There are great philosophers who try to explain the essence of life and the futility of war and hate feelings. But, their preachings also seem to be ending up as mere listening posts.
by N. S. Venkataraman
Dawn of the year 2023 will be celebrated with people all over the world welcoming the year with bright illumination, bursting of firecrackers and exchange of good wishes, with soothsayers and astrologers predicting the events in the forthcoming year and leaders of various governments across the world greeting the people promising an era of peace and prosperity. Of course, prayers are also offered in religious centres seeking prosperity and happy conditions.
Events in the past several years show that such celebrations and wishes on new year’s eve have not been followed by showering an era of peace and harmony but the world continued to be strife-torn with conflicts and animosity between nations and individuals remaining undiminished.
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| Battle for the future has to be fought and won in the minds and hearts of the people. Will it happen in the year 2023 ? [ Illustration: Special Arrangement] |
Of course, in the year 2023, there would continue to be spectacular achievements in the field of science and technology with a greater reach in communication facilities and in a variety of other fields. But, however, what is unlikely to change is the mindset of people. It appears that violence and self-centredness in the hearts of men and women all over the world would remain at the same level. This is the experience of mankind over several decades.
The year 2023 will continue to be confronted, like the previous years, with several challenges and issues like global warming and climate change, terrorist attacks, conflicts between nations, atrocities against women and so on.
Climate challenge :
COP 27, a global meeting to discuss and deliberate on the global climate threat has concluded in Egypt, after animated discussions and passing paper resolutions, with COP 27 ending no better than COP 26 earlier.
The fundamental issues posing climate challenges like the need to eliminate fossil fuels do not look like happening at anytime soon. Oil-rich countries do not want to stop the production of crude oil and natural gas and coal-rich countries do not want to reduce the production of coal. All promises made in COP 27 look like going for a toss.
Russia Ukraine war :
Russia Ukraine war is now going on for nearly ten months now, with Russia attacking Ukraine, destroying infrastructure, killing innocent people in Ukraine mercilessly and forcing millions of citizens of Ukraine to run out of Ukraine as refugees.
It is a war taking place on Ukraine’s territory and not on the territory of Russia, obviously indicating that Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is only a defender.
With USA and NATO countries supplying arms and ammunition to Ukraine to defend itself and making no real efforts to end the war and Russia is absolutely not concerned about the world opinion against its aggression and United Nations simply discussing and watching the scenario helplessly, it is obvious that the objective of world peace remains a far cry.
Certainly, the year 2023 would continue to be war-torn in one part of the world or the other.
Terrorist attacks :
Terrorist attacks are continuing to take place in different countries, almost every day due to one reason or the other.
Apart from terrorist attacks due to political reasons, what is known as Islamic terrorism is a grave concern, with people being killed by terrorists due to religious fanaticism. As yet, it appears that terrorists across the world continue to have a field day.
Slaughter of innocents:
The frequent shooting down of innocent people in public places in USA and other countries, for no apparent reason except due to blind hatred feeling of the shooter, only highlights the fact that violence is firmly rooted in the mindset of several individuals and there is no indication that such mindset would be reformed.
Atrocities against women :
While it is claimed that the world is forging ahead due to technological developments, such developments seem to have no impact on modernising the thoughts of certain religious heads and extremists in some countries.
The suppression of women and denial of rights of women, as a matter of policy, by governments in Iran and Afghanistan and a few other Islamic countries, clearly point to the fact that prejudice of men against women continues to prevail in some parts of the world.
While the atrocities against women and restrictions imposed on women’s lives have shocked many people, nothing could be done to stop such atrocities. The women in such countries continue to suffer, with people in other parts of the world watching the scenario like fence-sitters.
Poverty issue :
Deep poverty continues to prevail in several African and Asian countries, with no hope that the conditions there would improve anytime soon.
Developed countries which are in much better positions and have adequate resources, have not come forward to help the poor countries to overcome these poverty conditions in a significant way.
On the other hand, it is often alleged that advanced countries and multi-national companies based in developed countries exploit these poor African nations by exploiting their vast mineral and natural resources.
Offenders go scot-free:
There have been deep atrocities committed by one nation against another and offenders have not been taught a lesson.
An immediate example is the atrocities committed by China against Tibet, by forcibly occupying the defenceless land after killing the Tibetan protesters.
This indicates that” might is right” conditions have been prevailing in the world for several decades. There is no indication that these conditions will change in the foreseeable future.
Isolated group of good samaritans :
The fact is that there are still small and isolated groups of people in the world, who want to promote compassion, peace and love but these groups are too few and far between and really have no significant impact on world conditions.
There are great philosophers who try to explain the essence of life and the futility of war and hate feelings. But, their preachings also seem to be ending up as mere listening posts.
Is the world celebrating the new year in a vacuum?
Now, what is the hope and where does the world go from here?
In such circumstances, the pessimism of thoughts as it may look, the ground reality has to be seen and realised without wishful thinking that the year 2023 would be any better than the previous years.
With the thought process and mindset of people in the world not having changed over several decades and wars and conflicts and self-centredness becoming part of the global events amongst countries and people, should we conclude that the wishes and greetings on the new year’s eve have no significance?
The pre-conditions for the wishes on the eve of the year 2023 for peace and harmony to be realised is that the battle for the future has to be fought and won in the minds and hearts of the people. Will it happen in the year 2023?
N. S. Venkataraman is a trustee with the "Nandini Voice for the Deprived," a not-for-profit organization that aims to highlight the problems of downtrodden and deprived people and support their cause and to promote probity and ethical values in private and public life and to deliberate on socio-economic issues in a dispassionate and objective manner.
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