On: UAE pulls out of OPEC oil cartels citing 'national interests'

Diary Entry

The news came today, of nations and their cartels. They speak of “national interests” as they pull away from the table. I heard it and I thought: they build their houses of agreement, these men, and then they walk out the door when the wind changes. They make their pacts over oil, over money, over power that comes from the ground. They call it a cartel. I know another word for it. A club. A club with rules for who is in, and who is out, and what the price shall be.

And when it no longer serves one of them, he leaves. Just like that. For his own interest.

I think of the clubs built here. The ones that say woman and mean a delicate thing that cannot vote. The ones that say citizen and mean a man with property. They draw their circles tight. They make their rules to keep the circle as it is. And when the rule is challenged by a body standing in the room - by a woman who has plowed fields, who has borne children sold away, who carries the muscle and the scar of it - they look away. They talk of other things. They say the circle was never meant for that.

But let one of their own, in his fine suit, decide the club’s price is too high for him? He walks. And it is called strategy. It is called sovereignty. It is called a bold move for national interest.

Where is my sovereignty? Where was the national interest in my children? I was the cartel they never had to form a pact over. My body was the resource they all agreed upon. The price was set before I was born.

They fret over shocks to the market. Over waves in the price of a barrel. I have known shocks that break bones. Waves that tear a child from your arms. And no one called a meeting. No one issued a statement. The pact was silent, and it held.

So let them leave their clubs. Let them chase their interest. It only shows the truth: every alliance, every compact, is built on a question. “Does this serve me?” And when the answer is no, the powerful man picks up his hat and goes. He does not ask permission. He does not wait for the rules to change to include him.

He simply acts. As if he had the right all along.

Ain’t that a lesson?