In 1982, “48 Hrs” was released, a comedy-action film directed by Walter Miller, which marked Eddie Murphy’s film debut. He played the character of Reggie Hammond, a convicted criminal who was offered 48 hours of freedom to collaborate in an investigation that sought a fortune and two murderers while facing a kidnapping incident. In a certain period of the film, Reggie, in the role of plainclothes police, enters a bar of “rednecks” and sets up a raid in search of information, his skin tone was not allowing him to be very successful with the intervention and this made him escalate the tension. After a few yells, threats and broken glasses, the bartender finally gives some information overwhelmed by fear. Then, the character takes off the cowboy hat to the bartender, puts it on his own head and says, toothpick in mouth, before the silence of the whole bar, “There’s a new sheriff in town… And his name is Reggie Hammond”.
In recent weeks we have learned that OPEC, the acronym of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which is basically the international oil cartel, led by the Saudi lobby, has decided to reduce the world production of oil barrels which, as a consequence, will trigger the price of this raw material, which we will soon begin to notice in the prices of gasoline, gas, electricity, transport and so on. Thus intensifying the severe effects of the energy crisis that we are already experiencing as a consequence of the Russian invasion, plus the historical levels of inflation, plus the reduction of citizens’ purchasing power, plus the severe world crisis that is just around the corner.
The consequences of this decision will naturally fall on their shoulders.
First, the underdeveloped countries that do not produce oil, whose economies face brutal inflation values, where we will begin to see famine crisis erupt in sub-Saharan Africa, starting with Somalia, where hunger is already causing hundreds of thousands of displaced people and hundreds of thousands of deaths from hunger are already anticipated.
Next, the dollar suffers, the currency that serves as a global economic umbrella. At the outset, it may give the impression that the US can profit from this decision by being itself an oil exporter, so they will feel an increase in revenue. However, this decision by the Saudis may mean the beginning of the end of the “dollar standard” in oil transactions, which would throw the dollar to tragic lows, which, with the dollar as the currency accounting for 70% of world transactions and almost 60% of foreign currency reserves in the world central banks, we can only imagine the amplitude of the total currency collapse and the devastating effects it would have on the world economy. It would be enough that Saudi Arabia begins to give clues that it is considering starting to trade oil in other currencies for the dollar price to come down, and for the American and European economy to plunge into the abyss.
Finally, let us talk about Europe, an oil importing region, almost without exploitation of this raw material, which, in addition to the inflationary escalation that is living, will still have to tighten the belt with this decision, which will lead to a widespread discontent of the citizens, whose frustrations will most likely be channeled to the far right, which gains strength every time the economy shakes.
This OPEC decision and this realignment of Saudi Arabia may well prove to be evidence of an international phenomenon similar to what we saw in the post-World War II period, a bipolarisation of the world that places, on one side, the bloc aligned with democracies, and on the other, the bloc aligned with the authoritarians, it seems evident that the authoritarian bloc bears the clear anti-Western interest of ending the few remaining democracies in the world, strangling their economies, manipulating their elections, creating extreme division and bipolarization in their electorates, financing and supporting anti-democratic parties and organizations and threatening or triggering armed conflict of attrition.
All this, today, at the rhythm of the Saudi baton, which momentarily understood that, in the face of a world order in full reordering, they have here their opportunity to tear apart the economic-military cooperation agreements with democracies, and take a top position in a hypothetical new world order, where democracies lose power of dominion over Russian, Chinese, Iranian and Saudi authoritarianism, the latter being the unexpected head of the serpent, who, like Reggie Hammond in front of the bartender at the rednecks bar, pulls the US by the collar, takes off its cowboy hat and, in front of the incredulous silence of democracies and toothpick in the mouth says: “There’s a new Sheriff in Town… And his name is Saudi Arabia”.
