Before I continue, I want to be clear about why I’m writing—and what I bring to the conversation.
I’m not an academic in the way you understand that to be. I’m not part of any institution. I don’t come from wealth or influence—I grew up in the projects. What I do have is a lifetime of experience with what power looks like when it is used against people who have none. I earned a PhD from the school of hard knocks. That is my expertise.
If what I’ve shared leads some to dismiss my concerns and blunt assessments, so be it. Seeing how power works up close provides a clarity that can’t be learned from the outside—or from elites who live removed from it.
I grew up in conditions where sexual abuse, physical abuse, hunger, bullying, and exploitation were part of my daily life, beginning at or around age four. That shapes how a person develops. Anyone who understands childhood development knows the ego is still forming at that age.
This is not about sympathy. I’m not offering my experiences to be used or exploited. I’m stating them because they explain how I see what I’m looking at.
You learn how power works early. You learn how deprivation is used. You learn how people behave when they control access to what others need.
When I look at what is happening globally, I don’t see policy first. I see broken people and the dead. I see broken children—too many babies and children killed because of lies, greed, and power.
I recognize the pattern.
It is a use of power.
It is an abuse of power.
It is destroying our world and all that live within it.
The lives and potential of at least 170 people—most of them schoolchildren—were destroyed when a likely U.S. strike hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab during the opening hours of the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran.
Control of Resources: Food, Water, and Power
What is actually happening
Most people have never seen what prolonged hunger does to a body. In the United States, the media often presents the idea that this does not happen—or, if it does, that it is not connected to U.S. actions.
But the reality is documented. Many choose to look away.
Children with swollen stomachs from protein deficiency. Limbs thin. Energy gone. Growth slowed or stopped. Doctors call it wasting and stunting.
In Gaza, Yemen, Sudan, and parts of the Sahel, this is documented reality.
When food systems collapse, people ration—one meal a day, more often nothing.
Water follows the same path.
When systems fail, people drink what they can—often contaminated. Cholera and other diseases spread quickly under those conditions. This has been documented repeatedly in Yemen and other regions.
These are not isolated crises.
They follow a pattern:
Conflict
Infrastructure damage
Restricted access
Economic pressure
Over time, systems weaken.
You don’t have to destroy everything at once. You can limit what comes in, what gets repaired, and what people can access.
The result shows up in bodies.
