Chaos is everywhere. Egypt is a country deadlocked between the Islamists of the Brotherhood and those that hate them. Morsi was pushed out of power by the military. Still no peace and the Morsiites want power back. No surprise there but chaos nonetheless. Iraq is another place that has not seen much peace for quite a long time. The Sunni-Shia divide is becoming wider and more dangerous by the day. The current regime is not governing for all Iraqis. It has essentially become a Shia regime. It is exclusive and authoritarian. But then those who know Iraq did not think a military invasion by the United States was the best vehicle to establish democracy anywhere let alone Iraq. Syria continues to bleed. The world is justifiably at a loss . If the powers that be support the 'rebels', there is no guarantee that Al Qaida will not wrest control of the post Assad Syria. There are already signs of things to come. Assad has butchered thousands calling them terrorists. The 'rebels' ,at least some of them, are now beginning to attack the civilian Alawites. Russia and US are at loggerheads. The Snowden leaks have damaged their relationship. The Palestinian Authority has no authority whatsoever over Hamas. At least for the foreseeable future they will not work together if their life depended on it which in a sense does if they are to negotiate a viable Palestinian state in the Middle East.
India and Pakistan are farther away from that most elusive sub-continental peace that has eluded them since the partition in1947. They have fought many wars . The discord continues. Several Indian soldiers just lost their lives to incursions from the other side . Pakistan of course admits to none of it and in fact makes counter allegations. Things have turned ugly. There goes the hope that the election of the current president Nawaz Sharif may provide an opportunity for improved Indo-Pak relations. Firing along the line of control has intensified. The situation has never been this tense since the battle of Kargil some years ago that proved costly for both sides in terms of loss of life. Pakistan faces daily internal assaults from the Pakistani Taliban and sectarian violence in and around Karachi. It is one country threatening to become many; something that is not in anybody's interest except the merchants of terror.
Violence and attacks by the Taliban in Afghanistan have recently increased and become more brazen. Peace is a thing of the past or that of a distant future in that country. I hope I am wrong. For all practical purposes the Taliban is set to return to rule Afghanistan sooner or later. The government of Karzai and the US are reported to be in talks with them even as Taliban continues killings in Kabul itself and close to many government establishments. The butchers of yesteryears and today may be the rulers of Afghanistan tomorrow.
India is facing some internal challenges as well. The violence of the Naxalite Communists is just one of them. Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir were rocked by violence in the last week or two. In Bihar signifying how low Indian politics can go, one Party is accusing another of intentionally inciting communal violence. If the allegation is true, things are bad. If it is not true, it is downright irresponsible and incendiary to trade such allegations. As it is the government of the day is adding fuel to every separatist, regionalist and divisive force in the country by succumbing to the division of Andhra even if one accepts the government's claim it is not at all compelled by the electoral calculations in its approach to Andhra. Corruption is everywhere . Scams galore. Few have the courage to say 'plague on all your houses'. The 'system' gets all the blame for corruption. Even the well-intentioned such as Anna Hazare continue to focus on the institutional change totally forgetting the human element of the system. The laws may need to be tweaked here and there but the that is only one percent of the battle. The ninety nine percent of the battle is changing the values and mores of all Indians. Oh , OK almost all Indians. Though I have not lived in India for the last 49 years I include myself among those that need to change. So corruption will end when 99% refuse to tolerate it and participate in it . That is the difficult battle India needs to win. That is the biggest challenge of all.
China has the same challenge; corruption and lots of it. Things are more difficult to challenge in China because liberalised economy which has spawned huge growth and much corruption is not accompanied by any significant degree of political freedom. There are at least 70,000 incidents annually of riots, group violence and the like that mainly go unreported. There is a lot of pent up desire for more democracy. If that does not happen China will continue to become perhaps more prosperous but certainly less at peace with itself.
Africa's GDP is growing much faster than before. It is facing the problems of exploitation by the major world players. The question of redistribution of that wealth to a larger number of people has not been addressed. Nor has there been significant qualitative improvement in health and education for most Africans. South Africa of Nelson Mandela was a beacon of hope and progress. After he stepped down South Africa has not lived up to Mandela's dreams or vision either domestically or internationally. Its post Mandela record is disappointing.
I shall write about South and central America another day. Closer to home in Mexico , North America, the war on drugs is proving to be long and deadly. The progress in other aspects of life ,though not unimpressive, pales in comparison to the destruction wrought by the failed yet continuing war on drugs.
Yet despite this overwhelming fog of chaos, felt particularly by the news junkies like me, there are movements big and small carried on by people in all corners of the world that give hope. Those peace loving selfless people need to speak louder. We need to hear their voices too at least on the social media. The mainstream media occasionally covers these voices. Let us hear more of them!!
