Who runs the world?

President Woodrow Wilson said: “Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacturing, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something.

They know that there is a power somewhere so organised, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”

I believe the whole world is influenced directly and indirectly by the collective forces and actions of a top wealthy elite class. I believe that there are people who are controlling the greater processes of geopolitics and the global economy.

Every country is divided into four categories of people: the poor(P), the rich(R), Ultra rich people (URP) and Super Ultra Rich people (SURP). I believe that the SURP runs the world and they play key roles in every integral global decision.

The P are in the bottom of the food chain and are struggling. Some call themselves middle class people when they build a nice house, buy a car and a few investments. The Ps have high risk of getting killed, being misinformed, and being controlled via threats. Hence, they can’t make major decisions.

The R and the URP are people in power, and they serve as arms of the SURP. They even have potential to become SURPs themselves. They have low risks of getting killed or being threatened. Hence, they work as executors of major decisions.

SURP are at the top of the food chain (Giant business magnets, Royal family members and Secret societies) where no scavenger or predator can bother them. They’re mostly people who have parlayed generational wealth into something that resembles a societal institution. Their command is the law, even in a democratic country. They are at their highest potential, they can crash the markets, they can choke a nation to poverty, and they can lift a nation from poverty. Hence, they control the world.

Most of the Rs and URPs answer to SURPs who financed their campaigns, who influenced (or own) the media, and put them there in positions of power to protect their wealth. The generally used term for these people is oligarchs, and the form of control is oligarchy, from the Greek for “rule by the few”.

There are people out there who have wasted their entire lives hunting down the Illuminati when all they really needed to do was to look out of their window and find the nearest corporation.

The top 100 wealthiest individuals control more wealth than the poorest 3.5 billion people in the world. So, a very small number of people have more wealth literally than billions of people.

Basically, the thing that runs this world is money and the people who run it are those who have money. Rich people essentially control everything, whether they are rich and in public office because they are rich, or merely have bought politicians off.

Al Pacino’s character, Tony Montana, discusses women with his friend in the film, ‘Scarface’, but the topic can just as easily be applied to anything in the world. 

“In this country, you have to make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women,” Tony explains to his friend.

Power makes the world go round. And power is acquired through wealth. Once you have wealth, you have everything. His words are as true in 2024 as they were back in 1983.

However, Museveni didn’t follow Tony’s advice as he invested in political power first before acquiring wealth. Museveni served in Obote I, Lule and Binaisa’s governments, but he invested his money in acquiring political power first. He could have built a mansion for himself as most ministers or opposition leaders do nowadays, but he didn’t. 

Money gives you some power and buys you access to a lot more, but when the chips fall down, people with political power have the power, because they have the coercive might of the State behind them.

For instance, the late Sulaiman Kiggundu (inalilahi wahina ilayihi rajiuna) was inarguably extremely rich and had a tremendous amount of power right about until the point he was arrested. Now, people born in the last 17 years don’t even know that Greenland Bank once existed on Kampala Road.

My point though is that there is an upper echelon of people who have far more power than you and me and they’re in varying degrees of shadow. The good news is that God controls all humans in this world.

People with money rule this world. It’s as true in capitalist America and Europe as it is in “communist” China. Once you reach a certain level of wealth, you gain access to the highest echelons of power and life’s a cake walk from there on out. Money opens doors that nothing else will open for you, and this is true everywhere in the world. Go and make money,guys! 

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba, [email protected]