There is so much bombardment of chaos in the world today that many fear that doomsday may be near. And the jabs are more neural than ever because the world is globally connected in a complex web. It is like the clinical complications of the overly sick, with every succeeding prescription losing efficacy! Has the world murdered sleep? Kingdoms rise and fall; civilizations are built and quashed again. This is the recurring law of history. Our world seems to have come to a head. All efforts of the United Nations in 72 years have virtually produced more
divided nations. We seem to be sailing in a sea of opinions but no anchor. Was there some world order before now? And what is the new order or disorder. see the picture below
divided nations. We seem to be sailing in a sea of opinions but no anchor. Was there some world order before now? And what is the new order or disorder. see the picture below
No doubt, the world is under a siege. It is almost indefinable. Clarity and confusion follow each other; order and disorder lock horns; and Darwinism stands ever tall. A hundred years ago people went to bed with two eyes closed. There was peace. There was tranquility. You and your neighbour were sure of each other. But today people are not even sure of their own shadow. There is uncertainty and everybody is nervous – restless. What is it? The global cosmos has merged and the diverse players are in every neighbourhood: money launderers, drug abusers, mafias, warlords, dictators, kidnappers, baby sellers, government treasury looters, financial melt-downers, 419ners, computer virus injectors, fakes of all sorts, death-fearless terrorists, humanity-bereft scientists, atomic bomb manufacturers, climate change moaners, same-sex couples, feminists, gene cloners, gender exchangers, boogie-woogie idlers, one-world religion enthusiasts, porno promoters, rule-of-law violators, environmental upheavals, and of course restless journalists who tell.
It all started a century ago. After the World War I ended in 1918, the world knew peace for exactly eighteen years before the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, decided that war was better than peace. He invaded Ethiopia in 1936 and barely three years later Adolf Hitler of Germany took the baton and led the world into a devastating war. The world has never known peace since Mussolini and Hitler. And it is neither safer today than in 1945, despite all the leagues and unions in the world. With a galloping global population, and atomization of resources, endless clashes of beliefs and cultures, political tensions, bombs and guns in every corner, social recklessness, and daily reports of disasters from around the globe, the very idea of world peace may have breathed its last. If this is true, we are in a new world disorder. All the efforts of the United Nations in seventy-two years have only produced more divided nations. There is so much disarray today that many now fear a real doomsday. And the jabs of disasters are more neural than ever because the world has been globally networked in a complex web.
It all started a century ago. After the World War I ended in 1918, the world knew peace for exactly eighteen years before the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, decided that war was better than peace. He invaded Ethiopia in 1936 and barely three years later Adolf Hitler of Germany took the baton and led the world into a devastating war. The world has never known peace since Mussolini and Hitler. And it is neither safer today than in 1945, despite all the leagues and unions in the world. With a galloping global population, and atomization of resources, endless clashes of beliefs and cultures, political tensions, bombs and guns in every corner, social recklessness, and daily reports of disasters from around the globe, the very idea of world peace may have breathed its last. If this is true, we are in a new world disorder. All the efforts of the United Nations in seventy-two years have only produced more divided nations. There is so much disarray today that many now fear a real doomsday. And the jabs of disasters are more neural than ever because the world has been globally networked in a complex web.
THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT
Throughout history, mankind has never failed to repeat the same mistakes. The rise of each empire or civilization has always been phenomenal but each plummeted just when they reached their peak. The reason is that man is selfish and cannot manage power and moral. He lives in a finite earth which he plunders to his benefit, and everyone wants a sustainable share, or even all the share. Frank Buchman (1878-1961) said, “there is enough in the world for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.” Since existence depends on a finite earth and its endowments, clash is inevitable and war cannot be ruled out, so long as equity and mutuality cannot be peacefully achieved. Olden civilizations – Chinese, Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Greek, and the Roman – all crumbled at the feet of mismanagement of power and moral.
In early Twentieth Century, nineteen hundred years after the Roman Caesars, the imperative of war and unilateral hegemony was re-set by President Teddy Roosevelt of America when he said, "We'll speak loudly and carry a big stick." Of course, America buoyed by its enormous economic and military power, has been the world's policeman ever since. And, to its credit, it has been the best haven of all nationalities in the world. However, while the Cold War with Soviet Union lasted, several irrepressible fractions developed across the world in different countries, some religious, some ethnic or tribal, some political, and some even anti-America. By the time the Cold War ended in 1989, the world was full of bleeding sores of wars, of warlords and of war machines. With the breakup of the Soviet Union into several republics in 1991, and with the “fall” of communism and the triumph and ascendancy of capitalism, America's international pre-eminence became incontestable.
Unfortunately, the years 1990 to 2000 witnessed the rise of many other “powers” and major globalizing developments. There was, and still continues, a fast-paced globalization of culture, trade, travel, and democracy, all powered by the pervasive information and telecommunications technology. The Internet became the global 'village' arena for both the good and the obnoxious. Inter-continental communications and multi-country operations became extremely easy. Both good and evil utilized these enormous technologies. This is the period that witnessed terrors in the moulds of El Salvador's, Somalia's, Rwanda massacre, Afghanistan's Taliban, Northern Ireland, Hamas versus Israel, Albanians versus the Serbians, to say nothing of many other mushrooming local conflicts. It is a wonder the world did not enter a World War III before Year 2000. The Twentieth Century began with war and ended with war. Though it has the highest achievements in science and technology, including several trips to the moon, it is also the bloodiest century in human history – very modern but very bloody! Unfortunately this new century started with war and terrorism and who knows the end! Sleep with two eyes closed is getting harder.
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