In my last chapter, I wrote about the man-made famine unfolding in Gaza. For those who doubted it, CBC ran a special piece this week confirming the crisis. They reported that no outside journalists are being allowed into Gaza—Israel has barred access. Apparently, this is unprecedented: journalists have never before been entirely denied entry to a humanitarian disaster zone. As a result, CBC and other news organizations worldwide are relying on local journalists who are living through the nightmare, sharing their footage with the outside world.
The images are horrific. People trampling each other—or even stabbing one another—for the chance to grab a little food dropped from the skies by countries like Canada and the United States. Each trip to an aid centre is a gamble with death: they risk being shot by Israeli forces. Why? Because they are suspected of being Hamas operatives, when in reality most are innocent, starving civilians.
Happy Birthday
September 1st was my birthday. I turned 55—I was fortunate, I wasn't starving. To mark the day, my wife and I went to Old Montreal to visit an exhibit: EXPO WORLD PRESS PHOTO MONTREAL. It featured 138 photographs from 42 award-winning photographers across 30 countries. Most of the images were taken in crisis zones and war-torn regions. Some were deeply disturbing, but often the accompanying stories were even more shocking.
After walking through the gallery, overwhelmed by the sheer weight of human suffering, my wife and I tried to catch our breath. We left and went to dinner at one of Montreal’s finest restaurants—resuming our Western, first-world lives. The exhibit also included photos of homelessness in Québec, another growing crisis. And as we made our way to dinner, we walked past homeless people and musicians busking in the streets. My wife, ever the critic, commented on the song choices as we strolled past: "Redemption Song" by Bob Marley, "Imagine" by John Lennon, and "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. Three songs that distilled humanity’s fragile hope—hauntingly appropriate after what we had just seen, but certainly not typical dinner music.
As we waited for our delicious meal, we reflected on those photos and on the state of the world. Everywhere you look, there is a crisis: wildfires tearing through communities across North America, especially here in Canada; the war between Russia and Ukraine grinding on with no end in sight, despite Mr. Trump’s confident claims that he could end it in 24 hours; and a genocide in Sudan that barely registers in headlines.
In Sudan, the civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed more than 150,000 civilians through violence, famine, and disease, while displacing over 12 million people. The atrocities include drone attacks, mass detentions, executions, and the weaponization of famine. The scale dwarfs even the crisis in Gaza. UN agencies report famine conditions in North Darfur’s Zamzam camp and other IDP camps, with more than 700,000 children facing acute malnutrition and estimates of 522,000 child deaths since the war began. A cholera epidemic has infected nearly 383,000 people and killed over 4,400, compounding the suffering. And yet the world barely notices.
And then, of course, there is Gaza. And doubtless other crises across Africa, South America, and Asia that we may never even hear about.
Scraping by
My wife and I compared our reality with that of millions enduring misery across the globe. She put it perfectly: “I’m not more deserving of a happy, peaceful life than anyone else. We are all human beings.” Yet the world remains divided between haves and have-nots. Affluent nations and philanthropists may contribute aid, but the balance is still wildly skewed. There is enough food to feed everyone, yet people starve.
We asked ourselves: Should we have donated to relief efforts instead of splurging on dinner? Did we really need to spend $170 on a meal? Of course not. But we did. It was my birthday, after all—right? Does that make us bad people? I don’t think so. As a compromise, we agreed to donate on top of our dinner, even though we ourselves are scraping by. I also gave some spare change to a homeless man on the way.
But let’s be honest: what “scraping by” means for us is nothing compared to what those poor souls endure. And even if we donate, how much difference will it really make? The scale of the problem is so immense that it demands a collective global response—political will, resources, and action. We all know what’s happening “over there,” but we feel helpless. Our own lives, while far easier, are not without real problems and real pain.
I know this firsthand. Over 30 years ago, I was diagnosed with a chronic degenerative autoimmune disease. The life I thought I’d have changed almost overnight. Since then, I’ve been through hell: revolving-door healthcare, endless doctor visits, surgeries, joint replacements and fusions, hundreds of X-rays and scans, long stretches in rehabilitation hospitals. My body has been ravaged. Soon, I face shoulder replacement surgery—an ordeal that will be hard to recover from. My reality is not easy.
And yet, when I see images of starving children or parents clutching lifeless babies, I remind myself: as much as I suffer, at least I am not in Gaza, Sudan, or Ukraine. I imagine people there, also burdened by chronic conditions, enduring war and famine on top of their illnesses. That thought keeps me humble.
CEO Extinction
The world is on fire, and even those of us who are bystanders will not remain untouched forever. I recently watched an interview on Diary of a CEO. The guest argued: “The problem is capitalism; for capitalism to work, someone has to win while someone else loses. Capitalism will eventually collapse—it’s unsustainable.” He’s right. Capitalism is cannibalistic. It has no concern for your neighbour. Americans may recoil at the word, but socialism—or at least some form of it—is the only viable way forward.
And then there is artificial intelligence. *Another guest, a computer engineer who has spent a decade trying to make AI safe, warned: “Within two to three years, we’ll face massive unemployment.” He predicts 99% unemployment by 2030 as AI agents and robots take over. Driverless cars already exist; goodbye, Uber. No job is spared—even CEO’s will be replaced. And, electricians and plumbers, he claims, will be replaced by humanoid robots; they're coming, from a galaxy not so far away.
*I highly recommend you watch the one-and-a-half-hour interview with Dr. Roman Yampolskiy: These Are the Only 5 Jobs That Will Remain in 2030! on the DOAC YouTube channel.
So, without wanting to sound like a doomsayer: if war and famine don’t undo us, our own inventions just might—extinction by AI. Either way, we’ll have done it to ourselves. Brace yourselves—the next five to ten years could be life-changing, and not in a good way.
I leave you with a version of "What a Wonderful World" by Jon Batiste.
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