Hopes and Prospects

This is what Noam Chomsky calls his latest book on Palestine. It seems quite pertinent to extend this characterization to the entire world as we enter into the second decade of the 21st century. As we march forward, it is instructive to reflect upon the bygone first decade and learn lessons from its events if there are any. The world in the 21st century has not been particularly peaceful or prosperous. It has been marred by wars, deprivation, unemployment, homelessness, famine like conditions, accelerated climate change, increasing gap between rich and poor and an increasing dystopia in many parts of the world. The bloody first decade has seen hundreds of thousands of lives lost on the altar of Iraq and Afghanistan wars and thousands of Palestinians killed by Israel. This is not counting lives lost in skirmishes in other parts of the world like Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. While America transcends from Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ to Orwellian ‘1984,’ societal conditions in other parts of the world have deteriorated as well.

France and England saw major steps towards erosion of a welfare state despite massive popular protests, Scandinavian countries that used to pride on their social infrastructure are slowly following suit. Countries like Iceland too have been severely affected by economic crises. Many of the erstwhile USSR states have receded into third world status and are ruled by most corrupt governments. The fall of the socialist state has brought more misery and impoverishment than prosperity which has become concentrated only to a few. The torture of Western Saharan population in Africa by its neighbor Morocco supported by the US continues unabated. An aerial view over Western Sahara will show miles and miles of camps where Western Saharan people live with no housing, food or medicine. Moroccan army has used rape as a tool to subdue and torment Western Saharan population. In some ways, their condition is worse than Palestinians who too have a refugee like status in their own land. The latest revelations show the Palestinian population has been deceived by its own leaders in dealing with Israel and how they capitulated under US and Israeli pressures. Conditions in Middle Eastern countries have not been uplifting at all with propped dictators and regimes ruling with iron hands. Populations in Middle Eastern countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Syria are now out on streets demanding regime changes. It started from Iran when people came on streets demanding Ahmadinejad to step down. Sudan, the largest country in Africa is on the brink of partition due to severe repression of South Sudanese by their Northern ‘brothers’ since decades now. The referendum in South Sudan was overwhelmingly in favor of secession. Uganda’s anti-gay stance of its media and establishment led to the slaying of its prominent LGBT activist. Zimbabwe has no respite from inflation running into several thousand percentage points.

The Indian subcontinent has its own significant act in the world play of human drama. It starts from repression and killing of Tamil Tigers by Sri Lankan authorities which also cost thousands of civilian lives caught in cross-fire to Pakistan, whose one-fifth of the land was under floods and its leaders were conniving and indirectly supporting the drone attacks in their own territory. Baluchistan’s struggles have increased to get freedom from Pakistan. Bangladeshi activist Moshrefa Mushi remains behind bars as does Aun Suu Kyi of Myanmar. In our own country India, the conviction of Binayak Sen has made a mockery of democracy and human rights. Maoists in India through armed insurrection have raised the acute problem of tribals and their livelihood to the highest level where the Indian state and the mainstream media are in no position to ignore or shove it under the carpet. Repression in Kashmir has now reached a flash point and Kashmiris now demand nothing less than secession from the Indian state. It is important to note that Kashmiris have nothing against Indian people from whom they in fact seek support to address their long standing grievances and brutal atrocities by Indian army.

These are troubling but promising times. To see the significance of present times, the turmoil in different parts of the world needs to be seen in perspective. However gloomy our current times might seem, there is a very strong silver lining to it. If we compare this first decade of 21st century and the usher into second decade to the beginning of the 20th century, these troubled times in fact represent significant progress in human terms. While in early 20th century, most part of the world was struggling to throw away the yoke of colonialism, the struggles now are for human rights, dignity of life and better conditions of living. While 20th century saw people rising against foreign rule and getting rid of them, 21st century is seeing people rise against their own despotic regimes, seeking regime change and sweeping democratic reforms with their say in governance. The start of 2011 is remarkable for culmination of popular protest in the Middle East. As people poured on streets in Tunisia and forced its dictator to flee, it triggered a domino effect in other countries of the region. Egypt has followed suit with Yemen on close heels with these countries. Tunisia by many is dubbed as the first WikiLeaks revolution. Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is almost at the brink of ouster unless the US comes to its rescue with massive military repression. Jordan, Algeria, Syria have followed suit. Popular protest in Algeria resulted in the end of 30 year old emergency rule in the country. Tens of thousands of workers protested in Turkey for labor reforms. The significance of these uprisings can be seen from the comment of John McCain who dubbed these uprisings as ‘virus’ that needed to be stopped. This more or less sums up the response of the imperial America who wants to maintain status quo and dictatorship in the region. Their fear resembles 1960s when the US attacked Vietnam on false pretext of preventing communism from spreading to other countries.

This is what that gives hope. The character of the unipolar world is changing. The cracks and fissures in the unipolar world are becoming visible through people’s protest and unrest. Two other major factors changing the landscape of unipolar world are resurgent Russia and the phenomenon of WikiLeaks. The subverting of secrecy regime by WikiLeaks that exposed thousands of diplomatic cables and secret documents has eroded the US’s so-called moral authority and has laid bare its ugly, imperial, anti-democratic and anti-human face. Its propped dictators are facing music from their own populations and the US is not in a position to do anything but to conform to the turn of the events. So are erstwhile imperial powers. The recognition of Palestine as a state by several Latin American countries is another strong signal of eroding US authority and rising liberal, socialist base in the world. Latin America is under the wave of socialist reform and seems determined to break away from the shackles of US influence. Bolivia, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile are leading examples. France, England, Spain, Germany (old Europe) have already seen massive protests over war and several social issues like education, employment and degrading social services. Only through turmoil human society can and has transcended to a better, humane and more just world. Unfortunately, it has never been possible without sacrifice of scores of selfless people who have dedicated their lives for the cause. These popular protests are largely leaderless and are forcing significant changes in the power structure of their countries. This is a marked departure from 20th century rebellions and protests when leadership was crucial to organize and lead protests. Had John Lennon been alive, he would have been happy to see his song ‘Power to the People’ being realized in so many countries.

The financial crisis that triggered in the middle of the first decade not only reached its crescendo towards the end of the decade resulting in massive job losses, homelessness and general decline of standard of living in the Western world but has also showed the destructive and unsustainable nature of capitalism. The prosperity of nineties now appears like a far-fetched dream in Western hemisphere. The myth of capitalist prosperity is fast evaporating. This is heartening as undermining of capitalistic society means we are moving forward towards a better and more people-oriented human society where people can have precedence over immoral profits. It is still a far cry from Marx’s call to the workers of the world to unite. Today, the call is more relevant than ever when world has shrunk due to technology and people can stand in support of each other across national boundaries. The call has widened now to include farmers, artisans and other workers outside of conventional heavy industry. As in Egypt and wider Middle East, where people cut across class, religion and ethnic lines to come together to demand regime change and some real reforms, it is not only a victory of the universal brotherhood and rejection of far right and hardline religious ideology but also manifests the most real prospect for development human society can ever see.