In his ‘Allegory of the Cave’ Plato narrates the painful journey his cave dwellers must take: from darkness to sunlight, and from ignorance to enlightenment if they are not to remain  prisoners, in chains since childhood, mistaking the shadows on the wall for reality. In his 2026 Davos Canadian PM Mark Carney spoke of a similar journey for countries like Canada, with a basic difference that these western group of nations dominated by the United States, were willing prisoners and knew that the shadows on the wall were not reality.

“For decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the rules-based international order.

“We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.

“We participated in the rituals, and we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.

“This bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition… great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited…. You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration, when integration becomes the source of your subordination.”

The Western bloc which constitutes around 16% of the world population has been subordinating the rest of the 84% of humanity for centuries through brutal colonialism and its continuation by other means when formal political independence started being given to colonies after 1946. Sovereignty is much more than having an indigenous head of state, a local elected parliament and a national anthem. A state is truly sovereign only when it controls its territory, its natural resources and can decide in the national interest of its people.

President Sukarno of Indonesia, addressing fellow leaders of former colonies in Bandung in 1955 was under no illusion that formal political independence meant the end of colonialism. “Colonialism has also its modern dress, in the form of economic control, intellectual control, actual physical control by a small but alien community within a nation. It is a skilful and determined enemy, and it appears in many guises. It does not give up its loot easily.”

“Small and great nations are represented here, with people professing almost every religion … political faith … economic doctrine .. .

“It is not an exclusive club either, not a bloc which seeks to oppose any other bloc. Rather it is a body of enlightened, tolerant opinion which seeks to impress on the world that all men and all countries have their place under the sun – to impress on the world that it is possible to live together, meet together, speak to each other, without losing one’s individual identity; and yet to contribute to the general understanding of matters of common concern, and to develop a true consciousness of the interdependence of men and nations for their well-being and survival on earth.”

The western countries have still to embrace this world-view. They are still not willing to do so. But now the non-western countries are not willing to continue to be dominated and subordinated by the powerful elites of the west.

The Epstein elite

70 years ago in Bandung the Chinese PM Chou en Lai said: “Today when the peoples of Asia and Africa are increasingly taking their destiny into their own hands, even though the present economic and cultural co-operation among ourselves cannot yet be of a very large scale, it can be definitely said that this co-operation based on equality and mutual benefit will have a great future.”

Singapore diplomat Kishore Maububani writes in the current issue of The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs:

“The West believes that it is a superior civilization. Undoubtedly, the West has outperformed the Rest over the past 200 years. However, when viewed against the backdrop of the past 2000 years, this was an anomaly. In the twenty-first century, we will see a return to the natural multi-civilizational world. The West refuses to accept this transition. Even if its economic growth has slowed down, the West believes that it remains morally superior. Why? Because of its respect for democracy and human rights. The Rest see the West differently. On human rights, the double standards of the West stand out. On democracy, the Rest see the drift toward plutocracy and populism. To bridge the growing divide with the Rest, the West must get off its moral pedestal, embrace humility, and accept the fundamental equality of all civilizations.”

The Epstein files  show the moral depravity of the global elite dominating the West protected by a culture of impunity through extreme wealth and unchecked power turning democracies into plutocracies. Many citizens have lost their trust in politics as they see their governments ruling in the interest of their donors and not for the common good of the people. The revelations in the Epstein files go beyond individual criminal acts and some rotten apples at the top. They flourished because they had a whole habitat to nurture them through a network of political, financial, military, security and media . The whole apple orchard needs to be overhauled and replanted.

The rise of politicians like Donald Trump in western countries shows how dysfunctional our systems have become, making our citizens feel let down to the point of preferring demolitionists to fake builders.

Already, over 2300 years ago Aristotle asserted that democratically governed states “pursue equality most of all things”. To be able to do this, they “used to ostracize men thought to be outstandingly powerful on account of wealth …and used to banish them out of the city for fixed periods of time.” Unless oligarchs are banished from our political systems, they will continue to corrode our democracies and harm the rest of the world they want to subordinate.

Times of Malta 13 February 2026