international law through the United Nations General Assembly’s International Bill of Human Rights. It’s also guaranteed under Article 1 of the International Labour Organisation’s Abolition of Forced Labour Convention No. 105. Sadly, the right to work and be protected from forced labour or unemployment are often threatened in places where opportunities are limited and political and economic power are heavily concentrated in the hands of a few. Frequently, those few think nothing of withholding income as a means of coercion. I’ve suffered the chilling effects of such egregious abuses of power myself. They’re neither as subtle nor as rare as some might think. In Barbados and the Caribbean, there’s an almost casual tolerance that normalises these abuses as legitimate weapons in the arsenal of politics, government and governance. Have a listen to Episode 8 Part 4 of the My Belonging podcast series, “The Economics of Belonging”, where I explore the rights to work, to create generational wealth, and to reparatory justice as ways of balancing the scales against chronic indebtedness and economic dependency for those at the margins. Don’t forget to subscribe to be notified as future episodes post. Thanks for listening!