A New Decade has Dawned

The new decade has dawned and with it has come new hopes and new aspirations for all of us. This blog has always tried to endorse and encourage optimism among its readers. But as we know, all is not that sound and rosy in our world. There are lot of works to be done this decade in our efforts to bring down poverty considerably, to bring in sustainable development and to create a new world order that is based on peace and tranquillity and not on war and bloodshed. Some issues are pleading for our immediate attention.

• Millennium Development Goals – Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted a global action plan to end poverty by the year 2015. We have only 4 more years to make good our promises made to the poor people in this world. An analysis of the goals achieved hitherto reveals that we are awfully short of attaining the goals by 2015. International organisations, government, research organisations, foundations, private sector and the civil society must kick start an honest drive to achieve the MDGs.

• Climate change – The issue of climate change got a lot of attention in the last decade; or we could say that it was in the last decade that a significant global attention fell on this grave crisis. Climate change summits in Copenhagen and Cancun, in 2009 and 2010 respectively, saw world leaders contemplating on the steps needed to avert the huge risks of climate change on humanity. It must be ruefully held that very little has been agreed upon in the summits to counter perilous effects of climate change. Floods that hit Australia, Brazil and Sri Lanka recently are examples of the sort of havoc that climate change can create around the world. It is imperative for us to take immediate actions to avoid the harmful effects of climate change.

• Terrorism – As anyone would approve, terrorism is going to be one of the most important issues that the world would face this decade. Terrorism of various colours causing havoc around the world. A paradigm shift in which we view terrorism happened last decade with the September 11 attacks on the United States by terrorists under al-Qaeda. It was also in the last decade that the LTTE in Sri Lanka was exterminated from the island nation. This decade the world community has its task cut out as Osama bin Laden is still at large; all efforts to capture him resulted in fiasco. At the same time terrorism is on the rise in all parts of the world, none as immense as in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Countries like Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Israel, Indonesia, Sudan, and many more countries are facing problems of terrorism or armed struggle. It would take a concerted effort from all countries to wipe off terrorism from the face of the world.

• Intolerance – Intolerance of various kinds, religious intolerance in particular, is of grave concern in today’s world. As in the last decade, in this decade also we would have to face it and counter with all our might. The latest manifestation of religious intolerance was in Pakistan, where the liberal and secular leader of the Pakistan People’s Party and Punjab Governor Salman Taseer was shot dead by his own security guard. Reason, he spoke against and stood against the archaic blasphemy law in Pakistan. Intolerance of the state towards people who criticise its action is on the rise all over the world, including India. The arrest and detention of Dr. Binayak Sen in India is a perfect example of state’s intolerance. Many Communists countries are also notorious for their intolerance. China’s indifference towards those who criticise the government’s human rights violations is a perfect example of that. Intolerance is inimical to freedom of speech and expression. In the new decade we need to take all actions to protect freedom of speech and expression and to curtail intolerance in all forms, otherwise democracy, hence human freedom would be in peril.

• Nuclear tussle – The alleged efforts by Iran and North Korea to make nuclear warheads have created bewilderment in the west, particularly the United States. The US put pressure on the United Nations to place sanctions on both countries. It has created two divergent fronts in the UN, those who support the sanctions and those who oppose it. In the new decade the international community has to take efforts to find solution to this problem.

• Peace processes – In the new decade its imperative for the world community to accelerate peace process in West Asia and find solution to the Palestinian problem. The Gaza strip is an open prison for the Palestinians and Israel has put a lot of sanctions in Gaza. As a result the people in Gaza are in dire straits and are in need of medicines and food. Peace efforts by different countries as well as the United Nations haven’t brought any palpable difference to the West Asian crisis. Let it be this decade that would stay in history as the decade that has found a solution for this serious crisis. Kashmir issue also calls for immediate action and there is a need to move forward with the peace process on the issue.

There are lot of other issues and concerns we have to face in this decade and what has been written about in the former paragraphs are only a sample of it. We need to put in our brains and minds together to solve all issues of this world. Let us hope that this decade would predominantly be one of peace and tranquillity all over the world.